We've got the new Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tyres in the studio. We saw them during our 2019 SEMA trip in 2019 and have been looking forward to reviewing these bad boys.
The Baja Boss tyres are aimed at the Mud terrain market, so let's see what Mickey Thompson has created and how they look in our studio overview.
Full Transcript:
- Gudday. Today in the warehouse, we've got the brand new Mickey Thompson Baja Boss. So this is the new Mickey Thompson Baja Boss, which was released in 2019.
I saw it at the SEMA last year, and it was pretty taken aback by it, but we've now got a set in the warehouse to do a studio review, which is what we're doing right now. This is the newest, most aggressive mud terrain that you can drive on the road, but as soon as you get off the road, this thing is going to come into its own.
Let's take a closer look at what the actual tyre has. So on the sidewall, so all of the Baja Bosses come into, have a 3 ply sidewall, which means that they're going to be a lot stronger for off-road, but they're also going to be a lot stiffer on the road as well. They also have this series of four side-biters, and apparently these side-biters are actually 50% more aggressive than any other side-biter in the Mickey Thompson range.
So basically, these are going to help you climb out of those tracks a lot easier, if you're stuck in the ruts or whatever, and you can sort of see how they're in these syncs of four blocks. Now they're going to really help you bite in. They've also got the Mickey Thompson PowerPly XD, which is basically where the third ply has 50% more cords, and in turn, basically ply is made up of, normally they're cords that run like that, but this one has a third ply that actually runs on a diagonal, and it actually has more cords than the rest of the plys. That's going to make it much, much stronger.
Let's look at the actual tread pattern itself. These tyres actually have an asymmetrical tread pattern which means they're different on both sides. You can sort of see how they're groups of blocks that repeat, and so that means that-- This set of blocks through here is going to lead to less road noise on the road, hopefully, but then you've still got the huge gaps in the side-biters over here. Basically, the combination of these blocks means that it's going to be less noisy but more aggressive which is pretty cool.
Notice here in the voids, you've actually got the stone ejector ribs, as well as through here. That's going to help eject any of that rubbish that you might end up getting stuck into the tyres if you're off-road. And also, these tyres themselves, are actually... You can actually buy them in between six and 12 plys, depending on the size that you choose on the tread face. So that means that there's six to 12 different layers of different materials, so it could be seal, it could be fabric, whatever. In between the inside of a tyre and the outside of a tyre.
That can also have a significant contribution to the durability of the tyre, and also the comfort factor of the tyre. On the sidewall, it's actually a three ply tyre. These are also a load range F, so that means that they're going to be excellent for carrying heavy loads, but they're also, again, that's also going to contribute to the fact that they're not as comfortable on the road, and another interesting thing is that these are actually made in the U.S.A. You know that they've come from a place that has an excellent manufacturing history.
So these tyres have so much tread on them that my tread gauge doesn't actually read it. So I had to look it up on the Internet, it's apparently, they come between 16.7 mils tread and 17.7 mil of tread, which is pretty much like a 1,000 times more than what you get on a regular road car, so. You're going to have a heck of a lot of tread for quite a long time, until these things tear themselves apart. So these tyres in Australia come in 17 to 22 inch rim sizes, in the U.S. they actually release them at a 24 inch rim size, which is particularly bigger and more aggressive and ridiculous. They also only come in sizes between 35 inches and 40 inches tall.
You are not going to be sticking this onto your Ranger or your Hilux, or your Landcruiser, or whatever, without some serious modifications. These are tyres that are meant for use off-road on specific vehicles that have been modified for that purpose. If you can fit it onto a stock car, send me a picture, I'd love to see it.
We are actually putting these tyres onto our brand new test project, which is a super secret thing at the moment, but keep an eye on our channels and we'll be letting you know what we've actually made in the near future, so don't forget to subscribe too, and actually get notifications about the special project.
About Tyre Review's long term reviews
Our long term reviews are conducted by everyday people, using the tyres as they would every day, just with a more critical eye for the individual tyres performance. The long term tests are offered for informational purposes only, and you should always draw your own conclusions for what are the best tyres for you from broad research - read the consumer reviews, read our long term reviews, and check with your tyre shop when actually purchasing the new tyres.
