Non-Tactical Vehicle Tire Upgrades

So you’ve got your badass bugout rig, hawaiian shirt, panoramic night vision set, your best boogaloo buddies in the bed of the truck sitting on lawn chairs duck taped together, ready to rock and roll like it’s downtown Aleppo. But you’ve got one problem…those Goodyear ATs just ain’t bullet or puncture resistant.

Well…whatcha gonna do?

Don’t worry, there’s a fix. Making your tires more resistant is not as hard or as expensive as you think. Farmers, off-roaders and hunters have been doing it for as long as there’s been tires. The first hurdle to understand is that your daily driver is not the rig you’re doing this to- that is to say, if you’re worried about the daily commute, this is not for you.

Afghan Border Police NTV on patrol. These were very common on long range patrols, including valley sweeps, in Afghanistan.

The role of a non-tactical vehicle (NTV) is to support ground operations. It is used as an insertion platform (meaning you ride on it until you’re a couple miles out from the objective), a retransmitter platform (a radio relay), a mobile resupply hanging out behind the column to lighten the fighters’ load (think pack mule), an finally, a mobile ambulance. A patrol generally wants to keep the vehicle out of the line of fire, because its not designed to be up-armored and unless you’re driving a heavy duty pickup, its not going to last long with AR-500 bolted on it. But that’s a whole other conversation.

The first rule of thumb is to get the heaviest load range tires for your vehicle. If this is a truck or a Jeep, they should be load range E. A tire’s load range is the approximate weight the rubber compound is designed to handle- the heaver the load range, the harder and more durable the rubber on the tread will be. Load range E is the heaviest you’ll get in a light truck tire. Next look at the Ply rating. The ply is the number of layers of rubber which makes the composite for a tire’s tread. The thicker, the better. On my two rigs (both mid-2000s bullet-proofed Powerstrokes) I have 10 ply tires, which is as heavy as it goes for the load range. Check the sidewalls as well. Normally these are a single ply for primarily highway use tires. Off-road rated tires will have two ply, making it a lot harder for angry ex-girlfriends to slash your tires. I run Cooper Evolution Mud Tires which are meant for heavy duty off-road use but still ride and handle well enough on the highway at reasonable speeds.

Catastrophic sidewall damage, but the tire is still serviceable enough to not be riding on the rim thanks to the inner tube.

Simple enough, but not enough to make your tires as hardened as possible. The next thing you want is to run inner tubes inside the tires. What this does is add another layer of protection by adding a tire-within-a-tire. So if your tread, sidewall or bead (the part of the tire that goes inside the rim) is damaged or blows out, you’ve got something that’ll keep it inflated long enough to get to a stopping point. I’ve seen farmers who’ve completely shredded tractor tires when running bush hogs (also known as a disk mower) clearing grown up fields. Inner tubes are pretty much a requirement at that point. The same is true for rock crawler rigs and overlanders that might be miles down a trail off road. I have them in the tires on my ATVs also after popping a tire a few miles into a creekbed in the wintertime when I was a kid. Wet and cold makes things stick to memory. I think they’re a mandatory addition to pretty much any rig you’re building up as an NTV.

Bead lock wheels being mounted on a rock crawling tire.

And on that note, the other must-have addition is Slime. Slime is a tire sealant that you can coat the inside of your tires with, making them resistant to losing air when punctured. When used together with an inner tube, you’ve basically made your own run-flats. The only other thing I’d add to the mix, but is not street legal in most places, is a set of bead-lock wheels. These are popular with rock crawlers by adding another bolt-on rim to sandwich the rim to the bead, so that you can run the tire nearly flat without the rubber coming off the wheel itself. Just keep in mind these may not be street legal where you are, so caveat emptor. That said, if you combine all these elements you’re going to have nearly indestructible tires. They’ll ride like a horse drawn buggy, but a comfy ride ain’t the purpose of a Non-Tactical Vehicle.

The last thing to note is that while making our tires more durable, don’t forget that no amount of gear overcomes bad tactics. Your NTV is called that because its not an uparmored vehicle and wasn’t generally designed to be. Its roll is to support the team on the ground, not for them to use as an assaulting weapon. Sound tactics are gonna keep it from getting shot in the first place. I’ve seen a lot of NTVs get shot and blown up, and there’s not a whole lot to keep AK rounds from chewing them up pretty bad. So keep that in mind.

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

16 Comments

  1. Jefferson Thomas July 16, 2020 at 09:11

    Gempler’s at gemplers.com has Ultraseal tire sealant. Like slime, but comes in different grades. Some even for preventing flats due to .308 rounds. Check the specs before purchase, as better resistance reduces max running speed.

    • NC Scout July 16, 2020 at 09:26

      That is cool!

  2. reconprepper July 16, 2020 at 10:10

    question ////// Are you putting the slime inside the tire or inside the inner tube? good article and good timing as I was just looking at this exact issue

    • NC Scout July 16, 2020 at 10:24

      Both.

  3. John July 16, 2020 at 10:19

    This article illustrates the importance of leaving comments in the comments section. I’ve left about 3 comments on other articles asking about run flat tires and now, bammo, here’s an article addressing that very issue. See, readers, ask and ye shall receive! So now we need a diy, survival Guinness recipe to be published.
    Seriously, any suggestions on where to start looking to make these changes? Are bolt on rims available for any bolt pattern? Who could answer that. Us city folk need a bit more instruction here. Where to start?

    • NC Scout July 16, 2020 at 10:38

      What kind of vehicle do you have? I can definitely answer it.

      And a Guinness recipe…I need that too!

  4. John July 16, 2020 at 13:35

    I click the reply button under NC Scout’s response to my post but no window opened in which I could type a response.
    I have an older VW can. 5 bolt pattern rims.

    • NC Scout July 16, 2020 at 13:42

      You’re in luck brother- there’s a big aftermarket for those pattern wheels. Look up VW bead locks, you’ll find them for people building dune buggies.

  5. Anonymous July 16, 2020 at 13:55

    5

  6. brunop July 16, 2020 at 14:03

    @NC Scout – “Does Slime go in inner tube or tire?” … “Both”.

    Sorry for stupid question: how does that work?

    • NC Scout July 16, 2020 at 14:18

      When you’re installing the inner tube (most folks will need a tire store to do this. I’ve got a couple friends who both have tire mounting machines) you paint the inside of the tire with Slime on a brush. Then you insert the inner tube, then mount the tire. Once you’ve mounted the tire the second batch of slime is applied through the stem.

  7. shane michael connor July 16, 2020 at 16:01

    I was also going to endorse the ULTRASEAL. I’ve used it both in my trucks and ATV’s, amazing how with a couple spins of the wheel a hissing nail or mesquite thorn puncture are sealed permanently. Also, another trick for smaller tire ATV’s and my two-wheel drive ROKON trailbike, is before I mounted the tires I filled them both crammed full with cut-to-sized pool noodles. Now, I can get a flat and won’t even know it.

    • NC Scout July 16, 2020 at 16:03

      That’s a cool idea too- never seen anyone do that, but I believe it.

  8. shane michael connor July 17, 2020 at 00:45

    Pool noodles inside tire idea (with photos) I’d gotten from here… https://www.polarisriders.com/threads/pool-noodling-poor-mans-tire-balls-tires.28752/

  9. Steve Shapiro July 17, 2020 at 07:48

    The article does mention that these modifications adversely affect handling. Ciukd someone please give just one or two anecdotes to better illustrate? What would be a recommended top speed for example?

    • NC Scout July 17, 2020 at 07:57

      Can’t say for sure, because there’s too many variables. Size, weight of the vehicle, torque to the wheels, etc.

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