Outer Limits 4x4 Board

This Tyre Topic is for members to post about Mickey Thompson Claw. Post your thoughts on grip, noise, wear, airing down, or anything else you consider of interest to other members.

There are two versions of Claw.

Baja Claw

Radial Claw



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I had radial claws and thought they were terrible.

Mine were 35/12.5/15's and pretty much brand new.

In gravel and wet roads they would tram line/understeer pretty badly around corners at any decent speed.

They couldnt be driven on fast without the fear of running straight when you wanted to turn.

In slow gravel down hills they track left and right without warning too. This track was fairly easy almost straight and the tyres made me work hard to keep the car away from the walls on either side.

In slippery clay they were the same. In deep mud and bogholes I didnt think they were any different to the BFG's I use to have.

The low road noise was the best thing about them imo.

last trip i did, mates 85 hilux wif a floggd out 4y n 31x10.5 claws on the rear only lead 90% of the day in 2wd, the rest of us were strugglin, im gettin me 33s after wot i seen

i 35x12.5x15 radials and hated them.
they wouldn't stay on the rims aired down to 12 psi(15x8 roh sunnies)
they wouldn't steer in slippery conditions/mud
the sidewalls where weak and paper thin
on bitumen they virated badly when pulling up under brakes
and not that i care too much but they were noisy as hell

other tyres that i've owned that i'm comparing them to range from bfg muds old and new school to extreem trekker 1's and 2's

they were on a turbo hzj75 air locked f+r

Hmmm mixed response here, I run 35x12.5 on 10x15 rims.
I use them as my road tires and love them.
In the wet they stop insane and have good grip values too, handling is great but they do give out a roar (not load though) so far I have put 35000kms on them and they are at 12mm tread depth still (just went and measured)
They are on a Toyota surf.
My previous tires were Pro-Comp Xterrains 35x12.5, they were great also and I got 85000 kms out them.

I love claws! The Bias are sweet off road and acceptable on road - although deadly slippery on wet tar roads, The radials are sweet in all conditions, and grip extremely well. They wear very well and only produce mild noise at 65 kph roughly.

I have run:

37 bias
37 radial
36x15.5 radial - very wide, with 10"rims hard to drive inb sand tracks
35x12.5 radial

had 38.5 bias fitted but hardley drove them.

I have been speaking to ryano about running 35 radial claws again for street / 4x4 play and mtz for racing on the new buggy. Will run 17's this time!

Ryano knows his tyres and I'll give him a shameless plug here

i had 37 bias and you wouldnt use them onroad.

look good. rarely got stuck but i had front locker

I love the Baja Claws, I have had the following:

31" Radials (MK wagon)
33" Radials (GQ wagon)
35" Radials (MK wagon)
37" Radials (MK ute)

They would have to be one of the better tyres i've ever ran (all round). The only tyre i've ran that is better in mud are my current ET's. Onroad was good (not as noisy as other mud tyres), they wore fairly well, had no dramas balancing them, look good, and performed really well off road. I never had a puncture on the Claws.

Coxy

EDIT: The only issue i had with these tyre's was their lack of sideways grip (eg. driving across a side slope).

Ran bias 35's on my Gwagen for a while.

I ran these after removing worn Q78 15 swampers. The Claws were second hand but had the same tread depth as the swampers I removed so Ithink it's still a fair comparison.

They were OK on road - tramlined a bit and wet braking was poor. Handling was acceptable.

I was very dissapointed with the offroad performance, particularly steering out of ruts etc. Generally had poor bite compared to the swampers at the same tread depth.

In my frustration, I reversed the fronts. Offroad performance increased out of sight. I almost liked them offroad once I did this, but the road noise and steering squirrellyness on road increased.

They were excellent in snow.

I swapped to 36 12.5 TSL/SX's which performed better everywhere.

In short - I don't rate them.

Probably should clear up one point........The Bias Claw is no longer made in any size except 46 inch. So it is irrelevant to talk about any bias version of the Claw. The radial, however, is made in three versions.........
1. Traditional radial
2. SLT radial
3. Competition sticky radial

running 33x11.5 radials on my surf, ran the same on my patrol aswel.

i am just as happy to run these on road as i am to run my highway tyres, only reason i put the roadies on is to save fuel and to get more life outa the claws. not that they wear much on road tho! they were my only tyre on the patrol and i did 20k on them without seeing any more than about 1/2mm of wear! they are quieter on road than my old hankook muddies also. not the best tyre in the wet, but its far better than a few A/T's iv used.

offroad, altho not great on slippery rock (which there is a lot of in many parts of tas :( ), they are great in mud, dirt, shale, dry rocks. i can do in 2wd what most of my mates need 2 goes at. found a bog hole once which was cleverly disguised as solid track, stoped sinking at the sills, whack it in 4wd and i was out in 2 mins. none of my mates could get INTO it under their own power, let alone back out!

forestry tracks are great with these because you loose just enuf sideways grip that you take corners sideways then have all the traction on the exit!

all in all, im a strong supporter of this tyre, and i will likely continue buying them untill i find a better all rounder.

I have run 33 x 12.5 x 15 radials on a 4 Runner as offroad only for nearly 3 years now.

I find them to be a pretty good tire but like all tires they have their downsides. They have not punctured or staked in three years and they bag very well and conform to the terrain. They are ok on rocks but tend to spin up a little too soon. A quick rev and any clogging in the tread will clear out pretty fast. On road they handle very well with a tendency to slight understeer in hi speed corners (90 to 100 Kph) they turn in very well initially but will require more turning in as the corner progresses.

In high speed dirt road work I find them awesome, but high speed is relevant to the beholder.

The only times I have been stopped on the claws are when the vehicle has diffed or bellied out (lack of clearence), or when a wet clay hill has simply been to steep for only one locker.

They love ruts.

Sideways grip in slippery conditions (Red clay in particular) can be terrible at times and you can find yourself going sideways up hill a little too often and struggling to keep on the track downhill when steep and wet clay are combined. They will raise your heartbeat pretty quickly when they start going sideways and you find they are difficult to correct.

I find them very well suited to High Country and Victorian Mountain work.

Cheers

EDIT: The other main problem is that they slip on the rim easily when aired down below 15 psi and get crud in between the bead and tyre, which requires cleaning and reseating to hold air for any period of time again.

Please include the vehicle they are fitted to in your comparisons as a patrol is going to give very different driving experience to a zook, thanks.
Peter.

had the 33 radials on my 4runner with the old lift, loved them onroad no issues offroad except for off camber slippery tracks, but u get that. wore really well, noise didnt bother me but they do hum. i rate them and will prob get them in the 37's once im back on the road.

one of my good mates had a gq shorty 5in coils and ran 35 in radial claws on big offset rims, he blew out 3 side walls in one outing although i had no drama. he also had issues with balancing, may of had an issue with his rims. side wall strength questionable?

ran 35radials on my gu patrol and found them great off road , on rocks mud and dry dirt , baged really well . found they handled realy good on road both wet and dry roads , only concern was a bit noisy under brakes and acceleration and the side walls seem pretty soft .

i now have them on my seirra with beadlocks and run them at 6psi and couldn't be happier , they mould so well on such a light car , they grip well in all situations except side slopes , i believe if i wasn't running these at the last nissan trials i wouldn't have got 5th overall .

i now run 35 mtr's on the patrol which are quieter , and the side wall seem alot stronger (less gouges and cuts) but the mtrs are no where near as confident inspiring off road as the claws were , when the mtr's are worn i will be putting claws back on the patrol

cheers Jai

I've run 31" Radial Claws on the Feroza now for a couple of years. Bought them 2nd hand, Front about 80%, rear about 50% tread.

Offroad they crap all over my old BFG muddies except on side slopes. On road, they're ok in the wet, but don't feel as surefooted as the BFG's. Once they're sideways on wet tarmac, it's sphincter pucker time. Awsome on fast gravel. Fun in loose gravel if you drive aggressively.. i.e. plenty of right foot.

I haven't done a heap of onroad km's on them as the vehicle isn't a DD anymore, so wear is a little difficult to judge, but I can't see myself getting 100,000+ km's out of them....

So far no punctures. Luck of the draw on that I think.

I have run both 33' and 35' radial claws on my swb GQ.

Overall I rate these tyres highly. Yes they are noisy on the road but I am not really phased by this.
I find they work very well on rocks with low pressures (better than any simex I have had)
In mud they work very well (but not as well as simexs)
In sand once they are aired down they work quite well due to their wide footprint.

They do tend to form a shudder at low speeds (when coming to a stop).

I have punctured one of the claws when I ran over a tent peg. Other than that I havent had any real puncture problems.

happy with the claws shit in the mud but.

mixed opinions here.
im running 33x12.5 15's n my single cab lux and im not a big fan.
mine are wearing very badly which i dont know why,i hav done about 6000k's maximum and there at about 50-55% and were brand new when i bought em.
they are hard to drive with no power steering on the road as they shutter under braking.
there pretty good offroad though i let them down to about 14-15psi and they bag out well when on rocky terrain but onthe beach they seem to dig in badly i rekon.
all round tire i would rate them about:10 being best
about 5-6

Where can you buy the smaller size Bias claws? The MT web site says the only size availble is 46inch, but you still see heaps of 35, 37 inch bias claws getting around and in the latest Extreme 4x4 mag there is rig running 38 inch bias claws that look almost brand new!!

$360 for a 285 sounds cheap, but got quoted that over the counter today... He will do better when the wallet comes out, and even better for 10 (mate wants 5 too)

305's were $410

So... I was cruising round fourby's website looking at 33's and saw the radial claw comes in 33/12.5/15... cool...

but then i saw that it also comes in 33/15.5/15!!! As a light truck tyre. These have a 3 ply sidewall and 6 ply tread.

Is this better for a 4x4??

Wood

i did alot of driving around this country in a landcruiser with 33x12.5 baja claws and im sure i was close to going insane from the noise they made on the highway.

woodyjbh wrote:So... I was cruising round fourby's website looking at 33's and saw the radial claw comes in 33/12.5/15... cool...

but then i saw that it also comes in 33/15.5/15!!! As a light truck tyre. These have a 3 ply sidewall and 6 ply tread.

Is this better for a 4x4??

Wood

Yes. That sounds like the same construction as the MTZs.

I had a set of 33 12.5 15 on a Hilux found them to be good all round except rocks I only aired them down to 20 psi as I was pariniod of loosing a bead without a spare it got me up a slippery mud hill that my brother couldn't get up with 35 bfg muds and airlockers on the rocks they chop up real quick I would have expected 40000 kms out of them great tyres got rid of them as went bigger and started to get pariniod of sidewalls from stories on here would get them again just would have spares

pig in shit wrote:i did alot of driving around this country in a landcruiser with 33x12.5 baja claws and im sure i was close to going insane from the noise they made on the highway.

have never had even a slight problem with road noise, and im driving on the daily atm...

woodyjbh wrote:So... I was cruising round fourby's website looking at 33's and saw the radial claw comes in 33/12.5/15... cool...

but then i saw that it also comes in 33/15.5/15!!! As a light truck tyre. These have a 3 ply sidewall and 6 ply tread.

Is this better for a 4x4??

Wood

Guys,

Im aware that the 3 and 6 ply walls and tread would obviously be better for off-road. I was more interested in the fact that they come in a 15.5" wide size. This is pretty damn big...

So, while im aware that i'd have to go to a 15x10 rim, im not sure if a tyre of this width would be too excessive.

It'll probably look pretty cool, and i'll have to buy some rims with a fair negative offset to get the clearance, as well as doing some guard manipulation and flares, which is alot of work...

But will the gain in track and footprint make that work worthwhile??

Wood

hi mud rhino do you want to explain what the 3 different types of radial claws are please traditional , slt ,and sticky comp and maybe some pics which mite help also . Iv ran the standard radial 31-10.5x15 on the hilux when i was roo shooting they gripped well, road handling was good loaded or unloaded not even a puncture touch wood , did 60000km then gave them to a mate who is still running them

sorry ment to be mud empire not mud rhino

I am running 315/75x16 Radial Claws on a portalled GU. Bearing in mind that all bushes and bearings etc. are new, I cannot fault them. Used on equal amounts of bitumen, dirt and mud/rocks, I love 'em. A little amount of road noise is to be expected on what is a borderline extreme tyre after all.