Interco Super Swamper M-16 Review
02-08-2016, 07:33 PM
#1
Interco Super Swamper M-16 Review
I will try and give yall a comprehensive review on the Interco Super Swamper M16 tire as it applies to the deep south. Since my experience with the tire is in Northwest Florida and South Alabama I cannot comment on its performance in snow or in extremely rocky terrain. I can give a good opinion in seriously thick mud and fine sugar like sand.
First this tire is designed as more or less a true all terrain. Now I say true all terrain because my opinion of tires marketed as ATs really mean cool looking street tires that do OK on well-maintained dirt roads and sand but absolutely suck in the mud. The fact of the matter is that a BFG All Terrain TA, arguably the most popular of the ATs, is absolutely useless in the thick southern mud common to my area. Like most all terrain labeled tires it will completely clog up and become a slick no grip at all in the mud tire. Now, I am sure the BFG AT is a great tire for many people but it doesn’t work for my needs.
Let’s start with on road performance. As a Swamper fan boy I can list more than a few Interco tires that will outperform the M16 off-road. The problem is that purist mud tires like the SX or LTB have pretty poor highway manners. They can have some lateral stability issues and have a tendency to throw chunks of rubber out when regularly driven on the highway. Not to mention the roar of the tire and limited lifespan they have.
The M16 has above average road performance for a mud terrain tire. They are close to driving on one of well-mannered ATs on the road. I have read more than a few reviews on this tire that say it is extremely loud at highway speeds. Perhaps that is true relative to driving a Prius or even a full size 4x4 on TAs or street tires. I would say it is more of a pleasant hum at speeds above 40ish. Personally, I LOVE the sound a good mud tire makes on the highway and the M16 doesn’t disappoint but it is not particularly loud. When I ran LTBs on my Bronco I had to turn the radio all the way up to hear it over the roar. With those you had to almost scream at your passenger to have a conversation at 55 mph. With the M16 you can hear that you are running a mud terrain tire but talk at normal conversational levels and hear the radio or the turn signal clicking even at 70.
I ran them up to 85 mph in the name of scientific research. (Hey, no one gets MTs to go fast, right?) The tire was still smooth running with zero lateral stability issues. They handled wet roads with and without standing water like any other street tire with good tread.
My trucks average MPG dropped 10% but it had 265/70s when I got it and these are 295s so the width and size of the tire plays into that as much as, if not more than the fact that it was a MT vs an AT.
I will say this; it took about 300 miles for the tires to break in. The first 300 the felt just a little different but seemed to calm down and develop the really nice road manners after breaking in.
With that out of the way I will talk about off-road performance, which is really why you get a tire like this in the first place. I will be the first to tell you that if you trailer your rig to an off road park there are hands down better tires for pure off-road riding. But for many people like myself that need some off road capability on your daily driver the SSM16 is an outstanding choice. I am a Fine Art Photographer and need the ability to get to where the dramatic scenes are located. Often that involves getting off the beaten paths of the interstates, state highways and well maintained dirt roads. This tire truly shines in those situations.
I will address sand performance first. The tourists that visit the beaches in the Florida Panhandle often get stuck simply pulling off the paved road along the beach. We have very small granular quartz sand here and it has an almost liquid quality to it when driven on. My experience with mud tires in our sand is that they work great until you start spinning them and they will bury quickly. The SS16 is no different than any other mud terrain tire here and it will dig if you get heavy on the throttle. The great thing about the mud tires I have run in the sand here is you can air them down to the teens range air pressure (Or the single digits with bias ply Swampers) and basically float through any sand NW Florida can put underneath your vehicle. The images below show where I did a three point turn in that beach sand with some rise on either side. You can see where it dug pretty well on the points. This was done with highway tire pressure but they still worked pretty well.
Pictures below.
Now let’s talk about mud as that is the reason to get a mud terrain tire in the first place. All mud terrains are obviously not created equal and some handle the thick stuff better than others. Many tires that flash the MT label in their names have about one finger’s worth of distance between their lugs. (One JC Findley finger width being an official measurement throughout the civilized world.) The SSM16s have between two and three finger widths between the outer lugs. (As on most Swampers, the space varies between different lugs thus the three stage lug name on many.) Because I need to, or at least want to, go through stuff like the image below I wanted a tire that could handle it.
Mud road image below.
The M16s more narrow spacing in the center clogged right up as expected but the spaces on the outer portion cleaned right out with even just slight tire spin. I could clog them if I idled through the thick goo but that is true of any tire. When testing the tires I drove straight to the “road” shown above. Crawling up the road I ran into some deep ruts created by tires considerably taller than mine but this is a test so I stepped on the gas to see how far I could get. The Swampers moved me forward until I got to the back of the ruts. That would pretty much be the end of that story and we could start talking about extraction techniques at this point with many tires. Not so fast though with the Swampers under the frame. The side lugs on most Swampers, including this one, are not there for looks but a functional part of the tire. With the LTBs and SXs I could generally crawl out of a rut laterally even if on the frame. I couldn’t quite do that here but there was enough side bite to get the truck moving within the rut and was able to rock it out within a couple minutes even while sitting on the frame as a starting point.
These things will sling mud like an Alabama Democrat the night before elections. You can see in the pictures below how the tire cleans at slow spin. You obviously don’t have as much space pulling for you as you would with the LTBs or SXs but there is enough to get through most mud.
Now, in the name of science I went back to my road, and it is technically a numbered road, after four inches of rain. The clay sand mix makes an interesting mix when saturated with water. The properties and consistency is considerably different than either by itself. The mixture basically has a consistency not too far off from quicksand mixed with wet concrete. It has some serious suction as well. Now, technically the truck wasn’t actually stuck yet when I got out to take the pictures but sunk straight down a few more inches in the five minutes I was out taking the shot below. But again, this is being done in the name of science and you don’t know where the limit is until you exceed it and I can honestly say this is exactly how far these tires will take you in this type of mud or at least this is far as they will take you with open differentials anyway. (Why Ford made a 4x4 without some sort of limited slip differentials is beyond me but that is another conversation and probably around a grand to change/fix front and back.) This is also a pretty good example of a situation where a rear mounted winch would be more advantageous than a front mounted one.
Well, with a little jacking, some shoveling and laying down of thick cardboard we were on our way and the tire testing was complete. (A little jacking being a few hours of alternating between the high lift farm jack and the 3 ton floor jack to get the truck off the frame.)
Overall the SS-16 is an outstanding tire if you need good on road manners with solid off road capability. It will handle most off road/trail situations with ease unless you are a novice with poor technique or an idiot. (I resemble the latter at times but remember it was done in the name of science.) Regardless of tire any vehicle will get stuck if you exceed its capabilities but the SS-16 gives you a lot more off road capabilities than most tires with road manners this good.
Pictures below. The last is an example of an image of a place you simply cannot get to without a good 4x4 with good tires.
A follow up post below on F-150 specifics.
First this tire is designed as more or less a true all terrain. Now I say true all terrain because my opinion of tires marketed as ATs really mean cool looking street tires that do OK on well-maintained dirt roads and sand but absolutely suck in the mud. The fact of the matter is that a BFG All Terrain TA, arguably the most popular of the ATs, is absolutely useless in the thick southern mud common to my area. Like most all terrain labeled tires it will completely clog up and become a slick no grip at all in the mud tire. Now, I am sure the BFG AT is a great tire for many people but it doesn’t work for my needs.
Let’s start with on road performance. As a Swamper fan boy I can list more than a few Interco tires that will outperform the M16 off-road. The problem is that purist mud tires like the SX or LTB have pretty poor highway manners. They can have some lateral stability issues and have a tendency to throw chunks of rubber out when regularly driven on the highway. Not to mention the roar of the tire and limited lifespan they have.
The M16 has above average road performance for a mud terrain tire. They are close to driving on one of well-mannered ATs on the road. I have read more than a few reviews on this tire that say it is extremely loud at highway speeds. Perhaps that is true relative to driving a Prius or even a full size 4x4 on TAs or street tires. I would say it is more of a pleasant hum at speeds above 40ish. Personally, I LOVE the sound a good mud tire makes on the highway and the M16 doesn’t disappoint but it is not particularly loud. When I ran LTBs on my Bronco I had to turn the radio all the way up to hear it over the roar. With those you had to almost scream at your passenger to have a conversation at 55 mph. With the M16 you can hear that you are running a mud terrain tire but talk at normal conversational levels and hear the radio or the turn signal clicking even at 70.
I ran them up to 85 mph in the name of scientific research. (Hey, no one gets MTs to go fast, right?) The tire was still smooth running with zero lateral stability issues. They handled wet roads with and without standing water like any other street tire with good tread.
My trucks average MPG dropped 10% but it had 265/70s when I got it and these are 295s so the width and size of the tire plays into that as much as, if not more than the fact that it was a MT vs an AT.
I will say this; it took about 300 miles for the tires to break in. The first 300 the felt just a little different but seemed to calm down and develop the really nice road manners after breaking in.
With that out of the way I will talk about off-road performance, which is really why you get a tire like this in the first place. I will be the first to tell you that if you trailer your rig to an off road park there are hands down better tires for pure off-road riding. But for many people like myself that need some off road capability on your daily driver the SSM16 is an outstanding choice. I am a Fine Art Photographer and need the ability to get to where the dramatic scenes are located. Often that involves getting off the beaten paths of the interstates, state highways and well maintained dirt roads. This tire truly shines in those situations.
I will address sand performance first. The tourists that visit the beaches in the Florida Panhandle often get stuck simply pulling off the paved road along the beach. We have very small granular quartz sand here and it has an almost liquid quality to it when driven on. My experience with mud tires in our sand is that they work great until you start spinning them and they will bury quickly. The SS16 is no different than any other mud terrain tire here and it will dig if you get heavy on the throttle. The great thing about the mud tires I have run in the sand here is you can air them down to the teens range air pressure (Or the single digits with bias ply Swampers) and basically float through any sand NW Florida can put underneath your vehicle. The images below show where I did a three point turn in that beach sand with some rise on either side. You can see where it dug pretty well on the points. This was done with highway tire pressure but they still worked pretty well.
Pictures below.
Now let’s talk about mud as that is the reason to get a mud terrain tire in the first place. All mud terrains are obviously not created equal and some handle the thick stuff better than others. Many tires that flash the MT label in their names have about one finger’s worth of distance between their lugs. (One JC Findley finger width being an official measurement throughout the civilized world.) The SSM16s have between two and three finger widths between the outer lugs. (As on most Swampers, the space varies between different lugs thus the three stage lug name on many.) Because I need to, or at least want to, go through stuff like the image below I wanted a tire that could handle it.
Mud road image below.
The M16s more narrow spacing in the center clogged right up as expected but the spaces on the outer portion cleaned right out with even just slight tire spin. I could clog them if I idled through the thick goo but that is true of any tire. When testing the tires I drove straight to the “road” shown above. Crawling up the road I ran into some deep ruts created by tires considerably taller than mine but this is a test so I stepped on the gas to see how far I could get. The Swampers moved me forward until I got to the back of the ruts. That would pretty much be the end of that story and we could start talking about extraction techniques at this point with many tires. Not so fast though with the Swampers under the frame. The side lugs on most Swampers, including this one, are not there for looks but a functional part of the tire. With the LTBs and SXs I could generally crawl out of a rut laterally even if on the frame. I couldn’t quite do that here but there was enough side bite to get the truck moving within the rut and was able to rock it out within a couple minutes even while sitting on the frame as a starting point.
These things will sling mud like an Alabama Democrat the night before elections. You can see in the pictures below how the tire cleans at slow spin. You obviously don’t have as much space pulling for you as you would with the LTBs or SXs but there is enough to get through most mud.
Now, in the name of science I went back to my road, and it is technically a numbered road, after four inches of rain. The clay sand mix makes an interesting mix when saturated with water. The properties and consistency is considerably different than either by itself. The mixture basically has a consistency not too far off from quicksand mixed with wet concrete. It has some serious suction as well. Now, technically the truck wasn’t actually stuck yet when I got out to take the pictures but sunk straight down a few more inches in the five minutes I was out taking the shot below. But again, this is being done in the name of science and you don’t know where the limit is until you exceed it and I can honestly say this is exactly how far these tires will take you in this type of mud or at least this is far as they will take you with open differentials anyway. (Why Ford made a 4x4 without some sort of limited slip differentials is beyond me but that is another conversation and probably around a grand to change/fix front and back.) This is also a pretty good example of a situation where a rear mounted winch would be more advantageous than a front mounted one.
Well, with a little jacking, some shoveling and laying down of thick cardboard we were on our way and the tire testing was complete. (A little jacking being a few hours of alternating between the high lift farm jack and the 3 ton floor jack to get the truck off the frame.)
Overall the SS-16 is an outstanding tire if you need good on road manners with solid off road capability. It will handle most off road/trail situations with ease unless you are a novice with poor technique or an idiot. (I resemble the latter at times but remember it was done in the name of science.) Regardless of tire any vehicle will get stuck if you exceed its capabilities but the SS-16 gives you a lot more off road capabilities than most tires with road manners this good.
Pictures below. The last is an example of an image of a place you simply cannot get to without a good 4x4 with good tires.
A follow up post below on F-150 specifics.
Last edited by JCFindley; 02-08-2016 at 07:59 PM. Reason: Pics added
02-08-2016, 08:08 PM
#2
F-150 Specifics.
Now for a little F-150 specific points on these tires.
As best I can tell I am running a 2.5 inch leveling kit up front. It was on the truck when I got it so am not dead sure on the height. The tires are mounted on stock 17x7.5 inch wheels with a 5.5 inch backspace. The tires themselves are 295/70/17s. According to the Interco web site they are 33.5 inches in diameter, have a cross section of 12 inches and a tread width of 10. The recommended wheel size is 17x7.5 to 17x10.
There is no issue with fender rubbing even while off roading. They have a very slight rub at full steering wheel lock but it is minor. There is not a lot of space between the tread and A-arm. I cannot even fit a finger between them but there IS space and no rubbing. They stick out beyond the fenders slightly but it is not excessive.
As best I can tell I am running a 2.5 inch leveling kit up front. It was on the truck when I got it so am not dead sure on the height. The tires are mounted on stock 17x7.5 inch wheels with a 5.5 inch backspace. The tires themselves are 295/70/17s. According to the Interco web site they are 33.5 inches in diameter, have a cross section of 12 inches and a tread width of 10. The recommended wheel size is 17x7.5 to 17x10.
There is no issue with fender rubbing even while off roading. They have a very slight rub at full steering wheel lock but it is minor. There is not a lot of space between the tread and A-arm. I cannot even fit a finger between them but there IS space and no rubbing. They stick out beyond the fenders slightly but it is not excessive.
02-09-2016, 09:03 PM
#4
Senior Member
Excellent write-up. I especially like the 85 mph test in the name of scientific research. I'm going to remember that the next time I get stopped for speeding. "But officer.........."
