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It has been a little while since I've talked about truck tires, but I've been DM-ed a couple of photos what are worth a thread.
This is a Russian Grad launch truck with really old tires.
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This is a Russian Grad launch truck with really old tires.
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Let's take a closer look at a clip of the front tire in the photo after I've played with the light & color.
There are cracks in the sidewall consistent with a really old tire along with rubber peeling debris at the bottom in the tire fold.
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There are cracks in the sidewall consistent with a really old tire along with rubber peeling debris at the bottom in the tire fold.
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The photo clip of the rear tire played with the same way is simply too blurry to determine more about the tire other than its marking nearest the hub are artifacts from its vulcanization curing press.
Hold that thought!
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Hold that thought!
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This second photo is an unblurred close up of one of those two tires, and oh boy, is there a story here for your eyes to tell.
Sun rotting cracks are all over the side wall.
Now look lower middle, right, at the tire manufacturing marks.
"MADE IN USSR" in English script!!
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Sun rotting cracks are all over the side wall.
Now look lower middle, right, at the tire manufacturing marks.
"MADE IN USSR" in English script!!
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The USSR officially ended on December 25, 1991. We, in 2022, are looking at tire on a Grad launcher in Ukraine that could be 31 years old!
Two things to consider here. The script means this tire was for an outside the USSR market.
At a guess, It was probably made for India.
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Two things to consider here. The script means this tire was for an outside the USSR market.
At a guess, It was probably made for India.
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2nd, there would have been a time lapse between the end of the USSR & the replacement/modification of the vulcanization curing press making Russian Truck tires.
That is, that tire can be much younger than 31 years.
Or it could be older.
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That is, that tire can be much younger than 31 years.
Or it could be older.
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It is more likely younger, but it would require a technical marking table to decode the manufacturer mark in the circle above the "MADE IN THE USSR" script.
The sun rot on the tire & marking strongly suggests the Russians are suffering a serious truck tire shortage.
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The sun rot on the tire & marking strongly suggests the Russians are suffering a serious truck tire shortage.
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Somebody reached deeply into a storage depot somewhere in the Russian Federation to get those Cold War era tires because there was nothing else.
You don't put something that potentially dangerous on a major weapons system unless you are desperate. Even if you are Russian.
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You don't put something that potentially dangerous on a major weapons system unless you are desperate. Even if you are Russian.
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This, BTW, is why technical intelligence units collect all the manufacturing information on captured equipment to build files on where/by whom/when enemy kit is made.
It gives you trends on the enemy economy you can find nowhere else.
Like Russia is short of truck tires.
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It gives you trends on the enemy economy you can find nowhere else.
Like Russia is short of truck tires.
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