[nwguy]

I'm headed to the southern tip of Baja Mexico from the Pacific northwest on Monday and am debating whether to get new tires before crossing the border southbound. My 2018 136" hightop Promaster with 22,630 miles on it has the original Nexan tires. I've rotated the tires a few times and the fronts currently have about 5/16" of tread left and rears have about 7/32" left. I drove to Baja a couple of years ago with these same tires. My guess is that they'd make the 4,500 mile trip, but would need replacement by the time I got home. There's no sidewall cracking or chunks of tread missing, so they seem to be wearing normally.

I'm spending one night in Modesto, CA and another by the Salton Sea on the way south. I made a list of tire stores in Lancaster/Palmdale, San Bernadino and the Palm Springs/Indio/Cochella area. At this point I'm leaning towards monitoring my tire wear as I head to Modesto, and if the tires are wearing faster than I expect, to call ahead to various tire stores on my list to find a store that have tires in stock or can get them by the next day.

The way I see it I could get tires in California southbound (1,200 more miles), in La Paz Mexico (2,245 more miles), or in the US northbound (3,100+ more miles).

So, a few questions:

How many miles did you get out of your original Nexan tires?

Has anyone ever bought tires in Mexico? Specifically La Paz Mexico? If so, what should I know about that?

Pics below show treads and depth on a front tire, then on a rear tire.

 

[el Jefe]

I'm headed to the southern tip of Baja Mexico from the Pacific northwest on Monday and am debating whether to get new tires before crossing the border southbound. My 2018 136" hightop Promaster with 22,630 miles on it has the original Nexan tires. I've rotated the tires a few times and the fronts currently have about 5/16" of tread left and rears have about 7/32" left. I drove to Baja a couple of years ago with these same tires. My guess is that they'd make the 4,500 mile trip, but would need replacement by the time I got home. There's no sidewall cracking or chunks of tread missing, so they seem to be wearing normally.

I'm spending one night in Modesto, CA and another by the Salton Sea on the way south. I made a list of tire stores in Lancaster/Palmdale, San Bernadino and the Palm Springs/Indio/Cochella area. At this point I'm leaning towards monitoring my tire wear as I head to Modesto, and if the tires are wearing faster than I expect, to call ahead to various tire stores on my list to find a store that have tires in stock or can get them by the next day.

The way I see it I could get tires in California southbound (1,200 more miles), in La Paz Mexico (2,245 more miles), or in the US northbound (3,100+ more miles).

So, a few questions:

How many miles did you get out of your original Nexan tires?

Has anyone ever bought tires in Mexico? Specifically La Paz Mexico? If so, what should I know about that?

Pics below show treads and depth on a front tire, then on a rear tire.

View attachment 80185

View attachment 80184

View attachment 80187

View attachment 80186

My stack Nexens lasted 50K+. YMMV.
But, why bother, there are at least 4 tire shops near each tope.

 

[Baxsie]

Do you have a spare? Cheesey tire repair kit? 12v compressor?

I've always wanted to do some time in Baja during our winter. Any issues on your previous trip?

 

[DCpedal]

I'm headed to the southern tip of Baja Mexico from the Pacific northwest on Monday and am debating whether to get new tires before crossing the border southbound. My 2018 136" hightop Promaster with 22,630 miles on it has the original Nexan tires. I've rotated the tires a few times and the fronts currently have about 5/16" of tread left and rears have about 7/32" left. I drove to Baja a couple of years ago with these same tires. My guess is that they'd make the 4,500 mile trip, but would need replacement by the time I got home. There's no sidewall cracking or chunks of tread missing, so they seem to be wearing normally.

I'm spending one night in Modesto, CA and another by the Salton Sea on the way south. I made a list of tire stores in Lancaster/Palmdale, San Bernadino and the Palm Springs/Indio/Cochella area. At this point I'm leaning towards monitoring my tire wear as I head to Modesto, and if the tires are wearing faster than I expect, to call ahead to various tire stores on my list to find a store that have tires in stock or can get them by the next day.

The way I see it I could get tires in California southbound (1,200 more miles), in La Paz Mexico (2,245 more miles), or in the US northbound (3,100+ more miles).

So, a few questions:

How many miles did you get out of your original Nexan tires?

Has anyone ever bought tires in Mexico? Specifically La Paz Mexico? If so, what should I know about that?

Pics below show treads and depth on a front tire, then on a rear tire.

View attachment 80185

View attachment 80184

View attachment 80187

View attachment 80186

Did you use a real tire gauge? I replace my fronts only and they had 2/32 left before replacement, there was small cracking between the threads. The van only had 19,000 when I bought it and this was the first thing I changed out. To me the Nexan tires are not that good. Last owner did a lot of gravel type roads. I been in Baja Mexico and the main road is some what good. I just know I would not like to be stuck on the side of the road down there.

 

[ferall]

I went ~40k miles no rotation, the tire store put the new ones on the back and moved the rear up front, just replaced the other two original tires at ~60k.

Not rotating them seems like a decent strategy, since the front wear so much faster and then you only ever have to buy two at a time.

If I were you though I would just get new tires before leaving because I wouldn't want to have to worry about it. Plus you'll still need to get over the mountains in the wintertime on your way south.

 

[h1k3rb]

Those tires look fine and I'd just hit the road with them. Even if they need replacing before you make it back you can get good replacements at any decent sized town along the way.

 

[MtBiker]

Id run them for sure. I had 37000 on my Nexans in spring when I was in Baja.
You should have no problem getting tires in either LaPaz or Cabo if you needed. Both are real cities with plenty of tire stores and vans.

 

[nwguy]

Yeah, I suspect they'll be fine. There's no cracking. I do have a good spare (the original as I bought the van new), fix-a-flat, a plug kit and a compressor. I used a micrometer to measure the tread depth. Good to hear the mileage numbers you all got on your Nexans. I'll only be at 27k miles on mine by the time I get home. Paved roads the whole way.

 

[nwguy]

Baxsie, I didn't have any issues with my van last trip. I towed my friend's enclosed trailer on that trip too. The only real thing of note was my van got stuck in the sand as we tried to leave the campground after being their 2 months. I had dug depressions in the sand to lower the back tires, which no doubt contributed to getting stuck. Borrowed some strips of plywood and shoved 'em under the front wheels and drove right out. Now I carry my own strips of half inch plywood in case that happens again. I also have a good tow strap with hooks and some lengths of chain. I thought about bringing my come along but there typically isn't anything to hook it on to if you get stuck in the sand by the beach (no rocks or trees). Here's a report with pictures from that trip:

2 Month windsurfing trip to La Ventana Mexico

2 Month trip to La Ventana Mexico, windsurfing in southern Baja

nwguy.fun

 

[metalmagpie]

Baxsie, I didn't have any issues with my van last trip. I towed my friend's enclosed trailer on that trip too. The only real thing of note was my van got stuck in the sand as we tried to leave the campground after being their 2 months.

On the Pacific side of Baja a few hours north of Cabo is a town called Todos Santos. They have a fishing cooperative there and they fish from pangas launched from the beach. To retrieve their boats, upon return they dramatically speed their boats and run them directly up on the sand as high as they can. Then each owner backs up his pickup with trailer and winches the boat on. To pull the trailer out of the soft sand, they let a lot of air out of the back tires, which enormously increases traction. When they get to the hard sand, they go pull a spark plug from their engine and thread in a fitting which allows them to use the engine's compression as an air pump, and they pump their back tires back up again.

If you plan to camp in sand, one of those spark plug tire inflaters might be worth bringing.

metalmagpie

 

[MtBiker]

Todos Santos is a really nice little town.

 

[nwguy]

I've been to Todo Santos. Indeed, a pretty town. Never heard how they haul their boats out. Plenty of fisherman in La Ventana where I'm staying too. I've seen their trailers, and their boats out fishing, but never saw them haul boats out. Interesting. This video explains those devices, but says they're practically useless on modern cars with fuel injection and aluminum engine blocks:

They're called "chuffers". More info here:

Spark plug replacement air compressor

I was just watching some video from 4wd Action Mag out of Oz when they showed a guy with an old Jeep who had a device that temp replaced a spark plug and used a hose to the tire for an air compressor. The engine piston was the compressor part. Very Very old school type thing. Of course modern...

expeditionportal.com

 

[metalmagpie]

Here is a short video shot from inside a panga being beached at Todos Santos.

 

[nwguy]

Well, I made it back from Baja, did about 5k miles. Still plenty of tread left on my tires.

 

[MtBiker]

Well, I made it back from Baja, did about 5k miles. Still plenty of tread left on my tires.

I sure wish I could get that kind of mileage out of my dirt bike tires in Baja. We typically go through two sets of tires in 1600 miles of sand and rock.