Oooooh....I was sooooo thrilled today when I tore the plastic wrap off my new 27" Mud Lites today only to find one of them defective. Check out the link to the picture. A large chunk of the bead is missing. Hello......ITP "Quality Control Department"...one got by you

So hopefully, this won't be a sign of whats to come with these things(coughfirestonecough). The part that is really ironic is that is says "Made in the U.S.A" right under the defect!!! (=

Picture of defective Mud Lite

I have asked the place I ordered them to send me another one. So "hopefully" they will take good care of me.

Why does this always happen to me? Arrrgh!

 

I build tires for a living (Michelin tires) - that bead is a result of a curing press problem. I've got ITP Blackwaters and was never impressed with their level of quality. Many molding and balance/out of round uniformity problems.

 

My 22" blackwaters have been great on my shee, so I am hoping good things from the Mudlites....but I am not off to a good start.

 

Out of my 4 Blackwaters, 3 were okay but one was severely out of round and out of balance. An optimist would say they have a 75% success rate. I saw an older Grizzly with 27" B'waters. 3 were good, the 4th was missing a 2" section of sidewall rubber. You could see the body cords sticking out of the tire. ITP did replace it for him.