What IS the deal with the Thornbird

[HeadHunter]

It always seems to come up in conversation, when wrenching in the garage or drinkin a beer by the fire, or driving by and seeing these things under someones ride... well, not all the time, but sometimes.

I thought I would bring it up, if only for idle conversation here on the forum.

There seems to be a mutual feeling of the term "poser" or "retarded" among me and my friends when the Thornbirds are seen or brought up in conversation. I mean common, the tread isnt deep, the lugs arent even a 1/4 inch apart... It looks like the silly little try-hard mudders are the freakshow product of a drunkin incestrial orgy of all Interco's mudders & AT's...

However, they are seemingly common among rigs, and litter the advertisement pages in all our favorite wheeling mags. Now I have never run them before, and non of my friends (to my knowledge) have run them either... so maybe these knarly lookin things actually hold some practical function.. I couldnt honestly say..

I have met guys who have run them, and they all say they're great tires. I dont believe them of course, but there it is. I had 2 occasions where the owners said, you have to "know how to wheel them", in order to unlock their hidden potential.. Maybe? I could believe that the 3 stage lugs pokin out the side could be helpful on a jutted rock climb or grabing the side of a rut, but the over all foot print looks like a mediocre all season, if that. And they're priced, at some places, for more than the LTB... what the hell is that?

[cLAY]

I've never run them but if you look at an IROK the tread is pretty shallow. This has often worked to my benefit when I have NOT wanted to dig in(which is 90% of the time).  I've seen lots of guys with the "rototiller" tires dig holes with with their tires untill they were sitting on their diffs.

Also if you done any winter wheeling you know that unless siped a hard aggressive  mud tire doesn't work well at all unless its REALLY big and you have the power to chew thru the powder. Forget sidehills or any hill for that matter. I was  winter wheeling with a guy that had boggers and he turned back at the first sidehill. Didn't even try it. The rest of us continued on.

[Giffer]

ive never ran them but they look like a highway queens tires, but aggresive enough to hit some light trails on the weekends. so all and all i dont see them as to bad.

[rangerdanger]

A buddy of mine ran them on his lifted explorer, they were a big waste of money. The only time they worked is when you were in deep ruts and the side biters pulled you out. The one thing they were good at was ripping your brake lines off. Other than that they a show truck tire for trailer queens. Just my 2 cents.

[hps4evr]

they are also bias ply tires... so they would look good on a show truck... but perform shitty on hiway as well. and yes, i havent heard a good thing either. i think JP magazine did a story last year about the worst parts ever, and the thornbird was hi on the list.

[Spinalguy]

i have seen 2 guys run Thornturds.
They both knew how to wheel and made short work of some tuff trails.
Anyone that says Thorns are great has not tried a 'great' tire to see the difference.