Experimental tires from an M38

[acmack]

I bought an M38 in the late 70's from a guy who had purchased it 10 years earlier from military surplus sales. Except for having painted it red and the wheels silver the M38 was unmodified and had spent most of the 10 years just sitting in the sellers barn. Except one other thing, the tires; it had 11x16 ribbed farm tires. The seller was adamant that these same tires were on it when he picked it up from the base.
I didn't give it another thought and replaced them with NDCC's shortly after.
The M38 I sold along time ago but I still have the wheels. I was about to scrap them but in looking them over today I see OD paint under the now flaking off silver paint??
The rims were widened for these oversized tires and the work looks factory perfect. Can anyone speculate on the authenticity of these wheels and tires? The seller had no reason to make this up. He had no particular interest or knowledge of MV's.
Note the OD showing at the 1 o'clock position and the edge of the rim.

[Bob W]

The red paint with silver wheels makes me think that it was used by a civilian fire department after it left the military and before the PO got it surplus.

[Keith Buckley]

I have some pictures of a 1945 MB Coast Guard Jeep (taken in 1946) that show the vehicle with those same tires. I'll see if I can find them.

[JimP]

I'll bet that these were used in sandy areas such as beaches. I use to have these on a dune buggy that I used on the beaches in Mexico.
After I got stuck a couple of times, I cut cross notches in the treads and never got stuck again.
JimP

[Keith Buckley]

The Coast Guard Jeep picture was taken on Great Point Nantucket.

[JimP]

Are there sandy beaches there?
Jimp

[Cacti_Ken]

It looks like a tire used on an aircraft.

[acmack]

They are agricultural farm tires. It's even molded in the side wall. David

[JimP]

Same tires I finally put on my VW dune buggy in the late 60's. Used it in Mexico on the beaches and dunes. Still got it stuck so I would go back home and put in a larger (newer) engine. Finally I got smart and cut out 1/2 inch cross groves in the rears and never got stuck again.
What memories.
JimP

[Ben Dover]

The US Army did experiment with 9.00X13 tires on the M-38A1, I witnessed these at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Camp Drum in 1962 and 1963.