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How cheap Chinese tires might explain Russia's 'stalled' 40-mile-long military convoy in Ukraine
The Week ^ | MARCH 3, 2022 | PETER WEBER

Posted on 03/05/2022 11:35:44 AM PST by TigerLikesRoosterNew

How cheap Chinese tires might explain Russia's 'stalled' 40-mile-long military convoy in Ukraine

MARCH 3, 2022

PETER WEBER

As the eighth day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine began Thursday morning, Russian forces appeared to have gained tactical control of their first city, the southern port city of Kherson, but Ukraine is still holding out in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv, despite heavy shelling. Deaths are mounting on both sides.

Big explosions were heard in Kyiv overnight, but according to the British Defense Ministry's Thursday morning update, the main body of the 40-mile-long Russian military convoy advancing on the capital remains nearly 20 miles from the city center, "having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown, and congestion. The column has made little discernible progress in over three days."

/snip

Trent Telenko, a retired Pentagon staff specialist and military history blogger, suggests another big reason may be Russia's tires, as he explained in a long, illustrated Twitter thread based on photos of deserted Russian Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile systems and his own experience as a U.S. Army vehicle auditor. "When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end," the sidewalls get brittle in the sun and fail like the tires on the Pantsir-SR, he wrote. "No one exercised that vehicle for one year."

Karl Muth, an economist, government adviser, and self-described "tire expert," jumped in, agreeing with Telenko but adding some details about the tires.

Karl T. Muth @KarlMuthReplying to @Noahpinion

Bit of a tire expert here. Those aren't Soviet-era heavy truck radials. Chinese military tires, and I believe specifically the Yellow Sea YS20. This is a tire I first encountered in Somalia and Sudan; it's a bad Chinese copy of the excellent Michelin XZL military tire design.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: biden; putin; rasputitsa; russia; tires; ukraine
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To: SmokingJoe

China quality is definitely all over the spectrum.
A lot depends on who is operating the factory.
They build excellent stuff and terrible stuff.


21 posted on 03/05/2022 11:57:19 AM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: TigerLikesRoosterNew

It is too bad that Ukraine doesn’t have the wherewithal to effectively attack this parked convoy.


22 posted on 03/05/2022 11:57:42 AM PST by thegagline (Sic semper tyrannis )
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To: refermech
Much better to wear them out than just sit.

Especially if your tank crews get some training in the process.

23 posted on 03/05/2022 11:57:53 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: refermech

Russians and chinese both get black eyes.


Russian get black eyes perhaps, but the Chinese definitely made a $$ killing.


24 posted on 03/05/2022 11:58:08 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: gundog

Dago through mud, dago through snow, and when dago flat, dago “wop, wop, wop.”

That’s as old as the hills, and twice as dusty. (But so’s the Grand Canyon, and that’s still good for a crack.)


25 posted on 03/05/2022 11:58:13 AM PST by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: TigerLikesRoosterNew
Sure, its the tires.

Or , excerpt from this article:

https://patrickarmstrong.ca/

Russia Observer

RUSSIA UKRAINE 2

Snip..."At the moment they are readying for the next phase. The long column that so obsessed the “experts” on CNN is the preparation for the next phase. And that is this: “You didn’t get the hint, so now we have to hit you”. The fact that the column has been sitting there indicates that the Russians know they have complete air superiority. Secondly it is a message to the Ukrainian armed forces that it’s over, give up. (And one should never forget that the Russians/Soviets have always been the best at strategic deception, so who knows what’s actually there versus what the images show?)

As far as I can see they’ve created three cauldrons (encirclements). Probably the most important one is the one around Mariupol where the main concentration of Azov, the principal nazi force, is. Another is being established around the main concentration of the Ukrainian Armed Forces facing LDPR. And there appears to be another developing to the east of Kiev. A super cauldron of all three is visible. The nazis will be exterminated; the ordinary Ukrainian soldier will be allowed to go home. The nightmare question is how many ordinary Ukrainians will be free to choose. ...snip"

(Article has discussion of what Russia wants; Capitulation without extended street battles. go to link)

Snip...."We are seeing the collapse of post Cold War triumphalism, “end of history”, “unilateralism” and all the rest of it. Reality is biting, and biting hard. All you have to do is watch CNN’s parade of talking heads and “experts” speculating about how crazy Putin is: they don’t understand, therefore he must be nuts. For the West, as it has been, it’s over. The confusion, the bullshit, the boasting, the hysteria, the bans: the West has nothing left in the locker. Pour Russian vodka down the toilet, fire a singer and director, change the name of a drink or a salad, ban cats or trees, sanction a Russian plutocrat and steal his yacht, wear a blue and yellow t-shirt. Pathetic. And don’t, under any circumstances, allow a Russian outlet to tempt the sheeple with “disinformation”. Just like the USSR but stupider. And who thought stupider was even possible?" ...more at link.

(Clinton, Obama, Biden. Architects of American Decline that have brought us to this point. (Writer: "I was an analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia. I started in the time of Chernenko and watched the whole thing develop.

I was a Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow 1993-1996.

I retired in May 2008 and have been writing on Russia and related subjects on the Net ever since." Snip.

(Before the reign of Trudy the Red.) Another viewpoint.

26 posted on 03/05/2022 11:59:29 AM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: BipolarBob

I had Michelins mfg in Poland as OEM on my Canadian built Chevy Equinox.
Best tires I’ve ever had. Super in the rain and snow, but the tread life was fantastic.


27 posted on 03/05/2022 11:59:37 AM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: lodi90

The term in China for cheap knock off or quality of an extremely low quality is tofu drang.

The tires are tofu drang.......... made from tofu


28 posted on 03/05/2022 11:59:50 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Promoting Afro Heritage diversity will destroy the democrats)
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To: Chewbarkah
Astounding that Russia wouldn’t have tested the vehicles every now and then.

It was probably in the budget, but you know how that goes.

29 posted on 03/05/2022 11:59:59 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: DIRTYSECRET

I doubt it, they would only be able to run at low speed without overheating.


30 posted on 03/05/2022 12:01:53 PM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: TigerLikesRoosterNew
Their knock-off copy of Russian war planes are not doing well either

You are living in cloud cuckooland.
Read this and weep;

China Hypersonic Missile Test Showed Unprecedented Capability: FT

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-22/china-launched-missile-from-hypersonic-weapon-in-july-ft-says#:~:text=A%20hypersonic%20glide%20vehicle%20launched,was%20fired%2C%20the%20newspaper%20said.

31 posted on 03/05/2022 12:02:31 PM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: TigerLikesRoosterNew

Need a graphic of the bwahaha guy pointing at China tires.


32 posted on 03/05/2022 12:03:34 PM PST by A Navy Vet (USA Birth Certificate - 1787. Death Certificate - 2021. )
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

I read somewhere that the Russian pilots get about 1/3 the seat time per year of US pilots. That sounds like a problem too.


33 posted on 03/05/2022 12:03:42 PM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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To: TigerLikesRoosterNew
Ivan should have purchased “run flats.”

They work. Had one blow out on the Howard Frankenstein.

5.56mm

34 posted on 03/05/2022 12:06:16 PM PST by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho need to go.)
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To: refermech

Or this might explain it:

They are going to systematically cut off power and supplies to key areas and establish supply corridors. Then, they will make life unlivable for civilian populations who will leave. Then, and only then, they will get the convoy moving and take out Kyiv.

Nah, the MSM has it right. The convoy is stalled and the superior Russian forces are self-destructing while the Ukrainians are getting stronger over day even though they are cut off from supplies and fuel and power and food and and and.

Let’s stop pretending. The sooner this goes asymmetrical, the better for the Ukrainians.


35 posted on 03/05/2022 12:06:32 PM PST by FlipWilson
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To: SmokingJoe
Critical parts are made outside China. This is true for any complex manufactured product. Over 90% can be domestically produced sometime higher. But a few percent of critical component or materials are needed for excellent performance.

It is always a few percent which will determine the final outcome. Last I heard, iphone’s display screen is made in S. Korea.

36 posted on 03/05/2022 12:09:47 PM PST by TigerLikesRoosterNew
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To: SmokingJoe
>Are these the same Chinese who make the super high quality iphones, iPads etc etc which Americans just love?

Yep, but the consumer electronics they make for Western markets needs to meet Western build and QC acceptance standards.

Isn't it ironic that Capitalism is required for Communists to make decent products ?

37 posted on 03/05/2022 12:10:53 PM PST by SecondAmendment (This just proves my latest theory ... LEFTISTS RUIN EVERYTHING !!!)
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To: FlipWilson

What do you mean by asymmetrical?


38 posted on 03/05/2022 12:11:56 PM PST by refermech
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To: Flash Bazbeaux

I think I heard it in ‘77 or ‘78..Italian guy in high school told it.


39 posted on 03/05/2022 12:15:08 PM PST by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: SecondAmendment

Just like post WW2 when Japanese items were poorly regarded and Deming and Juran taught them how to do quality. #LEXUS


40 posted on 03/05/2022 12:15:16 PM PST by nascarnation (Let's Go Brandon!)
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