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http://www.club80-90syncro.co.uk/webpic ... ithAxe.JPG[/img]
Maybe I am being a bit sentimental about them, but honestly... I've now done every event bar one since the first Coney Farm with Macho 205s and Merc 6 1/2 x 15 x ET37, had eight in all and have kept six for myself.
That's 3 Devon lanes(:shock:) with a scuffle thrown in for good measure, 3 SPs, countless CFs, the Dales, the Coast to Coast, and a few outings around Herts, Beds, Cambridge and Essex.
Have had no flats, just one very slow puncture (no rim damage, just sand between bead) same set of 6 tyres, barely taken a club to the rims until last Saturday (above), when two needed moderate attention
One with a stick between the tyre bead and rim (holding pressure), was let down, pulled out, rim straightened with club, re-inflated (seal still holding) and could barely see the damage after... [Mat supervised & encouraged the quick fix, thanks]
The axe sorted the other one out nicely, with a bell ringing sound that started to get on people's breasticles after 5 minutes I think (nice axe Doug, ta!)
In total, about 7,500 miles and a lot of hours off road, including many stone steps and varied stone surfaces....
Time lost en-route due to wheels and tyres = ZERO
Time spent maintaining them... 2 hours max after 2 1/2 years just this last weekend (others had flats en-route and bent rims)
And if the front wheels did hit something really hard, I've got two spares on the load-bed ready to be swapped pronto. They can be cleaned inside and out with soapy water and quickly dried off and sprayed with WD40 to stave off corrosion and the welds can be easily inspected at the same time.
How could I knock them, in all fairness 
So, bearing in mind it's a 2 tonne Doka and not a 2.5 tonne Camper when its off-roading, I'd say they're a viable option for Syncro pickup trucks at least.. but if I see or hear of evidence that a loading or fatigue failure has occurred, they'll be weighed in fairly promptly. When they fold up on impact like in that picture they absorb a lot of kinetic energy - I'm not worried by that.
I can't speak for the other Merc Rims of 6" and 31 ET...
Bear in mind I also have a strong aversion to large increase in unsprung mass from standard...
