I notice different brands vary by thickness. Any to recommend?

none. run dual ply tyres and you dont need them.

Ditto jam bo.*

If you're massively clumsy and still flat lots, maxxis freeride tubes are thicker but not /too/ weighty. I used to run them in the rear wheel when riding fast/rocky tracks.

*actually IMO tubeless is the way forward.

I run tubeless on my trail bike, but it's the DH bike I'm thinking about.

The DH has a 2.7" DH Blue Groove on the front and a 2.5" DH Nevegal on the rear. Won't a standard tube be pretty thin when stretched to fit those fatties?

Yes you do Jambo, we don't all ride dahn sahf DH 😛

I run tubeless front and DH tube rear, an XC tube wouldn't last mne a day in the rear at a rocky track (and I run high pressures compared to most)

to trout wrestler – DH tubes vary in thickness from about 1.2mm to 2.5mm, Kenda are the thickest per £1 i've found (about 2.2mm for £5.99) except for MX tubes. a 21×3" extra thick MX tube is as thick as you can go and can be had for about the same price. better warn you, if you're no good at fitting tight tyres you'll really struggle to fit MX tubes

GW glad you made that point! I was thinking, 'where the heck is he riding 'cos it aint any of the really rocky courses in the UKL'.

The annoying thing with running tubeless on a DH bike is that it's a faff if you want to swap tyres to suit the course/conditions. You can also find some courses, with hardpack surfaces and fast corners, that you can burp air as a result of the forces working on the side of the tyre. If you loose air then you do run the risk of pinch flatting the carcass and if you do that, then it's game over for running that tyre tubeless.

geetee, have you tried tubeless?

Personally I find it easier to swap tyres almost. When it's an awkward DH tyre to get off the rim, it's easier without a tube in the way (and to get it back on too). And never had any issues seating DH tyres.

The main disadvantage I've found was cracking a rim badly enough to leak air at fort bill (eater of wheels). Lost all the air by the bottom. Of course, chances are an impact that hard would've flatted a tube anyhow…

Tubeless is not the way forward either, burping a front tyre that's already at 30psi isn't cool!

IA – I have on both the DH and the trail bike. I run it more or less 100% of the time on my trail bike (although I burped on an off camber landing this evening and then pinched the side wall) but on the DH bike, I've had mixed results. The best results were with Intense Intruder tyres and stans rim strips, but the Intense tyres are seriously beefy, weighing around 1.5kg.

Tried UST (Mavic 823 with Maxxis UST tyres) and it was a waste of time. Went through two pairs of tyres, ruining both front and rear in the process.

823s work better with dual plys with way too much stans and need to be run at high pressures for me, still don't think I could run a rear one tho.

raced DH clumsily and managed fine on the larger of the std XC tubes anything heavier and the bike barley moves especially in mud with super tacky Swampies on it

try riding on a gradient then 😛

depends on what pressue you run

I generally stick around 15 psi in my tyres, so use the thickest/heaviest tubes I can find.

Fair enough, tubeless seems to work for some, not for others. Personally I find I'm not that hard on tyres, though the wheels themselves take a beating. So tubeless works out OK for me.

So to the OP – I guess the answer is "it depends". Try some out and see how you go. I'd still recommend the maxxis freeride ones as a good middle ground if you think you need heavier than XC tubes but don't want to go for proper heavy tubes. But then it does depend where you ride*

Oh and air pressure too. I'd (personally) not go as low as 15psi whatever, they'd just fall off, except maybe in bad mud where I wasn't on a spike for some reason. Kinda weight dependant too tho (I'm 80kg).

*i've been known to run thick maxxis/hutchinson DH tubes in dual ply before for alpine rockfests.

low pressures ( 15 psi )means dh tubes ( nokian or maxxis) are great.