BFG AT\'s?? (long, sorry)
Well, was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but it has. I am forced to decide between BFG 33X10.5r15's in AT, or 32X11.50 in MT.
I am asking you folks' opinion on what I should do. I'll give you the specs and my driving style (for everyones benefit, I REALLY wanted the MT's)
1986 K5. Heavy duty suspension. 15x8 wheels.
Sees serious (as in dangerous conditions) off road 10 days a year, hunting in the mountains of the NW. The danger comes from snow. A typical "dangerous" situation would be 4-6 inches of powder, or even compressed snow on frozen dirt logging roads. Some of these are extremely steep, and almost none of them, should you lose control, have anything to stop the vehicle short of a 300ft tumble down a clearcut hillside,or into a creek gorge.
FWIW, I've stopped on a hill, and had the vehicle sliding backwards. Not on good tires mind you, nonetheless, it is a little more than exciting.
Some of the not as dangerous conditions are relatively high speeds on muddy and/or frozen dirt/gravel roads, and stream crossings, with wet/torn up rocks and dirt on the steep banks.
Also near the same crossings, low gear river rock crawling.(just so you don't destroy the suspension) Sometimes the smooth river rocks (400+lbs) are frozen also, providing a low/no grip surface, but I doubt either tire would perform very well there. Not that dangerous really, thats only one section where the road was washed out, and a local 4WD club snaked a path between the boulders that were too large to move. I drive that about 30 times total a year.
But most of the year(more than 50% of the time) I will be driving my car, and noise from tires does not bug me. The truck will, in any instance, obviously see more time on road than off. I know the AT's are superior in road grip, but thats what the car is for, so besides cutting through standing water on pavement, I am not looking for serious on road performance..obviously don't want the sidewalls to flex on an off ramp, but I take it easy on the corners anyway. Again, handling is for the car.
I personally think that the tall tires (33's) on my non-lifted truck (lifting not an option) will LOOK much better, as in filling the wheelwells. Not only that, the extra 1.5" lift over the 31" tires (if my math is right) will be valuable for the times I need to climb over fallen logs, or straddle larger rocks that have fallen from the cliffs above. Besides saving my oil pan from the rocks at the creek crossing. The reason for not using 12.5's is because there are too many people running them that have clearance issues when not running a lift. I want to COMPLETELY avoid any clearance issues.
Has anyone run the AT's, and if so, what have their opinions of them been? Especially in any of the conditions I have described...I understand that this is a compromise situation in many respects, but I am hoping to hear that the AT's will perform good enough in Snow and Hard packed yet slippery logging roads that I can rest assured buying them.
My only choice that I know of are the BFG's since I am using Discount tire (www.discount.com) and don't want to spend anymore than $135 per tire, since I plan on buying a full size spare as well.
Thanks for any input, I really do appreciate it, and especially any words to calm my misgivings about the AT's.....
BTW, I am so adamant about using discount for many reasons. They will mount all the tires, let me take them home to mount on my truck to check for suspension flex/tire rubbing at hoome, and if they won't work, return them with no cost for mounting and balancing should I need to return them. On top of that, even these tires (the 33's) are covered for the life of the tire against ALL damage, including rock or stick through sidewall, with no pro rating. Add on top of that free mounting and balancing for life, and that they fix the ANY make flat tire for free, and you can see why I am almost advertising for them. But I have had such good experiences with them, that I do plug them at every chance I get. Too often have I seen tires that cost an arm and a leg pro-rated, or not covered at all when damaged. Personally, I can't afford that...my tires seem to have some attraction to foreign puncturing objects.
Dorian
My K5 and Chev/Olds tech/links page: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://yeagerd.home.mindspring.com/index2.html>http://yeagerd.home.mindspring.com/index2.html</A>
Well, was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but it has. I am forced to decide between BFG 33X10.5r15's in AT, or 32X11.50 in MT.
I am asking you folks' opinion on what I should do. I'll give you the specs and my driving style (for everyones benefit, I REALLY wanted the MT's)
1986 K5. Heavy duty suspension. 15x8 wheels.
Sees serious (as in dangerous conditions) off road 10 days a year, hunting in the mountains of the NW. The danger comes from snow. A typical "dangerous" situation would be 4-6 inches of powder, or even compressed snow on frozen dirt logging roads. Some of these are extremely steep, and almost none of them, should you lose control, have anything to stop the vehicle short of a 300ft tumble down a clearcut hillside,or into a creek gorge.
FWIW, I've stopped on a hill, and had the vehicle sliding backwards. Not on good tires mind you, nonetheless, it is a little more than exciting.
Some of the not as dangerous conditions are relatively high speeds on muddy and/or frozen dirt/gravel roads, and stream crossings, with wet/torn up rocks and dirt on the steep banks.
Also near the same crossings, low gear river rock crawling.(just so you don't destroy the suspension) Sometimes the smooth river rocks (400+lbs) are frozen also, providing a low/no grip surface, but I doubt either tire would perform very well there. Not that dangerous really, thats only one section where the road was washed out, and a local 4WD club snaked a path between the boulders that were too large to move. I drive that about 30 times total a year.
But most of the year(more than 50% of the time) I will be driving my car, and noise from tires does not bug me. The truck will, in any instance, obviously see more time on road than off. I know the AT's are superior in road grip, but thats what the car is for, so besides cutting through standing water on pavement, I am not looking for serious on road performance..obviously don't want the sidewalls to flex on an off ramp, but I take it easy on the corners anyway. Again, handling is for the car.
I personally think that the tall tires (33's) on my non-lifted truck (lifting not an option) will LOOK much better, as in filling the wheelwells. Not only that, the extra 1.5" lift over the 31" tires (if my math is right) will be valuable for the times I need to climb over fallen logs, or straddle larger rocks that have fallen from the cliffs above. Besides saving my oil pan from the rocks at the creek crossing. The reason for not using 12.5's is because there are too many people running them that have clearance issues when not running a lift. I want to COMPLETELY avoid any clearance issues.
Has anyone run the AT's, and if so, what have their opinions of them been? Especially in any of the conditions I have described...I understand that this is a compromise situation in many respects, but I am hoping to hear that the AT's will perform good enough in Snow and Hard packed yet slippery logging roads that I can rest assured buying them.
My only choice that I know of are the BFG's since I am using Discount tire (www.discount.com) and don't want to spend anymore than $135 per tire, since I plan on buying a full size spare as well.
Thanks for any input, I really do appreciate it, and especially any words to calm my misgivings about the AT's.....
BTW, I am so adamant about using discount for many reasons. They will mount all the tires, let me take them home to mount on my truck to check for suspension flex/tire rubbing at hoome, and if they won't work, return them with no cost for mounting and balancing should I need to return them. On top of that, even these tires (the 33's) are covered for the life of the tire against ALL damage, including rock or stick through sidewall, with no pro rating. Add on top of that free mounting and balancing for life, and that they fix the ANY make flat tire for free, and you can see why I am almost advertising for them. But I have had such good experiences with them, that I do plug them at every chance I get. Too often have I seen tires that cost an arm and a leg pro-rated, or not covered at all when damaged. Personally, I can't afford that...my tires seem to have some attraction to foreign puncturing objects.
Dorian
My K5 and Chev/Olds tech/links page: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://yeagerd.home.mindspring.com/index2.html>http://yeagerd.home.mindspring.com/index2.html</A>
