Mud tires options!

[hammermachine]

I'm planning to buy some new mud tires next year and have been asking for feedback as far as what brands work and are worth the $$. My off roading buddy loves his ROAD VENTURE MT (KL71) MUD TERRAIN. I was considering BFG's KM2s until I heard they suck in snow (daily driver Northeast concern). What do you guys use, hate, and would buy?

 

[owenst7]

Something narrow should be your first concern for driving on icy roads. A 12.50 is way too wide to be good on icy roads. Interco makes several tires in 10.50 which is a lot better, although a 9.50 would be even better. I think they make TSLs in a 33x9.50, and BFG makes their MTs in that size. I personally like Interco tires for the climates I deal with (Reno and Alaska) because their rubber is so soft. A siped, narrow TSL is actually a pretty damn good snow tire. The TRXUS MTs are great too and a lot quieter than TSLs.

Cooper and Toyo also make MTs that are good snow tires. Depending on your location, they can either be really cheap or expensive though. The Cooper MTs are really popular back in Alaska right now because they're a good price and do well on the ice. I also ran a set of Hankook MTs as my winter tires for many years. I actually really liked those tires both on the ice and offroad. They were a lot quieter than the old BFGs and lasted just about as long. They didn't cup nearly as bad either.

The new Goodyear MTRs look like great ice tires, but I wouldn't put them in the same MT league as say a TSL or LTB. If you don't need the mud clearing as much, they're good at just about everything else. I'd say the BFG MTs would be a decent tire if they were narrow and siped. They have the potential to have just as much if not more braking traction than the old chevron pattern did. Whatever you get, for ice you will need a narrow tire, and siping will make a big difference. Siping will also make them quieter and wear a lot more evenly.

Personally I only run snow tires in Alaska where it's really bad. Cooper M/Ss and the BFG commercial tires are my favorites, and then everyone triple studs them. Down in Reno/Tahoe it never gets bad enough for me to worry about. I run 10.50 LTBs down here and they're been about as good as a tire that wide can be. I'm going to sipe them prety soon when I'm not working on my K5 all the time. The old-style Goodyear MTRs on my K5 do pretty good, although they will slide a lot since they are 12.50s and just way too wide for a 4500lb truck. The next tires on my DD in Reno will probably be Goodyears or TRXUS MTs.

 

[rob h]

I live in ne pa and have 37/12.5/17 km2s and dont have a problem...althought there not cheap, decent in the snow but i dont offroad since their on my 03 2500 hd.

 

[Blue85]

If you're talking about icy conditions, almost any MT brings the suck.

Basically, the cooler and more aggressive a tire looks, the sooner you will be in the ditch. "Winter" tires (Blizzak, Artic Alpin, Graspic, etc.) are the only thing that really work on ice, unless it is legal in your area to run studs (or chains!). If you can stud, then heck yeah rock the MTs. If you run muds in the winter be aware that almost every other vehicle on the road is more stable than yours until the snow gets deep, at which point the tables turn. All-terrains are a decent choice for winter driving, though.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Sipe them. I drove every winter from 2002-2009 in Michigan with siped mud terrains. Flat out awesome. I do tend to prefer narrow tires though. Siped muds = sipes for biting traction, soft rubber for grip, wide and deep voids for biting into and flinging the crap, and lots of space for the snow to pack in when you're going slow and stick to the other slow.
I even had my ex wife driving her DD's with them and she had no troubles.

Will they be as good as purpose made snow tires? No. However I drove my various trucks like they were trucks in winter and I did fine. I also laughed in the deep stuff when people were getting stuck as their little all seasonish winter tires couldn't dig and I just dug right through, even this last winter with a Geo Tracker on 31" muds and open diffs.

 

[parkerdiesel]

If you are looking for a good all purpose tire and you are not stuck on 35's, I would look at goodyear duratrac's. The biggest 15" tire is a 33/12.50-15, they are pretty aggresive, have good side traction, they have provisions for studding, and they are siped. The price ain't bad either(150-175 depending on if you work for goodyear or not!) goodluck Parker.

 

[Blue85]

Yes, I confirm that siping the MTs helps a lot. What worked even better for me was the "green diamond" additives, but those retreads are only available up to like 31" now.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

We actually had the green diamonds in a set of tires on my ex's 1st Suzuki 4x4. Man, they were awesome. Unfortunately they were in High Tec Retreading's tires when they were on their downslope and we had quality issues.

I wish someone would make tires new here in the States with those GD's in them...they were flat out awesome.

 

[tomford]

i have 305 75 16 good year mtr's with kevlar and ill let you know how the do in the snow.

Tom