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Tires - fat or skinny - which do you like?

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ugly_blazer

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Just wonderin' what you guys think gives more traction in the mud and trails (no rocks around here), a fat tire or a skinny tire? I used to think that the fatter the better but now I'm wondering if maybe skinny isn't better. I've seen some trucks blast through mud with skinnies where the fat tire trucks would just sit and spin.

What works for you?
 
A tall and skinny tire for snow, so it makes more weight in one spot, you just need momentum.
Or really wide agressive tires for mud. You may see skinnier tires in the front for less resistance, and better steering.
For me, it's going to be wide at every corner /forums/images/graemlins/pimp1.gif
 
go with skinny , it has less drag, narrow width to fit in tight places, & usually a cheaper tire. i run 39.5x13.5x16.5 irok's on 16.5x9.75 mickey thompson classic 2 rims with 4.75" back spacing. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
36x14.50x15 Ground Hawg 2's is what I went with. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif Very aggressive, and will last along time even with street usage. /forums/images/graemlins/deal.gif
 
i think it depends on what type of mud, clay, soupy, swampy.

clay is some nasty [darn], you need all the surface you can get - wide
soupy you want to dig down to the solid ground underneath - skinnny
swampy mud you want to help float on top - wide

these are my opinions, im going with a 14" wide tire.
 
Pontiac said it right "Wider is better" I run 90% mud and once in a while I'll find a spot where there is no solid bottom. I need the wider tire to float across the top to make it without sinking like a rock. If I had a narrow skinny tire and tried to dig through to the clay on the bottom I'd bury myself to the doors before I found anything solid. There's a lot of clay around here though, it's nasty stuff so you'll want a very aggressive tire with large voids and lots of surface area. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
 
I would agree. *If* you can get down to a hard surface, skinny tires are the way to go.

All you have to do is hit a large puddle on the road at high speed with both a wide and narrow tire to know which one works better in that kind of situation.

Of course tread pattern is just as much of a factor, but equal tread, thinner tire for getting through to solid ground.
 
[ QUOTE ]
All I have to say (and it may have been said before) is:

Skinny tires are easier to steer

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Thats what I said /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif



But also if you use skinny tires to try to find solid ground underneath, sometimes there IS NOT a bottom /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif
 
no one that replied to this thread has enough power to "float" with a wide tire
tall is more important then wide any day
 
what i want to know is...will 2 inches more in width really make a tire magically float over mud, instead of "sinking to the bottom" and "finding traction" ?

Skinnier tires all the way.
 
skinny. i ran LBL, kentucky with skinny tires, and went everywhere the fat tires went. matter of fact i didnt side slip like wide tires do in the mud. i tracked straight and have lockers front and rear. i also didnt slide off camber like they did.

i run 11" wide 38.7" michelin xl tires. (1100x16)
 
I can only relate my experience with snow,since I dont do much wheeling here--tall skinny tires work best in the snow.I often have to help extract some other plow rigs from parking lots when they charge in for the first pass after a deep snowfall--lots of guys have 33's or larger and wide tires,and they float on top of the snow and the truck wants to jacknife instead of pushing the snow.It really ticks them off to be pulled out by a rotted old GMC with stock tires /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif(mine are now 245/75/16--used to be 8.75x16.5)and they are all season ,and only have less than 1/2 tread on them.I guess they thought all that money spent on tires and rims was going to insure they never get stuck--wrong!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I can plow until the snow comes over the hood and I cant see,the wide tire guys have to back up and "batter ram" the snow,and end up going sideways after about fifty feet,while I can just plod alond at about 10 mph,in a nice straight line--I put about 1500 lbs of sand in the back most of the time (to spread around after plowing)but even empty I can outplow the guys with wide tires and weight. /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif
 
I think I will stay with the skinny tires also, if not for more traction just for the extra stability factor, they let me steer better.
 
I have done alot of florida mud in my days there and the tall skinny's beat out the fat boys every time. Tread aggresiveness helps too.. Look at tractor tires. Those things are as tall as the tractor itself.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I can only relate my experience with snow,since I dont do much wheeling here--tall skinny tires work best in the snow.I often have to help extract some other plow rigs from parking lots when they charge in for the first pass after a deep snowfall--lots of guys have 33's or larger and wide tires,and they float on top of the snow and the truck wants to jacknife instead of pushing the snow.It really ticks them off to be pulled out by a rotted old GMC with stock tires /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif(mine are now 245/75/16--used to be 8.75x16.5)and they are all season ,and only have less than 1/2 tread on them.I guess they thought all that money spent on tires and rims was going to insure they never get stuck--wrong!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I can plow until the snow comes over the hood and I cant see,the wide tire guys have to back up and "batter ram" the snow,and end up going sideways after about fifty feet,while I can just plod alond at about 10 mph,in a nice straight line--I put about 1500 lbs of sand in the back most of the time (to spread around after plowing)but even empty I can outplow the guys with wide tires and weight. /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif

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Sounds like snow is the closest thing to the tread clogging mud we have got down here! Tall skinnies beat wide almost everytime, when you get a 500 or so horse BB spinning 44's I think its different, the tires and rig then weigh alot more but for practical tall skinny's
 
I used to love skinny tires, but the first time I stepped on the throttle with lockers in both ends and 16" wide tires I was instanly hooked on wide tires. Nothing beats the traction of a 16" wide tire at 10 PSI without wider tires or beadlocks in my opinion.

For rocks it doesn't seem to matter, but for mud, there is NO substitute for wide tires unless you're playing in a farm field instead of a mud pit.
 
You skinny tired guys haven't played in mud bogs very much have you? Unless you have a VERY tall tire with at least a 15 inch wide tread (think 42x15 TSL's) you're going to knife your way through to the surface below. Sometimes there may be traction there, sometimes there might not. Yes, you can steer better with a skinny tire, that's the same reason snow-mobiles put ski's in the front and a huge track (as wide and long as possible) in the rear to keep the thing ABOVE the frozen ground underneath. If you're in mud deeper than the amount of ground clearance you have (not much if you've only got 36" tires) then you need a wider tire to keep you above China. /forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif
 
i argee a skinny tire it good for snow on the road.

i lived for 5 years where we got 300+ inches of snow a year, and the widest tire with the least amount of air was the ticket for off road trips. there was no way you could find bottom without being buried in 4 feet of the white stuff. horspower didnt matter, gearing did since the snow has to pack under the tires to go anywhere.

there is a difference in a couple of inches in width, especially then you start deflating the tire. a wider tires has a larger foot print hands down.
 
I'm all about the wide tires. Up here you certainly can't dig to the bottom, so you might as well try and float.

post-18-1089157602.jpg


My boggers are plugged solid, but that's from digging in to pull another guy out.
 
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