Why arent mud tires harder?

[Apocalypse]

Just a question i thought of while reading about the horrible mileage most mud tires get. If you had a tire strictly for mud wouldn't a harder compound suffice just as well and have much better wear characteristics. I know they wouldent be as good in the rocks or certan trail conditions. but for a pure breed mud tire it dosent make sense.

 

[yellowK20]

Ground Hawgs are hard I have a set of 44" hawgs that have close to 50,000 miles on them and still have enough tread to sling the goo .

 

[LeasingBb]

I had a set of mastercraft courser MT's that lasted almost 45000 miles 50% onroad hwy and 50% offroad mud use. they are a hard compound. it also depends on the weight of the truck on the tires, the width of the wheel ( cause it determines the floatation of the tire) and what you drive on. I got great milage on them. recently I got some bias plys they suck up the mpgs.
softer tires do better offroad, thats what they were made for.

 

[Ronnie4wd]

The boggers has harder compound than IROKs.

 

[6.2Blazer]

Aggressive mud tires will wear faster than tires with milder tread patterns assuming the rubber compound is the same because there is more tread squirm and less rubber touching the road and getting scrubbed off. Theoretically if you have 25% less rubber touching the road than it will wear 25% faster, not including the tread squirm that can contribute to even faster wear.

Non-DOT off-road only implement tires have a really hard compound like you are suggesting, however they still wear fast on paved roads because of the above. I've seen guys run skid steer loader tires (Bobcats, etc... had a 33" tires for 16.5 rims) with the standard industrial lug patters. These tires are HARD, but they were still lucky to get 5,000 miles from them because of the lack of contact patch/rubber hitting the road.

The other trouble with DOT approved tires is that they have to be half-way decent on the pavement and other road services and rubber compounds suck on anything hard packed.

 

[obijuan]

concrete wears tires slightly faster than asphalt, so if your DD on the highway thats all concreted you can expect to see some life lost to the road.


ground hawgs wear like iron, theyre great at lasting forever.