[tendeadhorses]

Its time for new skins. If you run them what do you think? I am looking for a good all round AT and would like some input from anybody that has run then for any length of time. Your thoughts would help make up my mind.
Thanks in advance

[1911]

My second set of tires on my FJC were Toyo (same manufacturer as Nitto) Open Country AT (same tire as Terra Grappler as far as I can tell) and they were quiet on the highway, gave decent traction off-road when aired down, and lasted 60,000 miles on my truck. Actually, I replaced them with some taller MT's at 60,000 miles and they still had enough tread on them to easily pass inspection. Highly recommended for a great road tire and a decent off-road tire.

[OffRoad Rage]

I ran them on my FJC (285/70/17) for the first year and half before I went up in size. Great road manners, pretty quite, and they did really well in the rocks out here. Not bashing BFG - more of a testimonial - my friend with an FJC ran the BFG AT's and I got the Nittos, ran the same trails, similarly loaded and his tires chunked signifcantly and the Nittos only slightly abraded around the edges. Too much silicon content in the BFGs. Ran well aired down too.

I'm still running those Terras on my FJ55. I put 25K on them and they have 2/3 tread left. Bought the road hazzard but have yet to use it.

[Ackerlight]

I am running 285/70/17 Nitto Terra Grapplers now. Great tires so far. Excellent sidewalls with heavy plying, low noise, great traction on sand, mud, snow and ice. If I could criticize anything about them, I would say they may suffer some traction loss in mud. Overall though, traction is very good in any terrain. Handles very well when aired down and can still take fairly high speeds when aired down without bead loss.

Tire compound seems to be very durable. After running the same trails as my friends with BFG's, I seem to have less pitting and wear than they do. So the compound seems a little stiffer and more resilient to wear.

I would definitely recommend them. The only thing I may do for my next set is upgrade to 295/70/17's to bump them up to around 33.1".

[Brock]

I am running 295x70x17 on my FJ with 3" lift and love them.

They are great on highway with low noise...smooth ride...and great wet weather performance. In the sand, rocks, trails they excel. In average mud they do very well also with good self cleaning characteristics unlike the BFJ AT in my own experiences with both. Get them in red clay slop and they are like slicks...but in this mud even LTBs spin and slide...so 99% of the time they are an OUTSTANDING tire with my use of them in snow, mud over hubs, hill climbs in mud, rocks, off camber, etc.....knock on wood...never had to have a winch line pulled for me in a year....but sure it will happen one day now that I jinxed myself.

Great wear if you rotate every 4k miles....3 ply sidewall is near bullet proof. Great tires.

I would go with 285 if I was to do it all over.....would keep them from rubbing my UCA when wheeling...and knock out all the rubbing of body mount as well i suspect as it only rubs under hard hits in a turn or during large articulation.

[OlyWaFJ]

I've had them on since day two of owning my FJC in August of 2006, I have about 45k miles on them and am looking at another set. In my haste to remove the HT that come with my FJC I actually bought the P265/70/17's which as served me quite well for being a passenger car tire, but for $140 each I couldn't pass it up! I often run these at 15psi off road without any issues. My next purchase will probably be the LT285/70/17's as I have since added the OME suspension. Great manners on road and as said previously a great tire most of the time off road with the exception of sticky mud which do turn these into slicks very quickly.

[tsarte]

Originally Posted by Brock

Great wear if you rotate every 4k miles....3 ply sidewall is near bullet proof. Great tires.

Are they really 3-ply sidewall? I searched all over their website but cannot seem to confirm that information. I had a tire blowout last night and looking at a set of these as replacement.

[Tools R Us]

Originally Posted by tsarte

Are they really 3-ply sidewall? ...

What does it matter? The Terra Grapplers are well proven tires, take a hell of a beating even in the rocks. None of the manufactures list any details (thread count, weight, etc) of the fabric, IMHO two plies ballistic nylon would be better than three plies ladies nylons! The manufacture that trumpets three plies the loudest is also the tire that I have cut/seen cut the most often. IMHO actual trail experience/reports are more important than advertising copy.

[Brock]

It says it right on the tire........

They are 10ply or 8 ply depending if you get D rated or E rated versions......the sidewalls are 3ply on my D rated 8 ply Nittos...

[tsarte]

Originally Posted by Brock

It says it right on the tire........

They are 10ply or 8 ply depending if you get D rated or E rated versions......the sidewalls are 3ply on my D rated 8 ply Nittos...

cool! i'll have to check it out. i just bought a set last week.

[tsarte]

I got the LT275/70R18 E 125S. I see a "10 PR" (10 Ply Rating?) but the ply count shows

tread: 2 steel, 2 poly, 2 nylon
sidewall: 2 poly

[Tools R Us]

Originally Posted by Brock

It says it right on the tire........

They are 10ply or 8 ply depending if you get D rated or E rated versions......the sidewalls are 3ply on my D rated 8 ply Nittos...

Most are "rated", meaning the construction is equal to old school 8 (or whatever) ply. Look at the ply information area on the tire, close to the rim. IMHO actual trail experience is a much better indicator of tire toughness than specs.

The specs on my 8 ply rated 295x75/16.

[tsarte]

Originally Posted by Tools R Us

IMHO actual trail experience is a much better indicator of tire toughness than specs.

I agree thats why I purchased Nittos based on the input here in mud. I also did read other forums and wheeling magazines about the bfg at-ko and they all were in agreement "great wear" but "sidewalls are susceptible to cuts and punctures" one site said maybe due to the bfg AT smooth sidewall design of vs the competition.

[woody]

PLEASE do not buy E range tires....the FJC weighs WAY too little for an E range....if your local shop sold them to you for an FJ Cruiser, never buy there again....

I have a set of 285 E-range NTG's on my 3/4 ton Chevy Duramax and tow a 15,000# gooseneck trailer behind it....love the tires....great handling, great load capacity, great wear.

NGA-FJC has them in an E range on his FJC and they are worthless on the trails....a set of 285's is rated for what, 3700# PER tire?? You'll need to knock a LOT of air out for the sidewalls to have ANY chance of squatting....D range will actually flex the sidewall AND be properly rated for any imaginable weight you can stuff into your FJC

[Brock]

I agree...hell i rand D range on my Dodge 2500 Cummins 4x4....the D range nittos are rated higher than some E range tires of similar size. Will never get any tire compression with E series off road unless you are at like 6 lbs and loaded to the gills with gear.

[REKCUT]

295's on my FJ and love them. Had to do the body mount chop to get them not to rub. No lift and they work great. My wife drives it mostly and she like them so they must be quiet

[NYCTRD]

Originally Posted by woody

PLEASE do not buy E range tires....the FJC weighs WAY too little for an E range....if your local shop sold them to you for an FJ Cruiser, never buy there again....

I have a set of 285 E-range NTG's on my 3/4 ton Chevy Duramax and tow a 15,000# gooseneck trailer behind it....love the tires....great handling, great load capacity, great wear.

NGA-FJC has them in an E range on his FJC and they are worthless on the trails....a set of 285's is rated for what, 3700# PER tire?? You'll need to knock a LOT of air out for the sidewalls to have ANY chance of squatting....D range will actually flex the sidewall AND be properly rated for any imaginable weight you can stuff into your FJC

4x4'ers!! I'm not a hard core, 4x4 guy (just an old Jeep owner). VERY knowledgable about sports cars however! So give me some expert advice!

I'm running the E rated Destination MT's on the HEAVY Pro comp steelies...

*I KNOW the weight of the tires/wheels are too much and will likely cause premature wear on susp. components, etc.

* I KNOW I'm decreasing performance (acceleration/mileage).

BUT-This combo has worked a LOT BETTER on some terrain where I had the stock TRD wheel/BFG AT set up...PLUS, I'm getting INCREDIBLE wear on these (over 35-k and roughly 1/3 wear so far...with one rotation so far). I don't really do any serious "rock-crawling". I just traverse my own property which is hilly, a little rocky and sometimes muddy (with LOTS of trail pin stripes). I'm just careful not to bottom out hard.

I like the idea of having a beefier, less "penatratable" tire...think I'm way off base??

I'm kinda looking forward to "prematurely weraing out" my suspension...UPGRADE TIME COMES SOONER!

[woody]

I would expect a MT to perform better in muddy terrain than an AT...E range or otherwise

incredible wear, sure...compromised for a stiffer sidewall and ride, on or offroad

personally, I'm bored with a set of tires at 30k/3 years...the Cepek FCII's I had on my 80 series have tons of tread left...but I switched to TreadWrights anyways and will likely be making those 'winter' tires and getting a set of 315's for summer use. Course, I've wheeled the rig hard enough over those miles to tear off entire tread blocks...

The proper load rating for the FJC is D....what you install is your choice on where you want to compromise...same decision for tread design, brand, etc....it's all personal preference based on the information you believe at the time.

[Tools R Us]

Originally Posted by NYCTRD

...
BUT-This combo has worked a LOT BETTER on some terrain where I had the stock TRD wheel/BFG AT set up...PLUS, I'm getting INCREDIBLE wear on these (over 35-k and roughly 1/3 wear so far...with one rotation so far). I don't really do any serious "rock-crawling". I just traverse my own property which is hilly, a little rocky and sometimes muddy (with LOTS of trail pin stripes). I'm just careful not to bottom out hard.

I like the idea of having a beefier, less "penatratable" tire...think I'm way off base??
...

Maybe, but if they are working for you, good deal. For most, the point of an aired down off road tire is to be flexible. Off road terrain has texture, a softer tire better conforms to the contour, making for better traction and ride.

In off road driving everything is a compromise, the tire extremes: A car tire is very soft, ride well, can work well in soft stuff like sand where you don't want big lugs digging holes, they spread out and float well, but don't have enough strength for other types of wheeling. On the other end is stiff tires, they ride ruff, don't flex to terrain as well, so have less traction, need to be aired down much more to get close to the same flex, so rolling them off of the rim is more common, most have harder tread compound, less traction.

On the stronger cut/puncture thing the answer would be maybe. Take say a 2" tall sharp projection (rock, root, limb, doesn't matter) and park a tire on it. A stiff or full air pressure tire will be fully on the point, the point load will be very high, chance of puncture very high. A softer, properly aired down tire will likely conform over it, with some/lots of the tread on the ground, giving much lower point load, so may survive.

There is no "best tire" and "all terrain" tires don't exist, the best tire for snow is very different from the best rock tire, which is very different than the best mud tire, etc. Ply count is good trivia, but tire performance is about the whole tire construction and how it works. The best way to pick a tire for your area is to go wheeling with a local club, big group and watch how different tires work in the terrain that you wheel in.

[NYCTRD]

Originally Posted by woody

I would expect a MT to perform better in muddy terrain than an AT...E range or otherwise

incredible wear, sure...compromised for a stiffer sidewall and ride, on or offroad

personally, I'm bored with a set of tires at 30k/3 years...the Cepek FCII's I had on my 80 series have tons of tread left...but I switched to TreadWrights anyways and will likely be making those 'winter' tires and getting a set of 315's for summer use. Course, I've wheeled the rig hard enough over those miles to tear off entire tread blocks...

The proper load rating for the FJC is D....what you install is your choice on where you want to compromise...same decision for tread design, brand, etc....it's all personal preference based on the information you believe at the time.

I knew the E rating was overkill, but my main concern was extra stress on susp & drivetrain.

After driving on the lighter alloys and D rated BFG's, the ride on the heavy wheels/tires (close to 90 lbs each!) seemed much more stable off road (in my mind seemingly because there's more weight closer to the ground, decreasing the propensity to tip over! I didn't notice any real performance decrease either.

I just love the durability of both the Wheelers pro comps and Dest MT's...so far. Maybe I'll run it harder so I can snap a tie rod and blow the rear diff and UPGRADE!!!!

[puulboy]

Originally Posted by tendeadhorses

Its time for new skins. If you run them what do you think? I am looking for a good all round AT and would like some input from anybody that has run then for any length of time. Your thoughts would help make up my mind.
Thanks in advance

I ran Terras for about 1 year and I hated them. Hard riding,terrible balancing issues, no grip on the rocks and for sure terrible in the mud. After I got different tires Hankook Dynapro m/t's I thought I had a new truck. Now I wheel KM2's with the same result. I will never buy Nitto's again.
Just my .02

[tendeadhorses]

I went in for the Nittos and came out with 5 new KM2s. So far I like them but have not gotten into the mud yet. I have a trip planned for the first week of May to see what they can do. I hope I made the right choice