Members Tire Choices (Renamed to not confuse with the other thread) (1 Viewer)

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Romer

fatherofdaughterofromer
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Tire FAQ Thread, you asked for it.

Please keep the chat to a minimum as this is an FAQ.

Please submit your Post in the following format.

Also, a new FAQ thread on different tires and things to consider can be found here
 
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BFG AT KO 285/75/R16 (33 inch tires)

1997 LX450 2.5" Lift

Considerations for Purchase:
I bought these tires before I had the lift and wanted a good Highway/Offroad tire combo that would ear well. Some of the considerations on the tire size were as follows:
- Could fit on a Stock suspension (Now have 2.5: lift)
- Could fit in the Spare Tire location (Now have Slee Rear Bumper.
- Don't need re-gearing. Re gearing payoff seems to come at 35's

Performance:
These tires are great on road. I air them down to 15-20psi when off roading and have had great performance offroad (Includes Moab). These things wear like a tank. I have had them 17,000 miles and they still look new and have seen very little tread wear. In comparison against the Goodyear MTR's on my daughters 4runner, they are much quiter and wear better. Have not been in a situation to determine which one would be better off road, but the AT is a much better onroad tire. I can see the MTR having better performance in MUD and maybe snow (small advantage), but any tire will only get you so far in snow and chains will make both these tires equal.
I also run these same tires on my FJ40 and have been very happy with them.

Recommend:
Yes

Picture with tires before lift:
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Picture with tires after lift (OME 2.5lift med ):
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Picture fully loaded with bumpers, sliders, winch, etc. (Added 1" Mr. Gasket Spacers up front)
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Super Swamper Bias Ply TSL 13x36-16 (36" tires)

1997 40th Anniversary Edition with OME J-Springs with 20mm trim packers at each corner.

Considerations for purchase:
I wanted the most aggresive off road tires available in the 35"-37" range (excluding boggers).
I was completely unconcerned with road manners.

Performance:
They perform MUCH better than anticipated on the road. To balance them I had the tire shop pour 1000 BB's in each tire and did not have them spin-balanced at all. Once they warm up they are quite smooth considering the super aggresive tread. I would say they are very close to a regular radial MT tire. Off road...what can I say? It's a bias ply swamper. I run them at ~10psi on stock alloys, but I want bead locks so I can run them lower.

Recommended:
Yes
 
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Buckshot Maxxis Mudders

1994 with 4 inch lift

Considerations for purchase:
I wanted a cheap aggressive mud tire that would last and it had to be a 35 12.50"
I picked them up for 115 a piece installed at big chief tire
Performance

You cant hear them when your driving on the street. They self clean beautifully. I have gottent 15,000 and i still have half the tread left. They work good in rocky terrain. I run them at 45 psi and i have them on stock rims.

Recomended:
YES
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I'd like to see...

Hi. I am wondering if anyone has a set or Goodyear MTR's on stock wheels (LX450 will be my rig), or if they will even fit. Post a pic or two, please.

Thanks,

Moses John
 
Yes, check out NorCalDoug's ROTW thread. He's running them on black steelies but they fit stock wheel's just fine.
 
Yokohama Geolander AT 285/75 r16 on black steel rims

Considerations
At the time I purchased it was a toss-up between BFG AT's and these. I went with these because the manager at Discount (a family friend) has them and recomended.

Performance
I have very little road noise that I can hear over my exhaust :cool:
I get excellent traction in the dry rocks and dirt of Southern AZ and have very little trouble with wet surfaces either. I run 40psi street and about 16-18psi offroad.
I wheel on a lot of nasty rocks down here and have lost a few chunks of rubber here and there. I have about 16k miles on them.
They are only a 2-ply sidewall however as compared with the BFG's 3-ply.
Overall I am happy with them and would recomend them.
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BFG A/T 315/75/16 on stock wheels. No lift.............yet.

Bought used with 60% tread life for a good price. So far so good. The drive is firmer with the 3 ply sidewall which I like. Good traction in wet and snow. Seem to be great bang for the buck.
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Toyo Open Country M/T 285/75-16
OME J's with Mr. G's up front.

Considerations:

a) Wanted an aggressive tire with decent on road manners. Was a toss up between these and MTR's, these were cheaper and rarer so I gave em a try.

b) I didn't want to re-gear and with all the hills here I would have had to if I went with 35's.

Performance:

So far these are very good on road. There is almost no noise, were easy to balance, and wear very well.

I have only made a couple of trips off road into difficult terrain, but these have performed admirably. As well as my MTR's that I had on a Heep. I have yet to air them down as I haven't had a need to.
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I've had several sets of tyres on my 80.

1- 31/10.5R15 Maxxis Bravo 751- PO fitment,no grip, ugly, blah, blah, blah.

2- 31/10.5R15 Cooper Discover S/T- excellent all terrain tyre, replaced them because I wanted 33"s and because they started chipping badly.I feel they didn't suit the weight of vehicle/style of driving that I do.

3- 33/12.5R15 Bridgestone Dueller M/T- Under rated MT tyre, good grip on road, good grip off road, good wear, quiet, durable. Replaced because the rims I was running were the incorrect offset and they started to de-laminate at high loads/high speeds. I've since found that the 33"s have a much lower load rating than the same tyres in a 285.

4- 285/75R16 Goodyear Wrangler MT/R on OEM 16x8 steel rims painted black(the most important bit)- Just fitted so don't have much info. Off road grip seems good, good load rating, noisier than the Duellers, tread seems to pick up small rocks and flick them at the inner guards( my other tyres didn't do this as much).

5- 35/10.5R16 Simex Extreme Trekker II "The Centipede"- My play tyres. Super aggressive tread pattern. Popular comp tyres over here in Aust. Usually run these at 12psi. Superior grip off road, howl like a banshee on road anything above 20kmh, super tough carcass.

All of these tyres have been run on my old 2" lift with no rubbing even the 35" Pedes. If the Pedes were wider than 10.5 they might not have fitted though. Now have a 4"ish lift so the 285 MT/Rs and 35" Pedes have plenty of clearance.
 
Bridgestone Dueler Revo A/T 285/75/R16 (33 inch tires)

1993 80 - stock

Considerations for Purchase:
My truck spends a lot of time on the freeway getting me where I need to go, so road handling characteristics played in big part in my purchase. Very important was also the need for a tire that could handle deep snow and heavy rains, on both pavement and offroad. Stock suspension for the time being, with a 2.5" lift planned, so a big enough tire to not look goofy with the lift was considered.

Performance:
Very capable tire all around. My experience is limited to light, road oriented tires, and a set of BFG A/T's, so I don't have a ton to compare it to. The BFG A/T was my second choice when I was shopping, and the Revo won it over for me because of its high reviews in wet conditions. The Revos seem to shed mud, and don't get packed with snow nearly as easily as BFG A/T's, which was a primary concern of mine. Excellent onroad tire, and the sidewalls feel stiff enough for anything I've thrown at them.


Recommend:
Yes
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BFG AT KO 285/75R16

1997 LX450 OME 2.5" Medium

Considerations for Purchase:
- Purchased while still stock height (rotted Michelins made it easy to go to 33's immediately)
- Fit in stock spare location (no rear bumper until Phase III of "The Plan")
- On-road friendly (not loud/bumpy) and off-road capable (only significant weakness is mud -- and IH8MUD :princess: )
- Local Discount Tire (in San Diego) couldn't sipe (I was also considering BFG MT's)
- Great water/snow/ice traction and directional stability (we were planning to move to Colorado)

Performance:
The tires are great onroad and (aired down to about 18psi) very capable offroad. When I air them up to 45psi and drive at freeway speeds, I notice a slight vibration that I attribute to the relatively open tread (compared to street-tires). I now run them at 38/40 psi on-road, and have no issues. I've had them in snow, on icy roads, soft sand, slickrock and granite -- in all cases, I've been very happy with them. No chunking or sidewall damage so far. There's a rim-protection-lip that works great to minimize damage to the wheel (rock-rash).

Recommend:
Yes
 
Michelin XZL 9.0R16

Michelin XZL 9.0R16

Considerations for Purchase:
I wanted a radial tire that performed as well as a Super Swamper (or better) but had better road manners and a better build quality (ie, balanced with less weight, less chunking, etc). I was also a victim of the "cool" factor and mystique that these tires had (have). I started looking for them just before the latest scrap in the Middle East and there were still several sets floating around that were "affordable". I would add, under the given circumstances, that general availability to purchase a spare or replacement should be a big consideration. They are currently very difficult to source in good condition, let alone new.


Performance:
I mounted these on the OEM Land Cruiser alloy wheels with no issues and they required very little weight to properly balance. They measured an honest 36.5" diameter. Each tire weighed nearly 90 lbs unmounted. There was essentially no difference in the tire stance from 50 psi down to 18 psi. Once at or below 15 psi you could discern some bulging. The sidewalls are extremely thick and stiff. The tires were louder than I expected on pavement given what I'd been told, nearly as loud as a garden variety swamper. They did behave fairly well except that as they heated up on the pavement the handling became a bit squirrelly. They were rated to 65 mph although I took them up to 80 mph with the behavior noted above. Off road I had them in mud and they performed excellently. Same for snow. They did not flex enough for rock crawling although I never really got to place that it would have been noticed. They did seem to be wearing rather quickly from all the pavement use to get to trails. Biggest downsides: weight, sidewall stiffness, squirrelly behavior when hot on pavement. Biggest upsides: nice size and dimensions for a lifted 80, very good on most types of trails an 80 would be on, very high quality construction.


Recommendations:
Get them with you eyes wide open. They are hard to source. They are not a miracle, one-tire-does-it-all solution. I imagine the sidewalls are bulletproof.

Sorry for the pics, these are all I have of them.
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BFG Krawler 37/12.5R17

BFG Krawler 37/12.5R17

Considerations for Purchase:
The quest for a tire that behaved nicely on pavement and could handle sustained speeds of 80 mph and yet do nicely off road. The BFG AT was/is the standard for pavement performance. I wanted something that was nearly as quiet and nearly as behaved. The reputation the Krawlers had off road was good enough for me to try them. The size was ideal as I have a set of the 17" Rock Crawler steel wheels. The dimensions fit the lifted 80 perfectly.

Performance:
I got this set with about 60% tread depth so take that into consideration. They did have uniform wear and had been on a street princess H2 (ie, never off road). They required quite a bit of weight to balance but once balanced ran nice and true on the truck. They were as loud as Super Swampers - like a helicopter. These were the "Blue Dot" street version, not the "Red Dot" competition version, but still seemed to wear quickly from pavement. They had the same behavior of getting "loose" feeling once they were heated up from running on the freeway at speed. I only ran them on a couple of trails, one kind of muddy, one just rocks (John Bull). They did excellent and I really had no issues off road at all. They did great at street pressure (~30 psi) and really shone when I took them down to 16 psi. I never took them in snow or "real" mud but the thin gritty stuff here in the local mtns got shed pretty well.

Recommendations:
Probably as a trail only set with minimal street time I'd say emphatically "Yes". Lots of street distances to trails and want to carry on conversations with your passengers or talk on a phone - keep looking :D
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BFG 285/75R16 AT KOs

I am on my 7th FJ-80. I have run Good Year AT 285s, Bridgestone AT 285s, Dunlop AT 285s, Yokohama MT 315s and BFG AT and MT 285s and AT 315s. I am running an OME J-lift with BFG 285/75r16 ATs on both the truck and M416 trailer.

Considerations For Purchase
My truck sees a lot of highway use but occasional rocks and cactus in hilly Texas terrain. I need a tire that is tough on and offroad, yields long life, good looks and readily available.

Performance
They are very tough in the rocks, clear well enough in the mud and aren't too noisy until they get near the end of life. I wasn't impressed with them in the snow, but I don't have much snow experience. They are readily available through numerous tire stores and they wear extremely well if you keep them balanced. I have had several BFG ATs that were out of round when mounted new, so you have to be on-hand at the balancing machine and look for a slight "hop" in the tire. That hop, combined with a tire needing excess weight (2.5 ounces or more) and I ususally ask for a different tire.

Recommendations
I ran 315s on my supercharged truck and thought they were great. But I think they otherwise knock the stock performance down too far in my opinion to be worth running with stock gears and power. The 285 BFGs fit the stock wheel (as well as the spare area underneath), don't negatively affect performance or economy too much and yield excellent articulation on 2.5-3" lifted trucks. Its now the only tire I will run.
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BFG AT 295 75 r16. Enough has been said already about BFG's, all positive and all true. I thought the added height would be a cool difference- 295's math out to 33.4, compared to 32.83 with the 285's. So I thought I was ahead of the game getting the bigger tires, even though yes they do fit with stock suspension.

Mistake. I've yet to encounter an obstacle where less than .3" of height has been the difference between making it and not making it. But the performance decrease with the increased circumferance has been noticeable. I've swapped trucks with other guys in the club also running stock gears and 285's and we both noticed the difference; it's not huge, but enough to make me wish I would have either just got 285's, or regeared and gone with 35's.

This is the last set of AT's for my 80- it's almost an exclusive trail truck any more the street tires need to go.
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Cooper Discovery STT 315/75R16

This is my first set of Cooper mud terrain tires, however, I am also running the Discovery A/T's on our family van (Ford E-350). So far they have been a great tire.

Considerations for Purchase
Having owned MT/R's on a previous Tundra and not been happy witht he treadlife, noise, or balance characteristics, I wanted to find a tire that had the following characteristics:
1) Agressive yet offer a relatively quiet ride
2) Balance well without adding excessive amounts of weight
3) Excellent offroad performance, I plan to use on all terrain from Moab to mountain dirt and shale
4) I had to have a 315. I didn't want the look of a smaller size tire.

Other tires that were considered include: BFG MT, ProComp Mud Terrains, and Toyo MT.

Performance
I have had these tires on since January 2006. So far I have driven them on both wet and dry roads, in deep, wet snow, and on the rocks and mud in Moab. In all conditions I am very impressed. These tires are very quiet for such an aggressive mud terrain (althought he LX is well insulated). Excellent balance characteristics and handling on dry roads. Have run up to approx. 85mph without any significant bounce or wobble. Tends to follow ruts a bit, but typical of a tire this big. Granted the 80 is no hot-rod, but I can't get them to break traction on dry pavement.

Wet pavement characteristics are similar. Snow performance is excellent. During a recent snow run, found they dug extremely well. Performance on Moab mud and rock is also exemplary. Lugs clean well and grip great, even on wet slickrock. Ran at 18psi without any issues, and felt I could have ran them much lower to get better flex from the sidewall.

Have driven them for approx 1500 miles and the little nubbies are barely worn off. I was also able to fit the spare in the stock location under the rear cargo area...barely. However, it did rub on the rear panhard (rubbed the paint off).

Not a true 35" tire, measures out to 34".

Recommendations
I am MUCh more impressed with this tire than the Wranglers ran previously, particularly regarding wear, noise, and balance. Performs similar to the wrangler on the rocks, however, I feel the STT is a better snow tire. I have also since found that they are lighter than the Toyo, which means easier to get rolling and to stop.

Although I have not run them for many miles, my short term recommendation if an emphatic "buy". Besides, they have cool little knights on the sidelugs :cool: .

Here are some pics:
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Toyo Open Country MT 315/75/16

1994 fzj80 2.5" Lift

Considerations for Purchase:

After running BFG A/T's on various trucks since 1992 I was ready for something different. Since I no longer use the 80 as a daily driver I also wanted something more aggressive. The BFG A/T's are excellent tires and of all the sets I've had I've never had a problem with wear or flats. I ended up choosing the Toyo's based on some reviews I read on MUD. I had a few folks say they wore better and were less noisy than the GY MTR's. Whether or not that's true I don't know as I've never owned MTR's. I also like the siping on the Toyo's and am hoping it makes them more useful in the snow and ice. They're made in Japan and the build quality looks great.

Performance:
Highway noise is very tolerable but louder than the A/T's of course. Off-road I've only had time for some mild stuff around my property. I have one loose dirt climb that I'd done several times with the A/T's. That climb involved some slipping when going up unlocked but the MT's it chugged up without a hitch. Re-gearing will be in my future but the need isn't near as bad as I thought it would be. I'll probably spend the re-gear money on other modifications instead and do the re-gear another day. Right now I'm going to focus more on accomodating 35 inch tires as the rears do rub on the mud flap on full stuff. As I put the passenger side front tire up a ledge the driver's rear began to rub on the mud flap at about the point at which the passenger rear came off the ground. The unloaded spare mounted on a stock 16x8 wheel measures 34.9. They balanced out very well. I'll edit this once I have some more experience with them.


Recommend:
Yes

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Yokohama Geolander At II+ tires 315 75 16 (34.7")

1996 FZJ80 850J/863 Lift

Considerations for Purchase:
The purpose of these tires were to get me to the trail head in peace and quiet with excellent hwy manners. Trail head from my house is a min 1,000 miles (Chicago). They have to handle snow/ice/slick rock and little mud; basically, Jack of all trades but master of none sort of thing.

Performance:
These are excellent tires and wear nicely on the 80. I do rotate the tires religously and keep the front end aligned. I have about 30,000 miles on them and they're wearing great (currently at 14/32" out of 19/32"). Hwy noise is very minimal and traction for off roading is superb. I don't play in deep mud but have run trails in AZ,UT and CO. Just did the Crown King trail in AZ and noticed minor chunking all over. This trail has sharp rocks on it but I didn't have a flat tire and that was a large concern of mine due to the thinner sidewall. Traction in Moab is superb, even when wet. The attached pictures are of the tires doing a short climb while being wet.

Normal air pressure is 34/38 and I bump them up to about 38/42 when heavily laden. Depending on the trail, the air pressure can be anywhere from 18-25 psi.

Recommend:
Yes but do keep in mind:
- max load at 35 psi and 2535 pounds (may not be enough for some folks)
- nice side lugs for light muddy trails but not for super deep, gooey stuff
- center lugs great for wet traction and quiet operation
- load range C so watch the airing down on the trail and sharp rocks!
- good value for the money.
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Interco Trxxus M/T 35X12.50X16

1993 FZJ-80 4" slee coils/J spring rear

Considerations for Purchase
I was looking for a "true" 35" tire to run in a mud terrain. I was also looking for something very tough with good hookup/performance traction. I have had BFG m/t's, A/t's, Goodyear MT/R's, Pro-Comp M/T's and the Michelein LTX on rigs before. I wanted a decent lasting tire, good strength and decent daily driving as I only drive around 1-2 miles a day...maybe

Performance

Not much to really add at this point as I've only had them a week. My innitial impression is that that are smooth and pretty quiet. Not A/T quiet but nice enough to tell you have a mud terrain without being annoyed. They did take a bit of weight to balance but feel fine. In the rain I noticed no slipping or weirdness, and on the highway up to 80 things feel fine.

I'll add more as I go on a few runs.

Recommend

So far yes, seem smooth and others have reported they are a tough tire, possibly hard to balance and prolly need rotated often to get the most use. I maybe put 5K on a year so thats like once a year balance for me.

I will regear to 4.88's next year although it's not *that* bad. Perfect size tire for the lift. I will check the rubbing tomorrow once the bumpstop spacers are on.

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