which would you get

[Nay]

Pretty silly to get MT tires if expected offroad usage is less than 1/4.

I disagree completely, and doubt very seriously that anybody here puts 25% of their total mileage in offroad use. Unless you really want two sets of tires, you'll probably want a fairly aggressive tire....the point of a dual purpose rig is to drive it daily, take it to the trail, and wheel it. Offroad tires are good enough these days to justify full time usage, meaning they are quiet and reasonably durable. It's not like BFG AT's are cheap and last forever.

If you live in a snowy area, the trxus MT wins hands down. They are simply excellent, even on hardpack. My experience with trxus MT is that they are a better tire in ALL conditions than the BFG AT ko's they replaced. They are almost as good as the Nokian Hakka Q snow tires I run in the winter on my minivan. Good road tire, excellent offroad tire. A true all terrain, unlike tires labeled all terrain that invariably suck in any severe situation.

I'll tell you specifically why I like the trxus. The tread has Swamper design heritage, and one thing this provides is excellent lateral traction offroad. The center lugs are oriented parallel to vehicle track, providing open spacing for side grip. No "interlocking lug" design (think BFG) that I've ever run even comes close in lateral traction, and the uni-directional designs like the Procomp and Claw are all about forward traction.

This center lug focus is offset by the large TSL design of the outer lugs, which provide the forward grip. This is a tire that won't be the best at any one thing, but is good at eveything.

Now if you live in a drier climate and rock crawl, you just need to look around. Everybody is running MT/R's. Goodyear has completely stolen the on/offroad tire market from BFG.

Tires are fickle beasts, though, and what one person thinks is excellent another may hate. The key to running offroad tires on a heavy vehicle is frequent rotation, like every 1,500 miles. You try to rotate offroad tires every 7,500 miles and you are likely to hate them.

Nay

 

[concretejungle]

thanks nay, i think i'm sold. I'll repost when i get em'.

 

[Stealth]

I know you already have decide but PJ's are fantastic. I recently sold my F350 and had 38x15.50's on it and the truck weighed 9,000 lbs. They are 10 ply and take nothing to balance them. I had 40,000 miles on them and still looked 50%. They ride nice and look good.

 

[ginericLC]

I'm very fickle when it comes to tires, I swapped tires 13 times in 5 years on my 60. One thing to remember is a tire that performs well on one vehicle may not perform well on another. Also, size matters! I'm running 15" 35x12.50 BFG MTs and although I've seen them perform flawlessly on my friend's minis and 40s , I think they suck on my 80. They've chunked, split sidewalls, and really don't work well for pavement winter driving (no siping). I bet they would suck in the rain too, but I live in a high desert. I'm guessing I would be happier with them on 16 or even 17 or 18" rims, they have higher ply ratings and would have less sidewall to flex. I've actually been considering going to a BFG AT the next time around as we don't have a lot of mud. The Swamper TRXus MTs always interested me. But I only know one person with them and he runs them on a 40 and he's had problems with chunking. I've never met anyone with MTRs who didn't love them. The only person I heard complain about MTRs was on wear and I was surprised that his tires with similar mileage as my BFG MTs were much closer to the tread bars. He probably had 30% left and I'm at probably 50% or so. He had 18k on his and I have a little over 17k on mine. The Desination MT was a popular tire in our club for 40s for awhile as one of our members was a manager at a Firestone dealer. It seems like a good tire but doesn't come in a lot of sizes. I'm looking at this message and I'm wondering why I typed all this. Basically if you read the 2nd and 3rd sentence you will get my message. Good Luck!

 

[Junk]

Nay, 4:24pm is kind of early in the day to be hitting the pipe isn't it?

I completely agree with Robbie's post, except about MT/R's because I think they are poison

Folks that say they want a tire that is great at everything will never have a tire that they are happy with. Tires, if you stick with one set, are a total comprimize. Trail tires suck on the road and road tires suck on the trail. The only way for true happiness is one set for street and one set for trail.

You also can't buy tires for one climate based on feedback from someone in another climate.

If you want the best feedback you can get, talk to your local TLCA club guys and find out what they are running.

Oh, and for trail tires, get bias ply swampers.

 

[IdahoDoug]

Tire discussions are hard for me to read. I've been a part of a lot of research from the OEM side (GM, Toyota, Lexus) on tire performance and never cease to be amazed at the statements people make about tires based on their ownership experience. i.e. a sample of 1. But nobody simply in the market for a set of tires can afford to go out and buy 20 sets for their truck and then spend a week doing instrumented testing in a controlled environment to find the best tire for their needs.

A good example (and I'm not picking on you Nay), is the above comment that an M/T's performance in winter road conditions is comparable to a Nokian dedicated winter tire. I suspect instrumented testing would say otherwise.

From my experience, matching the tire to the vehicle's usage is the very best strategy. Too many people drive around on M/T's because 4 weekends a year they wheel with their buddies, and end up with poor handling, poor wear, balance issues, poor braking and mediocre overall driving capability on 99% of the miles they drive. Few people actually are on a trail more than 1% with a vehicle they also use for a daily driver.

What's the solution? Pick the tire based upon your most important single need. As in ONE need, such as "I want to maximize my offroad ability and am willing to give up any road capability to get it". Once you prioritize your most important need, then the decision is clear. From the above tire choices, it appears he's doing exactly that.

DougM

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Go for two sets

75% - Go for the bling...New, A/T, good ride, high mileage

25% - Good set of used big nasty Swamper

Look good and feel good on the road switch to the Swamper and drive it like you stole it.

 

[G-Cat]

X-terrians are uni-directional, making rotation every 5K a pia and/or very expensive.

 

[Junk]

Go for two sets

75% - Go for the bling...New, A/T, good ride, high mileage

25% - Good set of used big nasty Swamper

Look good and feel good on the road switch to the Swamper and drive it like you stole it.

Agreed. True happiness only comes with 2 sets.

 

[Asiarider]

Agreed. True happiness only comes with 2 sets.

Or with 2 wives

Mike

 

[concretejungle]

Update

So i went with the truxus MTR's and after two wheelin' trips over the weekend all i can say is WOW!!! These things are awesome. I am coming from radial 265/75's to 33's (and on a side note must mention that the dayton radials i was running had 50,000 miles on them and if it weren't for a sidewall blow, they could still go another 20,000).

First impression on ride quality: they are just as quiet as the radials. The shop that mounted and balanced said they were not extremely tough to balance.

Offroad impressions: first obstacle was a hill climb that i couldn't make it over with the radials. Turn right into the hill, flexed and crawled right up and over! Next obstacle was a stream with rip-rap boulders. I got extremely hung-up with the radials and had to be pulled out (causing the body damage post a week or so back). I made it through without much trouble at all.

The best was last night. Two heeps, two tacos, and a fourskinner went out to a local area where they dig out clay for pinehall brick manufacturing. They leave it available for 4wheelin and motorcycle riding. There was this really steep fairly long hill climb that the other's had to get a run at. I just crawled up it in low. Then to really pissem off i turned around and came back down it, stopped halfway, and then backed up and over the top! Pulled two heeps out of a mud pit later in the evening only to drive right through where they were stuck giving them the bird!

All i can say is the tires are awesome and i would suggest them to anyone. Time will only tell on there wear, i'll keep all updated.