Best SHTF tires for a 4x4 in stock configuration?

[Zombie309]

BFGoodrich M/T tires. Very good in lose sand/dirt and don't rob you of too much performance on the hardtop.

[Tater Raider]

MT v. AT (in general):

Mud Terrain are a serious off-road tire built to handle mud. They have large voids and also do well at sand running, but suck at snow and ice due to reduced contact patch and lack of siping.

All Terrain are still a serious off-roading tire but built to handle trail driving, lose gravel, unimproved roads, and do well at rock crawling when aired down, but mud sticks to them like glue.

Either works for rock crawling. Which is better depends on the rock.

[ZombieSoldier01]

I'm in the process of working a deal for a Chevy 2500 crewcab with the gas 6.0. I was looking to see if anyOne here has use the general grabber red letter tires. I hear a lot of good stuff from the raptor guys but I want to know what my BO friends here have experienced.

Here is the tire
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direc ... ruck%2FSUV

[Coal-Cracker]

Goodyear Duratrac. Good mix of all terrain and mud

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... r+DuraTrac

To the OP:
It would behoove (can't believe I typed that) you to at least investigate the above mentioned tire.
They have been getting EXCELLENT reviews, especially in snow and ice. I've been running these tires for over a year and a half and can't say enough about how much I love them. They are quiet and are wearing excellent. Granted, they aren't a dedicated offroad tire (and it seems you aren't looking for that), but they'll do the job. Great road manners and will get you where you need to go when mother nature rears her ugly head.

[ZombieSoldier01]

Agrea buddy of mine uses the dura tracs on his f250 that doubles as a plow truck and off roading rig. He has no issues. My truck had an identical setup except mine wa running 35" BFG all terrains vs his 33" dura tracks and he got further than I did and it was attributed to the better grip of his tires

[Gixxer1237]

I have worked in tire shops 2 times in my life, built tires at the goodyear factory, and spent more miles driving company trucks for a living that most. My two top choices are the Cooper A/T3 which we put on several of our work trucks and do good in light mud, great in snow(I went thru a snow storm last year towing with these and am sure they saved my life) and are damned good for wear. My second choice would be the Goodyear Fortera Triple Tread that I had on my 04 Jeep grand for 4 years. They are one of the best 90% road tires out there. Did great in all road conditions. Not the best in mud, but more of a street tire.
Right now I got General Grabber HTS on mu Expidition and am not impressed, but I haven't pushed em hard. They just got a little more sidewall deflection than I like. I'll let you know long term what I think.

[Zombie309]

MT v. AT (in general):

Mud Terrain are a serious off-road tire built to handle mud. They have large voids and also do well at sand running, but suck at snow and ice due to reduced contact patch and lack of siping.

All Terrain are still a serious off-roading tire but built to handle trail driving, lose gravel, unimproved roads, and do well at rock crawling when aired down, but mud sticks to them like glue.

Either works for rock crawling. Which is better depends on the rock.

I've used both this and the M/T's I post earlier at work and love both of them. Can take a lot of abuse before going flat also.

[BubbaGump]

To expose my ignorance further:

When I search on TireRack by my vehicle, it only gives me the exact specs that are currently on my vehicle:
225/75R15.
The General Grabber AT2s are on there, but the BF Goodrich's you recommended are only available in 215/75R15.

Amazon.com says that 215/75R15 will fit my vehicle, edmunds.com tells me that the 215 is the width of the tire. So if I were to get 215 width tires, would that mean I would have to get new (narrower) wheels?

Also, any reason why I should NOT buy TireRack's top-rated Firestone Destination A/T? I know their survey says it's the best, but I wonder if the survey could be skewed by the kind of people that buy a particular model of tire. For example, to my untrained eye the General Grabber and BFG tires LOOK much more aggressive than the Firestone ones; perhaps the people who didn't rate those as highly were using them in more demanding terrain than the people who rated the Firestones so highly but were only driving them on their front lawn?

Alright OP 1. yes the 215/75r15 will fit on your vehicle without needing new rims. the 215 is the width of the tread in millimeters so its actually a very small difference.
2. I'd go with the BFG all-terrain K/O, but that's just from my personal experience with the tire

[Tater Raider]

To expose my ignorance further:

When I search on TireRack by my vehicle, it only gives me the exact specs that are currently on my vehicle:
225/75R15.
The General Grabber AT2s are on there, but the BF Goodrich's you recommended are only available in 215/75R15.

Amazon.com says that 215/75R15 will fit my vehicle, edmunds.com tells me that the 215 is the width of the tire. So if I were to get 215 width tires, would that mean I would have to get new (narrower) wheels?

Sorry I missed this earlier. Look at what the manufacturer says for acceptable rim width. If you have aftermarket rims you should know how wide they are and if you don't you can look up what's stock on your vehicle (should be 7").

If you are looking at on road performance, tire centers are the place to go but if it's the off-road performance that drives you then you need to find an appropriate source like the tire issue of 4x4 Garage magazine or offroaders.com.

Use the reeviews and performance and not the looks, unless there's a tie between a couple tires you can't decide on. Ultimately it's the performance you're after if you aren't building a show truck.

[ZombieSoldier01]

I'm surprised I only seen one person on here talking about the Nitto Terragrappler tires. A few of my buddies love them. They are actually on the truck I am picking up this weekend.

[Mannlicher]

Goodyear Wranglers work well for me, year round. They are ok on the street, and very good in the woods in mud or sand.

[MasterMaker]

Mikey Thompson.
My old car(SUV) was stock and had 37" Baja claws on it and while they are noisy on asphalt I can't recommend them enough(getting the same tires for my current truck).

[MaconCJ7]

I have a soft spot for the Wrangler AT's. I had them on an '01 Dodge 1500. Even with a chipped 5.9L, they still hooked up nicely. Off road they were more than impressive. While testing the reliability of the 4x4 performance (jacking off and doing things I shouldn't have been doing without a winch) I went through a mudhole that we had progressively enlarged with M925's. Even though I stopped halfway through this mudhole that was up over my side window sill's to put it into 4-low, the tires still cleared themselves and got me out of the hole. The only thing I can give credit to is the tires. That OK mud bogged me down so bad, that I was having no forward motion in 4-high.

[ZombieSoldier01]

Mikey Thompson.
My old car(SUV) was stock and had 37" Baja claws on it and while they are noisy on asphalt I can't recommend them enough(getting the same tires for my current truck).

What suv did you have that fit 37's stock??

[Coal-Cracker]

Mikey Thompson.
My old car(SUV) was stock and had 37" Baja claws on it and while they are noisy on asphalt I can't recommend them enough(getting the same tires for my current truck).

What suv did you have that fit 37's stock??

hmmwv???

[ZombieSoldier01]

Did not even think of that.

[MasterMaker]

Bleary-eyed typing, make that 31"

[ZombieSoldier01]

Lmao. Gotcha!

[Gixxer1237]

What percentage are you going to be off roading? You buy the tires for your needs, not what you may want. Mud tires tend to suck in the snow. ATs do better.

[Tater Raider]

The sheet I used to compare tires had ratings for street, rock, sand, mud, snow, and ice. My driving method is about 350 miles a week with 100 of that being gravel, which can become very soft and tricky in heavy rains. I go off-roading once a year for an insignificant amount of miles, a mix of trail, rock, and mud so far.

How did I score the tires? Warning, math ahead - skip the rest of the post if you like.

Summer Score:

( Street / 2 + Mud / 3 + Rock / 6 + Sand / 18 ) / ( 19 / 18 )

Winter Score:

0.5 x Summer Score + 0.3 x Ice + 0.2 x Snow

And just in case I can't go the summer/winter route, All Season:

( 7 x Summer + 5 x Winter ) / 12

Reasoning:

• Summer: I am on a tight schedule on Sundays and cannot slow down too much due to soft, muddy roads.
• Winter: Snow compacts into icy roads before clearing off and is a bigger hazzard so a slight bias there, and during thaws I have to deal with the same conditions I do during the summer.
• All-Season: If forced to go with one tire year-round there are 5 months (Nov - Mar) where winter conditions are likley so that gives the summer performance a slight edge, as it should.

I'd rather have a summer and winter tire up here in N. Iowa, but it's going to depend on if My Gal Friday feels like spending $2,000-$3,000 in a 5 month span on tires.



This is not the end-all, be-all of selecting a tire, but it gives you a place to start. You could do something similar, with scores weighted according to your AO and how you drive, to narrow it down to a handful, say 5, tires that will fit your application really well and then go off of what others have experienced to pick 1. You could just plain experiment. Maybe you want to include fuel economy in figuring up tire performance, or tire longevity. Or maybe you could jsut look at the tread of the tires we've all suggested and pick the coolest tread design. All tht's on you and I'm not saying any of them are wrong - that's for you to figure out.



EtA: damn you, plus one filter.

EAtA: Fixed math to get rid of plus one's.

[whisk.e.rebellion]

EtA: damn you, plus one filter.

EAtA: Fixed math to get rid of plus one's.

Removed the filter.

[Tater Raider]

EtA: damn you, plus one filter.

EAtA: Fixed math to get rid of plus one's.

Removed the filter.

You're a good man.

[ZombieSoldier01]

Ok so my new bov and it had nitto terra grapplers on it. So far I like tem. Very little hum. Pretty good traction. Mine are 305/60/18's

[MasterMaker]

I should mention that where I live cooper tires have a reputation for having hard rubber, which makes them less good on icy/slick roads.

Although I should also mention that winter driving conditions where I live can include not seeing the blacktop for a few months during winter due to it being covered with white ice/snow, which at least cured me of ever using non studded all year tires ever again(360+ pirouette into the opposite lane with zero grip and nearly being broadsided by a mail van(I was doing 30 mph when I lost grip and it was on a straight piece of road)).