Tire shopping is Tough.....

by **Cable810** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:24 pm

Well pretty soon it will be time for some new tires for me. I'm in a huge dilema though.... Mt or AT

I really want a MT for looks and offroad performance, but we see a pretty good ammount of snow during the winter and it will see more Road driving vs Offroading. April 20th we got 3in of snow, plows never made it out till well after 11pm. Yes that is late for us. From all the reding I've done on a MT everyone says they are horriable in rain and snow UNLESS siped and you lose MPG. Annyone have these issues with a MT? Did you get em siped? If so any of the lugs chuncking off?
I hear Great reveiws on the BFG Km2, Gaurd Dogs, and Kumaho Road Venture. For the ones running the Gaurd Dogs, I heard that they are kinda of a Cross between a At and Mt being that the lugs are close together. Can someone measure the gap of the lugs and take a close of of the Lugs/tire ?

For an AT I'm just concerned that I wont get the traction I want when offroading but they will preform better on road vs a MT(obviously)

Plus ontop of this I'm cheap, I can spend no more than 130 on a Tire....Sadly. Thats why I really can't afford a Branded tire.

For an AT tire I'm looking at the Wardens and For a MT the Gaurd Dogs.

For 5 Wardens, Marks Spacers, Everything installed I'm looking at 1,200

Thoughts? I hope I made sense!

Tire size 265/70/17

by **JCrayton99** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:48 pm

Ill be ordering my second set of treadwrights tomorrow, if that says anything.

NOT sent from an IPhone.

by **NC_IslandRunner** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:48 pm

Tire shopping is easy, TreadWright.com check out the GaurdDogs great tires, great price. Many of us run them without problem or fail.

by **Mudwheelin** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:55 pm

I have hankook dyna pro Mt's right now. I had AT's before that. I prefer the AT tire over the mud tires. We get lots of snow here as well, and mud tires suck in snow and ice. MT's also wear out a lot faster. This is the last mud tire I will buy unless it goes on a strickly offroad vehicle. I would recomend going with an AT tire. There good in the bush and on road. You get the best of both worlds IMO. Hope that helps.

by **bartonmd** » Wed May 30, 2012 10:15 pm

Wrangler Duratracs seem to be about the best mix of everything, but they're a bit pricey...

You could always get whatever M/T you want and buy a $65 siping iron and sipe them. That made my Destination M/T's pretty decent in the snow.

Actually, I would have a siping iron that I planned on just sending it to whoever needed it, and you just pay shipping and whatever blades you used up... but the first person I sent it to was Zero (Brendan Carmody) in Canada, and he never returned it. That was over a year ago, and I keep bugging him about it. He's to the point that he doesn't respond to my messages any more, and effectively just stole it from me.

Mike

YouTube Videos · by **Trail X** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:05 am

JCrayton99 wrote:Ill be ordering my second set of treadwrights tomorrow, if that says anything.

NOT sent from an IPhone.

Does that say you got terrible mileage out of them?

:mrgreen:

by **Cable810** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:28 am

JamesDowning wrote:
JCrayton99 wrote:Ill be ordering my second set of treadwrights tomorrow, if that says anything.

NOT sent from an IPhone.

Does that say you got terrible mileage out of them?

HA HA, I forgot you get 17mpg on MTs

I saw the Duratracs but don't have the $$ for them.... it just seems that the Wardens pattern is really close together,making me think less traction. I dunno if anyone has run them. Another tire I was looking at was the Grabber AT2, which I know a few of you run.

by **bartonmd** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:43 am

Cable810 wrote:I saw the Duratracs but don't have the $$ for them.... it just seems that the Wardens pattern is really close together,making me think less traction. I dunno if anyone has run them. Another tire I was looking at was the Grabber AT2, which I know a few of you run.

I think James meant how many miles they lasted. I know he put ~50k on his first set of Rubicon M/Ts and they were still like 1/2 tread.

I run the Wardens on my CTD. I really like them. They are basically a BFG AT, which does as well or better than an M/T in everything but sticky mud. They're great in the snow! (actually, even much better than my cut/siped M/Ts that I ran on it, before)

Mike

by **navigator** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:44 am

One thing to keep in mind with the treadwrights is shipping charges.
They would be about $23 per tire to you which puts the tire at about $145 each then you have to add the cost of labor to install/balance them. For my local guy the labor is $10 each but it might be more for you.

I have found that if I call my local tire guy and tell him what I am looking for he can find me something in my price range. I then do some research on what he finds to figure out if it is good value or not.

Also if you go with the guard dogs you can get their kedge grip which is supposed to be similar to siping the tire.

YouTube Videos · by **Trail X** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:49 am

Just get an M/T... if you get an A/T you'll just end up wishing you had an M/T.

If you find snow traction is really a problem, bring them to a tire shop and have them siped at that time.

by **Cable810** » Thu May 31, 2012 9:02 am

bartonmd wrote:
Cable810 wrote:I saw the Duratracs but don't have the $$ for them.... it just seems that the Wardens pattern is really close together,making me think less traction. I dunno if anyone has run them. Another tire I was looking at was the Grabber AT2, which I know a few of you run.

I think James meant how many miles they lasted. I know he put ~50k on his first set of Rubicon M/Ts and they were still like 1/2 tread.

I run the Wardens on my CTD. I really like them. They are basically a BFG AT, which does as well or better than an M/T in everything but sticky mud. They're great in the snow! (actually, even much better than my cut/siped M/Ts that I ran on it, before)

Mike

I've heard that they are insanely good in snow. That was another M/T issuie, was their tread life

navigator wrote:One thing to keep in mind with the treadwrights is shipping charges.
They would be about $23 per tire to you which puts the tire at about $145 each then you have to add the cost of labor to install/balance them. For my local guy the labor is $10 each but it might be more for you.

I have found that if I call my local tire guy and tell him what I am looking for he can find me something in my price range. I then do some research on what he finds to figure out if it is good value or not.

Also if you go with the guard dogs you can get their kedge grip which is supposed to be similar to siping the tire.

My co-worker just got 4 Cooper Discover S/t for 740 add a aditional 50 to balance and put em on. 5 Wardens Shipped to my door 704 and some odd change. I'll probally go and talk to our tire shop and see what my other options are.

JamesDowning wrote:Just get an M/T... if you get an A/T you'll just end up wishing you had an M/T.

If you find snow traction is really a problem, bring them to a tire shop and have them siped at that time.

Thats what im afriad of..... I was kinda looking at the Cooper St Maxx http://us.coopertire.com/Tires/Light-Tr ... -MAXX.aspx Thoughts

YouTube Videos · by **Trail X** » Thu May 31, 2012 10:26 am

Cable810 wrote:That was another M/T issuie, was their tread life

Thats what im afriad of..... I was kinda looking at the Cooper St Maxx http://us.coopertire.com/Tires/Light-Tr ... -MAXX.aspx Thoughts

Tread life varies widely across M/Ts. As Mike said before, I got 50k out of mine with plenty of life left - I sold them off and now someone else is getting more life out of them. Key is alignment and rotation.

Tire rack is a good place to compare tire reviews. At least, there are a lot more opinions available there than here.

by **hotness** » Thu May 31, 2012 10:32 am

I have BFG km2s and I have to say that they are not super great in light snow, but they are awesome in moderate to deep snow. Two winters ago when Chicago had snowpocolypse, I was cruising around having fun.

by **bartonmd** » Thu May 31, 2012 11:00 am

hotness wrote:I have BFG km2s and I have to say that they are not super great in light snow, but they are awesome in moderate to deep snow. Two winters ago when Chicago had snowpocolypse, I was cruising around having fun.

Pretty typical of M/T pattern tires... Siping and biting edges are what works in light snow, packed snow, and ice, while tread/void and block depth is what works in deep, unplowed snow.

Mike

by **NC_IslandRunner** » Thu May 31, 2012 11:08 am

My TreadWright GuardDogs did very good in the snow at TECORE V and they are considered a M/T, But look to be somewhere between M/T and A/T IMO.

by **Cable810** » Thu May 31, 2012 11:15 am

JamesDowning wrote:Tire rack is a good place to compare tire reviews. At least, there are a lot more opinions available there than here.

They don't carry Cooper :wallbash:

by **HARDTRAILZ** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:12 pm

Fwiw...i doubt i would buy guard dogs again. Nothing horrible but i dont like them. Wish i had bought another set of pro comps

by **bartonmd** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:50 pm

HARDTRAILZ wrote:Fwiw...i doubt i would buy guard dogs again. Nothing horrible but i dont like them. Wish i had bought another set of pro comps

Wasn't it just that they are loud in a funny, kind of annoying way, and not much in the way of side lugs?

Mike

by **HARDTRAILZ** » Thu May 31, 2012 2:02 pm

The noise is really obnoxious. Swampers are a bit louder but less annoying. The lack of side lugs bugs me but thats preference. They just dont ride as nice either. Like they unbalance sometimes but other times they ride smooth. Its odd but just dont like em. They pick up every little rock too and seem to hold them forever.

One huge issue i have is that at 315 width...they are nearly an inch skinnier than my 305s. Same 9 inch width wheels.

Also...10 percent heavier than what treadwright quoted. Also all four were different weights. 3 or 4 lbs difference between lightest and heaviest.

by **fishsticks** » Thu May 31, 2012 4:18 pm

HARDTRAILZ wrote:The noise is really obnoxious. Swampers are a bit louder but less annoying. The lack of side lugs bugs me but thats preference. They just dont ride as nice either. Like they unbalance sometimes but other times they ride smooth. Its odd but just dont like em. They pick up every little rock too and seem to hold them forever.

One huge issue i have is that at 315 width...they are nearly an inch skinnier than my 305s. Same 9 inch width wheels.

Also...10 percent heavier than what treadwright quoted. Also all four were different weights. 3 or 4 lbs difference between lightest and heaviest.

Have you chalk lined your tires to get proper pressure? I did and was surprised how low I needed to run them. (25ish I believe). Also, mine came on actual 35x12.5 D carcasses, I wonder if the 315/70 carcasses measure out differently?

My biggest complaint is the tire weight. Holy crap they are heavy.

The TWs howl more than my IROKs do, but ride way better. Stereo at listening volume drowns tire noise out.

Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys