There is certainly a place for a good radial mud tire, especially on a truck that will see a fair amount of road miles. The driving and wear characteristics are far superior to any bias ply, and they do make some good radials these days.

It seems to me that the bias-ply shines in the scenarios where you are spending a large amount of time offroad, in soft mud conditions, and you are not concerned with roadway driving characteristics or tire mileage/life. A worn-down bias ply will still churn though mud fairly well, as compared to a worn-down mud radial. The lug spacing and remaining lug depth are still there.



[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]



Also, a narrow bias-ply with deep tread does a great job of cleaning itself out with very little wheelspin required, when compared to a radial with less depth. It allows a lower-horsepower vehicle to "chug" along through the nasty stuff without necessarily having to dig with excessive tire-spin, much like a tractor tire. That's why they historically have done so well on older Jeeps, Scouts, Toyotas, and such. You can also choose to go with high-horsepower and spin the snot out of them if you want, but get ready to dig to China.... lol. When I was growing up in the 80's there was a local deer-dog hunter that had a lift on a really sharp two-tone maroon and tan square-body Chevy and then mounted up the taller 36" Q78 Buckshots. I thought it was just about the coolest truck around.

Now with even more aplomb