Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives AT tire good in mud

I bought a set of BF Goodrich AT KO2's for my Ram 1500 4x4. They go great in the snow but are terrible in this western mud. They just do not clean out and it's like being on slicks. Since I do way more highway driving than off-road, I don't want to go to mud tires just an AT that is better in the mud. Suggestions?

I found the same thing with Cooper AT3's.

you need something with more gap in between the lugs and deeper lugs. This will make the tires louder when on the road. Look at Nitto Ridge Grapplers, they might work. They make mud terrain tires for reason, they rock in mud, they just suck driving everywhere else.

Also, wheels speed is your friend.

Cooper ST Maxx are a happy medium

Thats a great tire.

Open lugs on the sides is the KEY to what you need to clear the mud even then...

Been here a few times on both sides.

I just wore out a set of Cooper AT/3's and was looking for something a bit more aggressive, but not a true mud tire. The BFG's were on my list as well as the Falken Wildpeaks and Goodyear Duratrac's which get a lot of good reviews. I settled on these instead. They are a fairly new tire and there are no real reviews on them. I hang out some on the Tacoma and F150 forums and while tires are often discussed I've not run across anyone else using these yet. In the tire store side by side these fall in between the BFG.s and Goodyears as to how aggressive the tread is. The price was right too. I went with E rated LT275/70/18's that normally sell for about $210 each. I bought them at our local Sam's Club where there was an $80 instant rebate and by paying for them on Black Friday got another $60 off. Total OTD cost for me was $814.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Pirelli&tireModel=Scorpion+All+Terrain+Plus

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/14521485#Post14521485

So far I'm really liking them. Hwy ride is good, no road noise yet, but in my experience tires get louder as they wear out. Wet pavement is where I'm most impressed. Great tire. No snow here yet, but they do have the snowflake and 3 peaks symbol so they should be good in snow. The only mud experience was earlier in the week when I ran across a large dead tree down across a forest service road. I had to drag it out of the way and had no choice but to drive through ankle deep mud while dragging the tree. They did just fine for that

I have just about wore out a second set of Cooper ST Maxx.
(265/75R16 on an old diesel F350)


As Tikka & Fats mentioned, they are a good compromise.
(and my pickup is WAY dirtier)


And of course when it gets really muddy it doesn't matter what tire.

Do you have gumbo/bentonite clay mud in Colorado? I know gumbo is found from OR to MT, and it is the worst mud that you've ever seen. And it's difficult to get recommendations from people in other parts of the country, with different soil compositions.

If you're looking for AT tires for real gumbo, I don't think it's worth the time or money. It is really sticky, like glue. Tires can't shed it, and actually grow in diameter. It becomes mud on mud, instead of rubber on mud. Like running slicks. In fact, your shoes will collect mud and become heavier and bigger with every step.

Anyone try the Goodyear Fierce Attitude in this application? I've always thought them to be too open for my uses given the amount of time our roads are covered in snow/ice. Warmer climates they might be a better choice though.

Duratrac tires on my 2011 1500 chevy are not great in the mud. Next set of tires I will try the Cooper STT Maxx as I was told they are better in mud by a few friends who have tries both the Coopers and the Duratracs

I’ve yet to see an AT that I though did well in sticky mud. You need void spaces that AT tires don’t have.

My mother spent some of her growing up years in MO. She used to talk about that wonderful 'red soil of MO'. Some years later, I spent some time at Ft Leonard Wood, MO and I found out all about that 'wonderful' red soil. Walk a quarter mile in mud and each boot weighed 20 lb. Use a wire brush to get it off. It was miserable stuff.

Cooper also has the 3 ply sidewall.......

one tough tire......heavy yes......road noise yes.....

My brother in law and his brothers are huge fans of the Fierce Attitude on their half ton Chevys. They live in eastern SD where the dirt is black and sticky and they get a boatload of snow every winter. They claim it’s the best all around tire they’ve ever seen.

I kinda tend to agree with others though, in that short of a mud tire nothing is going to be good in the mud. Really good in deep sticky stuff requires giant tread blocks and horrible road manners along with lots of wheel speed. For a getting around the greasy backroads and pastures hard work tire I still like the M55 Toyo. I ran a set year around on my 3/4 ton when I lived in Alaska and they weren’t bad in the snow either, there are certainly better options for ice though.

Like NM, Colorado has calichi (sp) mud. Slick as snot when wet, balls up and when it dries it is like cement. Mix a little grass or straw with it and you make adobes. Our gun range has the clay, it will build you boots up to 10 pounds pretty quick

I'm from the way, WAY east of you. But we have our own varieties of schitty clay mud. IMHO..........an AT designation on a tire is like calling a Subaru Outback an off road vehicle. Yeah.........it'll go where a Camry won't. But it won't go a LOT of places a real 4x4 will.

I run BFG original KM's on my Z-71 around here from about October til May. I hate to walk when I ain't gotta. Spring 2018 found me and my brother turkey hunting Wyoming by ourselves and on the blind. I had seen what the roads in the NE panhandle turned into when wet before. Never so glad to have enough tire in my life one morning in the dark after an overnight rain........ !!! That Wyoming mud is a whole new level of bad !!!! Like grease on top of glass on top of ice. We got in. We hunted. We got out. We hauled about 500 pounds of Wyoming back I-80 in the wheel wells til it rained in Illinois and it started falling out.

Road tires are road tires. Mud tires are mud tires. Mud tires work WAY better on the road than road tires work in the mud.

So far the best At tire I have used (it is a hybrid I think) is the Kelly TSR. I have used them on my old GMC and never got stuck, mud or snow. I used them this year on my 3500 Ram diesel. A buddy and I were hunting or I should say trying to get to where we wanted to hunt north of the Ft. Peck Reservoir. Bentonite mud. We got about 100 yards in when the pick-up just sank into the mud. Thought we were going to be digging but put it in reverse and they dug us out of there.

Exactly. Trade offs in everything. If you.need a mud tire buy a mud tire.

Toyo Open Country AT II's You may have to spin them to clean them out. Standard rear end 4wd. Pulled a 5X8 trailer in the same spot and got pretty greasy a time or two I was there!









Mike

It's amazing stuff. I think a student in Montana wrote a research paper on gumbo. From what I remember, it's clay and volcanic ash (the bentonite).

I don't see it here in Western Oregon, but most of the dirt roads are well maintained and gravel, although we have lots of clay. In Central and Eastern Oregon, I see gumbo. When I was riding motos, it was a concern on our spring and summer trips as a quick shower could stop a moto in its tracks. Same for a car or truck.

Stole this pic from another site.

[url=https://postimages.org/]