Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives New Tires and Wheels

My Jeep tires take a hell of beating during hunting season, didn't like the 35' x 12 1/2" MT they thru mud every where, and weren't much good in deep sand, switched to 33" x 12 1/2" B.F. Goodrich A/T, big improvement, What are you'all using?? Rio7

Looks good. As always a person has to match the tires to the conditions. I like siped MT's in the winter since we have to get to the highway through unplowed roads in the winter. The MT tires dig through the snow and the siping does well on ice and packed snow. In the summer I change to ATs usually.

I understand,but not much ice and snow, down here on the Border, but we do get some bad mud, and the sand is tough going, the M/Ts would fill my bed with mud, and i couldn't roll down a window when moving.my reasons for the change. Rio7

Cooper Discoverer AT3.

Been impressed w them so far although they have only been on the truck for about 10k miles.

Really good in snow and ice and doing better in mud than I imagined they would.

No deep mud, just normal trips through corn fields, pastures and a few unmaintained county roads.

MT’s are always too Nobby, and get worse as they wear out - I use AT KO2’s on my Tundra.. all good.

I see a lot more Cooper's around here lately, a lot of oil field guy's are using Cooper's, up until the last year or so we never saw Cooper's. Rio7

I used to buy (and still run) Coopers - sidewalls are a little squatty, but the traction is excellent! Doubt I will any longer as they were recently acquired by GY. In my experience, GYs are some of the worst tires for the money on the market.

The last set I bought was some Toyo Open Country AT IIIs. So far, so good.

Understand totally.

I run Cooper ST Maxx's year round on my 1/2 tons and my 3/4. Super happy with traction, and tread wear. Snow, mud (but not bogging, just muddy forest service roads), rocks, etc. I put AT3's on my son's Sport Trac. He's on pavement 98% of the time probably. It'll be interesting to see how they last.

Falkin Wildpeaks 3's.......?

Recently added to my 2500HD Chebby

Ride nice & smooth....your mileage may vary

I normally just buy new tire/wheel package....sell the old stuff for $225-250

Watch DTD for the big Memorial Day promo sale...

Although my new to me Lexus LX 470 is running Cooper ST Maxx 285-70x17's

Air 'em down to 15-16 psi & this truck will go where you point it.....

I had a set of cooper ATP’s on a 2500. They did good until they had a big bubble develop in the tread and left me in a bind. I replaced them with BFG’s. I liked the BFG’s but sold the truck with about 20k on them, so it’s hard to tell how I would feel about the back half of their life. Goodyear trail runners came on the new truck. So far they are quiet and well mannered on the road and in the rain. I haven’t really gotten them off road beyond a dirt road, but they are 3 peak mountain snowflake rated. I’ll probably put BFG’s back on when my other 2500 needs new shoes, which is likely this summer or fall.

I used to only run Bridgestone Revos, but they changed them so much I now have Cooper AT3 and Toyo AT III. I prefer tires made in the US.

BFG KO2's for me. Have about 20K on them and really appreciate them so far. They handle gravel roads, rough rock trails, muddy woods roads and snow very well.

Ran BFG AT KO2’s but they quit making the 235/85-16’s so I switched to Toyo open country MT’s. Badass tire.

I have stock wheels on my old 4Runner, and 235x15 Toyo OpenCountry tires. Goes anywhere I want/need to go. Mud, swamp, deep sand at the beach or forest.

Thank You, for your response to my Question on tires, it's good to know what's working for others. Looks like I am using a more aggressive tire size with the 17 x 33 x 12.5 A/T BFG, I try to avoid the rock crawling, but do go off road cross country to retrieve critters, and it gets a little sporty some times. Rio7

I used to have the old style BFG KO and thought they were good on everything but deep snow. And they didn't last. How do the new ones handle deep snow and how is their durability? I will need to get something for our Suburban this fall.

During the summer we run 33x12.5x 20 venom terrahunters. They work great in the sand.

Winter I put her cooper at3's back on. Our other truck just runs hankooks.

What about narrower tires? Just asking

Joel/AK, I have a good set of 20" wheels but have only run 35"s on them, when I aired them down they looked like Band-Aids, and had almost no side wall, not a good tire for here.

thumbcocker, Narrow tires are like pizza cutters in this dry deep sugar sand, they just don't work very well.

Rio7

Trust me I was hesitant also running 20's aired down to 12 psi. My wife tried her damnedest to break the bead. They held up.

I crawled around some steep rough country this past winter in 10" of snow coyote calling. I broke trail all the way and felt the KO2's did a good job.

I think you made a great tire choice. Keep your windows when the going gets tough, the KO2 will throw plenty of mud once the tires start spinning.

Yep, they throw mud and snow pretty dang high. My only complaint about the KO2 is that rocks get caught in the tread and once you hit pavement it takes several miles before you throw them all out. I'll hear little *ping sounds for miles when I hit the blacktop and get to highway speeds.

Last set of KO2's on my 2500HD only went 37K rotated miles------dissapointing

Had to try the Falkin WP3's to see what all the fuss was about.....

so far so good

If i get 35000 miles on a set of tires here, i would be thrilled, this country and our ranch roads eats tires, and i lose at least 1 tire out of every set to sheds in the tall grass. sheds cost us about $ 5000.00 a year in tractor and truck tires. Rio7

Switched from BFG AT to Falken Wildpeak AT. I like the Falkens better, quieter and better ride. Only 3500 miles so far so will have to see how they wear. I got 40,000 on the BFGs

Like previously posted, the bfg ats hold rocks something fierce. We have always had good luck with Toyo open country's. Michelins are always a safe bet too.

duckster, Have never seen the Falken tire any where around here, I will look them up.

gooseisland, Welcome to this Forum, I have tried the Michelins, with no luck. Have never tried the Toyo,

Thanks for your input, gives me something to look into and try. Rio7

I have an Excursion with Cooper ST Max, 295/70-18, 10 ply. I'm on my second set and got about 70K miles on the first. Great in regular ranch road/field mud but not much sand travel around here. My friends in the oil field service world suggested them and so far they have worked well. Now that GY has acquired Cooper I am REALLY unsure about the future quality.

I have an Excursion with Cooper ST Max, 295/70-18, 10 ply. I'm on my second set and got about 70K miles on the first. Great in regular ranch road/field mud but not much sand travel around here. My friends in the oil field service world suggested them and so far they have worked well. Now that GY has acquired Cooper I am REALLY unsure about the future quality.

Take a close look at those Falkens if you care where your tires are made. If you are lucky, they will come from Thailand, but there are quite a bit on the market here made in China. It will say on the sidewall.

The Coopers and Toyos are made here in the US, if that matters.

I bought a set of Falken Wildpeak several months ago from Discount Tire. They couldn't tell me where they were made, when I placed the order. When they arrived it showed made in China so I returned them and bought Toyo AT3 which are made in the US. And yes, it does matter to me

A professional driver who is also a consultant for various tire companies has posted publicly that the Falken quality has slipped. Cost reduced? He said it was one of his favorite tires, but sometime last year (or year before that?) the design was changed. If anyone is interested, I'll look for his posts.

I have been using Toyo and Nitto here for several sets of tires but thought I'd give the Falkens a try. Mud and sand aren't much of a concern for me. Rock punctures and stone drilling are. Nittos seems to do just as well as the Toyos here for that. Sister companies, and I've heard that the casing/carcass is similar. I wanted to try the BFG KO2 and STT Maxx, but when I talked to the tire shops they said that they have seen punctures on those tires and suggested I stick with Toyo.

If it weren't for the sharp volcanic rock, and even obsidian here, I wouldn't worry about the punctures. Most likely not an issue for many people so no need to use a stiff heavy tire like the Toyos and Nittos. The sidewalls are so stiff on some of them that they don't air down well. So by no means am I saying that they are the best tire for all conditions.

I've ran the ST Maxx on several trucks since they replaced the ST. No punctures, and 70k on half tons. Majority pavement, but plenty of gravel road and unimproved road. I'm not saying there's not better out there, and if there's one cheaper I'd like to know. Going to put new tires on 2 vehicles here in the next couple weeks. Haven't priced them for the other truck yet, but on my PW they're $340 apiece.

I think it depends on the type of rock in your locale. In some places out West, there's a lot of sedimentary rock. Think Utah and Arizona? Or basalt. I don't think punctures are a problem so much there. Other regions may have volcanic. Or a mix. I don't know about Montana but hear you have some gumbo mud out there

In OR, the western part of the state isn't bad for punctures but my buddy has seen a few. The central and eastern parts are more prone. The road crews dig and crush the local rocks and spread them on the roads. One of my buds likes the Duratrac. He says that the rock that stone drilled his Duratrac looked like an arrowhead.

I've seen obsidian down to northern Cali. I was shooting rats with some buds for the first time, and I asked them if they ever get flats there. They said that they had one the prior season and told me there's obsidian everywhere. One said, "Look, right at our feet!". Sure enough, where we were standing on the ranch road were pieces of sharp obsidian .

If I were dealing with red clay mud in the SE part of the country, I'd not be using the same tires that I choose for volcanic rock in the PNW. My point being that there's no "best" tire for the entire US. Choice needs to be based on conditions encountered, and many times suggestions in forums don't seem to take that into account.

4th point, What you say is true, but I am learning a lot about tires, and that's the whole point of O.P. Rio7

Yeah, I get it. Good to get different opinions. And consider the tradeoffs.

My buddy loves the Duratrac even though the carcass doesn't seem that great against stone drilling, and the sidewalls seem flimsy but they air down great with good flex. A coworker slid into a ditch and a stick the size and shape of a pencil punctured his Duratrac sidewall. I can't see that happening with a Toyo M55, M/T, or Nitto EXO but my M55 would chunk really bad, and I actually got cracks in the sidewalls from using tight chains. I suspect, but can't prove, that it's because the rubber is really hard and the sidewalls are so dang stiff. The R/T and EXO seemed a bit softer.

Anyway, the Duratrac seems to work really well on snow and ice for an AT. That's why he uses it. He has to go up a steep hill to get to his house and doesn't want to bother with chains or snow tires, so he is willing to put up with the possibility of a puncture a few weeks out of the year while hunting. I've gotten so many flats on gravel, that I don't want to deal with it anymore.

Another friend switched from KO2 to Falkens and he said that the new tires seem better on snow and ice. I think that's what the pro driver said, but I'd have to look at his posts. Probably not a common concern for TX though, most years.

Ditch the 20" and run 17", everything will get better, aired up or aired down, ride!

sactoller, That's what I did, went from 20" x 12.5 x 35" MT TO 17" x 12.5 x 33" AT , amazing the difference. Rio7

I never understood the 20" wheel popularity. No useful purpose in my mind.

Looks great on my wife's Camaro and the tires have zero sidewall flex. On a 4wd though, yeah, can't say I see any use for them unless you are going 37+. Sidewalls are somewhat useful, and I prefer the look of a normal size wheel and plenty of rubber.

The 20" wheels were on this jeep when i bought it used with 6000 miles, it was the sales manager's demo, he's a friend, spends 99% of his time in town,, they are better than the stock tires. Rio7

20" tire/wheel at 14 PSI wouldn't be good here....

Good choice on 17's.........

I'm not a big fan of 20's either. Wife wanted the look vs practicality. Surprisingly they ran good at 12psi in the sand. Solid sidewall. I still have starting fluid in the tool box to reseat the bead...just i.n case

ain't never re seated a bead with starter fluid

U have balls of steel..........

Acetylene causes a faster rate of bead seating. It doesn't take much.

Ratchet strap for me, but I have flammables just in case. Still, I don't air down that much these days.

Never tried acetylene, but have done the starter fluid a couple times. It'll make you jump lol.

I only used acetylene on loader tires. Damn things weigh like 800lbs. Pull the valve stem fill her up a bit and light her. Makes a hell of a pop. 2 piece rims I used grease, makes a mess but don't trust those Dayton rims and explosions.

Ratchet strap works for me, that acetylene, and starter fluid scare me. Rio7

Trick with starter fluid is after you squirt a little in tire, keep running out down the tire onto the ground and hurry up and light it. Kinda like a wick. That way your face isn't directly in front of tire. I also remove valve stem. Call it a pressure relief.

If it's an emergency tire repair, you do what you gotta do

A 35 on 20” rim has 7.5” of sidewall. A 33 on 17 has 8” of sidewall. On a similarly constructed tire that 1/2” of additional sidewall height won’t make any difference aired down

Mossy, That's true , but there is a big change in the way they drive. Rio7