Commander Zarkon
Rank I
Enthusiast I
On/Off road tires recommendations
- Thread starter rcoron
- Start date
My wife's Jeep goes off road tackling trails more often than most jeeps, but even so, it spends the vast majority of its life on pavement. She daily drives it to work, so we went the AT route it and put a set of Hankook Dynapro AT tires. Really good road manners, quiet, and gives proper traction in the dirt. If your use case is similar, give these tires a look. 20k miles on them so far and no complaints.
Advocate I
Tires are a never ending discussion and there is no one size fits all solution.
First is to establish of list of criteria. What is you comfort level with noise ( all of them have noise rating. If you look, At and MT are usually noisier than your normal higway tire). Don't be fooled by the small differences the decibel rating, they mean a lot of difference, specially at highway speed, the difference from a tire rated at 65 decibel and one at 66 can be pretty high. But that is personal, you know what you are comfortable with. maybe you have a truck well insulated, like a lexus 470 GX, there you can get away with some noisier tires for example.
Another criteria is how much driving will you do off road and how often. Are you living in an area where mud is an constant issue? Do you think you need all season tires to have only one set or are you prepared to have some AT tires for camping season and normal winter tires for the the daily winter driving if you live in conditions that require them..
And of course budget. based on this you can make a short list and we can share what experience we had with those or offer some advice.
me, personally I prefer to have only 1 set , don't like noise a lot, because I usually need to to a lot of km on the highway before the actual off road part starts , so I go for something all season, AT, not too agressive..
I did very well with Yokohama Geolanders, had them on a Ladcruiser prado, Toyo OC are very good as well but they are not all season and so on...
First is to establish of list of criteria. What is you comfort level with noise ( all of them have noise rating. If you look, At and MT are usually noisier than your normal higway tire). Don't be fooled by the small differences the decibel rating, they mean a lot of difference, specially at highway speed, the difference from a tire rated at 65 decibel and one at 66 can be pretty high. But that is personal, you know what you are comfortable with. maybe you have a truck well insulated, like a lexus 470 GX, there you can get away with some noisier tires for example.
| 70 | 10−5 | average street noise; loud telephone bell |
| 60 | 10−6 | normal conversation; business office |
And of course budget. based on this you can make a short list and we can share what experience we had with those or offer some advice.
me, personally I prefer to have only 1 set , don't like noise a lot, because I usually need to to a lot of km on the highway before the actual off road part starts , so I go for something all season, AT, not too agressive..
I did very well with Yokohama Geolanders, had them on a Ladcruiser prado, Toyo OC are very good as well but they are not all season and so on...
Last edited:
I’ve ran a lot of tires over the years I may catch a lot of hell for this but to date my favorite a/t would have to be the procomp a/t sport. They grip like there’s no tomorrow and they wear incredibly. Easily put these above ko2, ridge grapplers, at3 etc and they aren’t priced too badly at all. Only down side is the sizes are limited.
Cooper ST Maxx are very mild. And built on a strong MT carcass. The STT carcass to be exact. Takes a while for them to break in at low pressure and flex, don't judge them until you have some aired down miles on them.
Rotate every 10,000. 5,000 if you have the time and opportunity.
But Cooper STT Pro's are even better. A little noisy if you don't rotate them enough. But excellent grip. And they work fine in snow.
Forget about all of the AT recommendations. It's only a little more for a tire that's an entire magnitude better. At least get a Hybrid that's half way to an MT. Also keep in mind that most AT's are very thin and fragile. The armored carcass of an MT means less tears on rocks, even curbs and potholes. That's worth a lot to me.
Rotate every 10,000. 5,000 if you have the time and opportunity.
But Cooper STT Pro's are even better. A little noisy if you don't rotate them enough. But excellent grip. And they work fine in snow.
Forget about all of the AT recommendations. It's only a little more for a tire that's an entire magnitude better. At least get a Hybrid that's half way to an MT. Also keep in mind that most AT's are very thin and fragile. The armored carcass of an MT means less tears on rocks, even curbs and potholes. That's worth a lot to me.
Advocate I
I know it's the latest "fad" tire, and already super popular in the Overlanding crowd but I really like my Patagonia M/Ts. I've run a ton of other M/Ts on my truck, which isn't a completely fair comparison because my truck is much heavier and I've always run a 80psi tire on the truck (I do use it as a truck, and tow heavy) but the Patagonias on my WJ are far quieter and better onroad compared to all the M/Ts I've had on the truck. Again, not totally fair since I'm comparing ~35psi on the WJ to ~75-80psi on the truck, but it's a noticeable difference. I haven't done anything too wild with the Patagonias offroad yet, but so far I'm impressed with the traction and flex when aired down. I can tell they won't clear out as well as a really aggressive M/T, but to be honest I'm not a mud-hole guy and try to stay away from those.
Some pics of the Patagonias aired down:
-TJ
Some pics of the Patagonias aired down:
-TJ
Those are what I'm putting on my spare OEM steelies for local use. (my steel wheels are too narrow for decent sized tires) The 295/75r17 34" E versions. Kenda moved their headquarters near me, I'm also going to look into those.
For my 3000 mile trips, I stick to my expensive Coopers.
For my 3000 mile trips, I stick to my expensive Coopers.
Advocate I
I am curious how these will hold up over time. They're def a cheap option, we'll see if they wear like a cheap tire or puncture easily.
-TJ
Last edited:
Advocate I
many AT tyres have just as good sidewall as an MT. There is no general rule that says AT has a weaker sidewall than an MT. MT's in general have a more aggressive thread and come with their own drawbacks like noise, poor fuel economy, many are terrible on wet asphalt, some on the verge of dangerous. But if you go do serious off road, in very difficult places, 200 days /year with a lot of mudd, they are very good.
But if a guy goes 10 weekends per year short camping trips and maybe 1 time a year a 20 day trip and lives in California, and the rest of the year he commutes with the truck 40 miles/day .. thatis a different need. In this case MT's don't make much sense..
Enthusiast I
- 434
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Bruner
- Member #
-
26652
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KM6LQT
I just got a really good deal on ProComp ATs from 4Wheel Parts. I didn't realize ProComp was the house brand at 4WP. It looks like a moderately aggressive tread pattern and they're definitely a lot quieter than the old worn Wrangler MTR's I took off. No issues with dry or rain traction. No opportunity to off-road them yet.
I was seriously looking at going with MT's or hybrid tread design this time, but there is always a trade off in road performance and since realistically I'm 95% on road, it just didn't make sense. For the less than 1% I might be on rocks or deep mud I'll put up with a little less capability.
I was seriously looking at going with MT's or hybrid tread design this time, but there is always a trade off in road performance and since realistically I'm 95% on road, it just didn't make sense. For the less than 1% I might be on rocks or deep mud I'll put up with a little less capability.
BFG ko2s are hands down the best tire I have ever owned. I ran open country mt on my dodge - they drowned out the 5 inch exhaust. The more they wear the louder they get. The jury is still out on the ridge grapplers. They are quiet and ride smooth but don’t clean out very good. They aren’t overly impressive at any one thing though. When I bought my Tahoe, I know completely different animal, I put bfg ko2’s on it. Extremely quiet really smooth. I instantly fell in love with them. They get traction everywhere. In a foot of snow with a stock Tahoe I went everywhere I wanted. Desert or logging roads you’ll never need more. I personally think they clean out better than the ridge grapplers. This winter my tires were about shot at 60-65000 miles and still got traction in the snow better than my dodge did with both rigs in 4 high. I can promise one thing. It is the only tire I will ever buy from now on for anything I own. Anyone want to buy a set of 35x12.50-18 ridge grapplers with 7000 miles on them, so I don’t have to wait for them to wear out.
Traveler II
Expedition Master III
These are the ones i am running now. So far......no issues. At the time of purchase, they had good reviews, and a price point that was very attractive when compared to other AT's on market.
Enthusiast III
i just bought a land rover defender 110 series 2... has 33in goodyear duratracs on it... not a fan of the tire. wish I had put Toyo At3's on it.
The road noise doesn’t seem to exist on my Tahoe. I can’t say I’ve ever heard them. They handle awesome. Just seem to grip the road and go.
Last edited:
if you are looking at BFG ats... then look for the dt tread .. they are a different rubber compound.. last longer. its the old compound. not the new stuff that wear like hot butter on asphault
Are they manufacturing the old compound along with the new, and you just have to know to ask? Or...what happens when they run out of the ones with the old compound and they aren't making anymore?
the dt tread is the OLD compound.. and the older tread design.. they wear like iron. the new compound is ice and snow rated.. and wears about 100% faster.
Enthusiast I
Road noise is not as bad as the set of mud tires had on before. Over all I am very pleased with the handling and feel they have on the road dry and wet/ice/snow. Have not had a chance to see how well they will perform on two track and muddy two track. Summer is coming!!
