long lasting mud tires for a Tj

BlackBandit

BlackBandit

New member
ya its time to spend a pile of money on rubber... I'm lookn for new tires for my jeep tj. I want somthing both great off road/in mud and that lasts a long time as I am a daily driver. I probably off road her a good 1 or 2 times a week. I love the idea of super swampers but I realized people only get 20, 000-30, 000km out of em so then I was looking at duratrac wranglers but I get mixed awnsers.

so what do you guys think would be a good daily driven and off road tire would be? noise doesnt bother me I like it.
 
I haven't run them, but it seems like everyone has great things to say about the nitto trail grapplers. A little less aggressive than the mud grapplers, but still do great all around. You should get plenty of life out of them in a lightweight Tj.
 
I'm also shopping except mine is not a daily driver but it does have to pull my off road trailer and do highway duty.

I'm going with GY MTR's but check out this article which compares longevity of a lot of the current fav's:

http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/0909or-long-term-off-road-tire-test-updates/

Although there have been a lot of advancements in tire technologies, for the most part it still holds true that the more aggressive the shorter the life on the highway. My brother had the BFG All Terrain TAKO's and he did get 50k plus out of them in a 10.5 but they were pretty gone and he was religious about rotations of course. And those are not an overly aggressive tire either of course.

When my rig was a DD the way I dealt with this was to just get two sets of wheels and tires. I was running 33 TAKO's in 10.5's on cheap steelies on the road and then had the big meat on the alloys for the weekends. Got really fast at tire swaps with the impact wrench but really helped to save the rubber on the expensive tires. They lasted years and still have tons on them.
 
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Honestly, I have personally bought and tested out a LOT of tires over the years and when the Goodyear MT/R with Kevlar came out, I fell in love. First chance I got, I bought a set quickly found that they were very difficult to balance. I then found them their directional like tread to cause funny handling on the highway. On the rocks, I found them to be unpredictable and what finally caused me to get rid of them is that they have weak sidewalls. Maybe not a real problem for you guys up in Canada but out in the west and on the kind of rocks we have, they just sucked. In spite of what fourwheeler has to say, MT/R's were by far THE WORST tires I have ever run and would never recommend them especially when I know for a fact that there are so many other great tires out there.

Having said all that, to the OP, I wouldn't hesitate to invest in the Goodyear Duratracs that you were considering as they are a solid tire and one that offers good traction in snow and ice. If tread life is a concern, I would look into a set of KM2 as I have found them to wear like iron. If you want a great off road tire but one that won't last as long, I would recommend a set of Nitto Trail Grapplers.

Of course, this is just my 2¢
 
I'm looking at Nittos as well. Hmmm? MTR's are heavy too and it's a shame that they are that weak in the sidewalls after having that weight penalty and the Kevlar. I heard the KM2's had weak sidewalls as well. Nittos looking better and better.,.
 
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I have mud grapplers on my DD (Dodge Ram 1500). They are heavy, not sure of the exact weight but on the factory 20" rims they are around 80lbs.
 
All of these are in this other mud tire test article. Just another opinion of course. But interesting.

They agree with Nittos on softer compound, strong sidewalls, and quietness but seem to knock it down a peg on rocks due to less aggressive tread pattern. But that ha me thinking...maybe mud grapplers would be best for my application...a more aggressive tread pattern but all the good stuff the terra grapplers have.

I'm looking at those rated highest in the "rock performance" category.

Anyway, something more to help or maybe confuse our decisions even more:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/wheels-tires/154-1203-the-hot-sheet-33-off-road-tires-tested/
 
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MileHi said:
All of these are in this other mud tire test article. Just another opinion of course. But interesting.

They agree with Nittos on softer compound, strong sidewalls, and quietness but seem to knock it down a peg on rocks due to less aggressive tread pattern.

I'm looking at those rated highest in the "rock performance" category.

Anyway, something more to help or maybe confuse our decisions even more:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/wheels-tires/154-1203-the-hot-sheet-33-off-road-tires-tested/
Click to expand...

I will promise you the nitto trail grapplers and mud grapplers do better in the rocks then any tire out there.

And nitto doesn't even pay me to say that.
 
OverlanderJK said:
I will promise you the nitto trail grapplers and mud grapplers do better in the rocks then any tire out there.

And nitto doesn't even pay me to say that.
Click to expand...

They just done wear as well as some others, but they work and the mud grapplers are loud as hell which I love!!!!
 
Another vote for the KM2's. They're good on-road (except hard pack snow and ice), take me anywhere I want to go off-road and I'll probably get bored with them before they actually wear out.
 
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KM2 is a great tire. Ran them through the AZ sharp rocks and they held up perfectly. Also look into the Pro Comp MT2. 40k mile warranty and is now made by Maxxis. Only heard great things from this tire. Little less aggressive would be the Duratrac. Also a great tire. You have options, and they all work
 
Have you considered the Toyo M/T? I have gotten great tread life out of them with zero issues. Yes, they too are a heavy tire. However consider, to build a strong side wall it takes material. Material adds weight.
I have done the rubicon trail with these and saw some tire carnage of all brands. Nothing is bullet proof, tire placement is everything.
We have also done moab on a regular basis. Keep in mind, I do not trailer the jeep, but drive it there and back.
Robby Gordon runs these in the Dakar rally with great results. I do realize that they are not one of the sponsored tires on this site and do not come cheap.
I am not certain but I thought that Toyo is owned by Nitto. In much of the construction there are similarities.
Good Luck!
 
I am almost up to 60,000 miles on my KM2's, they're starting to get low but I have at least another 5-10k of road driving left on them
 
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