Favorite Off-Road tire (ever)?

Favorite Off-Road tire (ever)?
For any tire to even be considered as the best off road tire it must be a bias ply tire. My vote goes for SuperSwamper LTB. depending on the size they are available in up to 10 ply.
Bias ply tires have better sidewall flex so they can grip rocks and other terrain better. Even when you air way down they are less likely to have the sidewalls separate. This flex also makes them self-clean better than radials.
That's it. Done. End of the thread.
Well ... maybe not.
The question was what is the best off-road tire. I realize most jeeps spend more time on road than off. Jeepers need to drive to the trails. Many jeeps are also used as daily drivers. The flex on those bias ply tires that makes them work so good off-road also makes them a worse choice for on-road use. The flex makes them handle worse than radial tires. Bias ply tires are also louder than similar radials. When bias ply tires sit they may develop a flat spot. You can even feel this flat spot as you drive. Once the tire warms up it will run better. But then if you are doing a lot of highway driving the bias ply tires will continue to warm up. They can then get to be much hotter than radials in the same conditions.
Radial tires are better on road and if the jeep is used on-road and off then radials may be the better choice.
 
I really am impressed with my KM2s Just love them
and I will say I have long passed running bias plies as radial technology has passed them by far except in maybe the competition area which I do not think many of us run in.
I will also say the tire I go back to a lot is also one I just love. It is not a rock or mud tire but the best AT I have ever run and it is the D1ck Cepek FCII , I have run it since the original FC and always was impressed with both the durability and the grip on average all round terrain.
I think we have a loaded question here however, as it seems that the tire favorite to so many depends on the terrain they live around, and how hard they wheel. If you love near mud, forest rocks desert or ice your choice will differ as will how much and hard you wheel. You look at a tire such as GoodYears Silent Armor AT and see it has a tread pattern as mean as a front lawn, but is a quiet tire and does the job for someone who only drives off road in mild grass and that can be argued the best. As can a MT Baja Claw which if you run you realize Suck onroad , is scary in the rain and rules on the rocks, but then you will need that as a tire for the type of wheeling you do. What can be argued is the most popular tire by sales numbers only shows what is at a price point and remember it usually will be street oriented as most buyers are looking for a tire that is 80 percent street.
So I quess what should be asked if we are asking about favorite tire is what has been your favorite tire for your jeep all round and what has been your favorite tire for when you where having fun purely offroad, with a note of where you live and what kind of terrain you wheel
mine would be DC FCII and the MT BajaClaw in that order, I live in SoCal and run deserts and rocky trails
 
BrockGrimes said:
Changing mine by far the best tire, is the BFG KM2
it's awsome.
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BFG's do win a lot of off-road races. They are also great for regular street use.
It all depends on the type of driving you do and for the off road driving I do bias ply is much better.
This is an interesting topic.
Check out these two links and go half way down the page to check out more on this topic:
Off Road Tires – Super Swamper Tires, BFG Tires, Mickey Thompson and more -RH1
Tips for choosing off road tires
I really think the trade-off between radials and bias-ply comes down to how much on-road use you do. If you only are concerned about off-road use then I see no advantage to radials. Unless you do high speed desert racing. Then you don't need a self cleaning tread you need the control of the radials.
Not an easy topic.
 
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Although I prefer bias ply for off-road use you will notice I am presently using BFG radials. And I am killing them. Within just the last year I have wrecked two tires. Both times I sliced the sidewall on a rock. Since it was on the sidewall it was irreparable both times. You will notice some of my pictures such as my avatar show a mismatched left rear tire.
With a bias-ply tire the sidewall is made the same as the tread and therefore is just about as tough.
For the off-road driving I do, I say bias ply is hands down better.
 
well there you go Busa, I ran a set of MT Baja Claw radials for 3 seasons and decided that radials had come a long way. Rocks are just a way of life and pressures under 12 pounds are common on them. And I found the radials up to them. I will admit the bias were a tad better, but when it came down to all over ride, well I am on the rocks for minutes and the trails for hours, so a little here and a little there is given up for the benefit of the total.
It took me a long time to get off bias plys and the thing that did was when I realized that there are other aspects to a tire than pure grip, such as ride quality when the extreme grip is not needed.
I decided to give it a chance. OK that is on my tj with Nth degree suspension and all the extras,
I would like to comment on something else, Neither of my CJs can match the performance of my TJ, it is just a suspension design thing, a 4 link will always out preform a leaf spring suspension. Now given that and no longer wanting to destroy my Junk against extreme terrain ( got past that penis measuring stage) I have decided to look for what is best overall for the jeep, and that means each and every one of them do street time.
Radials make sense that way, if it were a trailer queen to a rock pile I would go bias plys.
That is my argument, I do not see it as better or more important than anyone else's, just my point of view. I also would like to comment that most users here will use the jeep more than 80 percent of the time on road, so they need to lean toward a tire that does not rattle the fillings out.
 
I have never tried MT Baja Claw tires but I have heard good things about them. If you do any street driving at all my vote goes to the BFG Mud Terrain. I have not tried the new KM2 version but I am sure they are much improved.
For bias ply my vote goes to SuperSwampers TSL and the improved LTB.
In my opinion the bias ply still self-cleans better than the radials.
 
For off-road I'll stick with bias ply TSL's. 32-9.50"s on the XJ and will be upgrading the CJ to 34-9.50"s when they're availible again. I've either run them or sold them all at one time or another. I've got good things to say about the BFG KM2, maxxis, and cooper STT. No so good things to say about MTR's, Mickey's and Cepek's. I'm still looking for one tire that will do it all the way I need it to, but I haven't found it yet.
 
bigandrich44 said:
43 inch super swamper sx:notworthy:
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On a CJ?
SuperSwamper TSL SX. That's what I am getting but not in 43 inch size.
Hope they get here soon. I have been waiting for Interco to start up production of 35 inch bias ply tires again. They shut down one plant and it's taken a year for them to move production to another plant.
 
I wish they would come out with a 35X10.50 LTB.
 
crust said:
For a short time I ran BFG Mud Terrains on my Toyota, switched to Goodyear MTR and loved those tires. Snow, mud, rocks and as daily driver tires they gripped and wore great. They had a much smoother ride than the BFGs. Only drawback was the 3 ply sidewall, never tore one but I always had a spare.
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I know this post is from 2 years ago but I'm looking into buying new rubber and wanted opinions. The reviews you read on the tires almost all have good reviews and bad some what to believe I've been leaning to the wrangler mtr you have ran these and seem to like them how many miles did you finally get out of them. And at 212 for 33's is a pretty good price.:D
 
xj287 said:
For off-road I'll stick with bias ply TSL's. 32-9.50"s on the XJ and will be upgrading the CJ to 34-9.50"s when they're availible again. I've either run them or sold them all at one time or another. I've got good things to say about the BFG KM2, maxxis, and cooper STT. No so good things to say about MTR's, Mickey's and Cepek's. I'm still looking for one tire that will do it all the way I need it to, but I haven't found it yet.
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What are the not so good things about the mtrs Since I'm looking to buy. I live in southeast missiouri and live on a gravle road and want a tire that will hold up to gravle roads. The price seems right at 212 give or take a few dollars. I also want a good all around tire for mud, rocks, trail use and road use. This is a hard question!:)
 
I had a set of the BFG Mud terrain tires on my old 79 Bronco. I ran those for years. They had mostly highway road miles and some off roading. Never had one problem. No unusual wear or anything. It was my only vehicle so they were used well.
I would buy another set in a minute.
 
BusaDave9 said:
On a CJ?
SuperSwamper TSL SX. That's what I am getting but not in 43 inch size.
Hope they get here soon. I have been waiting for Interco to start up production of 35 inch bias ply tires again. They shut down one plant and it's taken a year for them to move production to another plant.
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I know the tire your talking about is a bias ply, have you ever ran the tsl radial? And if so how did they wear, and preform? I'm looking at 3 differant tires ss tsl radial, wrangler mt/r and BFG mud terrains I'm looking for a tire that will wear well preform well, don't want to replace within a couple of years. And in a price range of about $230. Maybe I'm living in a dream world. Thanks for any info!:)
 
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I'm Running the Goodyear wrangler mtr's with Kevlar and really like them. Compared to the pro comp mud terrains, they wear better and have more traction, only chamfered the edges in two years. Pro comps I was tearing lugs off left and right in the rocks. Running 33's. Worth the money.
 
1986cj7 said:
I know the tire your talking about is a bias ply, have you ever ran the tsl radial? And if so how did they wear, and preform? I'm looking at 3 differant tires ss tsl radial, wrangler mt/r and BFG mud terrains I'm looking for a tire that will wear well preform well, don't want to replace within a couple of years. And in a price range of about $230. Maybe I'm living in a dream world. Thanks for any info!:)
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I ran TSL radials for years and I loved them on and offroad. I averaged 30k miles on each set I ran and still had good tread when I sold them. Road manners are excellent, offroad they do great, and wear is very good as long as you keep rotation schedule and run proper inflation. These were the 33x12.5 flavor.

Honestly, My favorite offroad tire is the biasply TSL. I run 36's and they are absolutely awesome, I wouldnt trade them for anything....except the 43" TSL SX. Those things are flat out mind boggling :notworthy:
 
Desided on wrangler Dura trac is what I'm buying and tring. Not waiting on ss tsl's may be good just not going to wait any more. We'll see.
 
CJim7 said:
I ran TSL radials for years and I loved them on and offroad. I averaged 30k miles on each set I ran and still had good tread when I sold them. Road manners are excellent, offroad they do great, and wear is very good as long as you keep rotation schedule and run proper inflation. These were the 33x12.5 flavor.

Honestly, My favorite offroad tire is the biasply TSL. I run 36's and they are absolutely awesome, I wouldnt trade them for anything....except the 43" TSL SX. Those things are flat out mind boggling :notworthy:
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If you have the gear to turn them with out twisting an axle or driveshaft and whatnot with all that horsepower peddle feathering better be good.;)
 
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