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Tire TruthRoll Out The Rounders From the February, 2009 issue of Jp By John Cappa Photography by Jp Archives
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 The BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain...  The BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain radial has been a favorite in all facets of off-roading. Desert racing, mud bogging, rocks, and even streets have worn down plenty of BFGs. The Mud-Terrain is a good all-around tire, but thats a weakness for activity-specific rigs such as an extreme rockcrawler or mud Jeep. The three-ply sidewalls are tough, but the rubber gives way when sharp rocks are encountered at lower pressures. The BFGs have a durometer of 64. It is one of the harder tires with an aggressive tread. If your Jeep is a daily driver that hits a variety of terrain including the wet stuff, the Muds are a good choice. We ran our 35-inchers at around 10 psi. The lugs are somewhat close together and small so they dont climb jagged rocks as well as a tire with larger lugs that can act like gripping fingers. Siping increases the performance of these tires.  BFG All-Terrain K/O radials...  BFG All-Terrain K/O radials arent really aggressive tires. But they do have some respectable qualities. Jagged rocks and mud are not in the All-Terrain vocabulary. However, rounded and slab-like rocks like slickrock are. The All- Terrains grip well on the street and other smooth surfaces. These BFGs are perhaps the best in this listing for icy or wet streets. Thick mud usually packs up the tires and renders them almost useless. The All-Terrain tire carcass is essentially the same as the Mud-Terrain. The sidewall strength is similar, although the K/Os have an extra bead protection ring and some extra tread for additional sidewall reinforcement. We ran the same air pressure as the Muds.  The Baja Claw Radials are...  The Baja Claw Radials are aggressive-looking light-wheeling tires. The 35x12.50s were appropriately sized when compared to other 35s. They are not intended to be used in the rocks, and the easily gashed two-ply sidewalls tell you as much. We ran them at 10 psi but we really needed to go lower to get better traction and tire flex. However, we were afraid of tearing up sidewalls, which we did anyway. The Claw Radials came in with a 62 on the durometer. For a daily driver and light trails, these tires will work fine.  Theres no question that...  Theres no question that the old Goodyear MTs were some of the stickiest tires available. However, the sidewalls were as thick as Saran Wrap. The new MT/Rs have retained the sticky status with a soft durometer of 52, but the new three-ply sidewalls are more durable. Our 35x12.50s are about an inch taller than comparably sized tires, so they offer additional axle clearance. At 10 psi, the MT/Rs conform well to all different types of terrain. They are perhaps the best all-around tires. However, they slap you for more coin than other radial 35s.  The Super Swamper Boggers...  The Super Swamper Boggers were originally intended for mud boggers (hence the name). Even though most Boggers are worn by street-only show trucks, they also work incredibly well in rough terrain. They have stiff four-ply sidewalls like other bias-ply tires, so 3-5 psi in the 35x16 tires is normal trail pressure. Again, bead locks are almost mandatory. The large lugs act like grabbing hands on rock edges, tree stumps, loose dirt, gravel, and unwanted spotters. If you encounter smooth surfaces like slickrock, streets, and granite slabs, the Boggers are a poor choice. Noise, flat-spotting, and short tread life make Boggers less than ideal street tires, but hey, they look cool. They are also extremely heavy tires, so expect your Jeep to drive like it would with the e-brake on.  Mickey Thompson Baja Claws...  Mickey Thompson Baja Claws have some of the strongest sidewalls weve ever used. The tread practically wraps from bead to bead making punctures almost impossible. Its a sort of hybrid radial/bias-ply tire with four sidewall plys. We ran our 35x13.50s at 4-5 psi, and even down to 3 psi, in the sand. The sidewalls are so stiff that these kinds of pressures are needed to get them to grip. On the street, 10 psi was plenty for our Jeep. As you can imagine, bead lock wheels help tremendously in keeping the tires seated. The Claws were at home in every terrain we threw at them, especially in jagged rocks. It took about 500 miles of street and off-road driving before the tires began to flex and grip really well. A durometer of 68 rates them as a rather hard tire. Running the Claws on the street was bearable despite the tendency to get flat spots in cooler weather or at night, but they worked themselves out after a few miles. We did have one complaint: These are not 35s. When compared to other tires they look more like 33x12.00s. The lack of height caused us to hang up more often than other 35s. If youre looking for a bitchin 33, then the 35-inch Baja Claws are for you.  Jp finally has its own tires!...  Jp finally has its own tires! Not really, Parnelli Jones Dirt Grip radials have Js and Ps for tread lugs though. We were a little skeptical at first (How would a computer come up with a perfect tread design that just happened to be the same name as our mag?). After running them we can testify that its not just a gimmicktheyre real sticky. And they worked great on flat and jagged rocks and in packed dirt. We thought the two-ply sidewalls would be weak. However, we went out of our way to try and pop them with no success. We suspect that they may wear quicker than similar tires due to the minimal amount of tread in contact with the ground and large voids between lugs. However, these characteristics allow the tires to wrap themselves around obstacles like Anna Nicole Smith on rich old men. The 36x14.50 Dirt Grips were sized just about perfect for our needs and are probably the closest thing to our dream of owning 37s. We ran them at 6-7 psi.  For an all-out crazy-strong...  For an all-out crazy-strong tire, the Super Swamper SXs might be what you need. The SXs are bias-ply tires with steel belts. These tires are extremely popular in areas with sharp rocks, stumps, and mud. The tread wraps most of the way around the tires, and the bias-ply carcass doesnt puncture easily. These tires are stiff though. We normally run our 36x12.50s down to 4-5 psi in the rocks. Bead lock wheels are a big plus when running SXs. They get horrible flat spots overnight that take a few miles to work out. We run 10 psi on the street. They have a relatively soft durometer of 58, and even stick well on smooth surfaces. A popular mod is to groove the center lugs for more biting surface and better flexibility.  Pro Comp Mud Terrain radials...  Pro Comp Mud Terrain radials are probably one of the best buys in aggressive tires. They offer a tread pattern that works well all-around at a very reasonable price. We ran our 35-inch Muds at 6-10 psi in the dirt, rocks, and mud. The sidewalls are two-ply but fairly strong. They seem to be stiffer than other radials so they may be more puncture resistant. Real sharp rocks and stumps will pass through them, but the tire isnt really designed for crazy-extreme use. The extra siping on the lugs help the Pro Comps stick to wet streets and rocks better than other mud tires. They shed mud fairly well, but not as good as more aggressive bias-plys. Since theyre radials, there are no problems with flat-spotting. The compound is slightly hard at a 66 durometer.  The Yokohama Geolandar tires...  The Yokohama Geolandar tires offer a super sticky tread with a 55 durometer. The sidewalls are unusually flexible so you can run more air pressure and still have good performance without worrying about popping beads. The Geolandars are probably best suited for use on slab-type rocks, light mud, gravel, and sand. Jagged rocks may eventually take their toll on the pliant sidewalls. We worried about punctures in the two-ply skins, but we have yet to encounter one. The groove down the middle of the tires gives them good lateral stability on high-speed runs and sidehills.  The Super Swamper SSR radials...  The Super Swamper SSR radials are very similar to the Swamper Radials. The SSRs work a little better because of the extra grooves in each lug. The two-ply sidewalls are weak and relatively easy to pop, which is a bummer for such sticky tires. The durometer for the SSRs and Radials bumped in at a soft 56. At 10 psi, the 35x14.50s flexed well without leaving the sidewalls overexposed. Both of these tires are best suited for areas without sharp rocks or sticks. However, they do provide a super-aggressive tread on a radial carcass for daily Jeeps that see frequent mud romps.  The Firestone 66-inch Tera...  The Firestone 66-inch Tera tires proved to be the optimal tire for car crushing and general mayhem around the neighborhood. Since theyre not DOT legal, the speed rating is 33 mph. They punched in with a durometer of 66, so tread life shouldnt be a concern. Probably the only things to puncture the sidewalls would be an errant A-pillar or a few police service rounds. If youre looking for tread-wear warranties and a quiet car-like ride, dont look here. Aggressive tires are in and here to stay. Rock-resistant sidewalls, tread lugs the size of your fist, and compounds that are stickier than peanut butter make these the tires of choice for just about every trail in the nation. Weve used all of these tires for extended periods of time in almost every terrain imaginable to put together this listing of how well each tire works, where they work best, and how to get them to work better. Since most Jeeps weigh between 3,500 and 4,500 pounds, we also included air pressures that we like to run them at. You may need to adjust depending on your Jeeps weight, your driving style, and wheel choice. Also, we were fortunate enough to get our hands on a durometer for compound testing. A durometer measures the hardness of the tread compound. A softer compound generally results in a grippier tire with a shorter tread life. Harder compounds give increased tread life at the expense of traction. The numbers should help give you an idea of how sticky a specific tire is. Just for comparison, the softest tire we could find was a Hoosier drag slick, which measured in at a durometer of 42, only slightly harder than the flesh on our thumb. This is an extremely tacky tire that would suffer a short life on the road. Heres what we know.
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Air Up Or Down?
Check out this tech article on Tire Pressure & PSI, brought to you by the experts at JP Magazine....
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