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carvin5string
Bone Stock
Posts:4
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| 08/22/2005 12:34 PM |
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In the next week or so I am going to buy new tires for my '88 Ranger XLT 4x4. It has original aluminum rims, 15". I can't afford to replace those, so I'll be stuck buying the biggest tires that'll fit them. I read a couple tire reviews (Bridgestone Dueler M/T, Grabber A/T) and looked at some web sites for starters. I have Les Schwab Wild Country TXR's on my F250 currently, and they seem to be quite good.
My off-road driving is on forest service roads, gravel, dirt, rock/dirt roads, rocky roads, no rock crawling or anything close to that. These roads I typically drive on are sometimes quite rutted from water run-off. I am less concerned about a quiet ride than good off-road performance. If possible I'd like to try to keep the price under $130 or so each.
(attached are some pics of the terrain I typically drive in) |
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4xguy
Street Queen
Posts:104
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| 08/22/2005 9:41 PM |
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Hi Carvin - do you get into any muddy terrain at all?
I'm trying to decide if you need an aggressive all-terrain tire, or a not-so-aggressive mud terrain tire.
Regards,
Jason |
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Jason Gorpman, Esq. |
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carvin5string
Bone Stock
Posts:4
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| 08/24/2005 10:18 AM |
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No mud, I'm basically a fair weather guy, driving in dry land areas. (hmm, appears none of my attachments worked on the first post) I have pics available on my web site at www.wiegand.org , then click on the link to the Image Galleries, then choose either the Central WA or Manastash Ridge albums. (if you're interested, that is). :)
I think an aggresive AT would suffice, but there are too many to choose from, whence the request for what's popular or well liked.
Thanks |
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webby4x4
Forum Admin, Magazine Editor
Rock Star
Posts:2375
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| 08/24/2005 7:41 PM |
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Hi Carvin,
It's a real shame you have to drive in areas that are so repulsive and unpleasant. [)] - BTW, the photos are fantastic!
After looking at your pictures, it looks you might encounter piles of rock with sharp edges, slightly off-camber and uphill climbs and areas that could be slippery and rutted. That said, here are my opinions...
I've always been a big fan of the BFGoodrich A/T tire. They're relatively inexpensive for a name-brand tire, you can get a road-hazard warranty on them, they have strong side-walls, you can get them replaced at almost any store nationwide, and they'll last a long time.
I've also been a big fan of Firestone's line of AT and MT tires too. They're way under-rated, super-sticky on the trails, quiet on the road, and have VERY strong sidewalls. They may be slightly higher priced than other competitors, but not obscenely so. Overall, they've served us well for many years and I've never been disappointed in them.
In the end, it'll come down to personal choice, but here are a few things to look for, given the type of driving you'll be doing.
1) Ply rating - look for the highest possible number. While this isn't touted as much as it used to be, it's still a relatively accurate method for measuring the strength of the tire carcass. Back in the day, tire manufacturers used to use more and more plies of belts to provide stiffer and stronger tire carcasses, but with newer technologies, they were able to use less plies, but have equivalent strength.
2) Tread void - with your type of off-roading, you'll want to find a tire tread pattern that has large voids, especially ones that carry the void across at least half of the tire. This helps to push water and mud away from the tire giving it a relatively self-cleaning aspect. More importantly though, the larger the voids, the better the tire will "grab" onto the trail and provide good forward, rearward and lateral traction. In an all-terrain tire, (and most standard mud terrain tires) you won't find voids so large that it has a negative effect.
3) Tread pattern - the pattern of the tread for your type of driving is and isn't important. For the most part, there are two main types of tread patterns. (there are really more than this, but I categorize them into two categories).
- - Tread pattern "a" (for lack of a better term) is designed with an alternating, symmetrical pattern. The harmonics that the first set of lugs sets up, the second set shuts up. Tread pattern "a" for all-terrain tires are designed for light trucks that see more on-road driving than off road driving. They offer less off the beaten path, but are nicer on the streets.
- - Tread pattern “b” either doesn’t take this into consideration or takes it less into consideration (a good example is the BFGoodrich A/T, which is a venerable off road tire, but produces more road noise than other A/T’s). This tread pattern will produce better off-road performance, but the on-road manners won’t be as nice as tread pattern “a”.
All in all though, if you really see more off-road driving than on-road driving, I’d really look hard at a mud-terrain tire. The larger voids and more aggressive tread patterns will provide you with better off-road traction. For the size of tire you’ll be purchasing, you might want to look at the Goodyear MT/R tire. On the smaller size tires, the tread pattern shrinks and becomes tighter (good for the daily driver / trail runner, bad for the serious off-roader that wants to run smaller tires on very difficult trails). The MT/R’s are pretty quiet on the street, but their sidewalls are incredibly strong and their traction is almost unsurpassed in the category of tire we’re talking about. They are more expensive than BFGoodrich, Firestone and some other brands, but you’re getting a lot more tire for your dollar.
Rick
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Rick Webster
Editor, 4X4REVIEW.COM - A Tork Media, Inc. Publication
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'74 FJ40 Land Cruiser
"Measure once, cut twice" |
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4xguy
Street Queen
Posts:104
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| 08/24/2005 8:02 PM |
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If you're thinking about a tire that will last long, get good grip off road and won't break the bank, I'd look at the BFG M/T or BFG A/T.
Jason |
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Jason Gorpman, Esq. |
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SnoMan
Lift & Lockers
Posts:943
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| 08/26/2005 6:59 AM |
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| BFG does not make a bad tire but something else to remember that when you go to a much bigger tire you also raise your effective gear ratio a lot and reduce your vehical performance on and off the road so if you go more than one size larger, you should regear truck. Otherwise, focus on tread pattern and type rather than the largest diameter tire you can fit in the wheel wells. |
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Visit the SnoMan at
www.thesnoman.com |
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carvin5string
Bone Stock
Posts:4
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| 08/29/2005 7:33 AM |
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| Thanks for the very informative replies, much appreciated. I have found a local dealer with the BFG All Terrain TA/KO. My current old tires are 235/75-15, the rims may be able to do 245's, but I'm gonna get the new tires in 235's. At any rate, now that the new clutch/flywheel are in, the truck tuned-up, now I can get the tires and alignment and be back on the road, the dirt road that is. :) |
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webby4x4
Forum Admin, Magazine Editor
Rock Star
Posts:2375
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| 08/30/2005 8:43 AM |
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I think you'll be pretty happy with the TA/KO's. They're great all-around tires (except for mud that is) and should work well.
Send us some pictures of your truck in the wilderness!
Best of luck,
Rick
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Rick Webster
Editor, 4X4REVIEW.COM - A Tork Media, Inc. Publication
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'74 FJ40 Land Cruiser
"Measure once, cut twice" |
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4xguy
Street Queen
Posts:104
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| 08/30/2005 9:09 AM |
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| Yeah, let's see some pics! |
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Jason Gorpman, Esq. |
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carvin5string
Bone Stock
Posts:4
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| 08/30/2005 12:57 PM |
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well, on my homepage (http://www.wiegand.org/) is a photo album that has pics from some trips, a few include my F250 I've been using for off-road camping trips. I did leave out the pics of the F250 with the broken front axle (maybe I'll put those up, haven't decided yet). I'll post pics of the Ranger when it has the new tires. Both trucks are basically stock, nothing special. As much as I would like to do some cool mods to them I just don't have the spare cash to do that - it goes to my sons college tuition (for a little longer).
About that broken front axle trip - I took my niece (she was 14 at the time) on a weekend camping trip. We went into the Cascades between Ellensburg and Yakima, WA. Took a forest service road up to the top of Quartz Mtn, that was easy. Camped out up there, then headed east on a jeep trail. Keep in mind I was driving F250 with extended cab, 7.3L diesel. At this point the truck looks nice - diamond steel running boards, grill guard, oversized bumpers, sun visor. We head east and south on the jeep trail, all is well, quite rough but no problem. We come to a switch back and no way to turn around or back that big rig out. The switch back is very tight, maybe 20 - 25 feet, the truck has something like 40 feet turning circle. It couldn't get around the corner in one try, but rather about 5 back-n-forth tries. Well, that wouldn't have such a big deal except for the log - it was sticking out of the inside edge of the turn, a couple feet out of the dirt embankment. Evidently a tree had fallen over the trail, someone cut the tree back, but not all the way to the dirt. Sooo, everytime I did a back-n-forth jog to get around the corner, the side of the truck was scraping that log, eventually wiped out the side of the truck, from the cab to the back end of the box.
Okay, so we get around that, now there are places where the trail goes between trees, jeeps and other smaller vehicles fit fine between those trees, but a full-size truck, well, it fit, but only becuase I forced it through. By the time we'd gone through some 5 or 6 of these tight fits the running boards were ripped off the truck, the sides had ripples and dents from squeezing through trees. The truck wasn't quite so pretty anymore. But my niece was having a great time, I was wondering how I'd explain this to my wife.
We got through all that, down a steep hill, up the other side, into an area where there were some 6 or 6 Jeeps and all the people driving/riding them. Of course the 'jeepsters' just gave me a bunch of crap for driving my rig on those trails, I won't go into what kind of crap they threw at me. That meeting left a very bad taste in my mouth for jeep-people.
We left them and are heading out and down hill to get out to Hwy 12 (runs roughly south Puget Sound east via Mt Rainier to Yakima). On the way down the trail gets very rutted, pot-holed, etc, very rough, the truck was bounced through pot-holes and over tree roots. We get out on a stretch of clear gravel/rock road, not more than a couple miles from the main gravel service road down to the highway, when the front axle broke. The truck has independent front suspension, so one of the lower control arms broke off the frame. There we sat, on the side of the mountain. So, after several calls to AAA for a tow truck we finally hike down to the service road, got a ride to the highway to a restaraunt, ate dinner and got a cab to Yakima. The next day AAA got a 4x4 tow truck up there to get my truck, haul it into Yakima and to a shop to get it fixed. The whole weekend camping trip ended up being one night camping, 3 nights hotel, and somewhere around $600 in repairs that the insurance didn't cover.
The truck cab was fixed and looks like new, the bed is still all dented, though the dents mostly pulled out as much as possible. So, wonder why I'm getting the Ranger ready for off-road camping? So I can go back up there again, of course. Heh, heh. |
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webby4x4
Forum Admin, Magazine Editor
Rock Star
Posts:2375
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| 08/31/2005 11:58 AM |
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Wholly smoke!
I could only read this with my eyes closed after the first few paragraphs.
War stories are always so much more fun to tell a few months after the dust has settled.
Rick |
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Rick Webster
Editor, 4X4REVIEW.COM - A Tork Media, Inc. Publication
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'74 FJ40 Land Cruiser
"Measure once, cut twice" |
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