Lets talk tires...

Off-road tires... Haven't bought performance street tires for years. I had a 2005 Mustang in 2007 that got me a ticket for $555 for going 132 in a 75 zone, so no more street cars for me...

But I do have a tire fetish...

In the past 10 years, I have ran, off the top of my head, seven different brands of AT or off-road tires on various SUVs and pickups.

The last four types have been in the Pacific Northwest with extensive snow driving.

Trying to recall the types of tires I have run... Chronologically beginning in 2008 and the vehicles they were on...

Pro Comp ATs mounted on a 1981 Jeep Wagoneer, then on a `97 Suburban...




Then Maxxis Bighorn MTs on a `77 Suburban and a Ford Quadravan...





Modified the `97 Suburban and mounted some good ol' BFG AT KOs on it...



I traded in the Suburban and a Ford Fusion for a brand new 2014 Ram 1500 quadcab 4x4. Stock tires were Wrangler highway treads that were awful. Put up with them about 3 months and added some Cooper ST MAXX 33" tires with a 3" lift...

I loved the ST Maxx tires and they did well in every terrain, though were a bit noisy at times and felt more like an MT than an AT.

I replaced them with Cooper AT3s...



I replaced the AT3s with a new cheap tire I had read some good things about; Milestar Patagonia MTs...



I traded in the Ram last week for my `05 Yukon and it came with some cheap, worn out no-name AT tires. I was hoping to run them for the summer before replacing, but Discount Tire was running a great deal on a tire I had always wanted to try, but could never justify the $40 more per tire premium.

The legendary Goodyear Duratrac...



I ordered these in a slightly larger LT265/75/16" size for the Yukon at $165 each. About an inch taller than stock...

I never ran the Maxxis Bighorns in snow or did much off-roading with them in Arizona. I was married and raising kids and didn't have much time to do any real off-roading.

I installed the BFG AT KOs in AZ on my `97 Suburban then got divorced and moved back home to Northern Idaho. I have ran those quite a bit in the desert and then in the snow in Idaho.

Just not that impressed... Very hard rubber compound that wore well and did OK in rocks and sand but just OK in snow and mediocre in mud.

The Cooper ST MAXX tire was a great tire and performed very, very well off-road in every environment from deep mud to snow. Wore pretty well, too. I replace my tires when they hit around 50 to 60% tread. Which is around a year and half of use or about 20k miles.

I replaced the ST MAXX with the Cooper AT3, which is what all of our company trucks run. The ST Maxx cost me $258 per tire for a 285/70/17 from Discount Tire. The AT3 was $192 for a slightly taller 285/75/17.

The AT3 was much better at road noise and highway manners. Loved it. Did fine off-road and grabbed surprisingly well off-road on rocks and soft dirt.

Unfortunately, it just didn't do all that great in the snow. At 100% tread, it did about the same as the 60% tread ST MAXX tires. I ended up adding 400lbs of sand in the bed to get through the winter and had to use 4wd to get out of my driveway with a slight incline every day if there was snow on the ground. Not impressed.

I decided to replace those with the Patagonia MT tires a bit early with still over 70% of tread remaining since the snow performance was so bad.

Now, the Patagonia MT is a relatively new tire from Milestar. They made only commercial tires previously and the Patagonia was their first attempt at a pickup tire.

Therefore, it is cheap and aggressive.

I bought LT285/70/17 10-ply tires for $150 each. They are available on Amazon, WalMart, and Discount Tire.

They look super aggressive and like they will be really noisy, rough-riding, and wear out fast. Nope.

Amazingly, they are about the same noise level as an aggressive AT. You don't feel them at all at low speeds like mud tires, and they showed little to no wear when I sold my truck with 6k miles on the tires.

Now, I read the reviews and didn't really believe that these did great in the snow. We get 5 months of winter up here, so I need tires that do well in the snow. So, when mine came in, I had them siped by the local tire shop when they were mounted and balanced.

No idea how they did stock, but with the siping (at $14 per tire) they did pretty darn good on packed snow for a mud tire. In deep snow, they were unstoppable!

I ran them in every type of snow and mud and they did great in everything.

Deep, wet snow was their favorite environment...



They did pretty darn well in clay-like mud as well a couple of weeks ago...



Now, Since I just bought tires for the Yukon, I was going to get another set of Patagonia MTs for it since I was so happy with the ones on my Ram. But, the Duratracs were only $10 more per tire and I've heard nothing but great things about them. I wanted to try a set while I had the chance.

Wondering if there are other tire fanatics out there and what your favorite tires are for off-road performance.

You should probably stick with those Milestars that you like so much. You know how they work in whatever terrain you'll be in.

After much research I went with KO2s which are much improved over the KOs that you had. I'll probably never see snow but folks say they like driving them in snow on this forum and others, the new treads clean themselves out quickly, which I can attest to when driving in dirt, sand and mud.

They are awesome in the rain and stick to the road like glue and now that the air pressure is up to 50 psi, they are wearing very well. Quiet on the road too, no howling or they'd be gone.

Now tell us why in the world you got rid of that camo'd K20 Suburban?!?!

swathdiver said:

You should probably stick with those Milestars that you like so much. You know how they work in whatever terrain you'll be in.

After much research I went with KO2s which are much improved over the KOs that you had. I'll probably never see snow but folks say they like driving them in snow on this forum and others, the new treads clean themselves out quickly, which I can attest to when driving in dirt, sand and mud.

They are awesome in the rain and stick to the road like glue and now that the air pressure is up to 50 psi, they are wearing very well. Quiet on the road too, no howling or they'd be gone.

Now tell us why in the world you got rid of that camo'd K20 Suburban?!?!

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I got rid of the old `77 Suburban because my ex-wife refused to be seen in it! I replaced it with the monster 4x4 van and it spent more time on a tow truck than actual miles driven. Seriously. 425hp 460 V8 and 6mpg. It broke down EVERY time I drove it. I bought the Suburban to replace it and the Suburban had to have a new 4L60E put in and had a few other issues, but it never left me stranded.

I totally forgot another set of tires that I currently am running; the Goodyear Wrangler Authority on my `89 Jeep Wrangler. They are a great aggressive all-terrain that do well in the snow and mud....

Idaho45guy said:

I got rid of the old `77 Suburban because my ex-wife refused to be seen in it!

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And now you don't have neither! Not sure which is worse but I'd sure miss that truck if it were mine! LOL