My '02 Tahoe Z71 helped me do a good Samaritan deed today ...

[Marky Dissod]

Story starts under 10min after I'd just got out of a car wash.
Driving back home, spotted a poor lil Mitsubishi Mirage stuck in goopy mud just off the right side of the Grand Central Parkway east bound onramp,
so I got off the onramp into the mud just in front of the Mirage, to see what's what without blocking any traffic.
(Despite me being out of the way, curious rubberneckers still jammed traffic by slowing to a crawl. ANYWAY ...)
When I got a better look up close, ittybitty Mirage's 'chin' was submerged enough to clump some mud into the bottom of the radiator.
Front tires were deep in mud up past their centerlines on both sides. Bet it tried to get out and sunk deeper for its efforts.
I for one sank about an inch as I stood in one spot to assess if my Tahoe could free the Mirage; that's how muddy it was.

Just as I was ABOUT to nose my Tahoe's nose into his Mirage's nose to TRY to push him out, 'Auxiliary NYPD' showed up in a Chevy Express.
The eensyweensy Mirage's owner was unconcerned about any damage to his front fascia, but they convinced us to reconsider,
for fear that my front bumper might ... MIGHT ... climb onto his nose and make a bad day worse.

To add insult to injury, the Auxiliary NYPD's Express van got stuck too, being 2WD with tires that were USELESS in ONE INCH of wet mud.
Got my nose up on the Express' nose, and made no progress til I pressed 4WD, waited 3 secs, and unstuck the Express pretty easily.

They called a flatbed tow truck, who brought out a big ol' chain with a hook & clasp. (He declined to assist further, stayed to get the chain back.)
The hook went into a nyppel ring on the underside of the subcompact's t'aint. The links went around both my front hooks,
then back toward the hook to form a triangle, where the clasp was secured good'n'tight.
Still in 4WD, my tires spun enough to make us all pessimistic at first, but then the Mirage put it in reverse too.
After pulling backwards about 10ft, the Mirage went from nosedown to level, free at last.

As I'd been busy freeing the Mirage, the Auxiliary NYPD's van positioned itself to one side of the onramp to give us extra margin.
The Mirage slithered its way out of the mud, onto the onramp, and back to NJ I guess.
I clomped out of the mud, then drove back to the gottdamnt carwash.
Unfortunately no pics or video, but I swear it happened, I was a halfway decent person for about 1hr.

Epilogue:
My Tahoe Z71 presently wears Sumitomo 'On-Road All Terrain' tires (immediate predecessors of Sumitomo's Encounter AT2).
Look more off-road-able than they actually are, but were well good enough to keep me from getting stuck,
and just good enough to get the Chevy Express 2WD with its off-road useless tires unstuck with ease in 4WD.
More importantly, barely good enough to get a Mirage unstuck from goopy mud with considerable wheelspin at first.
I WAS considering Yokohama Geolandar CV4S, but now I'm wondering how 'mudd-able' they are.

Should I consider any of the following tires instead, in case I ever try to unstick a heavier vehicle from mud?
Falken WildPeak A/T4W
General Grabber A/TX
Nitto Terra Grappler G3
Cooper Discoverer Road+Trail AT
Nitto Nomad Grappler

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

Never owned a dedicated mud tire, experience with quite a few all terrain setups though.

I try to find KO2s when I can. The border patrol runs them almost exclusively here for their trucks that go in the mountains. It's a really capable tire that also works well on the road.

I've run General Grabbers (AT2 specifically), they're not that good for off-road, at least the ones I got. The lugs are too close, more of a good road tire with off-road capability. If I recall the few water crossings I do they got caked up even in the desert here. Rocks also constantly got stuck in the lugs... Somewhat customary but I ripped off several lugs on my set. That said they were like TANK tires. Dang they wouldn't DIE.

I have a friend with Mickey Thompsons on his off-road setup (don't recall if they're the M/T or A/T). They look VERY aggressive and I imagine are VERY capable. I've yet to ride with him since he bought them. Somewhat curious what they sound like on the highway.

I also ran some Hankook Dynapro MT's. They were WAY cool but made the most road noise of all the tires I've had on my truck. I used them on a 5,000 mile road trip and felt thoroughly vibrated when back home.

Tire Rack

I have another friend with the Falken's I'd SERIOUSLY consider them. They look aggressive but don't have much road noise in his truck (a Ford F150... 2015?). We just did a trip in them last week. I really like that tire and I think they're a bit more value for the $$

I've had an itch to try the Cooper Discoverer AT tires. My buddy's Jeep had them. While not as aggressive as the KO2 I think they look like a good compromise and I are even a bit lighter?

Never seen the nitto stuff on the trail here. Only at the racetrack, non-off road stuff.

I've also run Load E and Load D tires off road. Both were fine. If you're not planning to do trails all the time then likely Load D is more than good enough. Load E is NUTS you can torture the tire and it keeps going (case in point my general grabbers). I did burnouts on sharp rocks, it cut the tread off but didn't damage the belts in the tire. Not sure if that's the case with Load D.

 

[Marky Dissod]

It's odd that in NYC of all places, I'm more likely to deal with wet goopy mud than other off-road terrain-type stuff.
Makes me lean toward Falken WildPeak A/T4W. Doubt I NEED 'D' or 'E' load-rated tires, but still thinking ...

 

[Meathead16]

I ran those Coopers a few years back. It's been too long to give specifics I just remember that they looked good, were capable, but they sucked in the rain and treadwear was abysmal.

 

[Marky Dissod]

My major tire concerns are rain, snow, and mud of varying consistencies.