Tires for light Expedition travel

[SWITAWI]

Look at some Falken Rocky Mountain ATs which are same as Falken Wild Peak ATs. The only difference is the Rocky Mountains were only for Discount Tire distribution only. Both got excelent ratings in the last issue of Petersons 4 wheel and off road. Just FYI............

x2. :safari-rig:

Here's a link to the Petersen's article (exact same article was run in 4-Wheel & Offroad and JP Magazine) where they gave a quick rundown on 33 different tires with ratings for Street, Rock, Sand, Snow, Mud, and Ice - http://www.jpmagazine.com/techartic...hot_sheet_33_off_road_tires_tested/index.html
More standalone in-depth tire reviews here as well - http://www.jpmagazine.com/tech/wheels_tires/index.html

 

[Utah KJ]

I believe in prepare for the worst. I was doing some "light expeditioning" on a dirt road and ended up with a bent trans skid that crushed the oil filter and emptied the motor... the next skid I purchased was "heavy duty" since the light duty that was to be "good enough" really wasn't.

I've only purchased GY MT/R (235/85/R16) on my rigs because they're the bomb digity. Back in 2009 I was traveling through Providence Canyon UT which is not particularly hard but there's lots of loose sharp rocks on one of the climbs. What I didn't know was one of these rocks gashed my 10 ply steel sidewall. I drove around all day including 1.5 hr freeway ride home without knowledge of the hole. The next morning, I saw that my rig was leaning to the right and saw that my left front tire was flat. I plugged the sidewall and drove on them for 3 months until I replaced them with the new Kevlar style. With the Kevlars, I figure if I ever get into a gun fight, I could take cover behind my tires :ar15:

It is my opinion that you should not purchase to meet your minimum requirements but rather to meet the worst case scenario so you can always get home... there's lots of miles and miles between miles and miles out here.

 

[Joker]

Sounds like 90% of your driving will be on Rt7 or highways getting you to the back country so tire wear should definatly be a concern.

I have the BFG ATs on my Jeep and will probably be getting them for my Taco in the next couple of months but I'm not planning on going out to some of the places you are going at least not any time in the near future.

 

[1911]

a 3 ply sidewall is a must and I would like to stick to a 285x70r17
...
(i am looking to get about 30-40K in mileage out of tires)

The Toyo Open Country MT has a true three-ply sidewall, is nearly indestructible, and will give high mileage life on an FJC (I've got at least 50-60,000 miles on the set currently on mine) but it comes at a price - weight. These are heavy bastards and they will affect your fuel economy.

 

[DCH109]

The Toyo Open Country MT has a true three-ply sidewall, is nearly indestructible, and will give high mileage life on an FJC (I've got at least 50-60,000 miles on the set currently on mine) but it comes at a price - weight. These are heavy bastards and they will affect your fuel economy.

Full Skids, Sliders, TJM bumper, Winch, recovery gear, fridge, camping items, extra fuel, long range fuel tank (if it arrives in time) and a Large Autohome Adventure series RTT that acts as a wind block, etc, etc. Fuel Economy......ya i gave up on that already. If i get 11 mpg i will be happy.

I have heard good things about these tires.

 

[DCH109]

Well after looking at everything I decided on Cooper STT. Why?
Most people are seeing decent tread life, on road manners are very good (great, no but I can deal with very good) offroad very good to great (depends on the person) Wet good to very good, winter good. 3 ply side wall rated as tough (With the exception of Hawaii rock crawling in lava fields but nothing could survive this for long) they seem to be readily available at many locations I picked mine up online.

This is perfect for me.
The recent addition of the Toyo's I had to pass as I wanted a 285/70r17 tire and they do not make this. 295 was larger than I wanted to go. Same reason i passed on the Trxus. The Hankooks were out as they only have load range D in a 2 ply. I skipped the AT's after thinking about it as I wanted something more of a mud tire.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Now time to post up a build thread.

 

[M32H32IS]

What about Bridgestone Revo 2's?

I've been offroading quite some time and had BFG AT's which are probably the worst IMO. Also Terra Grapplers, Hankook ATM's & latest is Revo 2's.

Hands down the Revos win. Runner up Hankook, followed by Terra & last is BFG.

I love bfg and run them on my cars but at's have got to be the most overrated tire IMHO.

 

[TittySprinkles]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Yokohama Geolandar AT-S. I ran these on my 4Runner and just bought a set for my Tundra. Absolute best tire on and off road, and I've tried more than half the tires listed in this thread. These are the only tires I've bought twice! Great in rain, snow, rocks, mud, sand, etc. Had them all over Colorado, Arizona and SoCal.

Worst tires I've used were the Toyo Open Country A/Ts (terrible unsafe scary traction in snow and rain) and Goodyear Duratracs (returned to discount after a week, paper thin sidewall made the truck unstable off road at speeds over 1 MPH, loud, hard to balance, never buy a Goodyear tire).