I appreciate all of the thoughts on tires. Going back to my original post for this thread; Glacier Ridge, Taylor Pass, Georgia Pass, Mosquito Pass plus places like Crystal, Engineer Pass, Cimarron Pass, etc. are all places I go and go regularly.
Since I am notoriously bad at remembering to take photos I found some other folks photos of these places on the net:
http://hobojeepers.tripod.com/TaylorPark01.htm
http://www.4x4now.com/trcobgg.htm
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/89531435NCeUTf
http://www.off-road.com/trails-even...venturing-in-southwestern-colorado-52667.html
Just to be clear I have driven CJ's, YJ's, TJ's and F250's over all these trails.
I know a few people following this thread are familiar with these trails but most are not. Check out the photos: what do they all have in common? Rocks endless big sharp jagged rocks. Not little rocks and not round rocks.
Not washboard roads and not dirt roads. Rock trails.
Miles and miles of them, some of these trails are more than twenty miles of these rocks. Might be why they call it the Rocky Mountains.
I think I mentioned before I have been to 48 states (So far have missed Hawaii and North Dakota). I have also been to British Columbia, the Yukon, Alberta, Ontario, Baja and Chihuahua. All of these places offer different types of terrain and different requirements to build for depending on what you are going to be doing or want to do. In the 1970's and 1980's I used to off road a lot in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. What I built for then is different than what I build for now in Colorado.
A lot of tires can go over these passes and survive, once. I saw a guy from Wisconsin drive an AMC Pacer over Engineer Pass twenty years ago. Very entertaining!
Doing this time after time week after week truly tests a tire and a tire manufacturer. Sidewall construction is critical. I talked to a guy I have wheeled with in the past just this afternoon and he had bought a particular brand of tire for his TJ and went through nine tires under warranty in a year, all sidewall blowouts on these trails (he replaced them with BFG's).
My brother-in-law is visiting us this week from a southern state. He off roads a lot in his state and runs Superswampers. Loves them in the mud, perfect tire for gumbo and flooded fields. I don't have flooded fields, I have rocks and raw snow on steep narrow shelf roads.
What ever I buy has to have unquestionable ruggedness particularly on the sidewalls. I have been very faithful to BFG MT's and a major reason is I have never had a blowout in one. Look back at the photos of those trails; would you stake your life in your tires sidewalls on those trails? That is really the first criteria for which ever tire I end up purchasing.