Off Road Tires for your Jeep

One thing to consider in a tire upgrade is fender clearance. Not only does your vehicle need sufficient clearance while at rest, but it must also accommodate maximum up and down travel and side to side tire movement caused by steering and cornering.

Another item worth noting is the affect the weight of a larger tire can have on braking. It's quite common, after upgrading to larger-than-stock tires, to note a decrease in stopping power or longer stopping distances. Many people upgrade their brake discs and/or pads to offset this slightly. Regardless, your driving style may need to change somewhat to accomodate the limits of your new tires.

General Tire 101 Information

This is a good place to start if you want to learn how to read the sidewall markings on your new tires.

Tread

Tire tread comes in all sorts of flavors, however, when off-road performance is the focus "All Terrain Tread" and "Mud Tread" are probably best suited for the task.

All Terrain tread performs well under a variety of off-highway conditions and to some extent has closed the street/trail performance gap. The closed tread design is usually quiet on the highway, yet noisier than a street tire, and performs well on rocks, sand, and on the highway. As you might expect, they tend to load up with mud, but some of the AT designs perform surprisingly well in muddy conditions. For highway driving with minimal trail use, the AT design is an excellent choice.

Mud Tires, and this may not surprise you, perform well in mud. Beyond the obvious superior performance in mud, they generally also do well on rocks and in deep snow. The MT is at its worst in rain and can be outright dangerous in icy conditions. Another possible disadvantage of the aggressive tread of the Mud Tires is that they have a tendency to be noisy, however, for the true mudder, this is hardly an issue.

More Aggressive and Specialized Tires

Some specialized tires, like the BFG Krawler, were designed to be the leader in one category - in this case, rock crawling. This is one of the fastest growing aspects of competative offroading, and these tires reflect th eleading edge in tire technology - super sticky computer designed void pattern and specific rubber compounds designed to resist abrasion are used. Available only in selected sizes over 35", these would be ideal on a rock buggy, but not so good on the street. They are, however, street legal.

Biased Ply Tires

Here's what Interco says about their Swampers:

The Super Swamper TSL with the patented TSL tread design offers unsurpassed traction under the toughest of conditions. Nine years of developing and testing produced the ultimate tire tread design. Short, intermediate and long massive lugs are uniquely arranged, each proportioned and spaced to bite quickly and to self-clean rapidly. The overall design gives today's on-and-off-road driver a tire that is both directionally and laterally stable; unmatched in performance. This is an extremely aggressive design that requires strict attention to air pressure when run on the highway.

The reality:

The are loud on the highway. They perform as well, or better than advertised off road. You can easily find the limits of parts since these tires offer so much traction. And being bias-plys, they flat-spot overnight. This does go away within a short distance and is less pronounced in warmer weather.

Aggressive Compromises

Interco offers an aggressively designed, radial tire with many of the features which make their Swampers such a hit. The TrXus Mud Terrains weigh a little less, but are by no means lightweights. The tread is designed to work well on-road (it's siped for wet weather, etc.), deliver good control and mobility in mud (large voids, big blocks) and stand up to rocks well.

They're a great step up for those wanting a decent all-round tire with better performance that a dedicated A/T tire. Make no mistake about it, they're louder than an A/T on-road, but that will usually be the trade for the larger blocks and voids which make it perform well in the mud.

Goodyear MT/R

This tire is a great daily-driving compromise. It's agressive looks are deceiving, though, as this tire has proven to be very quiet on-road when properly rotated.

Those big lugs and voids, while impressive, were not designed for mud - remember, this is an A/T designated design. That said, they perform very well in mud, but will eventually pack up leaving you stuck.

They are great in deep snow and handle icy conditions OK if you're paying attention. Let your attention wander, though, and like any tire with big, flat blocks, you might find yourself sliding a bit on the ice.

These tires were designed for use in rocks - and they excel there. Built with a special rubber compound to help sharp edges slide off the tire, the three layers of sidewall protection make for a tire which can withstand a tremendous amount of rock-crawling activity with little wear.