Another data point for those looking for tires. I ran the Rubicon trail this weekend. In to Buck Island Lake and back to Loon Lake twice. First off, I used to run the trail pretty regularly back in the early to mid 90's through about 2005. Probably done it 20-30 times in various vehicles. I currently have a 98 XJ on 315/75r16 bfg at ko tires that have about 50,000 miles on them and maybe 20% tread left. My brother drove his fj40 on 37 inch cooper stt's that are around 90% tread. It was embarrassing how bad the coopers sucked. Multiple times the xj crawled obstacles without spinning a tire, while the fj40 sat and spun.
If coopers have some magical silica infused rubber, I am staying far, far away!
I hear far too many tire "experts" talk about the outdated tread pattern of the bfg at, or the vast improvements in tire design since the bfg at was created. There were several hundred vehicles on the trail this weekend. Of the ones I saw, probably 90% ran some sort of mud tires. I think the other 10% that I saw were on bfg at's. I don't recall seeing any other all terrain tires. Yeah, they suck in mud. Newsflash... Every tire I ever had sucked in mud, except 38.5x14.5x15 tsl sx's. Those were fun.
I have run these same bfg at's through the Dusy Ershim trail in varied conditions including a foot of snow. No problems, no winching, they just work.
If coopers have some magical silica infused rubber, I am staying far, far away!
I hear far too many tire "experts" talk about the outdated tread pattern of the bfg at, or the vast improvements in tire design since the bfg at was created. There were several hundred vehicles on the trail this weekend. Of the ones I saw, probably 90% ran some sort of mud tires. I think the other 10% that I saw were on bfg at's. I don't recall seeing any other all terrain tires. Yeah, they suck in mud. Newsflash... Every tire I ever had sucked in mud, except 38.5x14.5x15 tsl sx's. Those were fun.
I have run these same bfg at's through the Dusy Ershim trail in varied conditions including a foot of snow. No problems, no winching, they just work.