I have always been partial to the pizza cutter narrow tire approach to tire selection, inspite of the fact that popular opinion always seems to prefer wide tires. I found an interesting technical article that supports my narrow tire preference.

I would like to hear what you think about it, pure BS, or right on the money?

LINKY


One of the most capable offroad vehicles that I have been in was an OLD (late 50's I think) powerwagon with 9.00R16 (basically a 36x9R16). With chains on all 4 and locked front and rear it would go just about anywhere.

-frozen

I would say whether you agree or not the article makes for an interesting read.

I think 4crawler would have something to say about this since he has a wide range of tire sizes he likes to use.

I run both narrow and wide tires (from 9.50" up to 15.50" wide). Each has their place, wider tires can be aired down more than narrow. Narrow is nice for pushing through snow and mud. I find narrow tires tend to slip off of things like rocks more than a wider tire.

Interesting read, I would be curious if there is a difference between the AT and MT tire. The one part he didn't cover(or I missed it) was about the wider tire adds more stability in off camber situations on the trail than a narrow tire will. A 12.50 tire will yeid 1"(generally) more wider stance than a 10.50 on the same rim, unless you compensate with a different offset rim(but then you give up the ability to put a narrow taller tire ion a rig using less lift.

I myself run 33x12.50 AT's on my DD/trail rig for all conditions. I get the grip and handling on the highway, the flotation needed for the snow 6-8 months of the year 4x4 trips, and enough traction on the rocks the other 4-6 months of the year. I have ran 31x10.50 MT's and I didn't care for the digging prperty of them off-road, or the walking out in hard cornering on the road. In a perefct world I would run 12.50's AT's on the street 14-15.50's AT's in the snow and 12.50 MT's in the rocks, better tracction when exiting a water crossing, and better grip on an edge. However that is about $3000 in extra tires and rims.

Narrow tires rock! I had an FJ40 with 33x9.5 that would go ANYWHERE. Cut through mud and snow and still climb over anything. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Wide tires suck in the snow and the mud. They push way too much crap in front of themselves and they don't cut through the snow or mud to the less slick surface below. I had an '85 lancruiser wagon that had just regular street tires on it and it would out-perform my neighbor's jeep that was lifted and had super swampers on it. He had the power, but no control once he got moving. The jeep, like our trucks was so light, that it could get stuck on snot!!

I would have to disagree with you on the wide tires sucking in the snow in deep conditions. Once the snow gets to deep to dig down to dirt/pavement, you have to be able to float on top to go anywhere. The only way to achieve this is by using a wide tire aired down to spread the weight of the vehicle out across a wider footprint. This is the same priciple used in in snow shoes. With my AT's aired up/down I have no problem controling my rig in the snow, with them aired down I can go anywhere I want.

I agree with you about the swampers, they really aren't designed for the snow. A buddy of mine had bought a set of 36x15.50's for his truck, he got stuck constantly, the tires just dug in to much, he also couldn't control where the rig went like your neighbor's jeep.

I've had mixed results with wide vs. narrow tires in deep snow. If there is a bit of a crust on the snow, sometimes I find the narrow tires are easier to get up on top of that if you do break through. The wide tires can be harder to do that with if you have to push them through then on top of the crust. My old Swampers worked great in the snow (siped TSL-SXs) aired down around 1-2 psi. One time I was breaking trail and nobody could really follow me (even w/ 35s) since I really wasn't "breaking" trail so much as floating over the top of the snow and not packing a trail. The next rig had to do the main trail breaking. But you can probably run across snow (or other trail) conditions that will make one kind of tire work well and anther one do poorly. That's why I run a few sets of tires, gives you a choice in what "shoes" to wear.

Part of Scott's theory deals with contact pressure. I have a slightly different veiw on that subject than he does, but if it works for him that's cool. I've been wheelin' for 39 years, had about every tire made from the old skinny nylon bias plys to the current high tech radials, and prefer a wider tire over a narrow one in most conditions.

As a slightly absurd comparison, an M1 Abrams MBT weights about 72 tons in full combat trim, (this is what my borther's tank came in at during the Gulf War - they added extra frontal armor) yet the PSI generated by the track is way less than that of a standard truck/tire combination. At that pressure they can "float" over most terrain.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m1.htm

I've found the wider tires offer a similar benifit...

Im somewhere in the middle. Liked the 33x 14.5 Dick Cepeks but my milage went down to around 12 MPG. Ouch. The BFG MT's are only 31" so I tend to bottom out more often and deep ruts can really throw the truck around. BUT getting 20+ MPG with the stock tires is definitly a huge plus with the prices up here bieng just under $3 a gallon for 92. Liked to wide for snow, not so much for mud. I tend to get much better uphill traction on mud and clay with the narrow.