hey up could do with some advise or recommendations on Tyre choice, ive been scouring the net and reading up on all sorts of tyres but cant make my mind up on what type i need. The problem is i travel 160 mile round trip to commercial shoots to pick up with my dogs, but when i get there there is a lot of off roading to do mainly in very muddy fields which are very slippy, my last truck (a pick up navara) had general grabber at2s on and i was for ever getting stuck. So any recommendations from you more experienced people would be greatly appreciated because its driving me mad now.
Regards Mick
Your biggest trouble here is, you are at polar odds with your requirements. What will make a good mud tyre for wet slippery grass, will make it less good on road. And vice versa.
So what you'll have to do is compromise, either heavily at one end of the spectrum or partially at both ends.
If it was me, I'd run a proper Mud Terrain tyre. As they can be perfectly acceptable on the road. They will be a bit nosier, move about a bit more under cornering and obviously remember you are running them in the wet. That said, I run muds pretty much all the time and on something like a Defender you'll not really notice anything hugely different on road to running AT's.
And for me an AT is the worst type of tyre. Compromised on road and not really very good off it.
What you haven't said is, what type of vehicle you are driving?
As for the tyres. There are loads of mud terrains, but they are not all equal. And even some big brand well respected ones aren't going to be the best. Mostly because they are designed for use on a different continent and not on the same ground conditions we have in the UK.
On British mud and wet grass a NARROW tyre will generally be far superior to a wide one. On a Land Rover (Series/Defender/RRC/D1/D2) you can run something like a 7.50 x 16, this is a lovely tyre size for these conditions. The downside is there is not much choice in this size these days, so you may be forced to look at 235's instead.
Depending on the vehicle in question, you could run a remould tyre. This offers good pricing and a wide range of tyre treads. But these are going to be less road friendly.
The two treads I'd suggest are a 7.50 x 16 Diamond (if you can find them, if not a 235/85R16).
Here is an example:
I run these permanently on my Series and they are perfectly fine on the road, you just have to not be silly. The trade off here is, these will be the BEST tyre in the muddy conditions. And you are unlikely to easily get stuck with them.
The Toyo Geolander copies such as the Fedima Sahara are also a good off road tread, but run surprisingly well on the road. These you'll probably have to get in 235/85 as they are almost impossible to find in 7.50 and the ones you do find aren't really 7.50's, just 235's with a different stamp on the sidewall. There are lots of versions of this tyre, but they are all essentially the same.
And again the trade off here is, not so brilliant on the road, but far superior off it.
If you want something that is more road friendly, then you'll want to look at a new tyre rather than remould and preferably something with sipes in, as this will make it much better in the wet and even in frosty/icy road conditions.
If I was buying such a tyre, these would be at the top of my list. (In fact I'd like some for my Range Rover, but they don't do them in the right size).
Federal Couragia M/T
http://tyresdirectuk.co.uk/products/235-85r16-120-116q-federal-couragia-m-t
I also like the look of a couple of Maxxis tyres, the tread seems the right balance for on road, with sipes, but good lug design for mud. The only downside is the sizes offered, they don't really offer anything narrow. Which is a shame.
Maxxis Bighorn MT-764
Maxxis Bighorn MT762
Lastly, depending on the vehicle in question. You may want to consider other traction aides. If you don't have traction control, then some LSD or diff lockers might be a good investment if you plan to keep the vehicle. Ensuring all 4 wheels turn on a slippery surface will give you more traction. Of course if you are spinning all 4 wheels, then it's all about the tyres.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. Pretty good compromise choices, I would think.
