AT vs MT

[ghunt81]

Although my truck is still a ways from being done, I'm planning on doing 2" shackles in the rear plus a torsion crank up front (already have pre-07 keys and am buying #1 bars soon), and I want to run 32x11.50-15's.

I've been looking at the BFG AT's and just recently found the Mastercraft Courser MXT which is a great price for a "mud" tire. I also noticed the tread blocks on the MXT have some siping which is a plus.

The truck will serve mostly as winter transportation plus hopefully some off roading of some sort.

Now, the reason I am looking at the MXT's is because several years ago I ran Treadwright's knockoffs of the Goodyear MTR (they call it the "Guard Dog" now) on my old diesel F250. I got the ones with the walnut shells in the tread. I absolutely loved those tires in the winter, they had great grip all the time, would dig through hard packed snow, but is that not a fair comparison due to them having the walnut shells in the tread (the shells fell out, creating small voids that acted like siping)? They also seemed to have a soft rubber compound as I didn't even get 20K out of them before they were pretty much bald, that may have also helped winter traction. I also admit I love the look of a mud tire.

The roads here tend to have a lot of slush and crap on them in the winter which I was thinking the MXT might cut through better. Or, am I making an apples to oranges comparison?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

As a general rule mud tires are not that great on hard packed snow or ice.

Dad had a fairly young MC AT blow out on his truck, kinda hard for me to recommend them.

 

[ridgerunner]

Get a set of Wardens with out the Kedge from treadwright and call it a day.

 

[Will]

It's not an AT vs MT thing. The pure fact is, the larger the voids between the lugs, the less likely the lugs will be plugged when you need them to dig in. I like the lugs to be all by themselves with no neighbors. I like tires to be as aggressive as your dental epoxy can stand. This is my favorite tire in the whole world. It's used by everyone in the world that uses a civilian vehicle for a military vehicle--a technical, they call them. A Toyota with a machine-gun mount on it, etc. This is the best off-road/on-road tire in the world, over-all. This is the real deal. It's sold by many names all over the world, but it's the same tire under all of those Toyotas with terrorists in them and under all of those Land Rovers bringing vaccinations to children in Sub Saharan Africa. This is the world's offroad tire.

https://www.cokertire.com/tires/styles/military-and-truck/sta-super-traxion-l78-15.html

 

[adsm08]

Dad had a fairly young MC AT blow out on his truck, kinda hard for me to recommend them.

One bad tire doesn't make the whole brand bad. I once had a brand new Goodyear blow out while I was seating the bead.

A lot of the guys I work with run MasterCrafts and love them. But I do agree, for winter weather I prefer ATs to MTs. MT tires don't cut the packed stuff as well and tend to loose a lot of grip in low traction situations because they don't have a lot of surface area.

 

[ghunt81]

Get a set of Wardens with out the Kedge from treadwright and call it a day.

With what the treadwrights cost now plus the limited tread life I got out of the last set, I really don't plan to buy another set. They were a screaming deal when I bought them 7 years ago, now with shipping they're near the price of new tires. Plus they don't have 32-11.50's. 31-10.50's, with shipping are almost $600 and I have found places with new BFG AT's in that size for just over $600 a set shipped.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

One bad tire doesn't make the whole brand bad. I once had a brand new Goodyear blow out while I was seating the bead.

A lot of the guys I work with run MasterCrafts and love them. But I do agree, for winter weather I prefer ATs to MTs. MT tires don't cut the packed stuff as well and tend to loose a lot of grip in low traction situations because they don't have a lot of surface area.

When they don't last two years and you have to change a blown out tire on a loaded service truck in a field it does sour a guy's opinion of them. Replaced them with Goodyear Duratrax. They cost more but are holding up a lot better.

 

[ridgerunner]

With what the treadwrights cost now plus the limited tread life I got out of the last set, I really don't plan to buy another set. They were a screaming deal when I bought them 7 years ago, now with shipping they're near the price of new tires. Plus they don't have 32-11.50's. 31-10.50's, with shipping are almost $600 and I have found places with new BFG AT's in that size for just over $600 a set shipped.

I bought a set of Wardens for my Dodge 2500 w/o Kedge in 285 70 17 (33") E-rated 10 plies, 3 ply sidewalls and couldn't be happier. They cost hundreds less than anything I could find locally. The old casings they used were BFG AT's and looked nearly identical to the originals.