ive heard some people say wider tires are better and narrow tires are better so lets here your opinions. I think wider would be better because you get more traction and have a less chance to roll.

 

heres what ive read,
if you do alot of rock crawling, get WIDER, as you do get more grip...
if you do alot of MUD, you want narrow tires, less to push on the front tires..
think of a snow shovel vs. a narrow shovel, and the snow as mud, its alot easier to push the norrow shovel throu than the snow shovel. thats how it was explained to me, hope this helps.

 

you want a wider tire in mud b/c you get a bigger footprint and float more. with a narrow tire you will dig right to the frame very quick.

 

but for the mud you want to get down to the harder dirt to get the traction. if you have wider, then you will "float" more, but you'll be on the loose wet stuff more, but it all depends on how much lift you have and how deep of mud your talkin about i guess.

 

i think this is gonna being "everyone" has a different view or point, and so many "what if"s fooddude go with what you like, lol may the force be with you.

 

Go for the wide tires, chicks dig that.

Jim

 

well, as long as the mud isnt deeper that the distance from your axle to the ground, the narrow tires will work much better. however, if it is, you will just cut straight down and be stuck.

also keep in mind that the greater the difference in tire width and rim width = less likely to pop a bead. also, you are less likely to damage a rim.

another reason i dont like narrow tires: every time i see someone running some 33X.5 BFG's or some 34X9.5 LTB's they cant air down very much because they will literally be running on the sidewall. now if you have lots of sidewall tread, this can be advantageous, but on some BFG's not so.

but, with a narrower tire, you will have fewer rubbing problems.

 

Snow and mud are essentially the same. If it is more than axle deep, you want wide to float over it. Less than that and you want narrow to sink down to firm surface. For rockcrawling there is a difference of opinions that is not quite as clear. My feeling is that a wide tire will wrap around a rock and grip better. I also think that a narrow tire is more likely to break a bead than a wider tire with comparable sidewall height. My 2¢

 

I've run both wide (33x15.50 Swampers):



and narrow (33x9.50 and 10.50 MTs/ATs):



I've run into cases with one width tire where I felt the other width may have worked better (I don't run any bottomless mud and don't really have the engine power to spin up a really wide aggressive tire in it), but I'm going to be running 10.50 and 12.50 tires. I found most of the time the very wide wheel and tire caused more trouble in rocks and tight spots than it helped. Plus the wide tires suck a lot of power and MPG on the highway.

 

Don't all the safari and Paris-Dakar type expedition trucks use skinny tires? Maybe for overall off road use, the skinny tires are better?

 

If you follow WRC or SCCA Pro Rally at all, look at what tires they choose for the wide variety of terrain thay race on. On pavement they use wide, un-treaded tires, more rubber on the road=more grip. In snow they run tiny 4 inch wide pizza cutters with studs. They slice through the snow to get to whatever is below it that might provide grip. In rain they use a medium-wide and heavily grooved tire to do both; cut through the water and put lots of tread on the pavemant below.

I guess it depends on what conditions you expect to see the most.

 

weight-

That is also a big factor in tire selection, as is the terrain you'll be traversing. Over the years, on several different 4x4 trucks, I've had tires ranging from bias ply rancher style tires about 7" wide and 30" tall up to the 15" meats like those in Roger's pic's.

My exo-caged truck is pretty heavy, it's at 4600 lbs with gas, gear and 2 people. For it, the best width is towards the upper end. Flotation will get you over deep mud and snow- I prefer a wide tire, at least an 11.5" wide, and will be moving up to a 13.0" tire when my current set of 12.50" MT/R's are worn out. I've had good luck with the MT/R's so far in a wide range of terrain.

For sand, 4 PSI on a 12.5 tire, the truck will climb dunes until it runs outta power. Mud @ 10 PSI works OK, not great, but OK- any less preasure and the bead seems to let go. The truck stays up on the top layer pretty well, but gets a bit squirley on hills with dual lockers. Deep snow is a ball with 4 to 8 PSI- in last years 28" of heavy wet snow near Flagstaff, AZ., we were able to get up on top of the pack and cut ruts about 8" deep with no problem. A narrow tire would not have worked at all- the snow was so wet, you would have needed a big block and chains to push thru, if you could at all. And for rock, 8 PSI works great.

Now, on my 6300 LB 4x4 tow rig, I run a 245-75x16 All Season M/S rated tire- for the street, it works great in rain, snow and ice. But, that ain't wheelin' With that skinny a tire, it will bury the back tires in sand just putting it in drive. The torque of a big block just screws the tires right in. It would require a pretty large tire to acheive good flotation at that weight. If I was gonna wheel it seriously, I think I'd opt for the Q78 sized tire- 9.5" wide and almost 35" tall to allow it to cut it's way thru.

later

 

also remember like 4crawler said, wider = less MPG...
I found that out the hard way.

 

I believe it depends on how deep the mud is. Heres my experience: I go down broccoli fields during the export season a lot, those fields get really muddy, anyways, one time as I head toward a packing crew my 33x12.5s floated everywhere on a narrow maddy road, after swirling everywhere and trying my best to avoid irrigation pipes, I finally got out. As I walk in a foreman of the field drives his chevy pass me, with narrow tires he drove in the same mud and cuts right through without slipping. But if the mud was deeper he could have sank to the frame and wider tires would paddle through...

 

I know the REAL story.
Milton was racing his mom's Highlander down the deep muddy broccoli fields and she kicked his butt with stock all-season radials!

 

Hahaha! Shhh.... thats a secret..... but without mud flapps and the floating effect I cover her highlander with mud!! ok... that never happened but I get lots of mud on my roof and throw mud at everything around me (hope the workers are mud proof...j/k)

 

The most embarassing part was when Milton's mom had to pull out the recovery strap when he high-centered on some broccoli! Hey man, that stuff ain't called roughage for nothing!

 

I have ran different width tires on different vehicles. Most of the posts have covered the issues:

Wider:
Less MPG
Better grip on Rocks, if not to wide
Hyroplane on mud
Looks cool, but wheel well and turning issues( sometimes)

Thinner:
Better MPG
Dig Deep in Mud, but if the mud is too deep your better off gunning it and hydroplaning.
Doesn't look as cool.

I personally like a 12.5 inch wide tire it is in the middle to accomodate all terrains, unless you are looking at tires over 36"

 

I live in snow country... so my opinion is for highway driving= thinner.... romping through trails and mud = wider... I just compromise on 10.5's, works for me! Then again we all know what they say about opinion's.

 

One point that I haven't seen touched on is the issue of increased stability with the wider tire and rim combo. I went to wider tires because the IFS has so little articulation that it scares the !@#$ out of me sometimes. Otherwise, I prefer a narrow tire here in the deep south. We have deep bogs where floatation is nice, but my Yota with the 22RE is so light that I dont see the benefits. I have some trails with red clay(for those of you in other regions, red clay is literally like butter when wet!) side hills so slick that you can end up stranded in downhill ditches even though the mud was only an inch thick that you were driving through. Funny to see a locked and lifted truck on Boggers stuck on a road that a Honda Civic could make it past. Times like these are where skinny meats rule. Wide tires and lockers suck in slick situations and are not for the inexperienced.