I don't know how many of you've ever been stuck in the mud on the way to work, but it's not as much fun as it sounds. Having experienced this unhappy situation my share of times while logging and farming, I can tell you hiking through the mud in the driving rain to fetch a tractor or skidder is not my ideal way to start the day.
Perhaps even worse are those mornings when you are headed in to hunt a remote area and you know all this spooling winch line and thrashing about will lessen your chance to bag the game you are pursuing. So I hope you'll forgive me when I say that my interest in a mud tire is all about getting there and back without delay.
That's what the Dick Cepek Mud Country is about as well. With its high-void stepped tread block design and aggressive shoulder and sidewall elements it provides excellent traction. But, what about getting from the driveway to the off-road adventure?
A NASCAR-like pit stop to change tires and wheels just before hitting a logging road on a hunting trip would be ideal, wouldn't it? No need for pavement performance, sound reduction, handling and all that stuff. Just give me some mud chomping tread blocks that clean out and keep right on biting.
However, with the pit crew disappointingly unavailable, my hunting tires will actually see about 60 pavement and 10 gravel miles for every mile on dirt roads on a hunting outing. During the week they rarely make it off-road at all. The reality is that most mud tires spend most of their time mostly on pavement.
The designers at Dick Cepek kept this highway aspect in mind when they designed their Mud Country tire. "The fact that it's a radial tire helps the street-ability," according to Jason Moulden, Product Develop Manager of Dick Cepek Tires, "You get longer wear and better ride than you would a typical bias tire."
The Dick Cepek design team also added siping to the tread blocks to help with water and ice traction. Siping provides more gripping edges on the tread block surface, makes the tread more flexible and gives water a place to hide so the tread can touch the road surface. Tests show that siping increases tread wear as well.
A third ply on the tire's sidewall makes it stronger. This added strength improves the tires ability to handle a torsional load, which improves the tire's handling. While it's not a road-racing tire, we found it did quite well on our Ford F-250 Super Duty.
Another issue with mud tires on pavement is the noise produced as the large tread blocks make contact with the pavement. At certain speeds the tires produce a distinct howl. While the Mud Country tires reduce road noise with irregular tread blocks to break up the resonance, they still sound like a quiet mud tire at highway speeds. It's really not that noticeable in our Power Stroke with an open exhaust, but you should know, it sings like a mud tire.
So the guys at Dick Cepek designed a mud tire that performs admirably on the street. But it really shines when it comes to off-road performance. A closer look at the tread pattern reveals why.
The first thing you'll notice is large tread blocks with sizable gaps between them. This high void design gives mud a place to go, exposes more biting edges and cleans out to keep biting edges exposed.
Then you'll notice that the tread blocks themselves have irregular shapes. In fact, part of the design concept was to make the elements as non-uniform as possible, according to Moulden. The non-uniform tread blocking not only helps reduce noise, it constantly presents differing biting edges to the driving surface, which increases traction.
Taking a close look inside the canyons produced by the tread blocks reveals steps on the sides of the blocks. These steps are very important to the tire's traction. Not only do they produce a void shape, which cleans out more efficiently, they also provide more biting surfaces to grab the terrain.
In our testing, we found the tread design to be very effective for self-cleaning. Even the stickiest clay we encountered dropped out and exposed tread blocks for the next pass. This is perhaps the single biggest factor in muddy road traction.
Moving around to the shoulder of the tire, you will notice that alternate blocks have a concave shape. "What we're doing there is removing part of the block so the block behind it has more of an exposed edge to it," says Moulden, "And this exposed edge increases traction."
Further around the tire to the outer part of the sidewalls you will see the chain-link style "D-C" shaped tread blocks as well as other tread block elements. Not only do these add shadows lines for an aggressive look, they provide added traction for climbing out of ditches. This extra rubber on the sidewalls also helps protect them from rock damage.
We noticed in our slow shutter speed photos that the tread blocks in the center of the tire, although irregular, provided a nice center void around the tire, which we learned was designed to handle water and slushy snow.
The ability of the stepped tread block design to self-clean is a great feature of the tire. In addition, we logged a lot of miles on gravel roads, most of which had 3/4" minus crushed rock. We were pleased with the way rocks did not stick in the voids, which is a common problem for most of the tires we test on these same roads. The Mud Countrys also had a very stable feel on gravel roads that is an added benefit when traversing the Coast Range here in Oregon.
At very low speeds you can actually feel the tread blocks. The tires were a bit noisier than the all-terrains we took off of the truck, but over all these are a very street-able mud tire with excellent off-road capabilities and aggressive good looks. Sizes range from 31x10.50R15LT to 40x13.50R20LT
Purchase the Dick Cepek Radial Mud Country Tires or view a complete listing of Dick Cepek Tires online, or to order by phone call 4WP at 800-284-9840.
