Tires are one of the most important purchases you will make for your 4x4. They are the foundation to good performance both on the street and on the trail. A wrong choice haunts you for as long as the tires last. A good choice blesses you for the same period. Here"s a round up of five tires from one manufacturer that we think will definitely fall on the blessing side.
ProComp All-Terrain
You could call this tire, "Old Dependable." We tested a set of them in 2001 on a hard working Ford F-250 and they were only recently "retired" with nearly 50K miles and about 45 percent tread still on them. This tire is so long wearing that ProComp isn"t afraid to put a 50,000 mile treadwear guarantee on it. With 47K miles and 45 percent tread left, you do the math on how much longer these tires could have run.
In our long term tests that encompassed five winters, these ATs proved to be fantastic in bad weather, either rain or ice and snow. Note that the ProComp AT meets the new Winter Tire Traction standard established in 1999 and wears the certification symbol. Up to "99, tire manufacturers were left to decide if a tire was suitable for snow. This got to be a rather bad joke, so an actual performance standard was introduced. Tires that meet or exceed this standard are allowed to wear the new "snowflake on the mountain" symbol. Tires are still seen with the old "M&S" (Mud & Snow) rating too, but the snowflake says a whole lot more if you live in a winter climate.
Day to day, the ATs are great tires to live with. On pavement they are quiet and offer excellent traction handling and braking. In the dirt, they are good in most situations, with mud being their poorest venue. This is to be expected from an AT tread. Overall, this is a great tire for a working truck with an owner that needs to get his money"s worth in the mileage department. The All-Terrain comes in diameters from 30 to 35 inches, rim sizes from 15 -17 inches and in load ranges from C to E.
ProComp Mud-Terrain
We have a lot of test miles on Mud-Terrains. As the name implies, they are a mud tire, but we"d call them a good all around tire as well. Like all good mud tires, they have lots of tread depth and a high void ratio, especially at the edges of the tread. They are siped at the center of the tread, which adds to their wet weather traction and general street manners.
A long term test of ProComp MTs has been ongoing over several years. They"ve proven to be outstanding rock tires. They allowed our test rig to basically idle up the Rockpile in Moab"s Pritchett Canyon, where two other tires could not. In mud, they clean well and pull hard, definitely in the top tier. Though the MTs still use ProComp"s standard sidewalls, we have not been able to punch through them, though they do feature some nonlethal "battle scars."
On the street, the MTs are quieter than you"d expect, though by no means whisper quiet. As mud tires go, they"ve worn very well... about 20K so far. Our guess is that, with care, you should see upwards of 40K with these tires. Though they are still a handful on ice and snow, they are decent wet weather tires compared to other mudders. We found wet weather braking performance particularly good compared to other mudders, though cornering was just average. We"d caution against using them yearround in areas with long, snowy winters, but wouldn"t be afraid to use them in areas where winter means just rain.
About the time you read this, a new X-Treme MT will have debuted, or soon will. ProComp is mum about the details right now but the all-new tire is likely based on the 3-ply XTC carcass. We wouldn"t be surprised if the XTC compound is also an option. We do know it will extend the ProComp line and not replace the current MT, which will remain in the lineup as a lower priced mudder alternative.
The Mud-Terrain comes in diameters from 30 to 37 inches, rim sizes from 15 to 18 inches and load ranges from C to E.
ProComp X-Treme AT
This is the "missing link" tire, a hybrid directional that bridges the gap between the mild-mannered all-terrain and the in-your-face mudders or rock crawling tires. It has a very open tread design for an AT, though not with quite as much void ratio as a mudder. It has large blocks of tread that are broken up with lots of sipes and fairly open shoulder lugs. The tread depth is about the same depth as the average mudder or rock tires, so the tire should work well in both venues.
What"s very exciting about this tire is that it uses the same carcass as the X-Terrain XTC. That means they feature threeply sidewalls and the opposed angle steel belts (read below for more info). This makes for an extremely stout casing that will hold up to a lot of hard "wheeling or a lot of hard work on the street. Another exciting aspect is that there are certain sizes available in the sticky XTC (Extreme Traction Compound) tread material. This makes for a tire that has a grip like a silverback gorilla. At this writing, three sizes are available with the XTC; 33, 35 and 37 inch diameters for 20 inch rims. More are due to come.
We have not tested this tire, so we talked to the people who designed them and a guy who uses them. ProComp engineers told us that this tire was designed to be a "mudder with manners." They drastically improved the mud performance while keeping the tire quiet and long wearing on the street, as well as offering predictable handling in inclement weather.
Tom O"Neil has them mounted on two rigs, 37s on a built TJ and the same size on a Powerstroke Ford. When asked how the tires performed in mud compared to the average mudder, he said, "It works great here in Eastern Pennsylvania. If the mudder was a ten, the Extreme AT is a seven where a standard AT would be a four. It"s open enough to clean well, and the shoulder lugs pull pretty well. It"s also a good rock tire, especially the soft compound tires. The best part is I can drive my rigs on the street in the winter without needing a second set of tires."
The X-Treme AT comes in diameters from 33 to 38.5 inches, rim sizes from 16-20 inches and in load ranges from C to E.
ProComp X-Terrain
The X-Terrain is an all-purpose directional tire, biased towards rockcrawling. The tread is a little too closed to make it a great mud tire, but the tread wasn"t designed for mud traction. Nonetheless, it"s no slouch in the gooey stuff.
In fact, this tire performs extremely well in all terrain types. There are tires that might outperform it in one area or another, but few can equal it everywhere. For that reason, we recommend this tire as an all-rounder that would be a good choice for a multi-purpose machine, one that might be mudding one weekend, rock crawling another and in sand the next.
As aggressive as this tire is, what will amaze you is how quiet the X-Terrain is on the street. Handling and braking are very predictable and wet weather performance is very good. We haven"t tried it on ice and snow. The extra siping should be an asset in ice and snow, though that venue would probably be its worst for street use and we"d probably offer the same caution as a mudder if you live in the snow belt. We haven"t put enough miles on them day-to-day to report on treadwear, but owners report getting good service... out of the non-XTC versions anyway.
The standard X-Terrain comes in diameters up to 35 inches, rim size from 15 to 17 inches and in load ranges C and D.
ProComp X-Terrain XTC
While the tread is similar to the standard X-Terrain, whooboy, this is a different tire. It"s definitely a rockcrawling tire, born and bred! The tread is designed with large flexible blocks broken up by sipes for maximum flexibility. The compound is much softer than a normal tire and that"s a two edged sword. It offers fantastic grip but a relatively short tread life. Our "wheeling experience was limited to a day in Moab, but we could directly compare the standard tread to the XTC and anyone who couldn"t tell the difference, hadn"t a clue. In mud, this tire is about the same as the standard X-Terrain, in other words good.
The carcass of the XTC is completely different than the standard X-Terrain, with three ply sidewalls and opposed angle steel belts in the tread that makes for a very tough but very flexible tire. It"s designed to stand up to typical aireddown abuse. Several competition rockcrawlers are using them with good success. At low pressures, the tire conforms very well and is tough enough to take the abuse that imparts in competition use.
On the street, the XTC drives nice. Like the standard XTerrain, it"s a quiet tire. The sticky rubber is actually an asset in the handling and braking departments, kinda like a grippy race tire might be, though the deep, squirmy tread design detracts. The problem is that on the street they won"t wear for beans compared to a standard tire, so they are not a good choice for a commuter that needs to get a decent number of miles from his tires. Overall, this is a great choice for a trail rig that wants maximum performance but gets minimal street miles.
The X-Terrain XTC comes in diameters from 33 to 40, in rim sizes from 15 to 20 and in load ranges from C to E
Big Tire Tips-Making Big Tires More Livable on the Street
If you use your rig day-to-day and it mounts big tires, you"ll know that big tires can be a pain day-to-day. Yeah, they may earn their keep on the trail but noise, poor handling and braking, excessive wear and poor fuel economy are just a few of the common street pitfalls. While you can"t change the laws of physics, you can mitigate some of their bad effects with a few simple choices.
Handling:
Larger Rim Sizes - More and more larger diameter rims sizes are available for the standard light duty wheel patterns... 5, 6 and 8-lug. You can find 16, 17, 18 and 20 inch rims these days and the array of tire sizes. There are a lot of advantages to upgrading to a larger diameter rim. A lower profile tire will offer better handling because it"s less prone to sidewall rollover. In general, if you keep the profile no higher than a mounted 35 inch tire, about 7-8 inches, you can minimize those bad sidewall effects while still leaving you plenty of air volume for terrain conformation and airing down.
Correct Tire Pressure - Note the term "correct." Fuel economy and handling are somewhat at odds here. For handling, you want to have all of the tread in contact with the road and enough air pressure to resist tire rollover. Sometimes, airing up beyond the ideal handling point can result in slightly better fuel economy but worse handling. This varies greatly from tire to tire, so we may be picking nits here.
Fuel Economy:
Tire Size - Even if you re-gear properly, bigger tires are going to eat into fuel economy. No way around that. Wider tires create more rolling resistance. Taller tires require more energy to overcome inertia. There are some absolutes to consider; a less aggressive tire has less rolling resistance than a more aggressive one. Softer tread compounds also tend to have more rolling resistance.
Inflation - You can minimize any of the above losses by making sure the tires are properly inflated.
Longevity:
Quality Pays in the Long Run - Tires are an ongoing major expense. With a big off-road tire costing from one to three hundred bucks each, that"s an expense you want to minimize. You can do that by buying good tires and making them last. Buying more sets of cheap tires is usually false economy.
Alignment, Inflation, Balance and Rotation - These all contribute significantly to long wear. Inflation: Check weekly or at least once a month. Tires naturally lose some air. Alignment: For some 4x4s there"s not much to do here, but if yours is hard used, check it at least once a year. Rotation: Many advocate every 5,000-7,500 miles. That works for this writer. Balance: 7,500-10,000 miles. Sooner if needed.
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