Need suggestions for off road tires | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Need suggestions for off road tires

Schralp

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May 13, 2013
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Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Explorer
Hello everyone,

Fairly new here to the Forum and needing some suggestions on some off road tires. I was hoping to get a set of tires that would be 30" X 10". Any recommendations? My X isn't lifted at all and it would be going on the stock 16" rims that came with it as I don't want to buy new rims.
 



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It varies based on the conditions you will be using your vehicle off road and on road.
For example, Im running a different tire on my 4x4, and another on my 2wd ST pre-runner.Also depends on what part of the country you live.
 






Like tooltime said it depends. But for me living on the East coast doing daily driving and trails, BFG's KM2's worked fine.
But now that I'm going to do some harder trails and rock climbs, I now have 40" IROKs which also have a softer compound to grip the rocks.
 






On my 02 I ran General Grabber AT2's that were 265/75(maybe 70 forgot)-16
they clear well, and they did awesome on the road (except 19mpg's) offroad, they were the cats pajamas
on my ranger I am running Bf mud terrains
i feel horrible doing it but I have no dough to change tires right now
they seem to be great off road
 






For a good mix between on road and offroad performance I really like my BFG KM2s. They have about 10k miles on them and have worn evenly even though they haven't worn much at all.
 






It's technically my "daily driver" but I don't actually drive it daily, basically just on the weekends. I live in Canada on the far west coast. I'm not going to be doing anything super heavy duty for off roading, mostly just trails.
 






For that purpose I'd say get a set of aggressive all terrains. One set that a lot of guys really like for snow and dirt is Goodyear Duratracs
 






I would second the Duratracks, IMO they are the best all around tire I have ever used!
 






255/70R16 is a stock size that came on explorers, and that is a 30.2X10 inch tire, just so you are aware.

How aggressive of tires do you want? Are you looking for something that is going to kick ass and take names off road, or do you want something with good road manners that you can go off road with?

I've got Dynapro ATMs on my explorer, and they are super quiet on road, and so far, they have been doing great with any of the mild off-road stuff I do. But, if I were ever planning on driving in stuff other than fields, pastures, gravel pits and that type of stuff, I would have probably gone with something a bit more aggressive, like the KM2s. The Dynapros however did really well with the extended winter weather we had here, where it kept switching back and forth between winter and spring, and I didn't feel like putting on my snow tires since I had no idea when it was going to be winter and spring, and how long either of them would last. When you bounce back and forth between half a foot of snow and ice on the ground, and 70 degree weather in the same week, for several weeks on end... you kind of won't be in the mood to burn up perfectly good snow tires.

Duratracs are probably one of the best options. They are a light truck rated tire, and they still have great road manners, despite being a fairly aggressive tread. I actually regretted not spending a hundred bucks more and getting them instead of the Dynapros I have. But, I do take solace in the fact that the Dynapros go down the highway almost like a highway tread as far as noise and road manners go. And considering all the highway driving I do, I can live with my decision.
 












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