In Praise of the Stock Wrangler Adventures

Got back from my first trip to Moab a few weeks back and got to expose my stock tires to some new conditions. Did Fins and Things, Gemini Bridges, White Rim and Potash Road. Was running anywhere from 20 to 25 psi, depending on the conditions, and never had any problems with traction. Did most of the climbs in 2WD, and only switched to 4LO on the descents to take it easy on my brakes and on the technical sections of Fins and Things for throttle control. The rubber on the sidewalls is a bit scuffed, but no cuts, lost lugs or flats.

I have previously given tires a workout in Northern Colorado on various forest roads in both wet and dry conditions, as well as, and had no problems whatsoever.

This winter, we got a lot of snow and ice on the roads, and I rarely had to drive in 4WD. When things were icy and the tires did slip, the traction control was generally sufficient to keep me moving forward and preventing the back from kicking out. We got about 12 inches of snow one night, and before the plows came through the next morning, I went for a joyride through the fresh powder at 1am. In 4HI, not even the slightest worry of getting stuck.

I have driven through mud as well with no problems, other than difficulty of removing a hundred pounds of mud from my vehicle after it had dried out.

They only have a little over 10K miles at this point, and maybe they will wear out relatively fast, but so far these tires have been stellar in performance, given how well behaved they are on pavement.

I am sure I could cut them to shreds on granite/basalt/etc. if I wanted. However, it appears that if you air down, and take it easy on sharp rocks and pick good lines, they are more than sufficient for wheeling. I am planning on driving up Mt. Antero in CO this summer, which is mostly granite, so maybe I'll eat my words, but at this point I don't see a reason to replace the stock tires with something else until these wear out.

About the only complaint I have, is that I would like the tires to be a bit bigger in diameter for clearance, but so far I have yet to get stuck on anything. I have full skids and sliders, and I have tagged them on a few trails, but other than a bit of paint removal, no issues.

 

So far I've been moderately impressed with them. Enough that I am not considering changing anytime soon. I'll be interested to see how they do this coming winter. If they handle the snow and ice sufficiently well I doubt I'll swap them out to something else at all. For my needs so far they seem to be a good compromise tires for all conditions (except snow at this time).

 

I wanted to give them a shot but after 800 miles they came off. They're borderline dangerous in snow.

 

See that's the puzzling thing about tires. Some folks have good results in a particular condition and some say the same tires are terrible in virtually the same conditions.

 

My truck had some weird behaviors in certain snow and slush conditions too, the Wildpeaks i decided to go with are a big improvement over the stock Goodyears.

 

imo these tires suck, can hardly wait to swap them out. I find they are prone to understeer even on dry fire roads. Of course speed plays a role but I use to take the same roads in my 2nd gen with KO2's with no issues what so ever. KO2's go where you point them, the Goodyear wranglers sure as hell don't.

 

Snow and ice can vary a lot in consistency. They won't work in conditions that require chains, but then most tires won't perform so well in those conditions either. I do have a 100-lb tonneau cover that I leave on my bed during the winter. I am sure that helps with traction.

I should also note that I drove an old Ford Ranger with worn out tires for a number of years in snow during the winter, and learned pretty quickly how fast you can accelerate and stop, and when to preemptively switch into 4WD. A 2WD pickup is always going to be greatly handicapped in snow compared to a FWD passenger vehicle. Got pretty good at drifting through corners with the old pickup during icy conditions. The traction control on this vehicle doesn't let me do that anymore, though.

 

Nice write-up. Glad they're working for you. So many "opinions" about tires are really all about the driver.

G.

 

Based on how much people bash the stock Goodyear's I was expecting my rig to roll over on my first fire road or all 4 of my tires to pop on the first pebble but after doing some moderate trails, hasn't let me down and I'm satisfied. I'll switch them out probably in a year (has 20k miles on it now with tons of tread)

 

I've had 0 problems with mine. If I can get 50k out of them I'll be stoked. 3500 so far haha. At that point I'll probably go with a 2.5 lift and some wheels.

 

Oh...I thought this thread was about Jeeps

 

Over 16K on my stock tires and rims. Glad I didn't switch them out despite TW. I run more air through them on the highways to get to the trails and air down while on them. Still very even wear. Saved a whole bunch of money by not switching. Lots of gas money and steak dinners. I know which I would rather have.

 

The stock wranglers have been super impressive to me. Sand dunes I had absolutely no issues. A foot of snow they dig out well. A few inches of snow on the road they track well, and when I flung the rear end around the truck was very predictable. I think these tires get a lot of flack because they don't look as aggressive as other AT's. But for 95% of people, these will get the job done.

My impressions are on 8,000 mile old tires.

Edit: Have to add I have a shell. Probably 150-170 pounds on the bed.