2nd set of wheels to run MT?

Thanks for the link!

I was referring more to the sidewall durability.

This actually makes me feel a lot better about my current setup for Death Valley in 2 weeks!

 

Manufacturers of mud terrains often do advertise increased sidewall puncture resistance, but there is no industry standard for it. You are just taking them at their word.

It does however seem intuitive that a thick heavy LT mud terrain tire likely has better puncture resistance.

Personally I have not had a flat in 30 years, so it’s not a concern of mine. I usually have a spare tire if it were to happen again.

 

After a couple trips you’ll get tired of swapping the heavy M/Ts and will just leave them on.

 

AT's are vastly superior in snow in my experience. Seems counter intuitive but you a tually want to tread voids to pack with snow as snow sticks to snow better than rubber does. I tried my MT's in the winter and as much as it was better than anticipated I'll never run an MT in the winter again.

 

The point is that with a “skinny” 32, I have a 42lb legit LT tire. Weight savings is big.

 

Seasonal tire changes (i.e. twice a year) is common in northern states and canuckistan. Swapping tires on a per-trip basis becomes burdensome really fast. You'll find yourself missing out on off-road trips because you didn't have time to swap tires. Folks in my off-road club have tried this; they all stopped and sold the street tires.

Me? I run Goodyear Duratrac RT year-round on my daily driver (4Runner). The tire just happens to be good both in snow and off-road. I decided to live with the increased weight and 3% fuel economy hit (from 16.0 mpg on stock tires to 15.5 mpg on Duratracs, averaged over four tanks on each tire).

 

I purchased 6 stock TRD OR wheels on Facebook Market place for about $400. Lots of folks selling stock wheels. Plan is to have a set of 5, E 255/85/16MT's for summer, will switch back for non-wheeling road trips, general usage and winter. At this point not going to do anything about TPMS sensors, will probably yank them out of my existing wheels and mount them into a sealed pressurized pvc tube to have them always available, need to do more research to see if this will work.

 

Mud terrains are not generally designed for snow but all terrains are. One obvious design trade off is the amount of siping. A dedicated winter or all-terrain will typically have a lot more siping than a mud terrain.

I don’t know of any science that backs up the often stated conjecture that snow sticks to snow more than rubber sticks to snow.

Snow/ice is a very difficult surface that requires a lot specific design choices that are at odds with design choices for other surfaces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx4YaxEc5PQ

 

Dirt lifestyle has a pretty good video regarding winter wheeling with some reasonable visuals to back it up but nothing scientific. But my understanding is the siping bolth allows for more tire flex and more tire edges to grip. Ontop of this every sipe and tighter tread void allows a tire to cling to slow rather than eject it. Which is the complete opposite of an MT.

 

I am subscribed to dirt lifestyle and have enjoyed many of his videos, but he is not a professional engineer.

Also keep in mind that snow/ice surfaces vary dramatically based on temperature, humidity, age, sun, depth, etc. His snow wheeling videos tend to be in deep, warm weather, mountain, young, powder snow.

I would love to do a trip like that. I grew up snow wheeling in a 2wd jalopy on flat land. The best thing about snow is that you can always dig yourself out. This is not true of mud.

I’ve done a fair amount of winter biking on and off the road. Snow biking is a lot of fun and a big challenge.

Studded mountain tires are a game changer in icy conditions. You can ride on trails that are unwalkable.

https://varuste.net/en/p131373/suomi-tyres-wxc-piikkisika-w384-studded-tyre

 

My Duratrac A/T's where the closest thing to an M/T I've ever rocked, but with better on-road characteristics. I never had a need for M/T tires when I wore them, including in the winter on snow & ice.

I will go back to them once my Wildpeaks are worn out, since as much as I like Wildpeaks, they dont have the deep grooves and are more compromise of an on-road tire, and a tad less aggresive in the winter.

But I cannot see myself needing an extra set of rims and M/Ts, since Toyotas 4x4 "Off Road" model works great.

 

Oh I'm well aware on varying conditions in the foothills of Alberta we see temperature swings from -40 to +15 in as little as 24 hours. With that comes every varying snow/ice conditions imaginable.
Last year was my first winter on street legal studded AT's and it's incredible those wee little studs make.

Back in my subaru days we made our own studded tires for the lake and hop damn those were insane. They plow tracks on the one lake by town. Those were good times.

Obviously not applicable to general use at all but this is the same process that we used years ago. Always impressive to consider the work to do it.
https://blog.365racing.net/2013/02/11/building-home-made-studded-tires-for-the-ice-generation-3/

 

Ha! I made DIY studded tires for my pickup and took it out on a frozen lake too. There is nothing like going sideways at 60 mph across a lake at 10F with no passenger side window and no heater. I think I almost lost my toes that day.

 

You’re fine IMO. IM on my wildpeaks just did a Death Valley trip super sharp rocks no issues. Plus my truck isn’t heavy. Ride quality is super important to me. Also note when I had my MT Geo landers a slashed a side wall on a trail. My Daughters boyfriend on stockers no issue. Also for me like I said ride quality is very important. Also for my use and trails no issues