Wait for the stock tires to ware down?

Hell no. Forget waiting for those junks to wear down. Get a badass set of A/T's or M/T retreads. I have had "Wardens" which are really just retreaded BFG A/T KO's for a little over 10,000 miles now, have taken them wheeling many and plenty of times and they still look as new as the day I mounted them. They ride awesome too!

Treadwright.com is where you can get retreaded tires from, just a FYI. They also offer bead to bead retreads too, which is even more badass then just a simple retread because the sidewalls get all new rubber as well! I picked up a set of 4 tires for a little over $500 at the time. Less then 1/2 of the $$ they normally cost!

 

I don't know much about tires... is this safe?

 

Some will say it is, and others will say it's not. I know that one of our shop GOVs is a Chevy 2500 4x4 with DuraTrac's on the front and retreads on the back. So, if it's good enough for the Air Force to go the cheap route (and I only say that because the retreads are basically semi-truck slicks fitted on a medium duty pickup and have 0 grip on anything but dry pavement) they are probably safe.

However, I have the stock Dunflops on my Sport, and they are almost as bad as the government retreads on my work truck. Therefore when I return from my tour in Korea, I plan to slap some BFG ATs on it and bump up a size to 265/70R17s. The only question I have is should I keep the stock rims or get some Ultra X-Lok 17x8.5" Wheels?

 

Military uses it to cut costs on their Humvee's

And I have beat the living shit out of mine for the last 10,000 miles and they are still looking like champs the day I put them on. Not one single problem except the time I got a nail in my tire, which was taken care of shortly after.

I'm gonna go out on a whim here and say yes they are safe enough.