I think I might need some mud tires...

I'm not really looking for tire advice; I just wanted to share my experience.

I've always been able to get by with All-Terrains, but I about rolled my truck into a ditch while driving through some extremely thick yet shallow sticky mud a few weeks ago. My fairly new Cooper AT3s became mud clogged on an off-camber up hill road, when I slowly lost all forward momentum and started slowly sliding sideways. Somehow, I stopped sliding just before I went over the edge. I almost needed to change my shorts afterwards.



It took two hours and some creative use of recovery gear to get my truck out of there. We'd get it away from the edge, but it kept sliding back every time I moved forward again.

The whole ordeal has me strongly considering getting a set of KM2s, which I've been resisting because I don't want that kind of noise for my DD and I don't encounter terrain like this that often. The Cooper's actually did quite well in the mud everywhere but here, including some other steeper muddy hills. It's just that I had a lot more to lose this time and that's got me thinking.

 

I have been in a couple VERY similar situations.. funNY enough I was on m/ts at the time and now run a/ts... best bet is to avoid these off camber trails when it is snowy/muddy if there is a cliff below. Gravity + no traction is as scary as it gets for me.

 

Cooper ST Maxx might be a good compromise for you if you don’t spend a lot of time in the mud.

 

It didn't look as bad until I was halfway up. Lesson learned though.

It's between those and the KM2s if I decide to switch. I wonder if a skinnier all terrain would've been better in this situation.

 

Goodyear duratrac?
Nitto trail grappler?

 

How about falken wildpeaks M/T? I heard a lot of good reviews about em. Planning to get a set next year since my area is known for swamp mud.

 

Most tires would have probably got the the same experience if not worse as MT's usually have big lugs with more surface contact area. In conditions like you described wheel spin, aka floor it, to clean the tread out would have most likely allowed you to maintain traction. If youre just trying to creep or crawl in sticky clay or mud like that, the tread will fill with the goop and loose traction quickly resulting in an uncontrollable slide like you experienced.

Not trying to be a internet backseat driver as it is rather nerve racking in situations like that where any wrong move could end in disaster. Experience goes a long ways knowing when to hit the skinny pedal and dig for traction, or when youre in over your head and accept defeat.

 

I've heard to many mixed reviews about the Duratracs. I'm still researching and still unsure if I'm even going to switch tires. Thanks for the suggestions though.

I'll read up on those. I'm trying to avoid loud tires and I've read the KM2s and St Maxxs are fairly quite for what they are.

I think you're right, but by the time I realized I needed to punch the throttle I was already moving sideways into the ditch. I was scared to go into the turn full throttle, because I was already sliding everywhere and didn't want to fishtail into the trees on the other side of the road. I think bigger lugs would've been better in this situation because I would've had more control from the beginning.

 

Just remember this.
When in doubt use full throttle, it might not improve the situation but it will help end the suspense.

As for the duratracs, they aren't bad tires. Just keep them rotated like religion.

 

What recovery stuff did you end up having to use to get your ass end over? I don't see any winch points on the side of the hill, so I'm curious.

 

air down

 

Tire chains

Keep your same tires

I've been in the same situation. In that situation tires, or even pressure, might not have gotten you through. Tire chains would though. Get the heavy duty V bar style.

 

find another route..........or chains

 

I've seen stock tires do some amazing things. M/T's are overrated imo.

 

We started with ratchet strapping the rear end to the small tree (you can barely see it in the background of the above picture) behind the truck. We did this to prevent the truck from going over while we pulled the front with a friend's truck. This technique didn't work, but, surprisingly, the ratchet straps themselves pulled the truck up the hill by a foot or so. The mud was extremely slick.

Next, we used a ratchet strap to a recovery strap to the ass end of my truck, with a friend pulling from up the hill. It wasn't the safest technique, but we were out of options. We repeated this for the front end. The truck immediately slid back to the same spot when I tried to move forward.

We did that two more times.

On the third attempt, we put down rocks and branches in front of the tires. They provided just enough traction to get me to the top of the hill.

The rest of the trail was just as muddy and slick, but I didn't have a problem with the other hills or turns, even though I was sliding a lot. Just this off-camber one.

 

I run toyo mts currently. BUT i was recently at my local offroad shop and saw the toyo RTs. They are a sweet tire, much lighter and shop says they're very quiet up to about 65 and then a low hum afterwards. Might be worth looking into.

 

Did you have your rear locker on? A locked axle will make an off camber slick spot a hair raising experience. When unlocked one of the wheels wont be spinning and helps with tracking straight.