Tire Choice - ATs or MTs?

So I am starting to think about the next set of tires that I want to put on my adventure rig/daily driver. I am debating between ATs or MTs and I am having trouble getting straight answers about MTs.

My adventures consist of road and dirt but like most people on here 75-80% is road. At this point, you are probably thinking.. say no more dummy, get ATs! but there is always a catch. My rig is a locked 2wd so the extra meat would make me more capable in the dirt. However, I have yet to encounter anything that I have yet to be able to overcome with traction boards and ingenuity.

I am also thinking about 285/70/17 (32.8") vs 255/80/17 (33.1"). The 285s will give me more rubber on the ground but there may be rubbing (i have a 2-2.5" lift with bilsteins set at the top level on the front) and I would prefer not to cut anything. The 255s would give me max true lift with no chance of rubbing but may look goofy.

The tires I am currently looking at are as follows:

285/70/17 - Falken Wildpeak AT3W (55k mileage warranty)
285/70/17 - Falken Wildpeak MT01 (Avg Treadlife?)

255/80/17 - Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx (Avg Treadlife?)


I am having a hard time getting average tread life for the MTs and ST Maxxs. So I was hoping some of you helpful dudes could help provide some insight so I can know what to expect. To put it in perspective, I have driven 35k miles in the last year and half.

 

have you looked at ridge grapplers which are a hybrid AT/MT? I'm like 90% street, but when I do go off road, I hit some pretty gnarly trails. But the fact that my ride is my DD and how crappy the ride was on KM2s, I went wit the hybrid ridge grapplers.

 

I have looked into them.. Nittos in general seem a bit over-priced. How many miles do you plan to get out of them? how to you compare them to standard ATs like Wildpeak AT3W?

 

I haven't been able to compare them to standard ATs. Only the stock Goodyear wrangler kevlar AT and the BFG KM2 MT. The Ridge grappler is nominally louder than stock, but vastly quieter than any MT. There is no hum or MT "whine" with these tires. They perform just as good in the rain and in dry as the stock ATs well. I don't go mudding so I can't compare it to the MT, but in the loose, dry dirt/rock areas that I go wheel in they were just as good as the MTs.

I only have about maybe 6k miles on them and they look great. Some others are still holding up at 40k, and their only complaint is that they're getting louder. If I can get at least 40k I'll be happy.

They are a bit pricy but I was able to get them for a large discount through an employee friend at Nitto. They no longer work there so I'll be looking at other tires, especially sine I'll be going up to 35s next.

 

That being said I have a friend with falken wildpeak ATs in 265 on a 18 pro, and he loves them. However, he sticks to fire service roads and such, not as much technical crawling as I do.

 

Yeah i get pretty dirty and deep in the woods. Since I am 2wd, I would prefer to have more grip then less. However, there is a peak with treadlife so I would prefer not to sacrifice too many miles because tires aren't cheap!