by Mark Hamburger

Created on: May 07, 2008   Last Updated: February 15, 2012

Selecting the right tires for your off-road vehicle is one of the most important decisions you can make concerning the drivability and trail handling abilities of your rig. The first factor in determining the right tire is how you will use your vehicle. Will it be a highly-modified trail-only rig, or a daily driver that may only see trail duty on weekends?

Once you decide how you will use your vehicle, the next step is to figure out what type of terrain you'll be using it on most. There are different tires for mud, sand, rock-crawling, and just general trail use. After that, you need to consider how big you want to go, not just tire size, but wheel size as well. You may want to ask around 4x4 shops and tire shops to see what works best for your rig, most will be able to relay their or others experience with a particular setup. Some options require suspension lifts, body lifts, trimming of body panels, or even more.

Once you have decided on your perfect setup, there are usually many tire options available. Let's say you have decided that you want to put a set of 31-inch tires on your daily-driver that will only see trail duty on weekends, and you want to keep your stock rims. You will want to have a set of all-terrain tires that aren't too soft and don't produce too much road noise. Most shops will have many tire that fit this bill, from very expensive down to a no-name budget tire. I'll go over some of the common setups that work well for different situations.

For daily-driver vehicles, I suggest staying close to a stock tire size with a fairly mild tread pattern. On most 4x4s a 31x10.50r15 will do the trick. This will provide a good ride, good drivability, and fairly low tire noise for highway driving, while not requiring a lift on most setups. You can also avoid having to upgrade your drive-train, as the stresses will not be much different. The best tires for this setup are BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO or Goodyear Wrangler, both of which are reasonably priced and provide decent performance for both on- and off-road driving.

For a rig that will be used in mud or mild rock-crawling, with a little street use, as in driving to and from the trail, a larger and more aggressive tire will usually be required, probably a 33" or larger mud-terrain or rock-crawling specific tire, depending on which you'll encounter most often. Mud tires can handle rock crawling well, so if you plan on encountering mud, they may be the better choice. Tires this big will require a suspension

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