What You Need to Know about New Jeep Tires

When our jeeps are bought new they come out with an all season tire, and that all season tire it's really designed to work everywhere, drive, pavements, snow, ice, rain. They're designed to last a long time and they're designed to be quiet. They don't do us very much good off road, and so if you're planning on doing some trails, or you're getting into some mud, or some grassy fields, it's definitely not the choice.
The next step up from there is going to be an all terrain tire. The all terrain tire is going to have some more lugs in it, larger pieces that can grab a hold of things and get a bite. There is going to be a lot of rain siping in there. That's going to be those small thin cuts that are in there. The all terrain tires are going to stay pretty quiet. They're not going to hear them much on the highway. They're typically going to have a mileage warranty, a 50, 60,000 mile tire, that kind of thing. The ride quality is pretty strong.
The drawback to that all-terrain tires is it's going to fill up with mud, so if you were to get in a muddy situation, or if you were to have a rock ledge you needed to climb up with the lugs may not be opened up quite enough. In that mud situation, the tread is going to pack with mud, and so it's not going to clean out to get the next bite.
The next step up from there would be what we consider a hybrid tire. That's a really nice cross between an all-terrain and a mud terrain tire, so we have characteristics of both. And if you look at the tread you'll typically find the center line of the tread is going to be more like an all terrain, but on the outer edge of a tire we're going to have some of those larger mud lugs that can get in there and get a bite and that'll clean out if you get them spinning and full of mud. It is not the best all terrain tire, it's not the best mud tire, but it's a really nice cross section. These tires remain quiet as well.
The next step up from there is going to be your mud terrain tire. Now, this tire is going to have a little bit of sound to it on the highway. For some people this might be really annoying, and for others that are going to have the top off it may not matter, but it is something we want to make sure you're aware of. Most of the technology is still pretty decent that I consider them usable on a daily driven vehicle. Once we get into the mud terrain tire, we're going to lose the mileage guarantees and the road hazard. In our experience, you can expect anywhere between 40 to up to let's say 50,000 miles.
As they get older, they tend to be prone to chop up a little bit and that can make them even louder, so it's really critical that you stay on top of your tire maintenance with a mud tire. It's not something you're going to put on and just forget about it for 60,000 miles. It's something that you're going to have to rotate all the time. You're going to have to stay on top of your tire alignments, your wheel alignments to keep these things from chopping up. You're going to need to balance them on a regular basis, and that'll extend their life, and of course keep them quieter.
The next step up is going to be what we consider to be a dedicated off road tire. I genuinely don't recommend these for daily drivers. They're not going to be any good in the rain, and the snow, borderline dangerous, I would say. There is almost no rain technology in them. Now these are going to have really large lugs and they're going to be able to grab on to rock faces and ledges. They're going to be able to throw mud out pretty quickly and not pack up. And from the off road perspective, I think they're probably a great tire, but if you regularly travel more than 35 an hour, I think you're going to hate them because they're genuinely not round and they don't balance very well, so we consider those more suited for just off road vehicles only.
When looking at a tire we'll look at the general size, the width, the tread design, the pattern, and what it's designed to do. We need to figure out where that client, where they're going to drive, and how they're going to drive, and make sure that we get a tire that fits into that cross section.