BFG Mud Terains: sipe or not?

[Doggy Daddy]

Hey guys, I'm considering putting 285/70-17 Mud Terrains on my '03 Dodge 3500 SRW as winter tires. The truck is mostly my commuter, is pressed into farm duty sometimes. Towing is random; usually a fairly light flatbed trailer with project materials; I have a travel trailer but probably not going to be towing it in the winter. We have fairly mild winters here, usually not more than a few inches of snow at a time and usually not for more than a few days. We do occasionally get black ice and (of course, it IS western Washington) a fair amount of rain.

I'd be making a few trips to the snow where we usually try to find a Forest Service road that looks like nobody has used since it snowed. We go in as far as possible without getting terribly stuck and then snowshoe from there.

I've seen a few of the cheaper tires that didn't wear well after being siped; they got some loose flaps of rubber that either made noise or flew off in chunks. But it seems like all the quality tires I've seen that are siped did not have any problems because of it. Does anybody have experience to tell if the claims of improved wet and icey road traction is true?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Mike]

While I have heard that siping a street radial will improve wet traction abilities, I dont think you'll gain much by siping a mud terrain tire.

Dunno if it is worth putting a noisy, poor riding, short mileage mud terrain tire on a rig used mostly for commuting.

 

[rubberfish]

From my experiences, the Mud t/a's suck
in the snow. If it were me, I'd go A/T t/a's
for winter driving on the street. However, a good
set of Mud t/a's will get you stuck farther from
home when out driving in the backwoods.

 

[Doggy Daddy]

95:
It is my understanding that siping is more effective on tires that have large blocks of rubber. Trucks I've driven with these tires had good street manners and acceptable noise. My commute is 16 miles of 2 lane backroad, (not 50 miles of freeway) and when the weather is crappy it is usually on the lower end of the priority list for the road crews.

rubberfish:
Are you saying that the Mud T/As are not that good on the street in snow but work well off road in deeper, unplowed snow?

 

[rubberfish]

I spent a fair number of years in the auto,
light truck tire industry, giving me the
opportunity to try out just about every
type of tire in all different conditions.
And after 10-15,000 kms, we'd sell
them as used. Anyways, IMHO the A/T
is far superior in snow, on and off road.
Better traction upon acceleration, better
cornering and braking as well. M/T's are
best for hitting the bush/mud and doing
a little excavating. They'll both get you
to and from home in the snow, just the
A/T's will do a much better job at it.
They will have a heavy load rating as well.
If you tow that may be something to consider.
http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/catalog/off-road/5.html
and above the pic of the A/T click "show grid"

 

[Doggy Daddy]

Interesting. I guess the edges of the tread blocks do the gripping on snow? It's easy to see that there are twice as many edges on the A/T as the M/T when you look at that first comparison page. I thought that it was the deep lugs with enough room between them to allow the snow to pack in that gave good traction in deep fresh snow (sort of like paddles, I guess). I was completely UNimpressed with the factory Michelins in fresh snow, although they have been good hiway tires.

BTW, was that your truck I saw at the Piers dyno event a couple years ago? It sounds like there were quite a few converted trucks at the BD event.

Steve

 

[rubberfish]

Mine wasn't running for PDR's dyno day.
You may have seen Malcolm's 24V Chevy though.
Mines been dyno'd at BD Dyno Days numurous times.
I'm trying to get Harry to host another dyno event.
I ran mine at PDR last week when we had Thanksgiving
and they were closed except to answer the toll free line.
BD's dyno really loads a truck up hard causing tire spin.
I made 7 or 8 runs on PDR's and never noticed any slip.
PDR's feels like you're going down the track.
BD's feels like your pulling a 10% grade with a load.
I was quite suprised at the different feel and results.

I think there was 3 hybrids at BD.

 

[doznfire]

I haven't seen an AT bf clean worth a darn yet in the snow.I run bf mudders on 2 of my trucks and thats all I run.Snow,sand,mud and lots of heavy towing.Buy them,get em siped and let us know how they do.

The bf AT tires that have been put on our ford service trucks at work suck.They don't hold up well with lots of offroad abuse. We are having good luck with the goodyear silent armors....

 

[Doggy Daddy]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[rubberfish]

I hope we were all able to offer a bit of help.

Now, if you're going for looks? Mud T/A's
A truck looks tougher if it's got some kick
ass knobby mud slingers on it.

 

[4x4TruckinGirl]

I've had both bf goodrich AT's and currently MT's the AT's are good when they're fresh, but when they start to wearin' down they are AWFUL in ANY condition except a dry road. I love the MT's they wear good, and have good traction. Not that i've been in the snow with them but i think you'd get purty good traction out of them in snowy/muddy crappy conditions.