Im new to the samurai world. Just picked up a 88 and was looking at some tires. I ran into a local guy that put some nice meaty utv tires on his. Was curious if this would even work do to the weight and how reliable is it. Iv looked and they make some 30s with some pretty nasty tread and you can get a set for pretty cheap.. I don't really drive the samurai on the road except to get where the woods are. Thanks for the help.

If it will see any road time above 10mph I would pass on the ATV tires.  If it will be trailered to a trail, then I say go for it.

I have a buddy that works on utv said that as long as im not going about 60mph Id be fine. Just depends what brand of tires I go with.

One issue with UTV tires is they are usually not DOT rated, so not actually legal for highway and byways. 

Yes, ATVs tires are not DOT rated, so they are not considered legal for road use.   

My concern is related: the ATV tires catastrophically failing at roadway speeds.  Most ATVs are much lighter than a Samurai, so ATV tires installed on a Samurai will likely be at their max load limit.  ATV tires are also much more aggressive than street tires, and I can see all those soft rubber ribs being ripped off at roadway speeds.   It doesn't paint a pretty picture in my mind.

I run 31" Super Swamper Bias TSLs on one of my beater Samurais, and it is a great offroad tire.  I also flat tow this Samurai to the trails, and they track well on the road too.  The TSL Bias are 6-ply tires, with 4-ply sidewalls so they are overkill for a lightweight Samurai.  However, that means if you run them on the stock narrow rims, you can lower the air to 5psi or even lower. 

I am taking this rig out to a trail clean up run tomorrow.  Love those TSLs! 

I went ahead and ordered some. I found some DOT approved and weight rated for around 800. They should be here in a few days so we will really see how well they work.