After hanging around here a while I have decided that I am going to get some radial muds for my DD that needs new shoes soon.  Better to have extra tire, than not enough right?    Most of my driving is street of course, with the offroading being primarily rocks, sand, dirt and washes (gravel).  Only a little bit of mud, snow and ice.  I think I have a good idea of what I want, but I’m having a hard time finding a tire that meets my criteria.

- Aggressive mud tread, without big paddles to screw up road handling (I don’t do much mud)
- Factory siping (not a huge factor, but would be nice for better handling on wet roads and ice)
- Radial of course (it is my DD afterall)   
- Decent price – doesn’t everyong want to save money?  Mainly just staying away from the expensive big names (BFGoodrich and Goodyear) but I don’t think they have factory siping anyways.

So does anyone know of a good tire that meets those specs?  The trxs mtx looked great but the smallest size is a 31.   

The Cooper STT look pretty good, but there website confuses me.  They have a Radial STT, with limited sizes and no siping.  Then they have an STT with my size and siping, but is it a radial too?  It says

The heavy duty carcass is constructed of two radial polyester body plies and one angled polyester body ply

http://www.coopertire.com/us/en/ProductDetails.asp?ProdType=LtTruck&id=271&title=Light+Truck+Tires

The Kelly Safari DTR looks like it might work.  It appears to have some siping, although not much.
http://kellytires.com/kellytires/display_tire.jsp?prodline=Safari+DTR+HVT&mrktarea=Light+Truck

The other tire that looks interesting is the BigO Big Foot XT, but I think the tread is somewhere in the middle between the AT and MT.  It is supposed to have a great warranty though.
http://www.bigotires.com/index.asp?PG=2&Sub=12b&CatID=01BIG38

If you have any comments on these or suggestions on another option, let me know.  Thanks

Oh yeah, I’m primarily looking at 235/75 R15, although a skinnier 29â€? tire would work too.  I was tempted by the 215/85 TSL Radial, but decided I didn’t need those big side lugs (adding road noise) and they don’t have the factory siping that I wanted.

Hello,

I had a set of Cooper STT's on my S-10,They were 30x9.50 they are a great tire.They will last a good while on Tracker,I have had better luck with Wild Country MT's they seem to last a lot longer....but I just paid $155 for 1 with tax and all that crap....But mine are 33x12.50 .

Later Tom K.

hi,  been looking for very similar tires myself.  the one's i think i'll be getting are the Laramie Trail Cutter RT's.  they sell a P235/75-R15 on ebay for $258 per set of 4, $99 shipping and $10 for shipping insurance.  not a bad price and the tires don't look bad at all.  anyone have any experience with these before i buy a set?  thanks.


http://http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=8051074451&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT

Yes, the STT is a radial. It is the replacement for the old style STT. Limited sizes at the moment but growing. There are quite a few starting to run them here in OZ and the feedback seems to be pretty positive generally although there were some issues initially with wear rates due to the first tyres just coming from the moulds and not having enough time to fully cure. seems to be alright now and those who have had the old style reckon the new ones seem to be better in all aspects.

I have the new Cooper STT's on my kick. 30x9.50. Great tire. Amazing in the snow and have a real deep tread. I have put them through some pretty tough stuff and no slices or chunks yet. (THey seem to be tougher than my fenders when the meet!)

running cooper stt's also, 30x9.5, noisy on the road compared to an AT tire, my tracker only has 23000km on it and it vibrates quite a bit at really low speeds in town, especially when coming to a stop, it's just the tires, they drive fine once they're rolling a bit more..  the nice side lugs reduce fuel economy but have helped in the deep snow a bit over previous tire, haven't had them in any mud yet... 

Excellent tires, new and old design.  Yes, both are radials.  They just put radial in the new model's name to differentiate it from the older design.  I've known people that ran the old ones and have read reviews of the newer design that were practically glowing.  Cooper makes great tires and these are top stuff.  I'd be running a set on my Ranger, GV, and likely the Tracker if the local dealer didn't think so much of itself and that the products are made of gold or something.  Where I grew up and used to live they are competitively priced and a good value but up here the local dealer prices them almost as high as BFG's and Goodyears.

The Wild Country RVT muds would be a good choice as well.  That's what the Tracker will likely end up with.

Oh yeah, and with a siping knife any tire can have siping.  ;)  It's a wonderful thing.  I dunno about San Diego but up here any Discount Tire has a siping machine.  I don't remember seeing any in the tire joints when I lived there a few years back.  Not like you guys need siping all that bad.

Oh yeah, try to get a LT235/75R15 instead of a P235/75R15.  I dunno about you but I like the tires on my truck to be built to truck tire specifications.

Thanks for all of the replys guys, I will definately be looking into the Cooper STT as long as they don't want too much for them.

I decided I wanted to get some siped mudders because we recently had our first snow about 1 month ago.  When we were sitting on the freeway in a line I walked up to see what was going on and found a prerunner truck stuck as he was trying to pass the snow plow.  The plow had stopped and was shoveling salt under his tires to get him out.  I passed the plow with no problems with my Wrangler RT/S slicks (55K on them). 

I'm sure it had more to do with the difference between a 2wd truck and a 4wd SUV than it did with the MT vs All season tires with siping.  Just the same, I don't want to be the dumb ass stuck beside a snow plow

Wow, snow in San Diego.  I saw flakes late one night the winter of...oy...99-00 I think it was.  Anyways...wow...snow...jeesh...the last two years I was there it rained like two times.

ANYWAYS, remember you can always sipe them yourself.  Unless you're worried about the warranty.  Siping is becoming a big thing so you might want to ask around and see if any shops do it.  It increases traction in every weather so there might be a few shops down there doing it.

I can't find a shop that mandrel bends exhaust pipe to save my life up here but every tire place up here has a siping machine.  The opposite might be true for you.