My truck is in the ditch!

[Egon]

Those big wide tire's look good and do work well for the rock climbers in dry conditions.

 

[square1]

Here's 40 years of driving in Michigan winters yakking. If you want to see how well a tire does in snow put them on a SRWD pickup. You'll find out real fast where to spend your tire money!

 

[MossRoad]

Those big wide tire's look good and do work well for the rock climbers in dry conditions.

Back in the early 80's quite a few of my friends had monster mud bog trucks. I can't count the number of times they'd attempt deep snow and get stuck. Almost always, what would happen, is they'd drive out in deep snow, float right up on top, slow down, then spin their tires and bury all 4 so the truck was sitting on the frame. Then they'd have to get towed out, snatched out, etc...

If wide agressive lug tires were good for snow plowing, you'd see them on every plow truck, which we don't, so that means something..... they aren't good for traction when plowing snow.

 

[Todd727]

I don't know what the heck you guys are talking about, but it works like this: on any surface capable of supporting high ground pressure the more weight you can put on the smallest contact patch results in the most traction (that's why corks are put on tracked equipment- to reduce contact patch area). Duallys are used to carry more load, not to get more traction. Duallys are inferior in mud and snow, not only because of contact patch, but also because of the wider track in the back having to re-clear the trail created by the front. They also turn into big slicks in sticky mud, becoming completely useless. There is no reason to have a dually unless you are hauling heavy loads. They are a pita unless used as intended, IMO. When used for hauling near rated capacity, duallys are superior to singles. When used for pushing, duallys are inferior more often than not. They also ride rough and drive like crap unless heavily loaded. But they look tough.

wide tires on off-road vehicles are usefull only for flotation, not traction.


flotation is an entirely different subject. And so is side loading. And I don't know the math. I just know the facts.

that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Exactly. Pretty funny to watch a dually get stuck on wet grass, until it's your dually. I'm amazed at the number of times I have to put it in 4WD.

 

[jack707]

Dually cost more for tire!.

 

[Deadman]

The reason many pickups are useless in 2wd is simply because they are so nose heavy with the Diesel engines and large transmissions hanging over the front.

I know my 3/4 ton diesel needs weight in the box just to get GOOD traction on almost anything.

 

[jack707]

Or a ranger 4x4 it's to light in the back need bags of sand.

 

[two_bit_score]

The reason many pickups are useless in 2wd is simply because they are so nose heavy with the Diesel engines and large transmissions hanging over the front.

I know my 3/4 ton diesel needs weight in the box just to get GOOD traction on almost anything.

Especially driving in pastures.


TBS

 

[arizona98tj]

I don't know what the heck you guys are talking about, but it works like this: on any surface capable of supporting high ground pressure the more weight you can put on the smallest contact patch results in the most traction (that's why corks are put on tracked equipment- to reduce contact patch area). Duallys are used to carry more load, not to get more traction. Duallys are inferior in mud and snow, not only because of contact patch, but also because of the wider track in the back having to re-clear the trail created by the front. They also turn into big slicks in sticky mud, becoming completely useless. There is no reason to have a dually unless you are hauling heavy loads. They are a pita unless used as intended, IMO. When used for hauling near rated capacity, duallys are superior to singles. When used for pushing, duallys are inferior more often than not. They also ride rough and drive like crap unless heavily loaded. But they look tough.

wide tires on off-road vehicles are usefull only for flotation, not traction.


flotation is an entirely different subject. And so is side loading. And I don't know the math. I just know the facts.

that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I won't agree with your statement regarding wide tire only being useful for flotation, not traction.

I ran offroad trails in the desert southwest for 20 years. The latter years saw most of our trail time running through desert washes. While I typically ran about 26 PSI on the highway, I would air my tires down to 6~8 PSI while offroad. In doing so, the footprint would double or triple in size, depending how low the tire pressure was. We all did this to maximize the footprint of the tire on the rocks, giving us much better traction. When rock crawling, floation had nothing to do with it....we weren't going to sink on rocks.

If I had a dollar for everytime I told a noobie driver, who couldn't make it over an obstacle on the trail, to stop and let more air out of his tires, I probably could have retired a few years earlier than I did.

Here is a photo of my Jeep TJ running low tire pressure on the trail. Instead of having an aired up tire contact patch of one or two square inches on that rock, the increased contact patch allows the tire to conform to the rock and increase traction.

 

[MossRoad]

I think we're talking about traction in snow, when plowing snow with a pickup truck. Off road is a whole nuther subject.... looks like fun! :thumbsup: