In the off-road world, name brands are usually king. You know what I mean; there are BFGoodrich, Nitto, King, and Fox, just to name a few. It doesn’t really matter what the particular product is, but we tend to gravitate toward the big well-known names. That, of course, is perfectly understandable. When we spend our hard-earned money, we usually want to spend it well, so we ask what others are happy with and buy the same.
For this review we thought we would go in a different direction and try out a brand that’s not so well known. Kanati Tires, a division of Greenball Corporation, is one of those lesser-known brands beginning to get some play in the market. Greenball Corporation has a long background in the industry, making tires for just about every other application but off-road. From construction equipment to trucking to the military, they have experience in designing tires for almost every terrain and requirement. Over the last few years, however, they’ve started getting into the light truck and off-highway–vehicle markets.
Because of the drought, mud is in short supply in Southern California, where our offices are located, so we concentrated on the other performance aspects of these tires. The 37-inch tire size is only available in an E-load-rating. While these are very stiff for a two-door JK, it didn’t take long for the sidewalls to break in enough to allow for some flex. We do have to mention here that our tires broke in a little faster than most. Something about a Baja 1000–style run through the desert at low tire pressures will do that. One of the advantages of the higher load ratings is that they tend to be more durable. Personally, this author would rather give up a little bit of ride quality for a tire that will last a little longer. After chalking the tires, we found that the sweet spot to be about 24 psi with these tires on-road. The tires held very well on pavement, bit great on the dirt, and wore nicely. Although we don’t recommend you try it yourself, in the name of being thorough, we went and did a little canyon carving just to see how they would stick. We were surprised. There was a little bit of scrubbing here and there, but we had a lot of confidence by the time we hit straight road again. We also noticed that they don’t chunk easily in the rocks. All in all, we think that Greenball Corporation has done a great job with these tires. For a tough, high-performance, yet affordable, off-road tire, these are a great option.
With these bigger tire sizes, it can sometimes be a chore getting them mounted. Luckily we found a local shop that would mount and balance them for us at a reasonable price. For the size of tire, the balance went fairly well. The worst of them took three ounces, and the best only needed half of an ounce of weight.
These tires bear a marked resemblance to the old Goodyear MT/Rs. They performed just as well off-road and, in our opinion, did much better on pavement. Even new, we had little to no wandering on the street, and they’re wearing quite nicely 8000-miles later. Even though it’s an E-rated tire, the Kanati’s weren’t too stiff on our ’11 JK while running a street pressure of 24 psi.
These tires bear a marked resemblance to the old Goodyear MT/Rs. They performed just as well off-road and, in our opinion, did much better on pavement. Even new, we had little to no wandering on the street, and they’re wearing quite nicely 8000-miles later. Even though it’s an E-rated tire, the Kanati’s weren’t too stiff on our ’11 JK while running a street pressure of 24 psi.
With the drought California is experiencing right now, mud has been in very short supply. We did give these tires a pretty good test in the desert though. Running these tires at 12 psi for the off-road test seemed to be the sweet spot on our JK. The contact patch expanded enough to float over the sand and wrap around the rocks, and the tire was able to support the weight of our JK without issue.
The sidewall pattern worked well. While helping to protect the sidewalls from abrasion, it also helped with traction. Airing the tires down allowed enough of a bulge that in sand and on loose hillclimbs, the side lugs came into play. The tire’s 12 1/2-inch tread width expanded out to almost 15 inches.
When we received these 37-inch tires, we knew we needed new wheels. Because they tend to break rather than bend, we’re not huge fans of cast aluminum wheels for off-road use. These ProComp Series-98 steel wheels, with a 4 1/4-inch backspacing, were a good replacement for the factory wheels. They also look great on the Jeep.
Tire Specifications:
Make/Model: Kanati Mud Hog M/T
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Size Tested: 37x12.50R17
Type: Radial
Max Load (lbs): 3525
Sidewall Construction: 2-ply polyester
Tread Construction: 2-ply polyester, 2-ply steel, 2-ply nylon
Tread Depth (in): 20/32
Section Width (in): 12.5
Overall Diameter (in): 36.8
