Fred Williams
Brand Manager, Petersen’s 4Wheel & Off Road
Pit Bull Tires has some new rubber for your wild animal of a 4x4. The MadDog, Rocker, and Growler are now available in radial construction. We recently fit a set 38.5x13.50R17LT Maddogs on Walker Evans beadlocks and took the pups for a walk around the block and up some dirt and rocky trails.
In the rocks we had acceptable results, though we feel the Rocker tread pattern would be better for traction. The Maddog's load range E probably didn't help, and the consistent tread pattern and large center lugs seem better suited for dirt and mud, so we got out of low range and headed for some dirt drifting in an abandoned wash. The Maddogs gripped excellently and supplied all the traction required for our tattered trophy truck.
The best way to describe these new radial Maddogs is by imagining a wild canine that you're trying to make into a house pet. It's possible you'll end up loving them, but not without a few sacrifices. They are built for heavy-duty trucks with a high load rating, and like any good hound they're not afraid to make some noise. All things considered, we'll keep them around and will surely put many more miles on them, but like a special needs critter they're not for everyone.
Since Clampy isn't much of a street machine these days, we bolted the Maddogs to a friend's Cummins Dodge for a few weeks and quizzed him daily on his thoughts. The first word back was something about a full moon because these dogs howl. We went for a ride with him, and starting around 45 mph we definitely knew they were with us, but the noise isn't any louder than many other large mud tires. However, we did joke that Pitbull should co-engineer its next tires with the Dynamat noise control people.
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