Pete Trasborg
Brand Manager, Jp
Most of the tires we test have some things they do very well-and some things they are horrible in. Some tires will work well in rocks, mud, and sand, but be horrible on the street; or do well on the street, sand, and rocks, but be horrible in mud.
While the Pro Comp Extreme MT certainly had its limitations, it did well in every terrain. Sure, there were limitations, but life has limits, and that's the way it is. We can't all date supermodels that like to work on our Jeeps for us, bring us beer, and cook better than the galloping gourmet.
We tested a set of LT315/70R17 Pro Comp Extreme MTs mounted on Pro Comp's gnarly Cast-Blast 7189 Extreme Alloy Wheels. The tires feature Armor-Tek3 carcass construction. Basically, there are the normal two polyester plys and one angled ply for a total of 3 plys of protection.
Well, much like the imaginary supermodel from above, these tires do everything well. Not stupendous, mind you, but they are definitely adequate in everything.
If you have a four-cylinder Jeep and play in thick, gooey mud, you're going to want to look elsewhere. These tires aren't the best we've had in the mud (with lower wheel speeds) because they gum up. However, a blip of the throttle on our six-cylinder TJ and they would clear out enough for us to keep going forward. In really thick, gooey mud-the kind that stains paint and just clumps under the Jeep no matter how much water you go through (the kind we don't have in Southern California)-we think they will start having some problems. But if you ren't dealing with Tennessee or Alabama kind of goop, these do well.
On rocks, the tread grabs well enough, but we weren't able to get the sidewalls to help us up obstacles much. And on V-notch kind of areas, we kept falling in them when other tires were able to ride the sidewalls and provide enough grip to straddle the notches. Otherwise, on inclines, declines, and sidehills, the tires did just fine on the rocks. Even at 8 psi in the sharp rocks, we just didn't get the tread wrapping around what we thought we should, while the sidewalls flexed like no one's business.
In the sand, while you don't have to be really ginger with the clutch, you will have to pay some attention to it. If you just let off the clutch like you would on the street, it's even money whether you will sink or go. Of course, we are talking about loose, dry, deep sand.
On the street, they make no more or less noise than other leading brand mud tires, and the extra siping helped stopping in the rain. We didn't get enough rain to test them for hydroplaning. But from the design of the tread, if you are used to a mud tire, there should be no surprises here. The tires balanced out normally and tracked just fine on our TJ.
While these tires don't really excel in any one area, they don't do poorly in any one area either. If your Jeep is a daily driver and you see moderate rocks and mud, these could very well be your next tires. With more siping than competitors and that new 3-ply construction, these tires are easy to live with day to day without worrying about killing them off-road. However, if you get into a lot of notches where the sidewall is what is holding your Jeep up, especially if it isn't slick rock, these might not work for you.
