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Battle Of The BFGS - 4-Wheel & Off-Road Magazine

A few years back, the general consensus of the four-wheeling world was that mud tires were for mud only and all-seasons were for everything else. Nowadays, it's difficult to find a truck on a trail ride that's not running some sort of aggressive tread designed for mud. Rockcrawling with Boggers seems a bit absurd, but lots of people do it, and you'll occasionally run across hardcore guys that swear by a mild all-season tread. We decided to test the theory ourselves with two of the most popular truck tires on the market: BFGoodrich All-Terrains and BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains.

131 9903 Battle Of The Bfgs ford Bronco Water Shot Photo 29549735

The Test To make things as fair as possible, we mounted All-Terrains and Mud-Terrains of the same size (35x12.50, the largest size BFG makes for both types) on identical sets of 15x8.5 Center Line wheels. We used one truck and one driver to test both sets. We ran one set through a series of obstacles and terrain and then ran the other set through the same course. The performance of the tires was evaluated by both the driver and observers. We also ran both sets on the street for a long period of time so that differences in highway ride, traction, wear, and noise could be observed.

Conclusions Check out the photos and captions for the specifics on where each type of tire excelled. Overall, the performance of both was extremely close, and we discovered that both types of tires have excellent manners on and off road. The Mud-Terrains are among the quietest aggressive tires we've ever heard on the street, and the All-Terrains provide an impressive amount of traction on the rocks and in the sand. Some of the tests had predictable outcomes, such as the M/Ts clearly beating the A/Ts in mud, but there were a few surprises. The test was so close, in fact, that which tire is better depends a lot on personal preference and the types of four-wheeling the truck more frequently encounters. If we had to choose, we'd pick the All-Terrains for a truck that sees a lot of street miles and a fair amount of weekend 'wheeling, but the excellent road manners and just-a-little-better off-road traction of the Mud-Terrains make them a natural choice for avid four-wheelers who also rely on their truck to get them to work every day.

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For our test, we used sets of 35x12.50-15 BFGoodrich All-Terrains and Mud-Terrains wrapped around identical sets of 15x8.5 Center Line Style 31 wheels. The mounting and balancing were performed by 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers. Our test mule was a '79 Ford Bronco equipped with a 4-inch lift, open diffs front and rear, and stock gearing. Each set of tires was run over the same terrain, which included sand, mud, and both wet and dry trail obstacles, as well as wet and dry pavement. One person did all the driving for consistency.

For the first test, we parked a tire on top of a rock with the tire pressure at 30 psi and 15 psi to check sidewall flex and to see how well the tread enveloped the rock. As you can see, the Mud-Terrains proved to be very pliant when aired down and covered much of the rock with tread.

The All-Terrains did exactly the same, which isn't surprising since both tires share the same carcass. We left the tires at 15 psi for the remainder of the test.

We weren't able to try the tires in the fine sand commonly found in beach or dune areas, but we tried the next best thing: coarse sand with lots of pebbles and small rocks. With the truck in two-wheel drive, we started climbing small berms until the tires lost traction and spun. The outcome of this one was too close to call; the Mud-Terrains dug a little more in search of better grip and eventually found it, but the All-Terrains seemed more resistant to losing traction and didn't move as much earth.

For the hillclimb portion of the test, we parked the truck at the bottom of a gnarly hill covered with loose rock and sand and observed how far it would climb before the tires lost traction. The outcome was a surprise. The All-Terrains climbed a respectable distance up the hill, and the M/Ts couldn't match it. We even made several attempts with both sets of tires to see if we could duplicate or beat the best distance, but the A/Ts beat the M/Ts every time.

mudhole, but once the truck was shod with All-Terrains, it was all over within 15 feet of the start.

There were no surprises once we hit the mudhole. Predictably, the Mud-Terrains were able to claw their way through about two thirds of a nasty The wide voids of the mud tread enabled it to self-clean with very little wheel speed, which enabled the lugs to get more bite in the slop. The All-Terrains self-cleaned better than we expected, but it was still easy to get the tread packed with mud to the point that all grip was lost.

The trail portion of the test involved traversing a variety of difficult obstacles (some wet, some dry), including a steep rock shelf, a V-notch, and a rock garden. Since the truck wasn't equipped with lockers, we were able to more closely check the traction provided by each set of tires in wet and dry conditions.

From inside, the driver reported no perceptible difference between the two sets of tires while rockcrawling. Watching from the outside, however, told a different story. Although the performance between the two was very close and both tires were ultimately plenty capable of getting the truck to the top of the trail, the Mud-Terrains appeared to have an easier time doing it. For instance, the M/Ts have the advantage of more aggressive side lugs, which in certain situations were able to grab onto a crevice or ledge to help pull the whole tire up. Also, when descending an obstacle, it appeared that the lugs helped hold onto the side of a rock and keep the truck stationary when needed.

We were impressed and even surprised with the performance of the A/Ts when they hit the trail. The real-world flexibility of the sidewall (which could be seen on both types of tires) proved to be invaluable for gaining traction on slick rocks. And since there was more rubber on the ground, the A/Ts seemed to edge out the M/Ts when the going got wet. On dry ground, however, it was once again easier to make the All-Terrains lose grip.

One thing we noted with both set of tires was the intense beating the sidewalls were capable of handling. We repeatedly put the sidewalls in positions such as this, with rubber practically pinched against the rim, and there was never a problem. Both tires have the BFG TriGard sidewall, which means there's three plies in the sidewall instead of two plies found in most other truck tires. This makes the sidewalls more puncture-resistant at the sacrifice of a little sidewall flex.

The biggest performance differences between the two tires could be found not off road, but on the street. While the Mud-Terrains were not at all objectionable, the All-Terrains felt smoother and quieter in all circumstances. The M/Ts were astonishingly quiet for a mud tire (especially compared to most other tires with such an aggressive tread), and only a little hum could be heard over the wind noise at speed. We did note a definite lug-thump that wasn't present with the All-Terrains as the truck slowed to a stop. On wet pavement, siping was sorely missed on the M/Ts, while the A/Ts felt as though they had more overall traction on both wet and dry roads.

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Battle Of The BFGS - 4-Wheel & Off-Road Magazine

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