There is the difference.

A skinny tire doesn't spin, so digging down isn't an issue. Fat tires
spin.

I climb sand pit and ravine walls with open diffs. I leave tread marks
up the walls. The boys that 'try' to follow me with fat tires and
locked diffs even can 'usually' make it up to me, but it takes them a
lot of tries and they leave rooster tail marks all the way up.

On one ravine climb, only two of us made it to the top. Both with open
diffs and tall skinny tires. The rest of the morning was spent watching
all the fat tire boys try and try and try again to get up to where I was
taking photos from.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291718705

I used to mud run, but it isn't fun anymore. I just drive on through
and only get mud into stuff like brakes, belts, etc. If I am going to
have to clean it, I want it to be freaking muddy! If my tires don't
need to spin, I don't get muddy on top.

I also 'can' air down my tires, but I just have no need to! The fat boy
tires have so poor a traction, they need to air down so the tread edges
can bite giving them half a chance at following me. I guess when I
finally find a hill I can't climb, I will try airing down. It just
hasn't happened yet.

Mike

Zenteren wrote:
>
> I don't know what to say. A skinny tire will faster dig thru soft ground a
> grab a little firmer ground, but what if there is no firm ground???? You
> will just sink and sink. From my experience I can say that the wider tire
> have more area to use to grab. Try asking those guys who goes rockcrawling
> and those mudboggers. For winter conditions on the road better is skinny
> tire, but for offroad wide tire rules. There is one more reason why to put
> wider tire, because you can drive it on low PSI especially if you have
> sidebiters on your tire, and you protect your rim better. Of course you will
> drastically increase you gas mileage, and max speed will fall down, so as
> the braking power.
> If you don't go seriously offroading I suggest you to stay on 31's.
>
> --
>
> "Mike Romain" > wrote in message
> ...
> > You are mistaking 'looks' and 'traction'.
> >
> > They are opposite things, not something that goes together.
> >
> > Wide tires like 12.5's are for looks.
> >
> > Narrow tires like 9.5's are for traction.
> >
> > I use my Jeep as a daily driver up here in Canada and bush run her lots
> > where we see snow and I got a 'Radical' increase in traction when I went
> > from a tire that measured 10.5" at the tread (31x10.5 Muds) to a tall
> > skinny 33x9.5" mud that measures 7.5" at the tread.
> >
> > A radical increase! It is the psi on the ground that counts. The wide
> > tire gets up on top and floats, so you spin the tires and dig holes or
> > drive straight off corners. The narrow tire grabs and cuts through
> > enough to grab so they don't spin easily. If I 'need' to spin them,
> > they then only go down to solid and grab and go.
> >
> > The difference is when coming home from work at 4 AM before the plows
> > are out I can only drive 35 mph or so in 4" of snow on the highway
> > before the 10.5's start floating and I start losing control. Any more
> > than 40 mph is suicide. And let me tell you there just isn't anything
> > harrier than having a transport go blowing by you at 55 mph when you are
> > doing 35 mph in a freaking blizzard. Can we say white out and oh **** I
> > sure hope this road is straight....
> >
> > With the 9.5's I can now safely follow with transport trucks at 55-60
> > mph and haven't had any float at any speed I wanted to go.
> >
> > If you check out any of the 'Jeeps' still in use by militaries, like
> > that VW Iltis thing, they run tall skinny.
> > http://www.volkswagen.org/Iltis/
> >
> > Check out what loggers and others that work in the bush run and you will
> > see tall skinny except for the odd kid that hasn't learned yet.
> >
> > I only have 3.31 gears so my 5th is basically useless with the 33's.
> >
> > If I use 5th, it just drinks gas. If I stay in 4th at 23-2500rpm I get
> > nice mileage. 19 US mpg or 11L/100km CDN with a GPS calibrated
> > odometer.
> >
> > Mike
> > 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
> > 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
> >
> > Derek Proctor wrote:
> > >
> > > Hey all my 97 Wrangler TJ Sahara is sitting on 3" of lift right now
> > > (2" RE BB and 1" BL) with 31x10.5 BFG ATs. Im thinking about adding
> > > new, larger tires. The thing is it rides excellent on the street and
> > > my gas mileage and power is decent so when i upgrade tires i do not
> > > want to sacrifice these. I have 3.55 gearing and i know this will
> > > work fine with 33" BFG Muds but i have the dana 35 axle (mild/moderate
> > > wheeling.)
> > >
> > > Im undecided between 33x10.5x15 or 33x12.5x15 BFG MT's. Which puts
> > > more stress on the axle? Also i currently have American Racing 15x7"
> > > rims. If i choose 12.5s i will need to sell these for 15x8s.
> > >
> > > I obviously want 33x12.5s because of the traction and looks, but are
> > > they terrible on road? How do they compare with 33x10.5s in handling,
> > > gas mileage, or power? Do the 10.5s look goofy or will its skinnier
> > > width increase rollover probability?
> > >
> > > Should i keep my American racing rims and go for 33x10.5x15's or
> > > should i sell my tires and rims i have now for 33x12.5x15's? Which
> > > would you do?
> > >
> > > *Money isnt the biggest issue as i can sell my current tire/rim set
> > > for a good price.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Derek