Thoughts on having dedicated street and trail tires

[MCATDT]

I am considering purchasing a dedicated set of 37 x 12.5 x 17 MT's for trail days while keeping a set of AT's (35 x 12.5 x 17) on the Jeep for full time daily use. Anyone using this setup? What are the pros and cons? What is the best way to store the additional set to maximize their life? My thoughts is to get a set of 37's mounted on some basic steel wheels for trail duty. I am regearing soon to 4.88 (currently on 4.10) so hoping that ratio will be a good balance for both sets. Could also do 4.56 if that's a better compromise between 35s and 37s. I want to keep the Jeep daily driving on AT's for comfort and basic better road manners. This would also allow me to jump on some dirt roads or impromptu trails without too much worry and then swap out to larger MT's for serious dedicated wheeling days. Thoughts?

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[leaffan1988]

If you're going to do that, why not get 31" street tires for the daily and 38" for the trail? I got 35 as a compromise between the two.

Before the trails I was building cars for the track. In that scene some had a second set of track tires because they weren't street legal. But most ran street legal track tires full time. I ran soft compound tires and swapped them out every season.

If you have time, space and energy to swap/store to sets, you could. But then makes sense to get a tire optimized for street and another optimized for trail.

 

[Deleted member 57233]

No way would I be trying to change 5 37" MTs before and after each time I want to go off-road. Them things are heavy.

 

[pcrawfordpt]

I have two sets but for a different reason. One set of 35’s and one set of 37’s. I am re-geared to 5:13. I can run either set and get about the same mileage. I run the 35’s when I’m on long trips towing the camper. It’s easier on the trans and I can pull the bigger hills with ease. I still go off road, but not as aggressive in trail selection. If I know I’m going to be hitting the harder trails, the 37’s go on. Takes about 30 minutes to do a five tire swap. I’ll leave whatever set is on until I have a reason to change. Like I said I feel no real difference daily driving. Tires will likely age out before they wear out. Rotations get complicated as I have to keep a spreadsheet for mileage on each set. Can get tricky with multiple swaps.

 

[Svenable]

Unless you really like changing tires and do not off road frequently and are running very expensive sticky tires I would recommend picking a tire and putting that on. I've seen friends that went through the street tire/trail tire swap and invariably they get tired of the hassle and the lack of benefit versus headache with tire swapping.

The difference between a 35 and a 37 is minimal for the most part. AT tires will perform well in most terrains except mud. MT tires do not perform well in the snow. Assess your off road driving habits and pick a good tire to meet those needs and tune your truck for the whole package; suspension, tires and steering. A 37" tire and wheel combo will be pushing 90 lbs.

I have a 2012 JK on 1 tons and 40's, kind of sticky but not a competition tire. That Jeep is not my daily driver and usually goes to the trail on a trailer though it is pretty nice on the highway. It is my hobby. I mention this because it was my daily driver and has good highway manners.

My daily driver is a 2023 JTR, 2.5" Clayton lift, all suspension arms and track bars are adjustable, Bilstein B8 8100 DSA shocks, BFG 37 -12.50/R17 KO2's, an all terrain tire. I regeared to 5.13's to get better highway performance, I live in Houston on a coastal plain so we do not have many hills and I rarely got out of 7th gear on the highway with the 37's. The shocks were not necessary but I'm retired and retirees are not known for the best decision processes, but I like them a lot. I run RPM steering on both Jeeps. My Gladiator will do most hard trails except where departure angle and breakover angle are an issue.

This is long winded but 2 sets of tires are, in my opinion, A REAL pita; also your Jeep will probably be tuned for the street as I'm assuming that is where it will be used the most. The MT's will offer minimal benefit off road.

Re-gearing is needed for the highway, not offroad. The 8 speed has very good low range gearing.

Each Jeep is tuned very differently.

Sorry for the long windedness and I strongly believe you should set your Jeep up however you want to.

 

[Zachanadandy]

If you're going to do that, why not get 31" street tires for the daily and 38" for the trail? I got 35 as a compromise between the two.

Before the trails I was building cars for the track. In that scene some had a second set of track tires because they weren't street legal. But most ran street legal track tires full time. I ran soft compound tires and swapped them out every season.

If you have time, space and energy to swap/store to sets, you could. But then makes sense to get a tire optimized for street and another optimized for trail.

Any rig lifted enough to clear 38s and still have sufficient uptravel for wheeling would look retarded on 31s, that's smaller than the stock sport car tires. Personally I never saw the appeal of 2 sets as all the best trails are a roadtrip away anyway. The wife's JLUR is her daily on 39" MTs. My JT mojave is on 37" MTs. The cost of an extra set of wheels and tires easily outweighs any slight mpg savings or tread life gain by running 35" ATs or 37" MTs. I'd rather replace my wheeling tires more often than be curved to swap tires before any trip personally. I see no gain in comfort running ATs and the handling is only slightly better in the rain. I don't think anyone is pushing their lifted Jeep in the corners behind the limits of what a good MT can handle anyway.

 

[Stan H]

I am considering purchasing a dedicated set of 37 x 12.5 x 17 MT's for trail days while keeping a set of AT's (35 x 12.5 x 17) on the Jeep for full time daily use. Anyone using this setup? What are the pros and cons? What is the best way to store the additional set to maximize their life? My thoughts is to get a set of 37's mounted on some basic steel wheels for trail duty. I am regearing soon to 4.88 (currently on 4.10) so hoping that ratio will be a good balance for both sets. Could also do 4.56 if that's a better compromise between 35s and 37s. I want to keep the Jeep daily driving on AT's for comfort and basic better road manners. This would also allow me to jump on some dirt roads or impromptu trails without too much worry and then swap out to larger MT's for serious dedicated wheeling days. Thoughts?

If I was gonna do 2 sets of tires it would be a set of AT's and MT's both The Same Size . Constantly having shifting shift points and relearn for the size difference is sorta crazy. I think it would lead to Transmission problem.
What I did it I keep a MT for a spare and I switched to a Hybrid-All Terrain tire .
My experience, started with AT's just not enough off road capabilities, went to MT's great off road WAY WAY to loud on road I found good performance in the snow but not in the rain on hardtop .
So thats when I shifted to Hybrid to get the best of both worlds. So far so good.

 

[pcrawfordpt]

If I was gonna do 2 sets of tires it would be a set of AT's and MT's both The Same Size . Constantly having shifting shift points and relearn for the size difference is sorta crazy. I think it would lead to Transmission problem.
What I did it I keep a MT for a spare and I switched to a Hybrid-All Terrain tire .
My experience, started with AT's just not enough off road capabilities, went to MT's great off road WAY WAY to loud on road I found good performance in the snow but not in the rain on hardtop .
So thats when I shifted to Hybrid to get the best of both worlds. So far so good.

You simply use a programmer, like a Tazer, to change the tire size. Not hard on the trans at all.

 

[Stan H]

You simply use a programmer, like a Tazer, to change the tire size. Not hard on the trans at all.

What I was referring to was switching from 35's and back to 37's without programming . Either get 2 pairs of 35's or 2 pairs of 37's program once and forget it.

 

[MCATDT]

Thanks for all the quality responses!!! I did decide to go with 2 sets as the deal on the 37's was too good to pass up. I'm going to mount them on a basic set of 8 circle steel wheels which are unfortunately out of stock until late October. I do the majority of my wheeling from December to March where I will keep the 37's on permanently during that time as the Gladiator is not really a daily driver. (2020 with 35k) I will wheel pretty much every weekend from Dec 1 to March 1. The 35's will go back on for the spring as that time is more doors and roof off just cruising around town on the weekends. I guess we will see if I grow tired of swapping sets a few times a year.

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