Off road/on road tire best value

BFG Dr444

 

The DR444 was the absolute WORST tire I've ever run. Places I had been used to walking right on through with worn out (less than 4/32" tread) Michelin XDE M/S* tires, I was getting stuck with BRAND NEW DR444's, and I couldn't WAIT to get those POS tires off my truck.

If you can afford them, the XDE M/S* tires will perform well off road. If you want to spend less than half the money, get more miles, and still do relatively well off road, I've been running Kumho KRD 03 tires for several years now and been more than happy with them.

 

Open shoulder tires are not good on road tires and definitely won't get good fuel mileage. The BFG DR444 is probably the best closed shoulder tire for on/off road use. If he's willing to sacrifice wear life,fuel mileage and road noise for better off road performance then I would agree with you.

 

That isn't always the case. Those DR444's didn't help my fuel mileage when I put them on instead of the XDE M/S*, and my fuel mileage didn't suffer when I ditched the DR444's for the KDR03's. If your daily routine involves leaving the pavement, you don't want the DR444. May as well have had racing slicks back there for what little bite they had in the dirt...especially if it was even a little wet.

And to say that "Open shoulder tires are not good on road tires" couldn't be farther from the truth. With the exception of the year it took me to use up those DR444's to the point where I could pull them off the truck, I've had nothing BUT open shouldered tires on my truck for the 10+ years I've owned it. I used to do roughly 90-95% on road, with site work, mines, and quarries making up the remainder. These days, it's about 99.9% on road, and I STILL wouldn't put a closed shoulder tire on my truck...ESPECIALLY not the DR444. May as well buy a ribbed tire if that's what you're thinking of getting, because it won't perform much better once you leave the pavement. Time is money, and when you get stuck and need to be pulled out, that costs time AND money...and can tear stuff up on the truck.

 

i agree the dr444's are junk. i tried them once too

i would look for a tire with a tread pattern like this

these are aeolus 596's they don't have to be that tire there are other tires that use similar tread pastern. although don't buy the Sampson version of this tire very soft rubber. but that is the best preforming tread pattern iv found so far for off road on road as well as snow. they will wear faster on the highway than a highway tire but the offest staggered lugs do help even things out. the u shaped shoulder lugs bite very good offroad. you want a smaller lug with high voids. you see some guys running tires that have like 4 inch lug blocks those tires are awfull for everything and don't even grip for anything. you want the lugs to be small enough to remain flexible but large enough voids that the tread cleans out.

 

I would not use recaps . New Chinese tires are cheap enough to not have to use recaps. What type of off-road driving will you be doing? Going into landfills,oil well work.?
If your going off-road into landfills etc,definitely forget recaps. You pick up nails ,screw's etc and a flat virgin tire
Will just be that,most likely just go flat or worst case come off the rim (lose all its air ,but technically still on the rim)
A recap that goes flat unnoticed while driving comes apart and becomes a wrecking ball taking out everything in its path and becoming a hazard on the highway.
I know they have improved recap technology,but they still come apart,I see it everyday.

 

I had a set of Linglongs. Absolutely fabulous in the winter. I was amazed at the depth of snow I could tread through with these suckers in farmers fields.
However, they eat stones like crazy, as soon as the warmer weather came along they started to come apart, the outer lugs were separating from the casings.