Tire Buyer's Guide

Don't judge a tire by its type. Mud tires have been known to kick some serious butt on boulders, and rock rubber can surprise and do major shoveling through goo. Sure, an all-terrain could pull a fast one and be less "all" and do slightly better in one area, but its goal is acceptable performance across the board-including on the highway. Meanwhile, a more aggressive mud- or rock-oriented tire is probably not going to be the picture of peace, quiet, and on-road comfort. Therefore, decide what you really need (as in, how big is simply show-off big?) for your type of wheeling (especially on a truck that's also your daily driver). But no matter what the four-wheeling task at hand, tires are now built for pretty much all kinds of abuse, thanks to super-thick sidewalls and tread patterns that can claw at what you want and spit out what you don't. Here's a sampling of who has what.

BFGoodrich What: All-Terrain T/A Type: Like the name says, all-terrain Size range: 31 to 37 inches	Bridgestone What: Dueler A/T Type: All-terrain Size range: 27 to 33 inches	Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. What: Discoverer STT Type: All-terrain Size range: 30 to 37 inches
Dean What: Mud Terrain SXT (replaces Durango XTR) Type: Mud Size range: 30 to 35 inches	Dick Cepek What: Mud Country Type: Mud Size range: 31 to 40 inches	Firestone What: Destination M/T Type: Mud Size range: 29 to 33 inches
Goodyear What: Wrangler Pro-Grade Type: Work tires, such as for towing, for heavy-duty trucks Size range: 29 to 35 inches	Hankook What: Dynopro MT RT03 Type: Mud Size range: 27 to 39 inches	Interco What: Super Swamper SSR Type: All-terrain Size range: 27 to 38 inches
Kumho What: Road Venture A/T Type: All-terrain Size range: 28 to 36.5 inches	Mastercraft What: Courser MT Type: Mud Size range: 29 to 35 inches	Maxxis What: Bighorn Type: Mud Size range: 28 to 35 inches
Mickey Thompson What: Baja MTZ Type: Mud Size range: 32 to 38 inches	Nitto What: Dune Grappler Type: Off-road/desert Size range: 31 to 35 inches	Parnelli Jones What: Dirt Grip Type: All-terrain Size range: 33 to 38 inches
Pirelli What: Scorpion ATR Type: All-terrain Size range: 27 to 35 inches	Pit Bull What: Rocker Type: Rockcrawling Size range: 33 to 39.5 inch	Pro Comp What: Xtreme A/T Type: All-terrain Size range: 31 to 40 inches
Toyo What: Open Country A/T Type: All-terrain Size range: 26 to 36 inches