Tires for rocky trails in AZ

My wife and I just moved here last month for a 1 year assignment, we're from the PNW that is generally really easy on tires. I'm currently running a fairly new set of Terra Grappler G2's on my mid-travel '07.

We've done 2 "trips" around here, spent one day taking the out/back way around Lake Pleasant, including the BLM slice on the North side of the lake. Then we went up past Crown King and back last weekend pulling our Teardrop.

I'm super happy with how the tires are handling, but noticed they are getting a LOT of broken/cut/town tread blocks. I'm assuming that's par for the course out here with the small blocks on an AT tire.

Anyone have direct experience how swapping to a MT tire will hold up with the larger blocks? I was considering Grabber X3's originally, but went with the AT's due to the rain/snow I see up north.

Any insight?

 

I’ve had decent luck with my Toyo open country AT3s but I think mud tires would chunk and cut just the same as AT tires. Pay to play

 

Toyo AT3 and BFG KO2 seem to be the most popular choices. I’m on my second set of Nitto Ridge Grapplers but they seemed to get hard and start chunking bad after 25k miles… First 20k miles were great.

 

And air down. High pressure + wheel spin is the enemy.

 

Already on that, plus the ride is much better.

 

KO2s were good, but my set would get torn up from the rocks.

It didn't help that I would choose the rockier line.

 

I know of someone who put the Goodyears with kevlar on and they still got torn up.

 

All tires are going to chunk on rocks, no way around it. BFG has a good track record with desert/rock conditions. They shine there, much better than how they perform on wet pavement. I would say BFG MTs for your conditions.

 

I have more issues with sidewall cuts than I do tread damage with my Wild Peaks AT3's.

 

I unfortunately got burned by a set of BFG MTs a while back. KM2s that would not hold a balance

Now to decide between trashing my ATs or pull them off for when we eventually return to the NW and get a set of X3s for down here...

 

Yes, BFG can have balance issues. AT or MT, any tire is going to get some chunks and wear more heavily in the conditions you off road. Just pick a tire you like and know that you will be replacing them more frequently due to the conditions you run.

 

Toyo MT is probably one of the best tires for durability