BFG/MTR Review

The Ocala Jeep Club of Florida

Member Product Review

BF Goodrich Radial Mud Terrains & Goodyear Wrangler MTR’s

by Scott Montgomery

BFG MT’s

I purchased my BFG MT’s in April of 1997 and have put 52,000 miles on them since. Overall, I am very pleased with the street ant trail performance of the mildly aggressive tread design as it performed very well in Florida’s varying terrain. In sand the BFG’s don’t seem to bury as easily as other similar tread designs but do dig in more that most all-terrain tires on the market today. With these tires one must use a fair amount of go- pedal to climb sand hills or other similarly soft terrain. These tires never disappointed me while playing around in the sand pits of Florida. Mud however was a different story. These tires performed fairly well in light to medium consistency mud but lots of wheel-speed is required to keep the tread clean. When it comes to really thick gumbo style mud you better have a winch, shovel, or a 700 horsepower engine if your using these tires. For all out mud running, a Super Swamper would be a much better choice. These tires seemed to do well in light rock crawling as they adhered to dry rocks well and their Tri-Guard sidewall is tuff as nails. I routinely wedged them against rocks, roots, and trees and the sidewalls came through with barely a scratch. The tires offered a generous footprint when aired down to 10-12 psi without once loosing a bead- (32x11.50 R15 on a 15x8 wheel on a 3500 lb Jeep). This tires greatest asset is its versatility. It is extremely durable and long wearing, offers good off-road traction in a variety of terrains and is very streetable. My one major complaint is this tires lack of aggressive side lugs compared to Goodyear’s new MTR or M/T’s Baja Claw. That being said, I would still recommend the BFG MT’s to anyone looking for a relatively cheap and versatile trail tire with good street manners.

Goodyear Wrangler MTR (Maximum Traction – Reinforced)

Due to the short time I’ve had these tires, this write-up will focus mainly on my first impressions of the tires trail performance. After 3 happy years with my BFG MT’s I decided I wanted something a bit more aggressive. After reading many articles on Goodyear’s new MTR I decided to give them a try. All the articles said that the old design Goodyear’s MT’s problem of weak sidewall was cured with the new MTR. I also liked the aggressive side lugs the new MTR has. After a 450 mile drive to Tellico N.C., I am happy to report that these tires have excellent street manners. They are surprisingly quiet and offer a smooth, stable, and comfortable ride. On the trail, these tires really stand out. They offer excellent traction on both wet and dry rocks due to their sticky tread compound. The side lugs work as I hoped and allowed me to wedge the sidewall against rocks and trees and use the added traction to pull my Jeep up obstacles. They perform better than my BFG’s in the mud as they don’t require nearly as much wheel speed to keep the tread clean, but Swampers they are not! These tires looked almost flat when aired down to 10 psi (33x12.50 R15 on a 15x8 wheel on a 3500 lb Jeep) and offered a much larger footprint than a BFG at the same pressure. Still, I never popped a bead. In the future I will run these tires at 12 psi on most trails for added stability. I will update this report after I get more miles and trail time on these tires.

Questions? Contact me at JPyjnut@hotmail.com