| Comparison vehicles and tires...
98 Jeep Tj, open diff, 31X10.5 Hi-Tec, and
stabilizer disconnected
Jeep YJ, open diff, 31X10.5 Pirelli
Scorpion (I think) all-terrain, & stabilizer
disconnected
Cherokee Sport, open diff, stock tire size Goodyear
Wrangler all-terrains
00 Dodge Ram, limited slip, BFG AT's
First let me say the people at HT were very helpful. I asked
numerous questions about their tires and they were more than
courteous. I ordered a set of five tires that arrived in five
business days via UPS. Each tire was packaged in its own plastic bag
with the blue colored white lettering of new tires. As promised by
HT, all were a matched set of Michelin LTX A/T carcasses.
Time for the real inspection... Each tire weighed in
at 40lbs. 1 inch gapping between shoulder lugs, alternating
scalloped lugs, and 4 inch spacing between non-scalloped lugs.
Shoulder seams & tire beads all looked excellent. No sidewall
damage on any tires.
On the road again... The tires
were mounted on the 15X8 wheels of my Jeep Wrangler Tj. In the 5
days the tires were on the vehicle, I accumulated 400 road miles (33
psi) and 30-40 low pressure (18 psi) off road miles. At less
than 5 mph you will get the standard vibration feel of the lugs
hitting the pavement. Above 10 mph they will start to smooth out. At
highway speeds they feel stable, but you are aware that you are
driving a mud tread. As for the road noise, the tires have a
hum that is a little louder than the wind noise at 70mph on the
freeway. After 1.5 hours of steady driving I did have a minor hum in
my ear. Not unbearable, but something that I would not want to do
daily for more than one hour. Over the river and through the
woods... Plenty of conditions were tried for the off-roading.
Snow, mud, slickrock, smooth steep hills w/wo snow, and steep rocky
hills. I chose 18 psi because that was the point at which the
sidewalls started to bulge but I was not losing height. Snow
& mud: Tires cleared well and went through many areas in two
wheel that would have required four, on the all terrains.
Slick rock: Traction was excellent which is a no brainer on
dry slick rock. As for wet/muddy slickrock, they had no better or
worse traction than any of the other comparison vehicles (listed
above). Smooth STEEP hills w/wo snow: On this type of hill,
the all-terrain tires performed better. It came down to more rubber
contact with the smooth surface. **Note: differential was open,
with a limited slip or better there would not have been a problem.
In fairness, the others were open (except one) as well. Steep
rocky hills: In the rough and rocky these tires shined. They paddled
through the looser stuff and grabbed on to the solid
stuff. The test vehicle, comparison vehicles, and
tires
So far I would recommend these tires. You could not
beat the deal: $320 including shipping, for 5 tires with 2 year
24,000 mile warranty. I am most happy about the fact that if I ever
slice a sidewall, ruining a tire, I am only out $40 instead of
$100+.
In February, I will be giving these tires a 5-day
Moab rockcrawling test. I will follow up with a report on their
performance in Moab and on our co-existence after one
month. For those interested in available tire sizes and
prices you can visit Hi-Tec |
