Upon purchase, my Bronco had the 235/75r15 All Terrain (AT) tires on it. I drove it and wheeled it with the tires for about 3 months before switching to some used 33x12.5r15 Hancook Mud Tires (MR) a friend offered me at a great price.
With a still stock Bronco my experience was the MT seemed to perform better on the same trails in similar conditions than the AT. In part the extra width helped to provide more surface area and I think the lugs in some cases helped provide the bite the tire needed. With open differentials getting traction is important because both wheels get the same force applied. That means a tire up in the air or that has no traction in the mud is going to render the other tire (regardless of how much traction it has) useless because it won't get
On road, hands down the all terrains rode a little smoother and were less noisy. On the mud tires the lugs on the side make the car "bounce" and increase the road noise. Both are radials as well; some mud tires are bias ply and ride rough due because they're difficult to balance.
Unfortunately, there isn't really a best of both worlds scenario here so you have to pick one. I picked the mud tires.
I didn't think about it at the time but I recently got to experience first hand how these two tires act the same conditions. And yes, my perceptions were reality; mud tires grip better.
One of my 33s had some separated tread and wouldn't hold air anymore and I was going wheeling the next day. I found a quick KM2 spare 33 but it was 10.5 and had very little tread left. The all terrain also ended up on the front with a mud. Keep in mind the AT has more tread depth and the mud tire i
As I've mentioned on other posts I have front and rear Aussie Lockers so when the front drive shaft is engaged the front tires will both get torque regardless of one wheel losing traction.
The results of this were quite interesting. Throughout the day I encountered many situations where the vehicle would pull to the side where the MT was. On some slippery/muddy rocks I was pulled to that side despite trying to steer towards the AT. Ultimately, I had to ride it out until the AT got traction again and then I was able to turn. However this effect went away on gravel and other conditions where both tires had good traction.
Once I realized what was happening I knew that the MT really does grip better in low traction conditions compared to the AT. Then I got a wild idea to see what happens when I hammered it through a thick patch of mud. Each run I found once the AT lost traction despite steering straight the Bronco would turn to the AT side and slide sideways through the mud.
As a control I observed a CJ5 with 33s and dual lockers. While sometimes the vehicle would turn one way or another it still tracked mostly straight.
So there you have it; for what its worth. My observation was in low traction instances the 33x12.5 MT gripped better than the 235/75 AT.
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