I would always stay with tall skiny tires. I have had good luck with both, skinny and wide, but best with the skiny. If you like going out and borin in the mud with you foot pegged to the floor go with the big wide ones with the deepest lugs you can find. if you like being able to go nice and slow not making much nois go with skinny ones. I have been in my 51 jeep, which only has a 60hp flat head 4 banger, in mud comming in the doors and pushing it with the front bumper and grille. She never stoped, just powered right through it. Its all about how you drive most people go with a big wide tire so they can beat the *&%$ outa their rigs and still make it.

Coop

 

Up here in Alaska, you want a wide tire for the muskeg. With a skinny tire you will break through the land and then your screwed trying to get back on top. I run 16" wide boggers on my V8 powered ford ranger. You need a bunch of power to turn em, but once you get em going, hold on. Up here there is no bottom. Guys with 33's that are 16.5" wide with an all terrain kind of tread, do pretty good on the muskeg. Different for the snow though. You want a tall skinny tire. I run 255/85/16's on my truck and 235's on my wifes truck. Unless you are off roading in the snow. Then a wide tire works better to keep u on top.

 

Like several have said, it depends on what you're traveling on and through. Here in Colorado I've experienced situations where both skinny and wide have their advantages. Wheeling during the summer months in the high country I've run through mud holes that were quite deep, sometimes up to the bottom of the grill on our lifted & modified CJ-7 and because of the rocky bottom I was able to get through w/o too much trouble. However, during one outing in the winter, some friends in the CJ-8 (Scrambler) that had wider BFG mudders were able to get through and across several deep snow drifts because they stayed on top of the snow, where our Jeep, with skinnier Swamper TSLs, would break through the snow and start digging their way to China and leave us sitting on top of the snow on the frame and have to be yanked out. There doesn't appear to be a perfect tire for all situations and terrains. Overall, though, so far I really like the 36 x 12.50 Swamper TSLs I have on the Jeep now - they seem to be a good combo for it's size and weight.

Steve

 

I'm with you Rockyhud,

I've been stuck with tall and skinny and tall and fat, up to the axels in both cases!

I've found that tall and fat works best with a very agressive tread.
This works well except on ice where studs are the only way to go (illegal here in Ca).

Rick

 

For sand or rocks drop your tire pressure down. More contact equals more traction.

 

down here we have sandy bottomless mud. we have to go super wide unless u have a 5ft tall tire. www.shilohridge.com this is wheelin a bit further north of here but the mud is about the same.

 

Just tossing out another opinion...

As has been mentioned, it depends on the terrain and the vehicle. I always used a somewhat wide tire on my Samurais. I used to mud bog it, and many times I would do great because the light weight (aprox. 2000 lbs.) vehicle would float over the mud. Many times I would only sink in 12", when Jeeps would sink all the way down (24"+).

On the other hand, fullsize trucks usually do better with narrow tires, because trying to make a fullsize fload is a joke, so you might as well try to dig down to something solid. The exception might be the guys running 44" or larger tires, which are getting large enough to help a fullsize truck float a bit.

Jeeps and midsize vehicles are somewhere in between, and for those it really matters what terrain you are in. If you have fairly firm, solid mud, you can manage to fload over it; but for softer mud, go skinny and dig down to something solid.

I also like skinny tires because many of our New England trails are very tight, and tire width can decide whether you fit through a trail or not.

Jim

 

look at most specifically designed mud tire swampers, ground hawgs, etc...
wide...Lots of go pedal.

 

For general farm work, ranching, doing chores, feeding cattle, a more narrow, aggressive tire is the way to go for the most part. Usually in a farming situation, you will find bottom, and the guys out doing chores are working, they are avoiding the bad places. For wheeling out in the country, I like a wider tire. The next set will probably be 13 to 15" wide. Then again they will be 38-39" tall too. When you get off the beaten path and out on the trail, narrow tires will dig holes real fast. Also my wheeling tire choice is super swampers so they dig quite well no matter how wide they are.

Michael

Michael