4WD tyres: all terrain
or mud terrain?

Torrington is the gateway to the west, so a good share of the trucks that roll onto our forecourt are heading somewhere with dirt under it. The question we hear most is whether to go all terrain or mud terrain. The honest answer is that it depends far less on where you want to picture yourself and far more on how you actually use the vehicle week to week.

Start with the truth about your kilometres

Before pattern, before brand, be honest about the split. Most 4WDs around Toowoomba spend the large majority of their life on the black top, running the kids around, towing to the coast, doing the highway run, with real off road use a handful of times a year. If that sounds like your truck, a good all terrain is almost always the right call. Buying an aggressive mud terrain for a truck that lives on the highway means paying for noise, wear and fuel you will not get back in capability you rarely use.

All terrain: the all-rounder that suits most people

An all terrain, or AT, is built to do everything reasonably well. It has a more open tread than a highway tyre for grip on gravel, dirt and mild mud, a tougher casing than a road tyre, and it still behaves itself on the bitumen. That is the point of it.

• Quiet and civilised on road, so the long trip west does not wear you out.
• Long wearing, often giving close to the life of a road tyre if you look after them.
• Plenty capable for gravel roads, station tracks, beach runs and the sort of touring most people actually do.

For the Downs gravel and the average tourer, this is where we point most people. The Falken Wildpeak we stock deep is a good example of a modern AT that has come a long way on wear and quietness.

Mud terrain: the specialist

A mud terrain, or MT, has big chunky tread blocks and wide gaps designed to bite into mud, clay and rock and to clear the muck as the wheel turns. In the sticky stuff and on serious rock they are genuinely better. There is no free lunch, though.

• Noisier, a constant hum on the highway that some people never stop noticing.
• Shorter wearing, and they can be harder to balance smoothly as they wear.
• Less grip in the wet on sealed roads, because there is less rubber in contact and the blocks can squirm.

If you are doing regular hard off road work, serious mud, rock and low range, and the road driving is a means to get there, a mud terrain earns its keep. For most people it is more tyre than the driving calls for.

The load rating people forget

Here is the part that gets skipped and matters most, especially if you tow or load up for a trip. A 4WD tyre carries a load index and often a marking like LT for light truck construction. If you run a loaded tray, a canopy full of gear or a heavy van behind you, the tyre needs a load rating that can carry it, not just a tread pattern you like the look of. Running a passenger construction tyre on a fully loaded touring rig is asking for trouble in the heat. We check the load rating against how you actually load the vehicle before we quote anything.

A lift or bigger wheels in the plan?

If you are thinking about going up a tyre size, fitting a lift or changing wheels, do it as one job rather than in pieces. The tyre size, the wheel offset, the guard clearance and the alignment all talk to each other, and getting them working together is the difference between a setup that drives beautifully and one that rubs and wears oddly. That is exactly the kind of 4WD and lift kit work we do in the shed, and we would rather plan it with you up front than fix it after.

Come and have the conversation

There is no single right answer, only the right answer for your truck and your driving. Tell us where you go, what you tow and how much highway you do, and we will point you at the honest choice and the right size, then fit it properly here in Torrington.