Tire chains or mud tires - which is best?

I've got a real problem with my 12-month hunting lease. It has two
places where it's flat and a little "low" and after a rain it takes
weeks and weeks for it to dry out enough to be passable. These are
some 30-40 feet wide. The ground gets saturated and the water just
sits there until it evaporates. Walk out there and you'll sink in over
your ankles. There is no place to tie a winch, so that's out.

My vehicle is a 2002 Dodge RAM 1500, just a regular 2WD, and NO
locking or anti-slip rear axle. Tires are just slick all-season junk
that came with the truck.

I'm trying to find the most cost-effective way of getting through
these two mudholes. It's beyond question that it'll need a locker
installed, right? Something like a Powertrax Lock-Right. These run
about $400, and I can put it in myself. Barring a miracle, this is a
given....

Beyond that, which is best, and we're talking specifically about mud
here:

1. Regular tires, with good tire chains.

2. No tire chains, but very deep, agressive, off-road-only mud tires.
Like M/T Claws or Yokohama Geolander M/T's.

Which would work better? The tire chains would be cheaper, but the
tires would be easier to get on and off. I have a compressor in the
back of my truck, so after I pulled off the road, I could just grab
the air wrench and swap the rear tires.

But which would work better in this **** "brown jelly"? I hate to
spend a fortune just to get through a couple of mudholes.

Ron M.

"Ron M." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've got a real problem with my 12-month hunting lease. It has two
> places where it's flat and a little "low" and after a rain it takes
> weeks and weeks for it to dry out enough to be passable. These are
> some 30-40 feet wide. The ground gets saturated and the water just
> sits there until it evaporates. Walk out there and you'll sink in over
> your ankles. There is no place to tie a winch, so that's out.
>
> My vehicle is a 2002 Dodge RAM 1500, just a regular 2WD, and NO
> locking or anti-slip rear axle. Tires are just slick all-season junk
> that came with the truck.
>
> I'm trying to find the most cost-effective way of getting through
> these two mudholes. It's beyond question that it'll need a locker
> installed, right? Something like a Powertrax Lock-Right. These run
> about $400, and I can put it in myself. Barring a miracle, this is a
> given....
>
> Beyond that, which is best, and we're talking specifically about mud
> here:
>
> 1. Regular tires, with good tire chains.
>
> 2. No tire chains, but very deep, agressive, off-road-only mud tires.
> Like M/T Claws or Yokohama Geolander M/T's.
>
> Which would work better? The tire chains would be cheaper, but the
> tires would be easier to get on and off. I have a compressor in the
> back of my truck, so after I pulled off the road, I could just grab
> the air wrench and swap the rear tires.
>
> But which would work better in this **** "brown jelly"? I hate to
> spend a fortune just to get through a couple of mudholes.
>
> Ron M.

I used to have a little half ton work van. With tire chains I would kill the
engine in deep mud before I could ever spin the wheels, with just the mud
tires I would sit and spin without much load at all on the engine. My vote
would be chains, but as you say, they can be a hassle.

Ron M. wrote:
> I've got a real problem with my 12-month hunting lease. It has two
> places where it's flat and a little "low" and after a rain it takes
> weeks and weeks for it to dry out enough to be passable. These are
> some 30-40 feet wide. The ground gets saturated and the water just
> sits there until it evaporates. Walk out there and you'll sink in over
> your ankles. There is no place to tie a winch, so that's out.
>
> My vehicle is a 2002 Dodge RAM 1500, just a regular 2WD, and NO
> locking or anti-slip rear axle. Tires are just slick all-season junk
> that came with the truck.
>
> I'm trying to find the most cost-effective way of getting through
> these two mudholes. It's beyond question that it'll need a locker
> installed, right? Something like a Powertrax Lock-Right. These run
> about $400, and I can put it in myself. Barring a miracle, this is a
> given....
>
> Beyond that, which is best, and we're talking specifically about mud
> here:
>
> 1. Regular tires, with good tire chains.
>
> 2. No tire chains, but very deep, agressive, off-road-only mud tires.
> Like M/T Claws or Yokohama Geolander M/T's.
>
> Which would work better? The tire chains would be cheaper, but the
> tires would be easier to get on and off. I have a compressor in the
> back of my truck, so after I pulled off the road, I could just grab
> the air wrench and swap the rear tires.
>
> But which would work better in this **** "brown jelly"? I hate to
> spend a fortune just to get through a couple of mudholes.
>
> Ron M.

IMHO you are wasting your time with any of the above solutions if the
conditions are as you describe.

On that kind of boggy land the only thing that will get you through is
flotation. A friend of mine farms Welsh peat bogs and any vehicle gets stuck
immediately and the more aggressive the tyres, the quicker they stick. A
Land Rover will immediately sink until the floorpan stops its disappearing
all the way to China!

The only solution is flotation tyres - my mates LR 110 with Avon Tredlites
can go anywhere on top of the bog without a care. The only downside is that
they need to be very wide which often means fitting extended wheelarches and
limiting steering lock and they can only be driven at about 30 mph on paved
roads.

Goodyear do a good range of them in the US though you might need special
rims to fit them. Have a look at:

http://www.goodyearag.com/tires/highflotation.html

HTH.

--
Julian
---------
= Pretentious Sig required =

On 16 Sep 2003 11:33:16 -0700, [email protected] (Ron M.) wrote:



>But which would work better in this **** "brown jelly"? I hate to
>spend a fortune just to get through a couple of mudholes.
>
>Ron M.


My step dad used to go many places you would never have expected in an
old '70 2wd Chevy truck, (with an open rear diff). He had a set of
cheap mud/snow tires on the back and tire chains ready. For mud, the
tire chains made an amazing difference. (In the deep snow too,
obviously!)

I'd recommend you go the same route. Get a set of cheap mud/snow
tires and have some heavy duty chains to fit for when things get
really hairy. Definately go with the locker and put some weight in
the bed too to make sure you can make use of the available traction.

Have you thought about a "pull pal" to use with a winch? I've never
tried one, but if they work as claimed, you wouldn't need a tree. And
a winch REALLY makes life simpler!

Matt
99 V-10 Super Duty, Super Cab 4x4

I would go with the mud tires and a set of chains for them just in case.

Or, if I had a lease on the property or used it on a regular basis, I
think I would take a post hole digger with me and a few beer and dig a
3' or 4' hole at either side of the mud holes, then fill the hole with
cement with a steel hook coming out the top so I could anchor a winch.
Then just a decent hand winch could get you through if it was really
bad.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

"Ron M." wrote:
>
> I've got a real problem with my 12-month hunting lease. It has two
> places where it's flat and a little "low" and after a rain it takes
> weeks and weeks for it to dry out enough to be passable. These are
> some 30-40 feet wide. The ground gets saturated and the water just
> sits there until it evaporates. Walk out there and you'll sink in over
> your ankles. There is no place to tie a winch, so that's out.
>
> My vehicle is a 2002 Dodge RAM 1500, just a regular 2WD, and NO
> locking or anti-slip rear axle. Tires are just slick all-season junk
> that came with the truck.
>
> I'm trying to find the most cost-effective way of getting through
> these two mudholes. It's beyond question that it'll need a locker
> installed, right? Something like a Powertrax Lock-Right. These run
> about $400, and I can put it in myself. Barring a miracle, this is a
> given....
>
> Beyond that, which is best, and we're talking specifically about mud
> here:
>
> 1. Regular tires, with good tire chains.
>
> 2. No tire chains, but very deep, agressive, off-road-only mud tires.
> Like M/T Claws or Yokohama Geolander M/T's.
>
> Which would work better? The tire chains would be cheaper, but the
> tires would be easier to get on and off. I have a compressor in the
> back of my truck, so after I pulled off the road, I could just grab
> the air wrench and swap the rear tires.
>
> But which would work better in this **** "brown jelly"? I hate to
> spend a fortune just to get through a couple of mudholes.
>
> Ron M.

"Ron M." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| I've got a real problem with my 12-month hunting lease. It has two
| places where it's flat and a little "low" and after a rain it takes
| weeks and weeks for it to dry out enough to be passable. These are
| some 30-40 feet wide. The ground gets saturated and the water just
| sits there until it evaporates. Walk out there and you'll sink in over
| your ankles. There is no place to tie a winch, so that's out.
|
| My vehicle is a 2002 Dodge RAM 1500, just a regular 2WD, and NO
| locking or anti-slip rear axle. Tires are just slick all-season junk
| that came with the truck.
|
| I'm trying to find the most cost-effective way of getting through
| these two mudholes. It's beyond question that it'll need a locker
| installed, right? Something like a Powertrax Lock-Right. These run
| about $400, and I can put it in myself. Barring a miracle, this is a
| given....
|
| Beyond that, which is best, and we're talking specifically about mud
| here:
|
| 1. Regular tires, with good tire chains.
|
| 2. No tire chains, but very deep, agressive, off-road-only mud tires.
| Like M/T Claws or Yokohama Geolander M/T's.
|
| Which would work better? The tire chains would be cheaper, but the
| tires would be easier to get on and off. I have a compressor in the
| back of my truck, so after I pulled off the road, I could just grab
| the air wrench and swap the rear tires.
|
| But which would work better in this **** "brown jelly"? I hate to
| spend a fortune just to get through a couple of mudholes.
|
| Ron M.

30 years ago when I was teaching school on the Jicarilla Apache reservation
most of the Indians had 2WD. They carried an extra set of old mud tires with
chains pre-mounted on them. The chains were put on tight and additional
cross links made out of logging chain were added between the original cross
links so they were loose.

The dirt there is an oil bearing shale which turned to grease when it got
wet. Flotation tires would just get you into trouble, and most likely in a
ditch if you were lucky, and over a cliff if you were not lucky. I could
always tell when a Jicarilla was coming towards me just over the hill as
they would be throwing divots 40 or 50 feet in the air behind them as the
loose logging chains would really dig in. I had an International Scout and
can honestly say that they went everywhere that I did.

You would have the extra expense of the wheels but would not have to buy new
tires as old ones work fine as long as there is enough lugs left on the
edges to stop the chain from rotating on the tire. Also you could leave them
at the lease and would not have to mess with installing the chains all of
the time.

Jarhead