2018 4Runner SR5 stock, currently running the DeanTire Back Country SQ-4 in stock size (got it from Les Schwab).

These tires have about 18k miles on them, thread looks ok, but sometimes I can see slight undulations on the sidewalls, especially when I am offroading and the load is distributed unevenly on the wheels.

This is my daily driver and weekends I regularly go offroading and car camping by myself – mostly unmaintained forest and mountain roads, and I have seen plenty of sharp rocks sticking out of these roads. Last year I had one of these sharp rocks sliced the sidewall of one of my tires and it wasn’t fun at all.

Also, my tires spin pretty easily offroad (dry gravel and rocks), and I got stuck in (light) show a couple of times. Thinking to get an MT tire for that reason.

I am looking to get a different tire that can mitigate the sidewall puncture risk, since I will be mostly by myself in these offroading trips. Better offroad grip would also be nice to have.

I am asking for a reality check, since I am too deep into this and I can’t seem to see clearly into this whole situation.

From this perspective, is the 3-ply reinforced sidewall going to make a big difference over the “regular” 2 ply sidewalls ? Most MT (and some AT) tires advertise how strong their sidewalls is, etc. (BFG KM3, General Grabber X3, Cooper Discoverer STT Pro / Maxx, etc). Is this what I am looking for ?

What if I move from a P to an LT tire – From what I read, the LT has stronger sidewalls. I did a lot of data mining on tires recently and I understand that LT tires require higher air pressure to carry equivalent loads, which will result in a (lot ?) harsher ride on the road. They also have deeper threads, which might help with traction, but harder compound, which might not help…

I have shortlisted 2 tires that I’m looking at:

General Grabber A/TX
General Grabber X3 --

I have seen mostly good reviews on General tires + good wet traction on road, which is important since I live in Seattle.

BFGs are a close runner (KO2s or KM3s) on my list but from what I’ve read about them, there are 2 concerning issues with them: (1) wet traction seems to be a problem, and (2) I understand BFGs quite often have balancing (and/or going out of balance) issues, which concerns me because I had steering wheel vibration on OEM tires and the current tires had to be Road Force balanced to eliminate that.

Coopers and Toyos seem high quality tires, but are VERY expensive – Money is not a big concern, but I have a hard time to justify to myself (no wife ) spending close to, or over $2,000.- on a set of tires.

Appreciate your time and advice.