The sidewall lugs will offer more protection than the stock dunlops. Addtionally, the traction will be MUCH better! Whether to jump up to the LT (10ply), depends if you are going to do alot of rock crawling. Lots of folks have had great success with the P Wildpeaks (M4STR?)
Not necessarily doing a lot of rock crawling but I live in jagged sun baked rock country.
I had a stick puncture my sidewall one one of my stocks requiring a replacement. Then I had the smallest screw ever cause a leak. Really under impressed by toyotas choice of tire. Granted the falkens have far more tread depth and sidewall tread that would have potentially saved me in those instances. IDK I'm not sold yet on P rated tires.
I live in nyc. Potholes are by far more severe in the damage that they have done then any east coast trail I have seen maybe you should do more research on puncture resistant tires
Mike
I have 26,500 miles on my P265 Wildpeaks, including 2,512 dirt miles in AZ, UT, and MT. Terrain covers everything up to and including standard difficult trails.
ALL but a couple dozen miles were at 30-33 psi. This is important, see below.
I have complete confidence in the tire in Montana, Utah, Sedona, and Northern AZ.
My verdict for the Sonoran Desert is TBD. I have about 400 miles on trails and 100 on dirt roads there. All of these are north or west of PHX. I have had no issues on any of the slow trails like Backaway to CK or Crapshoot.
BUT, I did have a puncture near KOFA moving at some speed over embedded rock. I was at 33 psi. Maybe 28 would have helped but this is splitting heir. This is a weakness of the P metric construction of the tire (no similar issues on embedded rock near Flagstaff or elsewhere outside that desert though).
Next time we went into similar terrain, I aired down, kept the speed up and burst a sidewall. This I take on myself. I have kept pressures above 28 since and have had no issues since then.
In terms of life expectancy with my use, the two tires from the original set still on the axles are 6.5/32nds at 26,500 miles. BUT WATCH THIS: the tires lost 1/32 over a 5,300 mile trip to MT and back including about 500 off pavement miles there. HOWEVER, since coming back I seem to have lost another 0.5 in just 1000 miles, of which about 110 off pavement including 11 at Cinder Hills (which is probably super unhealthy for the tires). So AZ terrain just eats tires as I have long suspected. My LTD KO2s on my Outback lost tread at an alarming rate as well as have all other tires I have used off pavement in AZ. Still, I would expect a useful life expectancy of 35,000 miles out of KO2s vs 27,000 or so out of P WIldpeaks. But I like the Wildpeaks off road better (puncture resistance aside) and they are far superior on road. Add the price differential and the KO2 don't cost any less. Better in the south but that's it.
In sum, here are the pros:
--excellent on road, very comfy, no noise in my size
--outstanding traction on rock and great in dirt
--strong enough for all terrains when new or newish and for most even at 7/32.
--NO airing down! So much better to just get on trail and off trail.
--strong enough for crawling anywhere, though not sure if true when all tires are low tread
--P metric tires give you an extra 0.5" clearance over LT tires since you do not have to air down.
Here are the cons:
--Starts at 13 and not 14/32.
--First 2/32nds go in under 4000 miles so you spend only 10000 miles above 10/32nds.
--Puncture resistance in the harshest desert terrains at speed.
Generally, it would seem that a harder compound that has less traction but lasts a bit longer would be nice to have. But a harder compound will chunk more in the desert (mine started to chunk only when approaching 7/32 or 22-23,000 miles), provide less traction in rain and snow, and will also have longer stopping distances.
A
dd a price of 142/tire in 265 and the Wildpeak has no serious competition for people like me who do plenty of both road and off pavement driving.
However, in 285, at 190/tire, I am not so sure, especially for people who stay mostly in and around Arizona. Maybe consider the new Destination XT which is LTE but a very light LTE. Also maybe worth waiting for the release of the new Maxxis Razr AT later this year. Or you can go LTC 255 75 17 Destination XT at 40lb per tire.
EDIT:
as for the Wildpeaks vs the stock tires, there is no comparison at all. The Wildpeak have MT sized shoulder protectors and an outstanding tread pattern. Oh, they also have better standardized speed rating, load rating, and traction rating, in addition to their dominance in the dirt.
EDIT 2: I am not sure what "true 10 ply" stands for but the only ATs with a 3-ply sidewall are LTD/E KO2s, Cooper STT Maxx, the ATZ P3, and the new Geolander ATX. Maybe the new Maxxis Razr will be as well. Nowadays there are MTs with 2 ply sidewall such as 255 75 Yokohama MT003 or the Dick Cepek Extreme Country in 265 70.
SL = old 4 ply classification but that does not mean much. Tires like the Duratrac and the Cooper AT3 have well-established reputations for punctures, irrespective of load rating. The only obvious shortcoming of the SL is the 5 ply tread vs 6 on XL or LT metric sizes. Our Subaru rides on XL tires that have 6 plies in the thread (only street set that has never had a puncture).
This became way longer than intended, but in conclusion I would say that the Wildpeak is in my opinion the best bet in SL/P but maybe Open Country AT II will last longer. Ridge Grappler in P may be another viable P option.
