4x4Review Off Road Magazine
We all do it; we make a statement of fact – bold and boisterous, loud and proud. A truth that we know we will stand by forever. Unfortunately there is always some one around that remembers this guarantee you make, this rock solid fact, this foundation of stone you have set in place. One such person was our Editor, Rick Webster. He never lets me forget these errors in judgment, and for good reason – I’m the Tech Editor and I’m always supposed to be right.
A few years ago I professed that I would never put anything bigger than 35″ tires on my Jeep. I would never need to, it worked perfectly on 35’s and going bigger would change my center of gravity, upset the balance of the Jeep in its universe, and generally ruin what was then my perfect creation.
As I stood there at the top of Pritchett Canyon trail, having traversed it without the aid of strap or winch, foolishly spouting those famous words, Rick stood quietly by savoring every second of it. Boy, did those words taste bitter when I had to eat them! Rick has graciously served them to me more than once in the last few weeks. I am now the proud owner of a set of 37×12.50×15 Goodyear MT/R’s. Yipes, what in the world was I thinking? Of course it’s ridiculous to put a 37″ tire on a Jeep with a wheelbase that has been stretched to a whopping 85 inches, but I have gone and done it. Never fear though, there are other changes afoot for the too-short CJ-5 – so stay tuned.
| 37″ Goodyear MT/R’s | ||||||||||||||||
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Why the Goodyear MT/R?
The choice was an easy one when it came time to choose a tire manufacturer. The Mighty CJ-5 has been treading lightly on 35″ Goodyear MT/R’s for nearly 4 years and they never once failed me. I have been stupidly abusive to these poor tires, asking them to drive on granite ledges using nothing but the sidewalls and forced them to perform death defying feats with 4-6 psi, and my right foot stabbing the stupid pedal. They have been through Glamis sand dunes, Moab slickrock, Arizona granite, and the razor sharp ledges of New Mexico. Now don’t get me wrong, I managed to sidewall puncture them while trying to throttle up a rock ledge while on the sidewalls, but one quick plug and that tire was back in action.
Since the Jeep is used in variety of terrains, I needed a tire that performed well in a variety of terrains; so far the Goodyear has surpassed my expectations. While I knew it would be a great rock crawling tire based on its use on all the rock crawling circuits, I was truly surprised at its performance in the sand. Once aired down the MTR floats well and isn’t so aggressive that it digs too deeply, but at the same time it tracks well and its tread pattern holds a line well while side hilling on steep dunes. The Goodyear MT/R isn’t a true mud tire, it doesn’t have huge aggressive lugs for really deep goo and tends to load up 
with the slime, but if spun fast enough it self cleans pretty well. The Goodyear MT/R has also proven to be a great pre-runner tire, it exhibits great lateral stability on dirt roads at speed, even if the Jeep tends to sway like a drunk on a party boat.
The MT/R features Goodyear’s exclusive Dura-wall puncture resistant sidewall technology. This sidewall features a special silca compound in three plies that resists all but the sharpest rocks and dumbest of drivers, but are compliant enough to allow the MT/R’s lugs to wrap around rocks and grip any irregularity.
For all the varied terrain the Jeep sees, and impressive track record the Goodyear MT/R has, I’ll happily treat my new set of 37’s as abusively as the 35″ rubber they replaced, knowing they can take it – all the while enjoying my generous serving of humble pie.
| Goodyear Tire Corporation |
| 1144 East Market Street Akron, Ohio 44316-0001 Phone: (330) 796-2121 Fax: (330) 796-2222 Email: consumer_relations@goodyear.com Website: www.goodyeartires.com |
