Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

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Interesting analysis, but there's a complication. Sure a tall, narrow tire is probably better than a wide, short one. But assuming you are going to put on the tallest tires that will fit, is a narrow tire necessarily better off-road than a wide one?

One thing the author doesn't seem to consider is the fact that a wide tire can be aired down to a much lower psi than a narrow tire. For instance, a tire twice as wide can probably be aired down to 1/2 the psi of the narrower tire. Now there is no longer any mechanical advantage to the narrow tire. The wide tire has some advantages on rough roads; it is less likely to fall entirely into holes (imagine a rut/hole of slightly greater width than a narrow tire; the narrow tire will fall entirely into the rut and bang, whereas the wide tire will stay out of the hole by virtue of being wider.

I'm a believer in tall, wide tires on washboard and rough roads; you can air them down dramatically and they soak up the bumps like a hovercraft. But they aren't as good in slush/snow/mud unless the snow is deep. But since I'll warrant most offroaders spend much more of their time on rough washboard /bumpy roads rather than plowing through mud or snow, I'm not convinced narrow tires have the edge over wider tires of the same height.

jcolvin wrote:One thing the author doesn't seem to consider is the fact that a wide tire can be aired down to a much lower psi than a narrow tire. For instance, a tire twice as wide can probably be aired down to 1/2 the psi of the narrower tire.

Not sure where you got this from? Any proof? You can air down a narrow tire as much as any other tire. Unless you have a beadlock there is no difference.

jcolvin wrote:Now there is no longer any mechanical advantage to the narrow tire. The wide tire has some advantages on rough roads; it is less likely to fall entirely into holes (imagine a rut/hole of slightly greater width than a narrow tire; the narrow tire will fall entirely into the rut and bang, whereas the wide tire will stay out of the hole by virtue of being wider.

Sure, but how does your wide tire perform if the hole is even wider than your wide tire

jcolvin wrote:You can air them down dramatically and they soak up the bumps like a hovercraft.

I do the same with a narrow tire.

Back when I was out caving at any and every opportunity I was driving my Nissan pickup 4x4 and shod it with tall narrow Toyo tires. I figured as we were driving mostly on logging roads I'd use the same tires as the loggers did - They all had and still have, tall, narrow tires. Worked well for me too. The BFG's that came on my bus are still in good shape and do the job well enough. Not sure what I'll replace them with when they're done, though if I was in the back country as much as I was back when I was caving lots, I'd sure consider those Toyo pizza cutters again.