When I first bought the Zuk it had Uniroyal 235X75X15” rubber on it. These were about as big as I could go with a stock suspension and they worked very well for just driving around and light trail use. As I started to take to the non-paved areas around my house, I realized that these would not suffice for my kind of driving.

I thought about the different types of tire out there and settled on a mixed pattern MT/OTR in 31X10.5X15" and custom 15x8 steel rims with 2.75" backspacing "built in". These rims should be able to hold up to a 33" tire so they offer versatility and design flexibility.

To the left are the tires that I have on the Zuk. The tires are from Hi-Tech Retread of South Dakota. I live on the west coast here in San Diego and they had the tires to me 4 days after I ordered them! I could barely believe it. The total cost was under $300 including shipping, so they are a great deal. Being retreads, the jury is still out about whether or not they last. The rims are from Petroworks. They sell them at a very reasonable price and they are steel. A lot of people ask why I would want heavy steel rims...they are cheap and can be pounded back into shape in a pinch. I have done the aluminum wheel thing, and they are great for road queens, but to fragile for OHV use. I cracked a mag in the back country on my Jeep and no amount of prayer could bring it back into a usable state. That cost me $120 bucks...hmmm, too expensive for a rim I think.

I had someone ask me about tire choice. They were looking at the MT and MT-OTR's. I think the major difference is that the MUD looks like it would work better in full mud, but the OTR's look to be a better choice for more rounded conditions. Here in SoCal we have mud, but not that much. Our terrain tends to be more sand, pumice, and broken granite than anything. These surfaces require a tread pattern that gives lots of grip points, and a large side lug to give the corner of the tire some bite for sand and pumice.

The tires and wheels are on the vehicle and they are not too loud. They seem to ride pretty well on pavement, and the more I use them off-highway, the more I appreciate them. I really need to re-gear before I get too serious with them, but for now they appear to be a good deal.

I will probably be shifting up to a 33" tire soon as I regear. The 4.89's will run the larger tires with little issue on the highway, and the low range will utilize larger footprint. I am impressed with the Hitech's that I am currently running, so will stick with them on the larger tire as well.

I also have a set of "off-road only" tires. They are 31X13.5X15 TSL Swampers mounted on steel 10" wide rims. These tires have a very aggressive tread pattern and work well for the desert driving I do a lot of. The problem with them is they are bias ply and that makes them uncomfortable for road driving. Lots of shaking and rattling means they are best suited for slow sand crawling.