Does my Land Rover need mud tyres?

BF Goodrich AT KO2 boots

Emilia (Defender 110) has had BF Goodrich AT KO2 boots almost since day 1 of ownership, as it was one of the first things I upgraded. They have been great tyres and I was convinced I had made the right choice.

Emilia has driven across the Sahara dunes, across the water stricken trails of the Strata Florida in Wales. Not once has it got stuck.

That was until the other weekend when we tackled the Trans European Trail (TET) around Salisbury Plain. It had been raining solid for a week so to say it was a bit muddy might be to underplay the boot sucking lanes that were before us. Day 1 was a wet lap of the plain, where we picked and choose which puddles/lakes we attempted.

North towards Swindon

Day 2, we headed north towards Swindon and the trail was pretty good with metalled tracks up until we entered a field. The trail cut across the field and it had obviously been a regular run for the farmers tractors, making the ruts deep and a week of rain and you have a Defender killer.

First across this 100m stretch was the Disco 3 on muds, it makes it but just. Next was a Disco 2 on road tyres which made it about 20 metres before getting stuck, an easy pull out backwards.

Next up was Emilia (Defender 110), which got about 50 metres in before you get that familiar slowing feeling before the wheels start spinning. I wasn’t just stuck I was properly stuck, momentum had got me far enough in so that all 4 wheels were sunk and without traction, no amount of forward/backward wheel turning could find traction.

First action was to break out the mud/sand ladders, my sand ladders are solid and are not like modern plastic version which have tapered end as a result it’s hard to get them under the tyres. The result was that the tyres could not bite the ladder to climb up onto them. Now covered in mud, I am thinking I need to put gloves in my recovery bag.

Pull it out backwards

Next is to see if we can pull it out backwards. The Disco 3 finds a route back to get behind and we stick on a strap and give it a tug, I have a towing eye which goes through the chassis which I thought would take a lot of force. Needless to say I was proved wrong, the Disco 3 was able to pull the bolt through the chassis and rip a 6” gash through the chassis then ping the towing eye, bolt and shackles into the back door of the Disco 3. Another note and lesson learnt, spread the load across two points by using a bridle strop and stick a winch blanket over your strop to dampened it if something does let go.

We then try pulling from the front and we get it moving and get it out.

Why did it get stuck when the Disco 3 didn’t? Stuart in the Disco 3 puts it down to driving ability, I suspect the real reason is the tyre choice. The all terrains are great for lots of scenarios but once they are full of mud you may as well have slicks on. Even once I was out of the hole and back on a decent track I was still sliding around because the tyres were just full.

The thing about greenlaneing in the UK is it rains a lot and we therefore get lots of mud so although this is the first time I have been stuck it will not be the last.

So if anyone wants to swap 5 x BF Goodrich AT KO2’s for some BF muds then I am in the market

Hole in the chassis

Next is to see if we can pull it out backwards. The Disco 3 finds a route back to get behind and we stick on a strap and give it a tug, I have a towing eye which goes through the chassis which I thought would take a lot of force. Needless to say I was proved wrong, the Disco 3 was able to pull the bolt through the chassis and rip a 6” gash through the chassis then ping the towing eye, bolt and shackles into the back door of the Disco 3. Another note and lesson learnt, spread the load across two points by using a bridle strop and stick a winch blanket over your strop to dampened it if something does let go.

We then try pulling from the front and we get it moving and get it out.

Why did it get stuck when the Disco 3 didn’t? Stuart in the Disco 3 puts it down to driving ability, I suspect the real reason is the tyre choice. The all terrains are great for lots of scenarios but once they are full of mud you may as well have slicks on. Even once I was out of the hole and back on a decent track I was still sliding around because the tyres were just full.

The thing about greenlaneing in the UK is it rains a lot and we therefore get lots of mud so although this is the first time I have been stuck it will not be the last.

So if anyone wants to swap 5 x BF Goodrich AT KO2’s for some BF muds then I am in the market