There’s a new kid on the block in the world of off road tires. Pitbull Tires (a division of Missouri-based Tire Mart) are one of the latest offerings in the off road performance tire category. Pitbull offers three different models including the Rocker–their extreme off road tire, the Maddog–their mud terrain tire and the Growler–their all-terrain tire.
I’ll be the first to admit I like their style. Their website states “Our Tires kick ass…period!” And you gotta love that kind of bold confidence.
But what’s the real scoop? Are these tires any different than the dozens of other choices currently on the market? Or are they just another funky tread design with a tough-sounding name?
Pitbull’s website doesn’t shed much light on the matter. Their copy reads ” We’re not going to tell all of our secrets so our competition won’t find out why our tires work so well. Pit Bull Tires® have many distinguishing features that are proprietary.” Um…ok. That’s absolutely no help.
So I decided to put my ear to the ground and see what I could find on these K-9 krawlers. The overwhelming comment I heard was they’re great off road tires, very capable in mud and snow and very sticky–great for rock crawling. Cool, that’s what I like to hear.
Unfortunately the flip side of the commentary was “they wear like soap.” I talked to guys that were getting as little as 12,000 miles from a set of these tires. I guess it’s no surprise since these are bias-ply tires which typically wear much faster than a radial.
The reviews seemed pretty consistent no matter who I talked to, but I wanted to get one more opinion. So I used the dealer locator on the Pitbull site to find a distributor in my area. I called the shop and asked what they’d heard about these tires. Same exact story. Great off road, severely lacking in the treadlife department. In fact, when I asked him if he’d recommend these on my daily driver, he steered me to a Super Swamper Radial.
So I guess the moral of this post is, if your rig is a daily driver and you want a longer lasting set of meats, Pitbulls probably aren’t for you. But if you’re simply looking for a good all around off road tire that won’t hit the streets very often, you probably can’t go wrong with a set of Pitbulls.
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I just got a big package sent from the USA. A set of brand new PitBull MadDog 39 inch tires for me to put to the test and share my findings. PitBull tire manufacturer are focusing first and foremost on the off road market and that is a great plus. They are therefore more in touch with the needs of 4 wheelers.