Best 37-inch Tires
If you want true off-roading performance, your best bet would be a set of 37-inch tires. Off-roading tires must have tall and sturdy sidewalls, having to rely on them quite often to get the needed traction on soft gravel, mud, and similar surfaces. Not only that, but a tough sidewall can endure a lot of abuse as far as punctures are concerned, because you certainly don’t want to end up stranded in the middle of nowhere because you were unlucky and cut the tire. Such big tires also have serious tread patterns, with taller tire blocks curated for all the possible uses out there. With all these in mind, let’s take a look at the best 37-inch tires.
Best All-Terrain 37-inch Tires
1.Cooper Tires Discoverer AT3 XLT
Ride Quality: 8 Noise Comfort: 8 Handling: 8 Traction: 7
Starting with the mildest of all the 37-inch tires, the Cooper Tires Discoverer AT3 XLT is geared at tackling regular roads efficiently and somewhat quietly, all while still allowing you to venture into the great unknowns thanks to its layout. Towing is its best asset, providing good treadlife, decent traction, and half-decent rolling resistance. Overall, a very good tire, suited for anyone who likes the look of a 37-inch tire all while providing decent behavior on regular roads, adequate performance on the trails, and a maximum treadlife warranty of 60,000 miles.
The compound is specifically engineered by Cooper Tires by adding a mixture of constituents to the rubber making the tire quite resistant to wear. Two high-strength rigidized steel belts reinforced by a singular nylon ply provide additional noise suppression. The sidewall also presents a tread pattern alongside it, helping your car when you drive in deep mud.
Talking about tread pattern, it’s based on a highly symmetrical pattern with many angular sides that improves stone and water ejection. Each tire block presents multiple zigzag sipes improving flex, local water evacuation, and even snow performance. This snow performance is further improved by a few teeth found on some of the tire blocks. Noise generation should be moderate, especially for a 37-inch tire, thanks to some added rubber shoulders inside the grooves.
All these show that the Discoverer AT3 XLT is very capable on asphalt, providing a composed and relaxed drive on pavement. However, this performance comes at a great compromise concerning off-roading performance. Hydroplaning resistance is quite poor, not being particularly suited for driving through puddles at great speeds. Handling-wise, the tire is also lacking, because while it is somewhat reinforced, it’s not up to other 37-inch tires’ standards in terms of sidewall strength.
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2.Yokohama Geolandar X-AT
Ride Quality: 7 Noise Comfort: 7 Handling: 8 Traction: 8
A tire suitable for both asphalt driving and off-road usage is the Yokohama Geolandar X-AT. The engineers tried their best to kill two birds with one stone by making the Geolandar X-AT comfortable on tarmac and suitable for actual off-roading conditions. Durability is of great interest, providing users with a 45,000 treadlife warranty which is impressive seeing how you can use the tire in all conditions out there.
They poured a great deal of development into the tire’s compound, so much so that they decided to name it the “HD-2 Off-Road Compound”. It’s praised internally for long treadlife and good resistance against all kinds of chips and cuts that can happen. Its overall behavior is stellar, providing good feel both on the road and off the road, even if the tread blocks are quite tall.
Speaking of tread blocks, they are cut across by a singular sipe quite thick in width. It does a good job at aiding to the block’s flexibility while driving across bigger rocks or during colder temperatures. The blocks themselves are quite irregular and highly angular, doing a good job at providing a decent area for snow to grip to and providing decent stone ejection characteristics. The resulting grooves seem to be completely random which do an impressive job at absorbing and diminishing the tire’s noise.
Water performance is however poor, both during regular old wet days and while driving fast through puddles. This tire places itself in between an asphalt-focused tire and a proper off-roading tire, meaning that it’s a jack-of-all-trades. This kind of behavior might be disliked by a number of people. Also, while generated noise is low, the sidewalls are starting to become quite tough meaning that comfort took a bit of a hit.
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3.BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2
Ride Quality: 6 Noise Comfort: 6 Handling: 9 Traction: 9
We’re going up in the off-road ladder slowly but surely, now having an all-terrain tire which is highly capable of delving anywhere it pleases. The BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 showcases plenty of characteristics more suited for a proper off-roading tire, such as a twin steel belt reinforced with nylon and a 3-ply polyester cord sidewall, providing good durability and puncture resistance. The tire’s shoulders are twice as tall such that the tire can still have good rigidity when slightly deflated.
The compound is highly specialized, basically derived from a racing compound aimed resisting all kinds of cuts and tears. BFGoodrich claims that its durability and treadlife when driving across gravel will be twice as good as the KO1. The compound is also quite soft, making it suitable for lower temperatures and winter use, confirmed by the 3PMSF certification.
When looking at the tread pattern, the tire blocks are cut across by multiple sipes aiding flex massively, both for rock and gravel usage as well as snow usage. The blocks themselves are highly irregular, providing snow many edges to which it can grip to, all while making sure that small stones are briskly ejected from the contact patch. This irregularity also aids a bit with noise suppression, making the tire be surprisingly quiet at higher speeds, especially seeing how we’re talking about an all-terrain tire and not a touring oriented tire.
However, all this off-roading performance has to have come from somewhere, and that place is regular tarmac capabilities. On the road, the tire behaves quite mediocre, but feels impressive thanks to the tough sidewall. Talking about sidewall and its rigidity, comfort-wise the ride isn’t fantastic, deflating the tire 2-3 PSI in order to get some comfort back into the tire is pretty much mandatory. This follows nicely into the last point that being of rolling resistance figures and how they’re quite poor.
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Best Off-Road 37-inch tires
1.BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3
Ride Quality: 5 Noise Comfort: 6 Handling: 8 Traction: 8
A mud-terrain tire at heart, the BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 does its job marvelously, but also fairs quite decently on paved roads. This tire, or a version of it, won a Baja SAE Race, proving its performance while off-roading. Regular users can attest its tarmac performance, claiming that, for what it is, the tire is quite capable and confidence-inspiring traction-wise.
The sidewall is built by using two high-strength steel belts which are assisted by three polyester plies and a nylon ply, quite similar to other all-terrain tires offered by them. This indicates that while the sidewall is tough, it isn’t backbreaking, being quite usable on regular roads. The sidewall is also layered with extra rubber aimed at protecting against random cuts and punctures.
The engineers produced a special compound for the Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 dubbed “Krawl-Tek”. It aims at improving grip on rocks and mushy surfaces of the already quite capable symmetrical tread pattern. Talking about the tread pattern, it’s quite simple while having a good reason to be that way. Being a mud-terrain tire at heart, the big tire blocks must act like small paddles, which do just fine. Those big tire blocks and long shoulders provide a substantial contact patch suitable for asphalt driving. Thick sipes span across each tire block and when coupled with the generous grooves and angular design provide decent snow traction.
The tire loses massive points for wet driving, its characteristics in such an environment being quite poor. They are quite noisy, thanks the size of the tire blocks which can’t suppress all the noise they generate. Another important factor worth considering is that, while they can perform reasonably in a light snow, their performance in multiple inches of snow is lacking.
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2.Goodyear Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar
Ride Quality: 5 Noise Comfort: 5 Handling: 9 Traction: 8
Now we’re heading into specialized territory with the Goodyear Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar. There are many things going for it, from multiple interesting technologies to a very peculiar tread pattern which makes plenty of sense when it’s analyzed a little bit. Not only that, but the Kevlar reinforcement is welcomed, due to a variety of reasons.
The sidewall is really tough, thanks to the Kevlar reinforced sidewall. Its cut and puncture resistance are stellar, having sidewalls which are significantly tougher when compared to the regular Wrangler MT/R tires. This allows you to drive the tire quite deflated while still keeping a lot of rigidity and, in turn, confidence. Not only that, but such a big tire will have its tarmac characteristics improved by this change, needing that small bit of reinforcement not to feel like a squirmy unsure mess.
The compound is standard, a silica-based rubber. However, the tread pattern is quite interesting which can be shortly described as a heavily enlarged winter pattern. While asymmetrical, the contact patch is quite substantial meaning that regular tarmac performance will be at least satisfactory. Where the tire starts winning points is at the groove design and layout, which aims at bringing multiple features to the table. Thanks to them and a series of small cuts and sipes, the tire is self-cleaning, provides fantastic traction in the mud and on sand, and good traction in the snow. This is enough to warrant an M+S certification.
However, while half decent on asphalt, comfort and noise aren’t its strong points at all. Hydroplaning resistance is poor and wet traction is abysmal. Price is quite hefty thanks to the Kevlar addition. Overall, a good tire for off-roading, while usable on tarmac.
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3.BFGoodrich Krawler T/A KX
Ride Quality: 4 Noise Comfort: 4 Handling: 9 Traction: 9
This is probably one of the most extreme off-roading tires on the market. Every bit of tarmac traction is simply thrown out the window in order to improve the off-roading capabilities to unreached extremes. There aren’t any technologies deployed to aid pavement usage. All you’re getting is a brutal and capable extreme off-roading tire.
The compound is tough as nails, designed to smash through all kinds of sharp rocks without skipping a beat. On top of those two high-strength steel belts which compose the sidewall, they’re reinforcing it with four nylon plies to protect the tire further from random cuts or punctures. The sidewall is so tough that there have been users who deflated the tire to as low as 4 PSI, which attests how tough the sidewall really is.
The tread pattern is quite simple. Thick tire blocks go across the tire’s width, split by 3 generous grooves, making a zigzag pattern in the process. The tires don’t show any sipes, anything worthwhile concerning each block being how angular they are. Indeed, this makes the tire be able to dig, crawl, and climb all kinds of terrain, because this is the only thing it was ever designed to do. The tire itself is designed for the rock crawling crowd, with their help.
The cons are, however, plenty, being for the most part unusable for regular pavement use. Comfort, noise, traction, everything is just bad. Snow traction isn’t better either, even if it got the M+S certification. That’s mostly aimed at the mud part, not the snow part.
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Best 37-inch tires: Buying Guide
If you are only heading out off-roading sporadically, get a set of all-terrain tires if you really must get 37-inch tires
All-terrain tires still have decent pavement characteristics. As such, if your car spends half the time off-the road while half the time on regular roads, then it’s in your best interest to get a set of all-terrain tires. They still present good behavior on tarmac, while still being highly capable on gravel and other mediums.
This list here is a short all-terrain list which showcases a tiny variety of 37-inch tires with different off-road characteristics, aimed at different users: those who barely go off-road, to those who see gravel and muck quite often.
Even so, a 37-inch all-terrain tire is far from a touring tire, it being mostly aimed at replacing at most a summer tire.
If off-roading is a big hobby of yours, then off-roading 37-inch tires are the go-to choice.
If off-roading is a strong passion of yours, then a proper off-roading 37-inch tire is your best bet of getting all the performance you want and need. You don’t want to risk losing traction and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, getting a puncture, or a cut your tire.
Asphalt performance is quite poor for an off-roading tire, so only venture on paved roads sporadically, and in the case of high-performance off-roading tires your best interest is not to venture on asphalt at all. Off-roading tires can be quite dangerous on regular roads, because their overall traction and performance are heavily gimped and limited. As such, proceed with caution.
