Mutt said:
Brigrat said:
You are pretty much dead on, but there are factors that make a locker and mud tires not desireable or necessary for most people, and some who like to go off-road.
1. Most of us spend MOST of our time on the pavement, making and AT a much better choice most of the time
2. Not all offroading is done on mud. Where I live, dirt roads, and sandy beaches are the norm, making AT's a great choice
3. Lockers are fabulous, and I enjoyed having one on my last truck, but found that I NEVER once needed to use it (I had a selectable Auburn ECTED). It was never locked in other than the first time I went to the beach just to try it out.
4. For most users, a locker is never needed, unless you are a very serious off roader, you have no business even putting yourself in a position to need one.
"All Terrain" is very similar to "one size fits all". If you spend the majority of the time on the road and aren't serious about off roading it, why bother lifting it or installing larger tires? I'm sure the girls down at the Sonic aren't impressed with the soccor Mom Liberty anyhoo.
My Claws get great traction in the sand also, I routinely drive down the beach in two wheel drive fully inflated.
Why is it that most rock crawlers run a mud style tire?
Yeah, you'll never need a locker hopping curbs at the Wal-mart.
Easy on the soccer mom, and wal-mart crap...for the record, I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and we don't even have a wal-mart within a few hours...As for the soccer mom...she drives the Toyota Sequoia, and it is very cute, very black, and very pimped out soccer mom style. With our third girl due in about three weeks, it is the perfect soccer mom rig!
In my expereince driving in soft sand, since I have been doing so since I was ten years old, Mud tires are fine, but can and often do get to much traction and run a little deeper than I like. I have dug out dozens of lifted trucks with mud terrains, just as I have dug out idiots with AT's doing more than they are set up to do.
Don't judge me just because my two week old Liberty isn't lifted and rocking yet, the point of my post was to help you understand why some people don't do the same things to there rig that you do. If lifted with MT's was the only way to wheel, then we wouldn't need a forum to talk about all of the choices out there.
Like I said, before, most of the wheeling in my area is either soft sand, or dirt trails. I don't think I have ever had the opprotunity locally to "rock-crawl" or hit deep mud. An AT is the perfect balance for me, and for the region of the country I live in. If that makes me Mall Rated in your opinion then that is fine by me, I couldn't care less what anyones opinion of my choices of rig are...
