The Goodyear Wrangler TD's come to us as an OE tire on full sized Chevy trucks but are available from your local Goodyear tire center. Some eagle eyed fans out there of "Walker - Texas Ranger" may also recognize the TD's from the truck that Chuck Norris drives in the show. My wife was sold on the tires as soon as she was able to verify that Chuck actually used them!

Now when considering a tire for a Grand Cherokee Limited with 16" rims we must keep in mind that we are looking for a tire that will walk a fine line between on and off-road performance. This is done with ease by the Goodyear Wrangler TD. The center tread pattern is much like that of a conventional AT (all terrain) tire that offers comfortable on road handling while increasing your off-road ability. This is just fine if you plan on using your Jeep for light duty off-roading and lots of on-road driving. When the rain falls and dirt turns to mud there is absolutely no substitute for an open lugged pattern similar to conventional MT (mud terrain) tires. This is where the Goodyear Wrangler TD's shine. The outer tread pattern is of a lugged design that gives us the ability to crawl through mud and keep the tires clean for increased traction.

Now most of us associate MT tires with a whining or howling while traveling down the road due to the open lugged design. Not so with the Wrangler TD's. The engineers at Goodyear obviously spent much time arranging the tread pattern for ultimate efficiency under all conditions while keeping the tire smooth and quiet. My hats off to a job well done.

Now when testing these tires we were fortunate enough to be involved in some extreme off-roading on both the East and West sides of the United States. East coast off-roading that we experienced involved dirt, rocks, gravel, mud, hills, streams, grass, wet leaves, fallen trees, etc. The Wrangler TD's handled all with ease. Snow is another concern of ours and even though it is not that time of the year we solicited reviews of the tires from users who have had experience with these tires in the "snow belt" of the Great Lakes. All those questioned praised the tires for their ability to go where other tires have feared to travel. Winter conditions discussed included slush, snow, and ice. We are looking forward to having some fun when the snow starts falling this year!

While covering the West Coast Grand Cherokee trail ride at Moab, UT in early August we got time to play on some very big, and very hard rocks. This is the kind of off-roading that requires your tires to be "aired down" to allow the tires footprint to conform to the sometimes jagged rock surfaces that we encounter. Most off-road tires have a very stiff sidewall that requires you to air down to between 8-14 PSI so the sidewalls can flex. This can be dangerous because that same internal pressure is what holds the tires bead in place around the rim. Excessively low tire pressure plus uneven terrain will usually result in popping a bead off a rim and losing all tire pressure. This is not good in the middle of the desert.

The Goodyear Wrangler TD's offer a firm yet supple sidewall that allowed our tires to flex well while keeping the internal pressure at 16-22 PSI. This is a big plus since now you have a tire that flexes very well yet still will allow the sidewall to flex and conform around rocks and other obstacles. If a sidewall is too soft you risk punctures and tears during severe off-roading. Our Wrangler TD's were run on some of the toughest trails Moab has to offer and they have held up just wonderful.

Now that we have discussed how well the Goodyear Wrangler TD's work for us off-road let's talk about on road performance. Our Grand Cherokees spend the majority of the time on road so on road performance is generally ranked as the most important feature we look for in a new tire. Considering that my life depended on a tires on-road performance as a Professionally licensed Superbike racer for several years I have a keen ability to "tune in" to a tires handling characteristics. The Wrangler TD's handled flawlessly on the road.

I expected more sidewall flex while cornering due to the larger overall tire but was happy to feel the nice firm sidewalls keep the tires from "rolling" or "balling up" during hard cornering. We have spent nearly 10K miles evaluating these tires in the city, on the highway, etc. and are happy to pronounce that we believe that we have found the perfect tire for the Grand Cherokee Limited that sees as much off-roading as it does on-road driving.

Let's see.....great job off-roading in every type of terrain we encountered.....smooth, quiet highway ride with confidence inspiring handling characteristics.....

Sounds too good to be true.....sounds like a Goodyear Wrangler TD to me.