Dick Cepek Crusher Tires

We took one look at the new Dick Cepek Crusher and a single thought came to our minds: Was this the nextserious mud tire, but in a radial design? Little voices in the back of our heads were screaming, "Radial Bogger! Radial Bogger!," but we didn't want to overly excite ourselves just yet. The Interco Bogger has rested on its laurels for years as the undisputed king of mud and arguably as the most badass-looking off-road tire ever invented. But the Bogger is anything but street friendly, and past and present owners have the experiences to prove it. Had Dick Cepek gone and made a tire that would perform almost as well in mud, while still being able to keep its street cred in a world of high fuel prices and rising material costs? Only some testing would tell.

Sand The Crusher shined in...        read full caption Sand The Crusher shined in the sand and silt. The width and tread design of the tire floated us on top of even the dusty stuff and kept us from digging in, while the dog-bone tread kept momentum constant where many tires have dug and sunk in on us. Dick Cepek's newest entry might just become a new sand king for the dune runners.

Trail As far as all-around...        read full caption Trail As far as all-around trail riding was concerned, we were not let down. The tough sidewall and skull-and-crossbones protective tread kept our tires undamaged, and 9 inches of sidewall was enough to keep the ride bearable, though we would've rather had more sidewall and less wheel to deal with.... One other thing we noted is that the tires did not fold over onto themselves, even with extreme lateral pressures, which only further demonstrates how tough these sidewalls really are.

Mud We had gotten excited...        read full caption Mud We had gotten excited thinking to ourselves "Radial Bogger!" Its sectioned-off tread blocks were reminiscent of the famous mud tire, but the Bogger performance was not quite there. The radial design of the tire did not conform to the mud as well as a bias-ply tire would, and the shorter tread lugs left us spinning violently in some extremely muddy sections. The tire still performed very well in the mud and cleaned itself out excellently, but we might have gotten a little overly excited when we saw the Boggeresque design and held the tire to a standard that was too high.

We ordered up a set of 38.50x14.50R20 Crushers, a deviation from our rule that tires must be at least twice the size of the wheel they're mounted on. But we had no choice. The biggest Crusher (the 38 1/2-inch) is only available with a 20-inch wheel right now [Boo!-Ed.]. With enough push from consumers, you'll see some big versions for smaller wheel sizes. And don't necessarily blame the tire manufacturers for this big wheel trend, as many times they're just responding to what consumers are asking for. So start asking for a 38, 40, 42, and 46 on 17-inch rims.

Rocks Believe it or not,...        read full caption Rocks Believe it or not, we were running this tire with 8 pounds of pressure at each corner on this fullsize Cherokee. It could have been the fact that the tires were new and not broken in all the way yet, but we didn't get to see very much sidewall flex, even under a 5,000-pound fullsize vehicle. Nevertheless, the tire gripped rocks pretty well and pulled themselves right up the sandstone we were testing them on. The lateral dog-bone tread gave a long surface edge to wrap onto the rocks, letting them pull us up and over some rocks with ease that impressed us, considering the lack of flex.

Highway On the highway, the...        read full caption Highway On the highway, the high void ratio of the Crushers made for some pretty decent road humming that would rival some of the more nasty mud tires, but it was still a radial and therefore bearable. The tires tracked quite well on the road with 30 pounds of pressure in them, and any pulling from side to side was most likely due to the width of the tire grabbing any cracks or deformations in the road. We didn't get a chance to try it on any wet streets due to the season of testing, but the Crushers did have a some minimal siping lines on each tread block which does help in wet conditions. Since there was no central tread configuration and instead more of separate "dog bone" lugs, there was some resistance to it rolling down the road as smoothly as an all-terrain tire would.

Overall Impressions After...        read full caption Overall Impressions After a few days of running these tires around, we came to the conclusion that they would be our newest sand and rock tires, as that is where they impressed most. The siping on the tire is minimal, which would make us hesitant in wet street conditions, and the tread design was not the smoothest rolling tire we've experienced. Its mud performance was impressive, but nowhere near the king of mud tires. The Crushers' rock traction was also very impressive and the tread did not chunk apart, making us yearn to head for some really sharp rocks to see how it'd hold up. The weight of the tire-and-wheel combination was a bit heavy though, and we have the hernia note from a doctor to prove it. We'll be sending you our doctor bill soon, Mr. Cepek.