Photography: Craig Perronne Maxxis makes a huge range of tires for everything from motorcycles to mountain bikes. When it comes to off-road tires, Maxxis is probably best known for producing extremely aggressive tires like the Trepador, and Creepy Crawler. Built for all-out performance, they can be found on dedicated trail rigs, rock crawlers, and Ultra4 racers. But Maxxis also make more conventional tires like the Bighorn, and Bravo, built for those who use their 4x4s on the pavement, as well as in the dirt. Now Maxxis has released a tire called the RAZR MT. Billed as its flagship mud-terrain, the RAZR MT is a deeply sculpted tire with big center blocks. It features, according to Maxxis, a new compound that maximizes tear- and chip-resistance, along with increasing tread life. A dual-cord casing ply uses intertwined reinforcement fibers for durability and toughness. The large void area is said to maximize mud traction, and self-cleaning performance. Tweener tires seem to be all the rage nowadays. Many manufactures have released a tire to bridge the gap between a mud- and an all-terrain tire. One look at the RAZR MT and it's easy to tell, with its aggressive looks and tread pattern, that it's not a tweener tire in the conventional sense. It has no illusions of sitting between the two in performance on the highway, or in the dirt. However, the RAZR MT can be thought of as an unconventional tweener. By now you might be asking, "What you talking ‘bout, Willis?" Well, hear us out. The RAZR MT is definitely more aggressive than most conventional mud-terrain tires. But it's not as aggressive as a mostly trail orientated mud tire, like a Bogger, or a Trepador. It sits between the two in terms of performance. In its own way, it's a tweener positioned between a pure trail tire, and a street-going conventional mud-terrain. Curious to see if we were right about where this tire sits in the realm of performance, we acquired a set of RAZR MTs in the 37x12.50R17 size, and hit both the road and the trail. They were wrapped around KMC's swanky new XD131 RG1s in the 17x9-inch flavor. Let's see what we found out about the Maxxis RAZR MT.

While our 7,000 lb. Dodge 3500 is a bit big for the rocks, we did find some to play on. Here, the high void area of the Maxxis RAZRs really came into play. The more open area between the tread blocks, and the aggressive pattern allowed the RAZRs to bite onto the rocks. Whether they were slick or jagged, the RAZRS didn't have any problems with the rocks we encountered, and found plenty of traction.

KMC has been coming out with some great-looking wheel designs with its XD line. The new XD131 RG1s are proof of this. They simply look fantastic with their clean, rugged appearance. Designed with the help of Robby Gordon, they feature an XD Pro Cap that be customized with different color rings. We didn't choose a colored ring. The satin black looks perfect to us.

The Maxxis RAZR MT is one mean-looking tire. Its aggressive tread pattern and sidewall treatment give off the impression that it's not here to muck about. Wide, open voids are designed to shed mud and keep plenty of biting edges free of goop.

Like many newer tires, the Maxxis RAZRs extend the tread down the sidewall. Maxxis adds more rubber to this critical area than most tires we've seen, and it's not just for looks. The extra rubber helps protect the sidewall, and provides extra grip when aired down, or wedged between rocks. Our 37x12.50R17s used a three-ply sideway that Maxxis says uses a dual-cord casing ply with intertwined reinforcement fibers for maximum strength.

For a Load Range E tire, we were impressed with the flexibility of the RAZR's carcass. Even at high 30 psi, the RAZRs exhibited a nice bulge, helping them conform to and wrap around terrain. We were surprised they produced a nicer ride on the highway than the Load Range D all-terrain tires we had on before, doing a better job of absorbing bumps, cracks, and other pavement irregularities.