Wheels & Tyres

Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/Ts – 10,000km later, here’s how they’re tracking

Early signs point to solid wear and reliability from these US-made all-terrains

31 Jul 2025 4:08 PM

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Anyone who has spent any time at all involved in recreational four-wheel driving will have come across the name Mickey Thompson.

He made his name in off-road racing; back in the early days of desert racing in Baja, California. It was this racing that instigated Mickey’s search for the ideal rubber, and when he couldn’t find a suitable commercially available tyre, he decided to go and make his own… as you do.

Being heavily influenced by his Baja racing, most of the tyres he produced used that name in one form or another, and his Baja Claws proved a big success in desert racing. It wasn’t long before he decided to get into the 4×4 consumer market and the rest, as they say, is history.

The tyres we have fitted to our Ranger also bear the name Baja, but they are not the old Claws. No, these tyres are called Baja Boss A/T, and with their pronounced side-biters they certainly look the part when it comes to recreational four-wheel driving. Mickey Thompson pioneered the side-biter design, and it has since been employed by a number of other tyre makers.

We fitted the Baja Boss A/T rubber to the Ranger about 10,000km ago, and while Mickey Thompson says it is an all-terrain, to most people it looks pretty close to a mud-terrain pattern thanks to its well defined lugs. But you have to remember we are talking about Mickey Thompson here, and he has always favoured the aggressive look. Notably, these tyres are still made in the USA, and the size chosen for our Ranger is LT265/65R17.

I expected a bit of road noise as soon as I drove out of the fitting bay but it was not particularly noticeable, so I began to wonder if the pressures were a bit high. I checked them, and all four were set at 36psi. Normally you might expect to run these tyres at around 40psi in a vehicle like the Ranger, and as mine is driven pretty much loaded up all the time, I thought that lower pressure was a bit surprising, despite the three-ply rating of the sidewalls.

Mickey Thompson dealer Plateau Tyres at Alstonville Northern NSW supplied and fitted the tyres, and also placed a sticker on the windscreen to remind us to rotate them at 10,000km, which we did. We also checked the tread depth at that point, and from the original tread depth of 14mm to 15mm had worn down to 9.8mm to 12.6mm respectively. These numbers represent a sampling from different locations on the tyre, and show a wear over 10,000km of 4mm to 0.23mm.

The Mickey Ts have stood up to towing a 2.5t van and travelling over a wide variety of surfaces, including outback tracks. As we live in a rural area, tyres are always going to cop a bit of a flogging. So far they’ve shown no signs of any damage, and they have maintained pressure well. On some rural properties we go to they have handled muddy tracks without drama. On wet bitumen there has been no sign of loss of traction, no doubt thanks to the presence of deep sipes on the lugs to help disperse water.

So far it’s difficult to find anything to be critical about these tyres. They are not cheap, but then you expect to pay a good price for a decent product. I’ll admit that 10,000km is really just the beginning, but they are showing great promise and I’m told that with the right treatment, tyre wear should see them last to around 85,000km. We’ll be doing our best to try and make that happen.