Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac vs ????

[smith88]

Currently running duratracs on my 1500. Looking to switch to another tire. I'm on mostly pavement but probably 15% gravel and trails. I pull a 6000lb trailer once a week hauling water and a camper in the summer. Suggestions please!

[Twisted Canuck]

I'm sure Tirebob will be along shortly. I'll go poke him for you.

[TomP]

I run 33’’ duratracs on my 1500 aswell…on my second set. But I hear good things about KO2s as an alternative. Apparently they have better sidewall. That’s what my buddies tell me anyway. I’m sure tirebob will answer with much better info lol

[BuzzJr1]

I work at a time shop and our two most common “all terrain” tires are definitely k02’s and duratracs. Can’t really go wrong with either of them

[Peace Meal Farm]

I often point my clients with that sort of usage toward the General Grabber ATx.

The General has an incredibly similar tread pattern to the BFG AT TA K02. I find that the General typically comes in around 10 to 15% less in cost compared to the BFG, and I hear positive feedback surrounding its grip and durability the vast majority of the time. I probably sold between 50 and 75 sets of them last year, which I feel is a decent number for a one-man shop. No complaints and no warranties. Typically made in the USA (although I have had one or two sets be German manufacture).

Downside is the weight. They are heavy and solid, and they will not help your fuel economy ratings.

[Dale S]

The Goodyears are not a good gravel tire. It's tough to beat Toyo AT3.

[Peace Meal Farm]

Originally Posted by Dale S

The Goodyears are not a good gravel tire. It's tough to beat Toyo AT3.

It's also tough to find them. Toyo has been (largely) out of stock or minimal stock for the last year. If you can get a set of 4 it's fine - it's more a question of what happens in the case of a blowout.

I agree that Toyo makes a nice product, though. For the heavier personal trucks - 3/4 ton and larger - I often steer people toward Toyo's old M55. The longevity from those is hard to beat and yet it isn't at the expense of traction.

[Ennyindabenny]

I usually run duratracs but the truck I recently purchased came with ko2s and I’m really happy with them.

[-JR-]

I find the ko2 wear off very fast ,might be because of the softer rubber to give better grip.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by Dale S

The Goodyears are not a good gravel tire. It's tough to beat Toyo AT3.

100% in alignment with what I am seeing .....

Had Toyo AT's 35" and they were excellent. Mostly same application as you, mostly city, some gravel, 5000lb trailer.

Recently got Duratracs (also ~35"x12") and they are crap.

They do absolutely nothing better, and are, in my experience, worse in every regard.

I should have waited for the Toyo tires to be back in stock and waited.

I am disappointed in every way. I also know that will be a minority opinion here as many on here spoke highly of Duratracs. I wonder how many of them ever ran Toyo AT's.

There is NO comparison.

[Desert Eagle]

I have the same opinion on the duratrac. I haven’t run the Toyo but I have found the duratrac is meh in every regard, and doesn’t excel at anything.

I currently run them as my “winter tire” as they hold the road better than my summer tires on ice, but not by a significant margin. I get better mileage, traction, better ride, and much less side wall flex from the Firestone Destination MT2 that I run for summer.

I used to be okay with a tire that was a compromise at everything thinking it was the best all around, however I no longer find that to be the case.

[OL_JR]

Originally Posted by EZM

100% in alignment with what I am seeing .....

Had Toyo AT's 35" and they were excellent. Mostly same application as you, mostly city, some gravel, 5000lb trailer.

Recently got Duratracs (also ~35"x12") and they are crap.

They do absolutely nothing better, and are, in my experience, worse in every regard.

I should have waited for the Toyo tires to be back in stock and waited.

I am disappointed in every way. I also know that will be a minority opinion here as many on here spoke highly of Duratracs. I wonder how many of them ever ran Toyo AT's.

There is NO comparison.

It's funny how many different opinions people have on different tires. I ran a set of toyo AT II's on my last truck and they were a touch quieter than duratracs and did hold up to gravel better.

In the winter I found you might as well bolt on a set of hockey pucks as they would have similar grip. The Duratracs aren't great on ice but a hell of a lot better than the Toyo's. Deep snow the Toyo's sucked. Mud the Toyo's sucked. Wet lease roads the Toyo's sucked...

For my needs the Duratracs check more boxes. Haven't tried the AT 3's but they do look promising and wouldn't mind trying them but after the 2's a little nervous.

[TUFFBUFF]

I jumped on the Duratrac bandwagon once and that was enough, don't see why everyone hypes about them. I got a couple flats, didn't last any longer and had to get new rims as they wore out the inside beads from sidewalls flexing.


COPPER ST MAXX I have had no issues with 6or 7 sets and 500 000km and my tire guy does free rotations and flat repairs- thank me later.

[Greatwest]

I’ve run a few sets of Duratracs in the past. Switched to the BFG All Terrain KO2 tires for my current set. They seem to be as good performance wise in mud, ice and snow. They are way quieter on the highway then the Duratracs. So far so good. I don’t know the longevity of them yet as I have only had them on for about 15000km so far.

[burbotman]

This is allot like a rifle/ cartridge discussion in the guns and ammo forum.

Two people can run the same tire in similar circumstances and have vastly different opinions

I have run KO2’s for years and now am on my first set of Duratracs. I loved the KO2’s but did find they wore quickly. Only went with Duratracs when supply shortages meant I couldn’t get the KO2’s when I upgraded the Toyota

A year in and I am impressed with the exception of the road noise

[MK2750]

I have gone to two sets on my truck. I have come to the conclusion that there is no longer a decent year round tire. I run Duratracs in the winter and Nokian Rotiiva AT Plus in the summer. The Nokians are cheap and extremely nice on the highway. They are much much better on fuel and a really decent light mud and dirt road tire. I run the Duratracs at the low end of PSI from Nov 1st to spring. They are loud and you notice the fuel gauge but 100 times better on snow and ice than the Nokians.

[EZM]

Fair comments, I think it probably makes a difference on the vehicle, the weight/load on tire and driving habits - so I can see the "different strokes for different folks" argument.

Comparing a 1 ton that does work versus a city queen 1/2 ton kinda thing.

My girl is mostly a city queen, but she likes to get dirty sometimes and try new things

[fordtruckin]

Originally Posted by burbotman

This is allot like a rifle/ cartridge discussion in the guns and ammo forum.

Two people can run the same tire in similar circumstances and have vastly different opinions

I have run KO2’s for years and now am on my first set of Duratracs. I loved the KO2’s but did find they wore quickly. Only went with Duratracs when supply shortages meant I couldn’t get the KO2’s when I upgraded the Toyota

A year in and I am impressed with the exception of the road noise

Got that right! I’ve had several sets of duracraps on 3/4 ton work truck that sees highway and nasty dirt roads. After 4 years work finally caved in and gave me something else. Studded they sucked on packed snow and ice. Unstudded they stunk on greasy mud roads. The only thing they worked ok on was highway and dry dirt. Ironically the one thing I didn’t notice was excessive road noise. Not my favorite tire by any means and from my experience I wouldn’t spend my own money on them. But again someone else will have had the exact opposite experience than me so ymmv.

[OL_JR]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

Got that right! I’ve had several sets of duracraps on 3/4 ton work truck that sees highway and nasty dirt roads. After 4 years work finally caved in and gave me something else. Studded they sucked on packed snow and ice. Unstudded they stunk on greasy mud roads. The only thing they worked ok on was highway and dry dirt. Ironically the one thing I didn’t notice was excessive road noise. Not my favorite tire by any means and from my experience I wouldn’t spend my own money on them. But again someone else will have had the exact opposite experience than me so ymmv.

What is something else? (out of curiousity)

[JeanCretien]

Thanks me too- I’m too white to buy Goodyear according to their HR people so so the Duratracs will be replaced with a diff brand. Duratracs wore really fast on our gravel too. Went through two sets.

Thanks for suggestions


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[does it ALL outdoors]

Originally Posted by Dale S

The Goodyears are not a good gravel tire.

Terrible on ice as well. Mine have about 80% tread left and they're studded too and they suck on ice. Great in deep snow but terrible on ice.

Thinking I'm gonna trade them in for a better all around tire since our roads are often covered with ice for a better part of winter (I only use them in the winter, I run BFG M/T K02's in the summer) If I go wheeling in the winter I put the K02's back on.

If anyone is looking for some 33x12.5x15 DuraTrac's hit me up in the spring when they will be coming off. That was another issue with the DuraTracks, I like to run 35's & they only come in 33's with a 15" rim. I'm not a fan of the rubber band tire look on trucks, especially lifted trucks. Those 33's look tiny on my ZR2 with a 7" lift

[REMINGTON JIM]

Originally Posted by smith88

Currently running duratracs on my 1500. Looking to switch to another tire. I'm on mostly pavement but probably 15% gravel and trails. I pull a 6000lb trailer once a week hauling water and a camper in the summer. Suggestions please!

TOYO AT 111 RJ


https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/to...n-tire-review/

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by does it ALL outdoors

Terrible on ice as well. Mine have about 80% tread left and they're studded too and they suck on ice. Great in deep snow but terrible on ice.

Interesting.... I often wonder about what impact different vehicles have on reviews of tires. I tried Duratracs on my FJ Cruiser and my biggest complaint was noise... but the FJ is not a quiet vehicle and I didn't buy it for its on-road abilities. I have no complaints for gravel roads and they 'exceeded expectations' on ice. They would go through mud and snow like nobody's business.

ARG

[does it ALL outdoors]

Originally Posted by -JR-

I find the ko2 wear off very fast ,might be because of the softer rubber to give better grip.

Apologies for the double post, but..

That has me VERY concerned about my K02'S, they are not AT ALL hard to make them chirp going around corners, and I don't do speed cornering. They are REALLY soft. And they LOVE to grab and hold big rocks, I often hear tick tick tick tick tick tick as I'm driving and have to de-rock them a couple of times a week. That's getting really old already and I only have one summer on them.

I ran Pro-Comp X-Terrain's for my last two sets and LOVED everything about them, I got almost 100,000 K's out of both sets, my truck doesn't weigh much so that's obviously a big factor, and I keep my alignment in spec. If I throw it out wheeling I get it right into Hurst for an alignment. What an AWESOME tire! But I've never run them in winter so I cant speak to that.

The only reason I went to the BFG's is Pro-Comp stopped making them in a 35" tire with the 15" rim. Even if I have to get 17" rims to go with them I'm prepaired to spend the extra money. For a summer tire and an offroad tire they are simply AWESOME.

They look just like a Mickey Thompson Baja Claw, pretty aggressive tire with really nice side biters, awesome off-road tire, especially in mud. I can throw 50' high mud rooster tails. All my wheeling buddys know to never get behind me in the mud or your gonna get a mud shower.

Unless these BFG'S blow me out of the water somehow I'll be going back to the Pro-Comp's when these BFG's are done.

I HIGHLY recomend Pro-Comp's

[DiabeticKripple]

Originally Posted by OL_JR

It's funny how many different opinions people have on different tires. I ran a set of toyo AT II's on my last truck and they were a touch quieter than duratracs and did hold up to gravel better.

In the winter I found you might as well bolt on a set of hockey pucks as they would have similar grip. The Duratracs aren't great on ice but a hell of a lot better than the Toyo's. Deep snow the Toyo's sucked. Mud the Toyo's sucked. Wet lease roads the Toyo's sucked...

For my needs the Duratracs check more boxes. Haven't tried the AT 3's but they do look promising and wouldn't mind trying them but after the 2's a little nervous.

yup i had ATII's and they were great on everything except ice. I went with the new ATIII and the difference is quite surprising.

The ATIII's are actually hard to break loose on the ice. Before i had to run in 4wd everywhere and now i run in 2wd and have to try to get them to spin.

[moose maniac]

Originally Posted by TUFFBUFF

I jumped on the Duratrac bandwagon once and that was enough, don't see why everyone hypes about them. I got a couple flats, didn't last any longer and had to get new rims as they wore out the inside beads from sidewalls flexing.


COPPER ST MAXX I have had no issues with 6or 7 sets and 500 000km and my tire guy does free rotations and flat repairs- thank me later.

I run them as well they are a great tire

[Dale S]

Originally Posted by Peace Meal Farm

It's also tough to find them. Toyo has been (largely) out of stock or minimal stock for the last year. If you can get a set of 4 it's fine - it's more a question of what happens in the case of a blowout.

I agree that Toyo makes a nice product, though. For the heavier personal trucks - 3/4 ton and larger - I often steer people toward Toyo's old M55. The longevity from those is hard to beat and yet it isn't at the expense of traction.

We sold a lot of M55 to the oil patch guys. They seem to hold up on gravel. I got lucky and found some AT3's for my truck this winter.

[tirebob]

Originally Posted by EZM

Fair comments, I think it probably makes a difference on the vehicle, the weight/load on tire and driving habits - so I can see the "different strokes for different folks" argument.

Comparing a 1 ton that does work versus a city queen 1/2 ton kinda thing.

My girl is mostly a city queen, but she likes to get dirty sometimes and try new things

Super late to the party here! Haha! EZM is bang on right with his comment, but I will take it even further than that...

There are many reasons why experiences vary with tires, even with the same trucks. Plain and simply put, everybody is different and use their vehicles in different ways and have different expectations and experiences. All kinds of things like tire size and construction, weight, temperature, driving style, wear, road surface construction, age, damage, environment, etc, etc, etc, will all affect how a tire and vehicle behave together.

I can have a guy who used Duratracs on his truck and loved them who now comes in for second set and complains that they are not as good as his first set. He says this set was horrible on the ice but his first ones were amazing, but he did not stop to think that the previous two years were rather mild winter temps but just after putting on his new ones we went through 6 weeks of -30/40 degrees and black ice everywhere and in those temps the rubber compounds go hard no matter what tire you run, and hard rubber compounds do not help on ice (no matter what anyone will try and tell you you can't defeat physics).

I can have a guy who hated the set of Duratracs on his last F150 and comes in saying he refuses to buy them again, but I show him that he was running a single upsize that happened to be a LRE 10 ply which is far heavier and less flexible than his truck should have and that if he went back down the one size to stock he can put back on a standard load which is lighter weight, more flexible, improves traction and saves a ton of fuel and all of a sudden it becomes the best tire they have ever used (many an AO'er here has had that experience with me! LOL!).

I can line up 5 guys with 5 different tires and make them all try each of them and every one of them will have a completely different opinion of what they were like. Some guys drive their trucks like they stole them and other guys toddle along 5 KMH under the speed limit everywhere they go. Some guys road up to peoples bumpers and pile on the brakes while other guys anticipate traffic and gradually slow speed ahead of time. Some guys always have a thousand pounds in the back of their truck (think water tanks or fuel tanks or tools etc) while other guys have aluminum bodied trucks and nothing ever in them. Some guys have tires that are massively wide and other guys tires are skinny. Some guys only drive short distances regularly while other guys get in their truck and don't turn it off for hundred of KM's a day. I can go on and on and on...

The fact of the matter is, and don't take this the wrong way guys, but if anyone buys a tire based on the types of reviews you see on threads like this for the most part, they are nuts. I mean they serve a purpose for sure which is to create potential questions to ask, but the fact is you just are not getting enough specific information and how it relates to you to make those types of decisions from a forum simple forum answer.
For the most part too, phycological plays a big role. People tend to almost always like what they choose themselves because nobody likes to think they could make wrong decisions, but if they let someone choose something for them, they tend to be far more critical and look for reasons why that person was wrong, especially if the advice was counter to what they initially decided they wanted. We humans are funny creatures! Haha!

If you want to try and find the right tire for you, you need to mine down into the details of all the little aspects you are maybe not thinking about along with some of the major ones, figure out how those things all intertwine together and then decide how that applies to your use and needs. Above all you need to be honest and realistic about those things because you will not get it all. You are going to have to trade certain things off if you want other certain things to be great, and if you want something for everything, is is only going to perform minimally at all things.

[stob]

KO2's have been my go to ... they do it all, better than the rest .. different ply ops and significantly better sidewalls ... I may be mistaken, but I think the Michelin Group owns them now ... since they took over the KO2's are a true snow and ice tire as well ... I wish they had the option of the studding that Nokian Hakkapeliitta's do on them

[Dale S]

Originally Posted by Peace Meal Farm

It's also tough to find them. Toyo has been (largely) out of stock or minimal stock for the last year. If you can get a set of 4 it's fine - it's more a question of what happens in the case of a blowout.

I agree that Toyo makes a nice product, though. For the heavier personal trucks - 3/4 ton and larger - I often steer people toward Toyo's old M55. The longevity from those is hard to beat and yet it isn't at the expense of traction.

We sold a lot of M55 to the oil patch guys. They seem to hold up on gravel. But they are a pricey tire. I got lucky and found some AT3's for my truck this winter.