Tire opinions - northern Nevada climate

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DesertLake

DesertLake

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Sep 19, 2007
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Washoe Valley NV
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Well since I put a pointy rock through the tread on my worn Michelin LTX M/S, it's probably time to consider something more durable. I'm looking at upping the tire size to 285/75 at the same time. I know Dan likes the LTX A/T2. I'm also looking at the Wrangler Duratrac. Any local experience with the Duratrac, or anything else recommended? My biggest concerns are rocks, nails, rocks, longevity, and maybe snow. We'll be driving lots of gravel roads and trails. I'm asking for local advice mainly because of your experience with pointy rocks and also the local climate- I've had performance tires weather check alarmingly fast here, but I haven't had to buy A/T's in a long time and don't know if the harder compounds are as vulnerable.
 
@KWalkerM has experience with the Duratrac in our area. It all depends on what you want to do with the tires? Are you planning on doing any major crawling with them or primarily sticking to dirt roads and whatnot like your photo seems to point to?

Heard really good things about the Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ2 from a friend that owns a shop in Carson. Loves them as a good all around AT tire with good road manners and low noise. He says they do great in the snow and both his son and daughter have them on their trucks (daughter commutes to Incline from Carson daily for her business).

Personally, I have liked the tread pattern/look of the Big O AT tires. Lots of people I have talked to about them seem to love them and say they last long. Talking with the local BO they said they are constructed by Cooper Tires and have not had any warranty claims on them (that he could remember) in more than 10yrs. How much of that I believe is debatable but again they seem like a nice mix between a good AT and from listening to them on the road (driving next to the trucks) they do not produce a lot of road noise.
 
I forgot about Big O, I'll have a look. No, no serious rock crawling planned at this point, just lots of gravel and rocky trails. Maybe a few highway trips, but I have a car for that so I'm not overly concerned about highway noise.

Thanks!
 
light truck forest service rigs (twig pigs and fire) use the duratracs. i like them but they are softer. great in snow, ice and rain. i highly reccomend them just dont be driving over volcanic rock. we have a lot of loose shale and jagged rocks here in Quincy (sierra valley/truckee/hallelujiah jct area) and the tires hold up well. i burn through tires fairly quick though because of a rear autolocker. right now im running Goodyear MTRs with kevlar side wall and really am impressed by those too. i dont reccomend bfg T/a All terrains as they are crap in anything wet for me.
 
Cooper ST, ATP, AT3, BFGs of any flavor but the rugged TRAIL, hancook ats, really most all terrains in a LT E will hold up well.

Or even most MTs.


I liked my duratracs, and my BFG ATs (everywhere but mud), and my ATPs. Falken ATs are decent but turn into slicks after so many miles. Worst tires I've ever had were the firsetone MTs, chunked super easy -- ripping off whole lugs, cut two sidewalls... terrible tires. Have heard great things about the michelin at2s
 
Well ive had really good luck with the BFG at ko tires work well in snow,ice and rocks also have had good luck with Toyo tires and have heard good things about the Nitto tires as well so it really depends on taste and budget but thats just my 2 cent's on tires

Dan
 
I agree with Max on the Load Range E. On a heavy 80 Series I feel that this perhaps the biggest factor.

I have had great experience with General Grabber AT2s and they are very reasonably priced. The Michelin LTX ATs are great tires too and have a reputation for long tread life, but come at a higher cost.

My experience with Duratracs and Falkens is that they wear very quickly around here, particularly on a heavier vehicle.
 
Agreed that you need to stay away from anything LT/SUV from Yokohama. Had a set of their ATS on our highlander and they were rated at 50k/mi, we ended up getting just over 30k/mi out of them before they were hydroplaning on the freeway during a rain storm.

With the new 4Runner the dealership put on the Falken Rocky Mountain ATs and so far (some 15k later) they have been great tires. Relatively quiet on the road, good traction, done some fire road with them and they grip just fine. However you can see that the tread is starting to wear down so I am keeping an eye on them in hopes that they will last through the winter (we do a lot of driving). Most reviews say they are great to about 30k/mi and then the center strip loses all tread siping and the tire turns into a skate. We will see though as hopefully we will have a bumper winter.
 
just to post for everyone else, Will and I talked I have run everything from bfg's, ltx's and toyo m55's on my 80 series, The ones I liked the best for dual purpose are the bridgestone revo 2's, the m55's were good in the rocks and the sidewall is great, strong heavy tire if I had a 1 ton that lived off road it would have these on it, but once they got about 30k on them they sucked in the snow, the revo's are factory sniped and work well even in icy parking lots..
 
I've run a lot of different tires over the years. Here's my 2 cents.

Round is good, balanceable is good.

Most any of the cheaper carcass' made by Cooper and the Chinese no-name tires have tissue paper thin sidewalls right where they meet the tread. Pep-Boys has tires like this for their house brand. They are literally 1 ply of nothing right at the corner of the tread. The lower end Cooper carcass tires also tend to dry rot right next to the bead and crack. Mastercrafts are famous for this, often bulging out right above the bead if they are neglected in the sun for too long.

I know they are spendy, but Toyo's are very good, and Nitto's are just as good, sometimes better. I've seen Nitto's take some pretty horrendous use and hold up pretty good. I've run Hankook A/T's and M/T's I can recommend either one. Have the M/T's siped if you buy them. They are softer and the tread isn't as deep as a BFG, but they are still pretty good tires, especially for the price.

BFG A/T's are crap unless you need a good sand tire. They have a round carcass on the tread and wear the center out no matter what, unless you run them dangerously under inflated all the time. The M/T's are good, but no better than a lot of the other upper end tires on the market. Goodyears are good, some people like the Duratracs, some like the Kevlars, I ran a set of the square block pattern all terrains for awhile and they were surprisingly good at a lot of things.

Kanati has some good M/T tires, but they are super soft and my dad only got 25K out of a set, and he drives very, very conservatively and doesn't tow anything heavy, ever.

Michelin is a good tire, but I don't know if they are worth the extra $$.

If you are looking for MPG, then watch the weight of the tire. I lost 1 mpg going from a craptastic set of no-name chinese tissue paper tires to a set of Hankook A/T's on the wife's 4runner, but the peace of mind was worth it.
 
Will; based on my experiences with Michelins they are worth the $$. I have the latitude LTX at2 on the 100 at it is a great all around tire. Not to aggressive of a tread so it's quiet on the highway and light so it doesn't kill your MPG, tons of siping molded right in so it works well on snowy icy pavement, and so far they wear like steel. The only thing the Toyo MTRs I had before were better at was running gravel roads aired up. The Michelins need to be dropped to about 25# to handle well at speed on gravel. IIRC the sidewall rating is close to the Toyos. For a DD SUV that see's a lot of Nevada back roads I don't think you can beat the Michelins.
 
Look for load range "E" tires, (10 ply sidewalls). I hear the Winnemucca BLM swears by Toyo 10ply, those guys go over flinty roads that are know to shred tires.
 
I agree with the E rated. I ran Toyo ATIIs on my Taco. Good tread life, decent offroad, but they aren't an MT, and that almost got me in trouble a few times. When it come time for new tires on my ride it will get either KM2s or MTRs. But probably KM2s so I can run 33x10.50

I wouldn't recommend duratracs.

IMG_1198 by Flyin' B photography, on Flickr
 
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