Here's my first impressions of the new tires. Not enough miles for an actual review, so I'll post back later this winter.
With the onset of winter and having tires of unknown background(Sport King AT) on the cruiser from the recent purchase, I kept going back and forth between A/T's w/ chains for emergencies or a dedicated snow tire. After reading this thread, I decided on a winter tire. https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-...-impressed-bridgestones-new-blizzak-dmv1.html
Narrow vs. Wide tire discussion aside, I wanted a tire that was going to help winter traction all the time, not just when I had chains on. Most of my driving is on snowpacked roads; no snow wheeling for me and not too much unpacked snow on the roads either.
The yoko's were one of two tires I could get in a 285/75/16
Yokohama Tires ? Geolandar I/T G072 Winter Snow & Ice SUV Truck
Size: Unmounted tires measured at 32.5". Mounted with the weight of the cruiser on it its about 31.75 or so(~33 psi)
Cost: $760 mounted and balanced from discount tire direct.
Tread: Tread width is 9.5", and 9/16" deep. Tread depth varied significantly for the larger 75 aspect ration tires. Many other sizes came with less than 7/16"
Miles on tires so far: 300
Noise: No iphone to measure sound from inside, but they are noticeably quieter than the old AT's.
Rubber: Being a winter tire the durometer of the rubber is significantly softer than my previous A/T tires. This was determined with a very scientific "squeeze a tread block" test
I did happen to see a truck with DMZ3's in the Steamboat ski area parking lot over the holiday. They seemed to be a bit softer than the Yoko's.
Initial Thoughts:
Corey
With the onset of winter and having tires of unknown background(Sport King AT) on the cruiser from the recent purchase, I kept going back and forth between A/T's w/ chains for emergencies or a dedicated snow tire. After reading this thread, I decided on a winter tire. https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-...-impressed-bridgestones-new-blizzak-dmv1.html
Narrow vs. Wide tire discussion aside, I wanted a tire that was going to help winter traction all the time, not just when I had chains on. Most of my driving is on snowpacked roads; no snow wheeling for me and not too much unpacked snow on the roads either.
The yoko's were one of two tires I could get in a 285/75/16
Yokohama Tires ? Geolandar I/T G072 Winter Snow & Ice SUV Truck
Size: Unmounted tires measured at 32.5". Mounted with the weight of the cruiser on it its about 31.75 or so(~33 psi)
Cost: $760 mounted and balanced from discount tire direct.
Tread: Tread width is 9.5", and 9/16" deep. Tread depth varied significantly for the larger 75 aspect ration tires. Many other sizes came with less than 7/16"
Miles on tires so far: 300
Noise: No iphone to measure sound from inside, but they are noticeably quieter than the old AT's.
Rubber: Being a winter tire the durometer of the rubber is significantly softer than my previous A/T tires. This was determined with a very scientific "squeeze a tread block" test
I did happen to see a truck with DMZ3's in the Steamboat ski area parking lot over the holiday. They seemed to be a bit softer than the Yoko's.Initial Thoughts:
- Road noise is minimal and ride is good.
- Sidewalls seem pretty thin....again no scientific measurement, just a comparison to 2 other tires in the garage(both off brands) but I think I'd be hesitant to run these where the sidewalls would see much punishment.
- Soft rubber and somewhat wide lug spacing seems to grab gravel and rocks and send them into the wheel wells more than the AT's.
- Very impressed with start/stop characteristics of the tire. Cornering is not quite as solid, but then again I was cornering a bit ...fast... trying to test them out.
- Due to the heavy cruiser and soft rubber I expect they will wear pretty quickly, but I'll post back once I have a decent amount of miles on them.
- Very happy with the decision to go with a dedicated winter tire. Like Doug said in a previous post, a single fender-bender is likely to surpass the cost of these tires. So hopefully winter tires + safe driving will help avoid an accident and get me to the ski areas.
Corey
- get those sliders soon!
