Pickup truck tires

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So my Cooper AT3's are starting to show their age. Planning on replacing them before NEXT winter, but depending on paychecks and sales might do it sooner. A bit over the wear bars still, but even just on wet roads I can tell they aren't new anymore
smile.gif


Anyways, all in all I've been VERY happy with them. At the current wear rate, they will definitely make 55k to the bars though I replace sooner. They have been a very good tire for me with a great balance of highway and on road performance against snow (both deep and packed) as well as some light off roading... Of course, now the wifey has a nicer vehicle which also gets better mileage so the truck will probably not see nearly as much highway/roadtripping.

Like I said, been very happy with these tires and there is at least a 50% chance I'll replace them with the same or maybe similar from Cooper. That said, there are a few other tires I would consider.

1. BFG A/T KO (2 maybe?). Not really the intent of this thread but definitely a contender.
2. GY Duratrack. This is the tire I would like to discuss. It has the mountain/snowflake rating and is known to be very street friendly. Of course, I've also here that the sidewalls are flimsy and result in poor handling as well as susceptibility to hazardous objects. Also have heard it doesn't have the greatest tread life. Input?

3. I'm plenty open to other tires and will be doing my homework but please lets keep this thread on track. Unless you think you know of a greatly underrated or lesser known tire which warrants mention.
 
The Duratrac is SIGNIFICANTLY more aggressive than your current tires which worries me just a touch. However here's my take/experience with them. I have 4 good friends runnin this tire on: Ford F-150 Chevy 2500HD Dodge Dakota Mercury Mountaineer. The gal with the F-150 also owned the Mountaineer. All of them except my friend with the Dakota love them, his were badly cupped due to bad ball joints when he got the truck and he hates them because of the noise. The gal with the Ford and Mercury absolutely loves hers, she had a set on her Mountaineer and liked them so much she bought another set to put on her F-150. My friend with the 2500HD bought a set to replace Winterforce tires on his truck, he has yet to run them through a winter. So far all of my friends have likes the performance of the tires, they report that they are very good in the snow (all 4 live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and get serious and long winters). So far the tread wear has been reported as very good in all uses. Noise save for my friend with the severely cupped tires has been reported is minimal. I rode and drove in the F-150 and was surprised how quiet they were. It's a radical step up in terms of aggressiveness from your at3 Coopers for sure, but from my third party experience they seem to be a good tire! I'd be worried about tread life and noise as they wear personally.
 
I've been in love with my General Grabber AT2s. Almost zero road noise, I take my jeep to the mountains just about every weekend and I haven't had an issue with traction yet, including hard pack snow.

I'm personally an A/T kind of guy, so I obviously recommend the BFG A/T. There isn't really a downside to the tire unless you need more traction, such as a mud terrain.

My opinion on Duratracs is that they are synonymous with mall-crawling and are an awkward medium between an A/T and M/T. Too noisy on road (IMO) and the voids aren't big enough for true M/T performance. Which actually means they are the perfect tire for the 50/50 niche. They are also very lightweight for an LT tire.
 
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Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
What size?


Torn between sticking wih stock 265/70r17 or upping to 285/70r17. Thats a totally different discussion, though, but the downsides of change are simple. Speedo will be off as I don't and won't have a tune, I also will not likely fit in the parking ramp at work anymore (though offsite, shuttled parking is provided).
 
Originally Posted By: buck91
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
What size?


Torn between sticking wih stock 265/70r17 or upping to 285/70r17. Thats a totally different discussion, though, but the downsides of change are simple. Speedo will be off as I don't and won't have a tune, I also will not likely fit in the parking ramp at work anymore (though offsite, shuttled parking is provided).


If you can fit up the ramp now then going to a 285 isn't going to cause an issue. And at 65mph the difference on the speedometer will be less than 3mph.
 
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I have experience with several tires mentioned my sister has a Jeep Wrangler with 2 year old DT's and I have several company trucks some with the Cooper Dis AT/3 and some with BFG A/T's and Gen Grabber A/T's her is my take.

The GY DT's so far have been a great tire for my sisters Jeep first off she lives on the side of a mountain in Western MA and she gets a boat load of snow and the DT tires do great in the white stuff. I drive her Jeep quite often and I continue to be impressed with how quiet the tires are and how good they ride. They are wearing so-so and seem a bit squirly as far as handling goes.

The BFG A/T on our company pick up is the last gen tire so I can't comment on the current gen. The only complaint I have with them is they ride stiff.

The Gen A/T is a great tire better in snow and rain then the first gen BFG A/T and they ride better only downside is they don't wear as well as the BFG.

The Cooper Dis A/T'3 is a great tire by far the best in the rain, ride, low noise and handling. They are real good in the snow not as good as the GY or General but still real good. For me I like the Coopers the best they do nothing perfect but do nothing wrong either and the price is right. Hope this helps
 
Wishing the Generals would wear a bit faster, their at 53k on the Xterra and have been a good general purpose tire. Would be going back to them if I hadn't found some Michelens for near stolen price off a wrecked Chevy.
 
Originally Posted By: buck91
So my Cooper AT3's are starting to show their age. Planning on replacing them before NEXT winter, but depending on paychecks and sales might do it sooner. A bit over the wear bars still, but even just on wet roads I can tell they aren't new anymore
smile.gif


Anyways, all in all I've been VERY happy with them. At the current wear rate, they will definitely make 55k to the bars though I replace sooner. They have been a very good tire for me with a great balance of highway and on road performance against snow (both deep and packed) as well as some light off roading... Of course, now the wifey has a nicer vehicle which also gets better mileage so the truck will probably not see nearly as much highway/roadtripping.

Like I said, been very happy with these tires and there is at least a 50% chance I'll replace them with the same or maybe similar from Cooper. That said, there are a few other tires I would consider.

1. BFG A/T KO (2 maybe?). Not really the intent of this thread but definitely a contender.
2. GY Duratrack. This is the tire I would like to discuss. It has the mountain/snowflake rating and is known to be very street friendly. Of course, I've also here that the sidewalls are flimsy and result in poor handling as well as susceptibility to hazardous objects. Also have heard it doesn't have the greatest tread life. Input?

3. I'm plenty open to other tires and will be doing my homework but please lets keep this thread on track. Unless you think you know of a greatly underrated or lesser known tire which warrants mention.


Wait for black Friday deals at DTD. They carry Cooper.
 
Try these...superb quality, and spectacular winter performance with Kedge Grip. (If you care about that...I figure you do in Michigan.)
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Try these...superb quality, and spectacular winter performance with Kedge Grip. (If you care about that...I figure you do in Michigan.)


A shameless ripoff the the Iconic BFG All Terrain TA

Rod
 
I struggled with the same tire decision and did a lot of research. After reading ton of reviews for what spanned a few weeks, I still couldn't decide. Tires can be an emotional thing for car people, and the GYs elicit strong emotional following. Most reviews I saw which were positive were early on in their life, however, and the negative reviews seemed to be after the tires were more than a year old. This made me suspect people really like them new, and become disappointed as they age.

I finally stood there at our NTB trying to make up my mind and the sales manager there "down sold" me to a less expensive cooper. He said his sales experience with them is many folks who buy them get frustrated with them as they age because of noise. Said they ride surprisingly quiet for the first year or more but then as they wear/harden they get louder and people start coming back with complaints. The ones who continue to appreciate them are the small percentage of people who legitimately need the added traction over road comfort on a regular basis for work or difficult streets headed home. I only need that extra traction 4-6 times per year, so I took his advice and bought a set of Cooper ATs (the RTX) instead.

The RTX is a line I think exclusive to NTB. They handle surprisingly well, balanced very well, roll quite smoothly, grip nicely, but do have a bit more road noise than I'm used to. I've been so pleased with them we put cooper touring tires on my wife's car, which have been excellent. For an AT, I will either stick with cooper (AT3 next time) or go back to bridgestone revos, which for me were usable in the dirt and were a quiet hwy tire.

-m
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Try these...superb quality, and spectacular winter performance with Kedge Grip. (If you care about that...I figure you do in Michigan.)


Here we go with the retreads...
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Try these...superb quality, and spectacular winter performance with Kedge Grip. (If you care about that...I figure you do in Michigan.)


Here we go with the retreads...
frown.gif



Yep, you can buy an old, used, abused, deteriorating and likely patched multiple times casing with some new rubber glued onto it, for about the same price as a new, reputable tire.
 
I run retreads on my Jeep. Significantly cheaper than a virgin tire. Obviously they are inspected before they are made into a retread. No issues with mine. I go for mud tires so obviously no good in the snow.

I also have had a nice grin on my face as my $100/tire retreads had no problems and 2 people on the same trail, same spot blew out their Duratrac sicewall.

Duratrac is a good tire, but it's definitely true about the sidewalls on them being flimsy. Even in D and E range they seem to tear easily. I wouldn't buy them without getting road hazard warranty.
 
Was in at my commercial tire dealer a few days ago to get my semi drive tires rotated and a flat fixed. Got to talking about AT tires on pickups. They deal with the major brands but prefer the BFG AT KO2's on their service 1/2 , 3/4 , and 1 ton trucks. They have to get in and out of some of the nastiest stuff year round and take care of commercial truck, construction equipment, and ag equipment tires. They have to go on service calls 24/7 irregardless of weather and location. They claim they get the best performance and tire life out of the BFG KO2's. One of the reasons I put them on my 3/4 ton. I live on rural gravel roads that can alternate between sloppy mud and drifting snows. And I have to get off road on the property to check livestock and such. When I am out on the semi truck, I don't need to worry that the wife can't get to town if she needs to or to come and get me if I can't get the semi out to the house. We are on the back burner when it comes to the country plowing our roads in winter. And the BFG KO2's are pretty nice on dry hard surface and pretty quiet for an AT tire. A very sure footed and great handling tire.

I guess it is all in what a person needs for a tire, where they will primarily be driving, etc. But the BFG's live AT and don't just talk about it. And the KO2 version does snow very well. Not the cheapest tire on the rack, but definitely well worth the money for demanding needs. In the past, I was partial to the Firestone Destination AT's, and still recommend them for folks that don't deal with nearly the stuff I do. They are a great general purpose AT tire.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
I run retreads on my Jeep. Significantly cheaper than a virgin tire. Obviously they are inspected before they are made into a retread. No issues with mine. I go for mud tires so obviously no good in the snow.

I also have had a nice grin on my face as my $100/tire retreads had no problems and 2 people on the same trail, same spot blew out their Duratrac sicewall.

Duratrac is a good tire, but it's definitely true about the sidewalls on them being flimsy. Even in D and E range they seem to tear easily. I wouldn't buy them without getting road hazard warranty.


The retreads that 'Jarlaxle' linked to are $141.99 each. For that price you get a used mystery casing that may have some life left, or one with several repaired punctures, on an old, abused, deteriorated casing. I've seen several 'new' treadwright's that fit the latter description.

Right now anyone can order a set of brand new Cooper A/T3's in the same size and load range as the linked retreads, for 159.80 per tire. But, there is also a Visa card promo for those tires for $70.00 off a set of four, (this is a very common promo for DTD to run) which brings the price down to within 30 cents of the retreads. But wait, there is also an additional $40.00 off a set of four, if you sign up and use a Discount Tire Credit Card.

Discount Tire Direct

The choice would be pretty easy for me.
 
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