Gearheads: Looking For New Tires- What's Good?

General General Discussion
1

So, I’m honestly not much of a tire connoisseur, and reading reviews on the tire buying websites is driving me mad as in typical internet fashion, there is no good info, just the usual “everything is awesome” to “everything sucks about them” review range.

I’ve had a few lined up I thought would work, but either they seem to have very low mileage before needing to be replaced, or you’ve got other issues like folks complaining about blowouts and such.

I’m kind of stumped here, so I figured I’d tap into the M4C gearhead hive-mind and see what you guys think…

Specs;

2003 Ford Explorer EB 4WD
265/65 17 size (yes, I want to keep the larger size)

Desired properties:

I drive a lot of highway miles back and forth to work (60-75MPh is the norm speed range). That being said, I live in a rural area, and also do a lot of driving on gravel as well. I’ll be putting around 15k miles or better on these things in a year, easy, so having a tire that is long-wearing is also a preference.

I do NOT want just a plain ol “city slicker” tire. :stuck_out_tongue:
I DO want something with a little more traction to it- something that can handle the highway driving, but also is “better than average” in wet/muddy/snow conditions.
The poor handling/traction of my previous vehicle’s tires in inclement weather the last couple years has brought this concern to the forefront, and I definitely want something better in this area.

I guess maybe more along the lines of what would classify as a “light truck” / “mild off-road” tire?
So, something that seems to be around the realm of a Hankook DynaPro ATM RF10 (look awesome, cheap, but doesn’t seem to have good mileage warranty/wear specs), Continental CrossContact LX20 (seems to have good snow rating, also cheap but have seen some “catastrophic malfunction” complaints on top of the usual “wore out in five minutes” complaints), or Michelin LTX A/T2 (seems to have decent manufacturer ratings, but expensive, and still consumer complaints of poor wear and dry rotting and apparently terrible in snow).
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu…!:bad:

Price range; I really don’t want to spend more than $700 for a set of 4… I’d like to spend less if I can help it…
Of course, if it’s the best damn tire on earth for what I want, well, go ahead and list it anyway…

Ideas input and suggestions?

:help:

2

Falken Rocky Mtn ATS’s, love them for the price. I have a 2007 Nissan Xterra that I do a lot of highway driving and can still get around 20mpg, at the same time on the weekends I’m driving down some old rutted dirt roads to get my dog out into the woods. I also love these in Snow, the only issue is Black Ice type conditions of Minnesota, but not many tires really excel at those conditions. I was going to get some B F Goodrich Tires Rugged Terrains but for the money the Falken’s do an awesome job.

3

I loved my BFG A/Ts before I started wearing a suit and ditched the truck. :o

4

had good year silent armor on my truck and they did a awesome job my buddy also had these and had good luck with them :slight_smile:
also they are a true winter rated and were awesome in the snow !!! actually shocked at how good they were
I used to come back from the islands and teach snowboarding in the winters so for a Maui dude who now lives in AZ I had a ton of time living in the mtns driving around :slight_smile:
I had more mud tires and bfgoodrich AT and the silent armor blew these away by a mile in the cold stuff

which might be worth looking into since you mention inclement weather and figure you get snow there in the winters ?
for sure a on/off road tire but mine were very quiet on the road

they might be more with the pricing but again check out true winter rated tires maybe ?

I run good year wrangler dura trac these days nice off road tire that is good on the road also

5

almost all the off road guys here get tires at discount tire shop and get the road hazard and have never had issues getting replacement
which is a nice insurance if you do any off roading and worrying about hurting side walls etc…

6

Hankook Dynapro AT-M are superb.

http://www.hankooktire.com/global/light-trucks-tires/hankook-dynapro-at-m-rf10.html

7

I have General Grabber AT2s on my Jeep and they are pretty sweet. Long wear rating and awesome in the snow. Also cheaper than some other options. Read a bunch of reviews and on forums and they seam to be generally well regarded.

8

I’ve had Kelly Safari TSR on my 2003 S10 ZR2. Appx 70k miles out of the last set, rotated every other oil change (6k). I really like them, they do great in snow, mud, off road and the truck goes where I point it. I will say they’ll get a little noisy after a while from some cupping/feathering on the edges. That bothers some people but I really don’t care as it is my work truck. My other choice would be BFG A/T.

9

Toyo A/T2’s http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/open-country-at-ii-on-off-road-all-terrain-tires, BFG A/T’s are good also.

10

I’ve got the Toyo’s on an F150 and the BFG’s on my Jeep. I like them both on (mainly) and off road.

11

the goodyear duratrac gets pretty rave reviews from the DD jeep crowd -

https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/tires/wrangler-duratrac

IMO, however having a second set of wheels with offroad tires with normal street tires on the primary wheels is the best way to go if you have to DD your offroad vehicle.

12

Cooper Discoverer AT3
Running 285/70/17s on a Ram 2500 4wd diesel. Great tire so far. Impressed with their grip on wet slick streets. Haven’t had much time off the pavement yet but they were purchased with the intention to be road friendly with light AT capability, good mileage, reasonable price.

Been through BFG AT, BFG AT/KO, Nitto Terra Grapplers, Toyo Open Country. The Toyo AT2s get great reviews and were second on my list to the Coopers as far as being a good tire, but wasn’t a fan of their aggressiveness for an AT. My options were more limited in Load Range E for the size, but you should have easier pickins.

13
  • 1 on the Dura tracs, they are an awesome dual purpose tire. I have also had 3 sets of the BF Goodrich all terain and you can’t go wrong with those either.
14

I’d stop by a Costco tire shop and talk with them. They don’t get paid on commission and will tell you what they see come back in a lot.

15

Kelly Safari TSR or Toyo Open Country A/T II

16

I’ve had 2 sets of Duratrac’s on my GMC 2500 and love them. I’m getting between 45K and 50K miles on them. Getting ready to put a 3rd set on in a month or 2. If I had to make another choice it would be the Toyo AT’s. They were what was on my truck when I bought it and they did a pretty good job both on and off road. Only reason I changed was the price. The Duratracs were cheaper and had just as good reviews.

17

BFG KO2

18

I just got a set of BFG AT KO2’s and have about 500 miles on them. Initial impressions are good, but that’s the case with most new tires. BFG has never steered me wrong with truck tires though.

19

Mine have been awesome. I have 70,000+ miles on them. Mine are E rated because my truck is a 3/4 ton but they ride reasonably comfortable for what they are. Sometimes I wish the tread was more aggressive but the. I wouldn’t have gotten the miles out of them that I have.

20

I always run BFG All Terrain KO’s on my 4WD pickups. Have a set of 34" All Terrains on my current 2012 GMC 2500 and love them.

Ran BFG AT’s on both my Tundras and my old Silverado.

Ran the Toyo Open Country AT’s once and they were good tires for the price but wore down awfully fast in my opinion.