Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac

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Does anyone have any real-world experiences with the Goodyear Duratrac on heavy duty trucks? Reading some mixed reviews that sometimes they are a little squirmish or downright dangerous. Looking for some advice before I purchase.... truck is a 3/4 ton gasser
 
Some GY tires are OK. Others not so much. I would avoid GY as much as possible. .

Some of you may know i'm very anti-GY. When you have seen as much junk as I have come out of that factory you would understand. The other day I had a guy that works for the local GY plant in the shop. He was talking about the junk that comes back from warranty purposes. Since his job directly relates to the warranty process. It just further backs up my point.
 
Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta
Some GY tires are OK. Others not so much. I would avoid GY as much as possible. .

Some of you may know i'm very anti-GY. When you have seen as much junk as I have come out of that factory you would understand. The other day I had a guy that works for the local GY plant in the shop. He was talking about the junk that comes back from warranty purposes. Since his job directly relates to the warranty process. It just further backs up my point.


That doesn't back up your point, really. Anybody working for any company that sells millions of product and works in the warranty/defect process is going to see nothing but junk and will never see anything good, so he probably won't say anything good, which is stupid, because he then harms the company putting food on his table.

I've had many sets of Goodyear tires over the years and never had an issue and never had a set that didn't perform well. That includes low profile, high grip sports car tires all the way to off-road tires.

The Duratrac is an outstanding tire. Many, many friends in Jeep clubs swear by them, and they abuse the heck out of them in all kinds of conditions. I've not had a set, but would certainly consider them with all the love for them I've seen in the Jeep community.
 
They are one notch more aggressive than I buy … but friends have them and use on/off road.
They sell very well here to farmers, ranchers, and oilfield crew trucks …
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
They are one notch more aggressive than I buy … but friends have them and use on/off road.
They sell very well here to farmers, ranchers, and oilfield crew trucks …


I would imagine the majority of these trucks are 3/4 and 1 tons
 
For sure … our sales lots are probably 2/3 Super Duty, 2500/3500 …
 
Originally Posted by IndyFan
Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta
Some GY tires are OK. Others not so much. I would avoid GY as much as possible. .

Some of you may know i'm very anti-GY. When you have seen as much junk as I have come out of that factory you would understand. The other day I had a guy that works for the local GY plant in the shop. He was talking about the junk that comes back from warranty purposes. Since his job directly relates to the warranty process. It just further backs up my point.


That doesn't back up your point, really. Anybody working for any company that sells millions of product and works in the warranty/defect process is going to see nothing but junk and will never see anything good, so he probably won't say anything good, which is stupid, because he then harms the company putting food on his table.

I've had many sets of Goodyear tires over the years and never had an issue and never had a set that didn't perform well. That includes low profile, high grip sports car tires all the way to off-road tires.

The Duratrac is an outstanding tire. Many, many friends in Jeep clubs swear by them, and they abuse the heck out of them in all kinds of conditions. I've not had a set, but would certainly consider them with all the love for them I've seen in the Jeep community.


Mount, Balance and Warranty tires for a few years and you'll quickly see a difference in quality between the brands. Funny enough I don't think one person in our tire shop has a GY tire on their car unless it came with it when they bought it. I think most techs in our shop have come to the same collusion. I will say I think their truck line of tires are more than likely better as I have not seen some of the obvious defects in them. 9 out of 10 vehicles that come through our shop are cars.
 
They came stock on my 2019 Silverado Trail Boss. New they are very quiet on the highway and a great offroad tire.I know several people that have them and speak highly of them. Keep up on your rotations. Another one I've had great luck with is the BF Goodrich K02's.
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
For sure … our sales lots are probably 2/3 Super Duty, 2500/3500 …


No complaints of tread squirm or weak sidewalls when hauling heavy loads?
 
Good tires and about as aggressive as you can run on the highway without hating life. They're expensive, but worth it if you're going to do a lot of offroading and IIRC they're 3PMSF rated so you should get good winter traction from them too.

The question is, what do you do with your truck? If you're not offroading regularly, the Duratracs will still work, but they're more expensive and more aggressive than you'd really need. A highway tire is better on the highway.
 
I have certainly seen guys who pull goosenecks getting another set …
but again, I never owned more than the GY Kevlar A/T in recent years …

I think Cooper ST Maxx has a thicker side wall and still an aggressive tire …
 
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My brother has several trucks for his surveying business, all but one is a half ton truck and all see significant off road use in heavily loaded trucks. He likes the Duratrac's for off road and snow traction, but they seem more prone to sidewall failure in rocky off road conditions than some other premium tires in this category. I once had to drive several miles down a rocky trail to help him change a Duratrac with a rock punctured sidewall. He runs several on/off road tires on the various trucks, including Toyo AT2's, Cooper AT3's, BFG KO2's, General, Duratrac's, and a Mastercraft tire as well. His guys sometimes drive 300+ highway miles to jobs, so he tries to balance on road and off road capability.

We both prefer BFG KO2's for general on/off road use which includes deep snow, but I would consider Goodyear Duratrac's as my second choice.
 
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Consider me a Duratrac fan boy. I first ran them studded up on my wife's long gone Dodge Durango. Unstoppable in the snow, a tank. I've had them on a 2017 F250 Super Duty which I towed fairly heavy up and down the Rockies, No squirm at all, I don't even get a hint of it. I pulled a loaded Jeep on a trailer fairly far into Moab with it and ran rocks against the sidewall all day, it's Moab, no failures there either. I just put them on my 2002 GMC 3500 and looking for another set to run studded up in the winter on the same truck.

I have the Falken Wild Peak A/T3W on my 2016 F150 and it's a very good tire too, excellent in the snow, just can't be studded. A much more attractive price point than the Duratrac.

I run the BFG KO2's on my 2000 Blazer. Solid all around tire but not a great performer in the snow, imho. That's when I learned the Mountain/Snowflake symbol is based on a fairly easy target to hit traction formula, not truly how good it does in the snow.

Certainly not bashing anyone else's experiences with any tire.Just telling you mine.
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
I have certainly seen guys who pull goosenecks getting another set …
but again, I never owned more than the GY Kevlar A/T in recent years …

I think Cooper ST Maxx has a thicker side wall and still an aggressive tire …


What do.you reccomend for tire pressure with this type of tire, assuming the truck is unloaded
 
Originally Posted by c502cid
Consider me a Duratrac fan boy. I first ran them studded up on my wife's long gone Dodge Durango. Unstoppable in the snow, a tank. I've had them on a 2017 F250 Super Duty which I towed fairly heavy up and down the Rockies, No squirm at all, I don't even get a hint of it. I pulled a loaded Jeep on a trailer fairly far into Moab with it and ran rocks against the sidewall all day, it's Moab, no failures there either. I just put them on my 2002 GMC 3500 and looking for another set to run studded up in the winter on the same truck.

I have the Falken Wild Peak A/T3W on my 2016 F150 and it's a very good tire too, excellent in the snow, just can't be studded. A much more attractive price point than the Duratrac.

I run the BFG KO2's on my 2000 Blazer. Solid all around tire but not a great performer in the snow, imho. That's when I learned the Mountain/Snowflake symbol is based on a fairly easy target to hit traction formula, not truly how good it does in the snow.

Certainly not bashing anyone else's experiences with any tire.Just telling you mine.


Thank you. You guys are helping me feel more confident in pulling the trigger on the duratrac. I like to hear information like this, heavy trucks, towing ect
 
Originally Posted by c502cid
I pulled a loaded Jeep on a trailer fairly far into Moab with it and ran rocks …
.


Exactly what my coworker does with his 2500 PowerWagon … Goes pretty high up before unloading the Jeep …
The RAM came with these tires …
 
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They have a new tire that is very attractive. It's a duratrac carcass with a slightly modified tread - offered only through Discount Tire. Look up the GY Ultraterrain. I've been eyeballing it and it's getting some good feedback from the 4wd crowd.

I was very interested in it, and may still be, though the wet/dry pavement stop distances for this tire and the duratrac are really poor. The Cooper tires surveyed did better, as did the Bridgestone Revo 3. I personally think the Revo 3 is "ugly," if you care about such things, and I have no basis for how a tread like that might do in soft trails, but I kept finding myself going back to Revo 2s on previous truck/jeep and would hope that the 3 is a performance improvement over the 2.

i've had one set of Cooper ATs, the RTX, and every aspect I experienced with that tire was positive. It was quiet for such a knobby tread, and stuck to the ground better when wet, and was surprisingly sporty in it's handling. Sidewalls were stiff and sturdy. Again, not sexy to look at, and one of the least expensive. Mine started to cup around 20,000 miles, but it wasn't bad. sold the truck shortly after than so IDK what they'll do long term.

So - while my general GY experience has been poor, the duratracs have their place, and the Ultraterrains could be an excellent tire IF you are really spending time off road. For me, while I have occasion to need a true OR tire, the majority of my time is on pavement and I'm just not sure if I can justify one of the worst stopping tires on a truck driven daily. An aggressive AT is awesome when pulling the camper through rugged areas, but, the 5 hour trip getting there is more likely to involve a panic stop as someone always inevitably pulls out in front, than me getting stuck in a field...

Sigh. I've been researching a bit lately. here's what I'm finding.

- Falken WP definitely is a popular tire - some hit-or-miss balance issues with them.
- KO2 gets consistent negative remakrs for wet traction, especially with age
- Duratracs get louder after 15k miles
- Continental ATs use stiff UTCG and shallow treads (but get surprisingly good reviews)
- Michelins get laughed at as an AT but are durable and respected as a truck tire on pavement
- Yokohama didn't impress me in the wet at all and handle trails like a highway tire
- GY with Kevlar is a little harder to balance, and rubber in that timeframe on other tires got slick in the wet with age
- seemingly few complaints about cooper ATs in general, though the ATP has love/hate for performance/noise, though they seem prone to cupping (both personal experience and reviews)
 
I put a couple hundred thousand km on my work F150's using Duratracs. Because of those experiences, I put E rated ones on my 3500 for all season use.

At work, I drive a large portion of highway, rarely ever trailer anything but I do run higher speeds and lots of gravel roads, fields and other places trucks don't go.

They are not a pure highway tire and not the best on ice. But they are the best compromise for normal highway speeds and that 1% of times you really need them. I know this a poorly written opinion but I just do not have the time to really break it down to every situation and detail.

I am not the guy that has summer and winter tires. I want one tire that will get me through everything. I chose a tire that's good but not optimal for 99% of my driving but rather one that is decent for 99% and superb for that 1% time that I need them. That 1% pays for itself when you do not require a tow truck to get you unstuck or that 1% when you are able to plow through mud and other crap and get your family home safe. I have had rock punctures in E rated TransForce and E rated Discoverer AT3's. In all those km clocked, I have not had a Duratrac go flat. I have shredded work trucks and never had to worry about the tires or traction.

Ballpark I think I lost a 1 or 2 mpg on my 3500 and gained some road noise compared to the TransForce. They are not the end all be all but they worked for me and many other people I know.
 
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