Best tire for driving Alaskan Highway

soren wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:

bb_94401 wrote:
If you plan on taking the Dempster Highway to Inuvik on your trip, you might consider a tire with a cut /chip resistant tire compound.

Approximately 460 miles of gravel, one way from the Yukon Territory Hwy 5 junction east of Dawson, then Hwy 8 once you cross into the Northwest Territories to Inuvik.

An example would be the Toyo M-55 LT265/70R17 tires I run as summer tires. Cooper Tires also have cut and chip resistant compound tires as well.

I used to run All Terrain TA/KO/KD's on my 350 4x4 TC camper hauler and I found that they are not stone / cut / chip resistant. I didn't wear them out per se, the tread got so chewed up (I live and farm on gravel / dirt roads, that I had to replace them. Never again. The Michelins wear much better. Better tread design. Not as 'Macho' looking but in my case I don't give a hoot about macho, I want a long wearing tire.

Yep, I have done the trip many times and cringed when somebody mentioned "mudders". 99% of a ten thousand mile+ trip is pavement, I can't imagine the noise, and wear those things would have. It's always amusing to pull up to a brodozer truck in this area, and be guaranteed to see one thing. Mudders who's only function on the street is to look cool, and make the cab sound like the inside of a tank. Unless they are a new set, they are also typically heavily damaged with scalloping on the edges and flat spots. Nothing like a noisy, expensive, poor wearing tire to degrade the quality of a great trip. I did the trip in several big SUVs and pickups. Always ran Firestone Transforce HTs. Zero issues. The motorhome also did fine, with nearly grip free, Goodyear Motorhome tires with about 1/3rd of the tread left. The travel trailers all had typical ST rated stuff, even Chinese junk. Never had a tire issue in upper CA. or AK.

Actually, the TA/KO/KD's are quiet. Not as quiet as normal street tires but quiet compared to 'mudders'. My issue of course was how bad the tread chunked out. After 20K miles, they looked bad.

I run Firestone Winterforce on my wife's van year around. Work excellent in snow, rain and dirt roads and wear very well too. I may put a set on my F350 when the Michelin's get worn.

Normally, I don't ever get more than about 30K on a set of tires anyway. Diesels make a gob of torque so going around a corner on dry pavement, your inside back tire is slipping a bit and that attributes to accelerated wear. Probably more so on my truck with a Detroit Tru-trak in the back differential. An open spool would probably yield better tire life but I need lockers in the front and rear for what I do with the truck. Hauling fuel in a farm field requires traction and all wheel drive sometimes.