DRW tires for TCs

I am digesting the posts, thanks to all for the information. Please post if you have other thoughts.

Wayne

Reddog1 wrote:


bb_94401 - Any particular reason you did not go with the Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx?

Was going to go with the ST Maxx, as existing tires were getting worn. Unfortunately two flats on Harts Pass road in the North Cascades made the choice for me, half way through a trip.

Couldn't find the ST Maxx in stock when I got down to Mt Vernon, WA. Les Schwab had the Toyo M55.

Truck was ok without rear sway bar. Had some sway issues with front suspension bump steering after installing new ball joints. Added a Road Master sway bar to fix this until they wore in. A bonus was the sway bar greatly reduced sway caused by semi truck wakes.

The Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor and BF Goodrich All Terrain TA KO both have the mountain snowflake symbol for extreme snow and are both less aggressive then the Duratrac.

I love shopping for tires because they make such a difference in performance. I am running the Nitto Terra Grapplers because I wanted the peace of mind on their load capacity. They are great actually, but they are not rated for extreme snow and I haven't had mine in snow very much yet. I am running the Silent Armor on my other truck that does not carry the camper and they are excellent tires. They were not available in E load range in the size I wanted so I went with the Nittos. The Wrangler All Terrain Adventure looks pretty similar to the Silent Armor but it doesn't have the extreme snow rating. Why I don't know, because it does have good siping.

I am starting to think that for most of us, an all season tire or the Michelin AT/2, which is a very very mild all terrain might be the best of both worlds. We go down the highway for a lot of miles with a lot of weight; a squirmy mud terrain doesn't fit the use of our trucks. As long as I have 4wd, I'd rather have quieter tires. Maybe I'm getting too old (and I'm only 31!).

I've been running Nitto Dura Grappler since 2013. Excellent tread life and handling carrying our Lance 1181. Got them through Discount Tire. I like them better than the Michelin's, as the sidewalls seem to be more robust. This is a all season highway tire, but unless you do a lot of real off requiring a aggressive tread this tire is ideal. We see a fair amount of gravel, sand and mud but have not been let down with this tire.
Good luck.

http://www.nittotire.com/light-truck-tires/dura-grappler-highway-terrain-light-truck-tire/

Reddog1 wrote:
The Mad Norsky - I lean toward the Cooper St Maxx tires. The Cooper AT3's could be better for my use. Any negative issues with the Cooper AT3's?

Wayne

Only that they were louder than the General highway tread tire that they replaced. But really not a great deal more.

But going from a highway tread to the all terrain tread, I expected the noise to increase just a little.

Like I said previously, I put them on my Ford F 350 dually in I believe April of 2014, and traded the truck in during late September of 2014. So not a long sample size, but for sure they looked almost new in September, despite having spent a lot of time hauling the truck camper around in those six months.

Factory rear sway bar on Ford. None on Ram-Grrrrr-:M Gonna fix that soon!

Reddog1 wrote:
jmckelvy - Very specific info, thanks. Do you notice more or less sway? Having experienced both, do you have a preference? Do you run a sway bar?

Wayne

I do not notice any difference in sway. It does seem that the steering response with the Michelins is slighty "squishy" compared to the Coopers but could be my imagination or that the Michelins have deeper tread being newer. .In any event its not objectional.

I do have a Hellwig swaybar.

jmckelvy - Very specific info, thanks. Do you notice more or less sway? Having experienced both, do you have a preference? Do you run a sway bar?

Wayne

My previous set of tires were the Cooper Discoverer AT3. I had excellent service from them. Good traction, relatively quiet, smooth riding and over 50000 miles. They still had some tread left when replaced.

I now have Michelin LTX MS2. I currently have about 12000 miles on them with no noticeable wear. It does seem that the Michelins have a slightly softer sidewall than the Coopers, although they do have 3 steel belts in the tread.

Thanks jefe. Your input has me questioning the Cooper Discoverer A/T3's. My michelin 19.5s are noisy enough, and prefer nothing that is louder.

I guess I should look closer at the width of the tires. I was thinking they were the same for a given tire size. Years ago, I had a dually with too wide of a tire. No TC but with a heavy load the sidewalls would touch, not good.

My off road would be pretty limited. Just mild forest roads. I use my Samurai when I get serious. I am undecided as to just how much off road tire I should get.

Wayne,
We have 18" Cooper Discoverer A/T3's on Jeanie's '11 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited as winter tires. They work well and were very quiet at the beginning, a huge selling point for us. Since we've had no winter the last couple years we just leave them on. The tread wear seems very slow. The only thing I do not like about them is the increasing tread noise. They are getting much louder with age. I was thinking about getting them for the TC, but the noise thing throws me off. Plus, in your case, they have a wide carcass which you may not want with duals.
I noticed a generally lower load rating of 17" tires compared to 16" tires. Maybe this does not matter with a dually as you can spread around the load on 6 tires. If no off-road is in your future, you might look at some of the skinnier, high miler truck tires to keep more space between the duals and have a longer lasting tread.
jefe