Do you have to deal with winter much?
The DuraTracs are currently my top choice due to their winter traction rating. How far down the tread this traction lasts is my concern. I've noticed this pattern with other tires. I've been tossing tires with good tread life left on them because I do not want to white knuckle it through another winter.
I would not buy a hard compound tire if winter (ice/hardpack) is involved.
I'm also contemplating dedicated winter tires as I have a set of alloys sitting around not doing anything.
If you don't already do so, look at the survey results on Tirerack. At least there you have many opinions combined so a degree of accuracy tends to surface over time rather than judging on individual situations where driving style, truck weight, tire maintenance, and whatever else each unique situation entails come into play.
I've read the reviews and surveys on Tirerack. My only concern with them is that people tend to only rave or complain and I have no idea what kind of driving conditions all the happy people are in vs all the unhappy people, so I was hoping to balance them out with some real life commentary via this forum.
As for me winter is so cold/dry here (Manitoba, Canada) that snow/ice rated tires don't seem to perform all that well. I've found that once it drops below -20ºc (-4ºF) the rubber hardens and stops performing on ice, while the snow here is a dry particulate that won't stick to itself, so it provides nothing for the tires to grab onto.
When I first moved here I was driving a 79 Toyota 4x4 with a set of Cooper MTs of some sort, followed by a 2007 Tacoma w/ the stock BFGs. The Tacoma/BFGs handled winter worse than the 79 Toy/MTs. When I switched to Goodyear Silent Armours I expected a significant change (on Tirerack they were highly rated for winter performance) but I found the performance was more or less the same as the stock BFGs. I figured that the Silent Armours were junk and I'd been duped until I travelled south to visit family, at which time they stuck to the pavement like glue while others were spinning their wheels through the whole intersection.
Long story short, I'm not really counting on either tire (Duratrac or MT/R) to provide stellar winter performance in these particular conditions. I've asked around locally and everyone says studs are the only real option, although they're generally not necessary on the roads I drive on and I don't really have the cash to buy a second set of wheels so that I can alternate depending on the weather (I've been here for 7 years and I've only met one guy that ran studs. He swore by them, but said you had to pull them off as soon as the roads were clear or else you wear the studs down).
