Goodyear MTR vs Duratrac - Longevity.

[some_dude]

I was looking at getting a set of Duratracks for my truck when a friend of mine told me that Duratracs wear quickly and were only good for about 2 years of driving. He then said that the MTRs were good for 4 years plus due to the harder rubber compound used in the tread.

The terrain where I live is better suited to ATs than MTs, but double the lifespan is a pretty significant bonus.

Just looking for more opinions before I make a decision.

(note: I get significant discounts on Goodyear, so I'm not entertaining any other options)

 

[digitaldelay]

Sounds like the the Duratrac is the better tire for you and your discount should compensate for shorter treadlife, if any.

Jason

 

[Clutch]

I only fetched 2 years out of a set of MTR's...


YMMV

 

[herm]

years and miles are different measures.

 

[some_dude]

I only fetched 2 years out of a set of MTR's...


YMMV

How many miles?

 

[deadbeat son]

OP: You may get better feedback in the General Vehicle Mods forum than here in the Toyota-specific forum.

I only fetched 2 years out of a set of MTR's...


YMMV

Current gen MT/Rs with Kevlar?

 

[Clutch]

How many miles?

30K

They performed great. I'll take performance over longevity. BFG's AT/MT's I can get 60K+ out
of a set, but performance lacks.

Running Copper STT's now.

Current gen MT/Rs with Kevlar?

First gen before Kelvar, the current gen should last longer, but the harder compound sacrifices performance.

Loving the Coppers though, I expect to get 30-40K out of them.

OP: Like anything you have to try a bunch of different brands/styles to figure out what works for you.

 

[oliverlove]

I have seen pictures of some pretty serious blowouts on the Duratracs. The OP was upset about the sidewalls being weak.

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

No personal experience, but people I know who have purchased Duratrac's have had significant wear in few kilometers. Apparently they are an excellent tire in the snow, rain, most conditions, but I too have heard of a disproportionate number of sidewall punctures/cuts, not as many with the MTR? Again, no personal experience.

I think you should go with what will work for you most of the time, and leverage that sweet discount to offset the longevity issues, and get a spare or two!! WIN WIN!

 

[mrvandelay]

No personal experience, but people I know who have purchased Duratrac's have had significant wear in few kilometers. Apparently they are an excellent tire in the snow, rain, most conditions, but I too have heard of a disproportionate number of sidewall punctures/cuts, not as many with the MTR? Again, no personal experience.

I think you should go with what will work for you most of the time, and leverage that sweet discount to offset the longevity issues, and get a spare or two!! WIN WIN!

I believe Duratracs have 2-ply sidewalls as opposed to the MTRs which have 3-ply sidewalls. (I think)

 

[keezer37]

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.

 

[Racerxxl]

No personal experience, but people I know who have purchased Duratrac's have had significant wear in few kilometers. Apparently they are an excellent tire in the snow, rain, most conditions, but I too have heard of a disproportionate number of sidewall punctures/cuts, not as many with the MTR? Again, no personal experience.

I think you should go with what will work for you most of the time, and leverage that sweet discount to offset the longevity issues, and get a spare or two!! WIN WIN!

I have a set on my Xterra, as do a few others I wheel with, and we have seen just this problem. It seems they cut down fairly easy compared with other brands we have wheeled or wheel with.

As for mileage I have 18,000 on mine but don't see them lasting more then 35,000

 

[SWITAWI]

Lots of what I've read about DuraTracs says they tend to last a bit longer on the lighter trucks (relatively speaking) like Jeeps, FJ40s, FJCs, Tacomas, etc than they will on a full-size 4x4 pickup. Lots of guys on the FJ Forum rabidly swear by DurTracs as being as close to a true do-all tire as you can find, with great winter traction to boot. Of course there are also quite a few guys over there who run the MT/R's on a daily basis as well, but most of them willingly admit they are giving up miles for traction when compared with DuraTracs and BFG A/Ts (and even BFG KM2s according to some).

 

[RobRed]

I love all the "I heard this and i heard that". My Duratracs with 3ply sidewalls are doing fine on my very heavy cruiser. Super traction in all road conditions. Great traction off road except the heaviest of mud where of course a true mtr would be better. DT is snow rated. It's really a remarkable tire.


Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

 

[some_dude]

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).