Figured I'd post a 1-week update. Since getting the tires installed, we've been in a good mix of weather - warm dry pavement, heavy rain, and in the mountains we tackled some deep snow and some icy roads. These tires are fantastic. I'll keep posting updates as I use them more.
One Week Update:
Cons:
1) Slightly - and I do mean slightly - louder than the stock Wrangler Duratracs. I would rate the tread as being 50% more aggressive, but I would say the noise is only 5% louder, so hardly worth worrying about.
2) The E-rated tires aren't available in all sizes so if you are wanting a 10-ply, you need to do a bit of homework on the tire sizes (which I did, with this thread, and am very grateful to the collective wisdom of Expo for the help - as you folks said the tires fit no problem).
That's it. That's all the cons so far.
Pros:
1) Steering feels a bit more "nimble" - that's subjective, and hard to notice in what I affectionately refer to as my "Sports Truck", but it does feel like it needs slightly less effort to steer. This is much more pronounced at slow speeds, but at highway speeds it's not at all twitchy or anything and tracks the line really nicely.
2) Excellent performance in the wet. With traction control off, I used to be able to fairly easily break free my Duratracs in the wet if I wanted to, even when the truck was new-ish with only 6,000 kilometers on it. I am so far unable to break these loose in the wet.
- On ice roads, they were fantastic in two situations:
2a)) Going up the mountain near where I live, there are a lot of stretches of dry road where the sun hits, but then where the road is in shade, it was actually very icy (as in, cars skidding off the road icy - more in a moment). These tires felt grippy and I can tell they earned their M+S rating.
2b) On the way up, we noticed an F-350 in the ditch on it's side but it looked like it had been there a while, and we didn't see anyone in it on our way by. We spent a bit of time messing around in deep snow and on the way back down we decided we would stop to make sure the Ford was empty. It was heading up hill, but it was off the road in the downhill lane in a 3-4 foot deep ditch, pitched over on it's side; the drivers side doors and front quarter were in rough shape. But we didn't know that when we stopped and we're glad we did, because there was a gentleman in the truck who apparently had been there since he decided to go up the mountain for coffee that morning (it was now 1:00). We were the only ones to stop in several hours but that's a reflection on humanity that I will save for another thread. Anyway, we had a set of maxtrax and a kinetic recovery rope, and my little 6,000 lbs Canyon was "The Little Engine that Could" this day as we had him out and on the road in short order. Candidly, I didn't expect to be able to do this but wanted to give it the good ol' College Try for the sake of the Ford driver before giving him a ride to civilization as he had a several hour long wait for the tow truck still ahead of him, but the siping on these tires meant that I was able to grip really, really well on the icy surface and put a lot of energy into the kinetic strap. Within about 20 minutes, he was back on the road. The tires did spin a bit, but for the most part they bit hard and fast. For additional context, in order to ensure everything was as safe as it could me, my wife was standing further up on the road and flagging people down to warn them of the situation ahead while we extricated the Ford; one person tried to slow to speak to her, and instead she skidded right past her and nearly ended in the ditch herself -- in a Land Rover, so not exactly the wrong tool for the weather -- and she ultimately decided to turn around and head back till the road was cleared. The others were having to go extremely slowly to avoid the same fate as the Ford as they went by. It was skating-rink icy (as a Canadian that's a metric I know a thing or two about!); In fact it was so icy that despite my genetic pre-disposition to walking on ice, when I first got out of my truck, my feet went out from under me completely, and I have a nice bruise on my backside to prove it.
I didn't take any pics of the recovery. I do have pics of the bruise on my bottom, but this is family site. The point is the tires worked great - far better than I expected in those conditions.
3) In deep snow, they cut through very easily and had solid traction all around. No complaints at all in deep snow - I would be high centered before I ran out of traction with them for sure; my Goodyears used to get pretty plugged up (even when new-ish) in the snow with ice, and would just spin.
4) In mud, they self-cleared very well; I suppose it could be considered a "con" but they sure do fling the mud out of the treads effectively, as evidences by the sides of my truck (The canyon box's fenders stick out a bit and tend to catch the mud flung from the front wheels). The previous owner sprung for the 3M film though, so it has no impact on my vehicle.
5) Price was exceptionally good. These are E-rated tires with a tread pattern that I would compare to the BFG KO2s. For KO2s at Costco - the cheapest place to get 'em - I was quoted at $1700 Canadian for a set of 4 tires. I got these 4 at Canadian Tire for $1406.00, and that included a front-end alignment (which I reckon costs about $150 at least). At this price, they also include a 6 year warranty that includes road damage, so basically I'm set for tires for the next 6 years even if I wreck them on a gravel road like I did my last ones. I think (but am not 100% sure) this also includes rotations.
In freedom dollars, this means my set of tires cost me only $1,042 USD. That's $100 USD less than a set of KO2s from TireRack before installation costs, which I think is a screaming good deal when you consider the warranty.
And, as mentioned in my first post, these Motomaster-brand tires are made by Cooper Tires, right here in Canada apparently, so I've got no qualms like I'd normally have with basically every store brand except Kirkland.
I'll post again in a few months once I get a few thousand more kilometers on them and have a sense of how they wear, keep balance, etc. over time.
