Done with the Duratracs....

Even though I actually really liked these tires, after a second sidewall incident, it was time to make a change. The incident was a blowout on I-85 while pulling my camper with the wife and kids in the car. I'm not sure why the sidewall blew - it could very well have been already cut on the rocks and the extra tongue weight of the trailer just gave it the final push. But even if it was that, it just made me realize the Duratrac's 2 ply sidewall is just not enough for what I do with the truck.

So out with the old.....



And in with the new........



Well - in with the new next week anyway. I've done a ton of research, and the Cooper Discoverer STT seems to be a very good aggressive tire with good road manners, and a nice strong 3-ply sidewall. Best of all, Discount Tire bought back my Duratracs for about $250 more than I could have probably sold them for privately

I used to have 33x12.50 Discoverers on my old truck, and they were excellent! You'll def like em.

cant go wrong with those coopers...when i bought my tires it was between the coopers and the bfg.....just ended up with a better deal with the bfg at the time...good luck let s know what you find out with the coopers...

DamnItsAGlasgow wrote:

I used to have 33x12.50 Discoverers on my old truck, and they were excellent! You'll def like em.

Thanks. Of the hundreds of reviews I've found, very few have anything negative to say about them. Seems the biggest complaint is about balancing them - but those were very few.

well im glad to hear that you and the family are ok with the blow out..yeah when i was in the amrket for tires i really looked long and hard at the cooper sst....good looking tire and read very very little bad things about them...i think in the end you will be much happier with the coopers...a 2 ply sidewall is weak as hell and it was probably going to go soon regardless of what you were doing...

bigdogdewey2 wrote:

well im glad to hear that you and the family are ok with the blow out..yeah when i was in the amrket for tires i really looked long and hard at the cooper sst....good looking tire and read very very little bad things about them...i think in the end you will be much happier with the coopers...a 2 ply sidewall is weak as hell and it was probably going to go soon regardless of what you were doing...

The thing that made up my mind was not knowing if the cut started from a rock, or if it was the pure weight of the trailer that did it. Being an load E tire, I hardly came close to the tires limits with my little camper. It was on the inside wall, so I wouldn't have seen if it had rock cuts. Makes me realize I really need to do a thorough inspection after wheeling the truck to check the tires - especially before hooking the camper up to it.

im surprised that with only two plys they rate them as an E load...to me thats kind of a waste of rating...my opinion is that 2 plys do not make an E load...

That is weak as heck. I would also look into the rocky ats from falken maybe, as well as the coopers. They are a little more mild. The bfg km2s are great I tow 5k on the regular. Put about 20,000 so far not a complaint.

smoky cruiser wrote:

That is weak as heck. I would also look into the rocky ats from falken maybe, as well as the coopers. They are a little more mild. The bfg km2s are great I tow 5k on the regular. Put about 20,000 so far not a complaint.

Actually looked at the Falken Rocky's at Discount Tire this afternoon when I ordered the Coopers. Nice AT tire, but probably a bit too mild for the mainly rock crawling we do at Uwharrie.

My only experience with cooper is with their brand procomp. I had a set of procomp mud terrains on an F-150 a few years back. My rear left tire tread separated from the the rest of the tire all around and destroyed the left side of the step side bed. We were traveling 75mph on the highway when it happened. They had about 15k miles on them. Cooper took care of everything, but still steered me away from their products.

Yeah the falkens are a little mild.

Glad to hear the tire was the only thing hurt!

Definately be curious to hear from you on what kind of noise they make going down the road. I've got the duratracs, and have a gash in the sidewall, and am not planning on staying with them when they are done. I do like the agressive tread, coupled with the very little road noise and am hoping to find something similar on both counts.

Send all of those back to goodyear for a full cash refund. You will be reimbursed if you follow up on a claim. Your family in the car with expensive tires goodyear will have to reimburse you. Especially with all the claims they have made about how durable that tire is. Were you running a load range e?

Pics.

Not as aggressive looking IMO as the Duratracs. A bit more road noise, but not bad at all.

Nick, glad everyone is okay! Goodyear really failed with this tire IMO, the style and pattern is great but the sidewalls should of been made with the Kevlar like the MTR and Silent Armors. Those Duratracs have some thin sidewalls, I saw a unmounted set in a Tirekingdom and they were flimsy! They are thinner then the highway tires I have! Those STT tire will hold up allot better n the rocks! Let us know how you like them after a while.

Bobby

Darklight wrote:

Nick, glad everyone is okay! Goodyear really failed with this tire IMO, the style and pattern is great but the sidewalls should of been made with the Kevlar like the MTR and Silent Armors. Those Duratracs have some thin sidewalls, I saw a unmounted set in a Tirekingdom and they were flimsy! They are thinner then the highway tires I have! Those STT tire will hold up allot better n the rocks! Let us know how you like them after a while.

Bobby

I was very close to pulling the trigger on the Fierce Attitude MT. It's almost an identical tire to the Duratrac (Goodyear owns Fierce), but with the tougher sidewall. Good reviews for it also, and decent price.

Alright so here's my review of the Cooper Discoverer STT's after about 300 miles on the road, and 3 trips to URE. I'll compare to the departed Duratracs.

1. Noise. Definitely louder than the Duratrac, which I expected. But louder than I really expected based on tons of reviews claiming how quiet they are. I can live with it though.

2. Road manners. Not nearly as smooth as the Duratracs. Definitely a bit harsher, and feel a lot more in the wheel. Both tires were Load range E. Lost about 1 mpg also, due to the more aggressive tread and heavier weight.

3. On the rocks. Quite honestly, I now struggle on many of the obstacles that the Duratracs pulled me right up. Even the bigger rocks on Daniel. As much as the STT is claimed to be a great rock tire - I think the Duratrac is better.

4. Damage. The STT sidewalls are bullet proof. I've put them on some very sharp rocks and spun them a bit. Hardly a scuff, whereas the Duratracs would cut very easily. However, I already have quite a bit of chunking, and almost tore a couple lugs off the STT's already, after only 3 trips to URE, and nothing crazy with spinning on the rocks. Very dissatisfied with how bad they are chunking. The Duratracs hardly showed any signs of chunking on the treads - with many more miles off road.

Summary - Give me a Duratrac with the STT sidewalls, and I'll be a very happy camper. Until then, I'll live with the negatives of the STT for the reliability of the sidewalls. But no way will I get another set after these are done.

Great review! Thanks for posting.

I'm going to be putting a new set of tires on my FJ later this month.
I've decided to go with a larger size of the standard BFG ATs, 285s from 265s.
Overall very good tires, especially for a daily driver like me. Quiet, smooth, long lasting. Not a full off-road tire like the Duratracs or the Discoverer STTs, but very trail capable.

This detailed review is exactly the info a person needs when hunting tires.
Good post!

I hate that they are not working out for you. They look pretty sweet though.

Did anyone else catch, " about 300 miles on the road, and 3 trips to URE."? Mallcrawler

wow glad to see a review so soon...and sorry to hear that they are not working out the way you expected...they really look like strong tires...but obviously not!

We'll see how they hold up over the long haul. They aren't horrible - but I was certainly expecting more. Just proves to me that reading reviews online will only give you half the story. Which I guess also means my review could be completely opposite of what someone else may think about these

Dang Im sorry to hear your super happy. I am still pretty stoked on my bfg km2s. Maybe worth a try next.

i love my KM2s...ill stick with them...i think that their proven track record speaks for themselves...

I think I may try the 255 KM2s next time around. Maybe get some mileage back, and make less noise....

Today I had to back out of Kodak Rock and take the easy trail up. Couldn't get up the path I normally take no matter what I tried. In all fairness, it was a bit wet out there in the morning - but I've managed to make it up in the wet before with the Duratracs. Also couldn't make it up the rock garden at the bottom of Daniel. Just slid all over

Damn, sorry to hear they havent met your expectations...I'm running on the duratracs and was hoping to hear you'd hit pay dirt.