Let's talk tires

[Soapy]

I was a tire dealer for many years and grew up in the business. I like Goodyear tires and many other brands. I am currently running the new Goodyear Boulder MTs on my Power wagon and My Jeep Rubicon. I accept the trade off of them not being 3 peak rated as I wanted better rock and mud traction. The new Duratrac is now available with a 3 ply sidewall. In my years of selling tires I always found the Goodyears were a top performer in ice and snow. My personal preference for tires are Michelin but they let a company they own BFG do most of the light truck/ off road stuff. General Tires always impressed me as being very tough in rock and good sidewalls. I see Toyo/ NItto has a pretty big recall going on right now for their off road tires.

 

[Dave01]

I have my 2nd set of Falken Wildpeak A/T's on, very happy with them. I get 2 winters out of a set of tires and unlike some others I've run the 2nd winter still has good winter traction. They are reasonably quiet on the highway, not enough noise to bother me.

I do rotate them often. I get oil changes at the dealer and it's easy to have them rotate, pretty cheap to do and I've definitely had better luck rotating often than on trucks where I only did it occasionally. Just my experience.

 

[PowerWagon65]

I bought the KO3's for my PW this summer, so I can't speak to how well they wear in the long term (or how they handle snow and ice yet), but I'm very happy with them so far. Got them in 315/70R17 as 35x12.5R17 was not an available size yet - though based on KO2 sizing, those two sizes measure the same diameter (34.5"). They're very quiet tires, as AT's go. No regrets.

Fantastipotamus - Did you add a lift before you put your 315's on your Power Wagon?

 

[2powerwagons]

I just put on a set of 35X12.50 Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT on my 23. I had a set of the previous version, the ATZP3 on the 19 and liked them. Not really sure what they changed between the two of them. Bigger side biters is the only thing that sticks out as different, but the other truck has been gone for a few years, so no way to really compare.

 

[Fantastipotamus]

Fantastipotamus - Did you add a lift before you put your 315's on your Power Wagon?

No sir, stock PW suspension all around. No rubbing or anything, though to be completely honest, i very much dislike running my steering at full lock for any amount of time, so there is a chance I didn't test that. That being said, lots of people here running 35's or even 37's without issue to my recollection.

 

[PowerWagon65]

No sir, stock PW suspension all around. No rubbing or anything, though to be completely honest, i very much dislike running my steering at full lock for any amount of time, so there is a chance I didn't test that. That being said, lots of people here running 35's or even 37's without issue to my recollection.

Awesome! Thank you! I lifted my '22 with an AEV lift and also put on 20 inch rims with 37's. Don't care to go that route this time. I could see 35's working but I'm not so convinced 37's wouldn't rub a little without a lift. Think I'll just stick to 35's and OEM rims. Wouldn't think that would throw off the speedometer much. Maybe the dealer would do me a solid and adjust for the larger tires but the last thing I'd want them to tell me is "sure we'll adjust for the tires but you'll be out of warranty!"

 

[2powerwagons]

Awesome! Thank you! I lifted my '22 with an AEV lift and also put on 20 inch rims with 37's. Don't care to go that route this time. I could see 35's working but I'm not so convinced 37's wouldn't rub a little without a lift. Think I'll just stick to 35's and OEM rims. Wouldn't think that would throw off the speedometer much. Maybe the dealer would do me a solid and adjust for the larger tires but the last thing I'd want them to tell me is "sure we'll adjust for the tires but you'll be out of warranty!"

IDK if the dealer can or will adjust for tire size. I know from experience they won't do TPMS.

 

[Docwagon1776]

Awesome! Thank you! I lifted my '22 with an AEV lift and also put on 20 inch rims with 37's. Don't care to go that route this time. I could see 35's working but I'm not so convinced 37's wouldn't rub a little without a lift. Think I'll just stick to 35's and OEM rims. Wouldn't think that would throw off the speedometer much. Maybe the dealer would do me a solid and adjust for the larger tires but the last thing I'd want them to tell me is "sure we'll adjust for the tires but you'll be out of warranty!"

Power Wagons don't need a lift for 37's, but do need different rims than stock and you *may* have to do a little trimming of a pinch weld. Plenty of Youtube videos showing where to trim if you need to. CJC offroad has Method rims with the correct offset to run 37s, and I'm sure others do as well.

AEV Procal will let you change your own tire size, as will a few other options.

 

[Ritchie_Rich]

No sir, stock PW suspension all around. No rubbing or anything, though to be completely honest, i very much dislike running my steering at full lock for any amount of time, so there is a chance I didn't test that. That being said, lots of people here running 35's or even 37's without issue to my recollection.

I agree with the no full lock on steering. I’m the same way.

 

[desert_wagon]

falcon wildpeak rt/01, got 30k on mine and 1/2" of tread left. It's a hybrid tire, somewhere between a MT and an AT. Zero issues. As for the rub question on 37's, lift has absolutely nothing to do with clearance. +18 to +27mm offset will work no trimming.

 

[LouNY]

I think offering advice of 'don't bother rotating your tires because I've been lucky with the alignment on my trucks' is generally not good advice. Most advice people offer re: maintenance is trying to diminish unforeseen costs; regular alignments and tire rotation are both good ways to maximize your tire life. Can you skip them? Absolutely, and it's more fine if you are the type of person who regularly checks things like tire wear across all 4 tires with a depth gauge. But most people won't do that.

Regular rotations and alignments are never a bad idea. And yes, they won't ADD miles, but it does help to maximize them. And if you do have one bad wear corner, regular alignments and tire rotations would have kept you from needing to replace 3 tires with life left along with the one that doesn't.

I rotate my tires twice a year, spring the summers go on, fall the snows go on.
When I pull them off I check them over to see how the wear has been, then I refer to my notebook in the door for the tire pressure I want to run on the newly mounted tire/wheel.
Some times I'll put the best on front, if they are cupped on the edges they go on the rear.

 

[Bighorn NC]

I have been through 4 sets of hankook dynapro on the 2003 2500, average between 40-45 thousand set. I like them they do everything pretty well. The 2023 2500 has them also, that truck only has 4000 miles on it though, so time will tell.

 

[Fantastipotamus]

Followup post re: KO3's in snow

Cliffs notes: they seem great

We've had 10-15" of snow here in NH so far over the last few weeks, and so far I can say the KO3's are great in the snow. With the Duratracs, i found them to not be confidence-inspiring at all when there was snow on the ground. Even when they were brand new, I wasn't ever really sure I was going to stop with them..

However, the KO3's feel very linear. I'm sure I could trigger ABS if I wanted to (and truthfully, I haven't tried a 'panic stop' yet), but the grip feels very confident, both in a straight line and turning.

That being said, the last iteration of KO2 I had (2015-2018 or so on my old Nissan Titan) also felt very reliable in the snow, though I know others here didn't feel similarly about those. YMMV, but I'm very happy w/ the KO3's.

One more small note, I did end up needing to have them rebalanced when I rotated them, and the shop did not have a Roadforce balancer. While I'm 95% happy w/ the balance job, next time I'm at the dealer (assuming they can roadforce balance) I'll be asking them to do that for me.

 

[Dave01]

Followup post re: KO3's in snow

Cliffs notes: they seem great

We've had 10-15" of snow here in NH so far over the last few weeks, and so far I can say the KO3's are great in the snow. With the Duratracs, i found them to not be confidence-inspiring at all when there was snow on the ground. Even when they were brand new, I wasn't ever really sure I was going to stop with them..

However, the KO3's feel very linear. I'm sure I could trigger ABS if I wanted to (and truthfully, I haven't tried a 'panic stop' yet), but the grip feels very confident, both in a straight line and turning.

That being said, the last iteration of KO2 I had (2015-2018 or so on my old Nissan Titan) also felt very reliable in the snow, though I know others here didn't feel similarly about those. YMMV, but I'm very happy w/ the KO3's.

One more small note, I did end up needing to have them rebalanced when I rotated them, and the shop did not have a Roadforce balancer. While I'm 95% happy w/ the balance job, next time I'm at the dealer (assuming they can roadforce balance) I'll be asking them to do that for me.

Yes a good amount of early season snow here in NH, I like it! Having tires you can feel confident in is huge. I've driven on a few unplowed dirt roads over the last week, no problem getting in and out, even backing up slightly uphill was ok. And on slick main roads I generally can drive in 2WD with no issues. I do put about 450 lbs. in the bed, it balances the plow when I have it on but also really helps 2WD traction.

 

[Dave01]

The Wildpeaks doing their job with help from just a slight dash of salt.

 

[whitexc]

I have been through 4 sets of hankook dynapro on the 2003 2500, average between 40-45 thousand set. I like them they do everything pretty well. The 2023 2500 has them also, that truck only has 4000 miles on it though, so time will tell.

I had DynaPros on my 2nd gen and they were great tires here in the snow belt. Let us know how they do on the ‘23.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wrvond]

My truck still has the Transforce tires which I'm not overly impressed with. We've had some good snows recently and my 2004 Toyota 4Runner has the Falken Wildpeaks on it. I've been very impressed with how they handle. In fact, I used the Toyota to pull a full size van back on the road. The driver had slid off the road then proceeded to bury the rear wheels. Could not have done it in the truck with the OEMs. I'm thinking I'll be putting the Falkens on my truck next.

 

[LouNY]

Well it's winter time so my studded snow tires are on the truck;


Nokian studded snows;