Goodyear Duratrac vs BFG KO2?

I'm about to change my stock Bridgestones for Duratracs. I've had BFGs and they're great too but I couldn't get them in a stick size and didn't want load E tires. The Duratracs come in 265/65/17 and are SL. If one goes flat off road I have a spare. The open tread also sold me on them.

 

I have duratracs on the truck and KO2's in the 4Runner. Main difference is Duratracs are in load C. After 13K miles, Duratracs still measures at 16/32 (18/32 new). Also seems like the rubber compound is softer on the duratracs as sidewalls have some damage from light wheeling. As for being slippery on wet ground, I've experienced two incident of the tires slipping on pavement during a turn. Could also be possible that the ground had oil. No issues on ice or snow though. Comfortable on the truck at 38-40 psi at load C.

KO2's are in load E. So far, no issues with sidewall and have not experienced any slippage but have not been in ice or snow. Comfortable in the 4Runner as well at 40 psi but the 4runner is a bit heavier than the taco.

Hope this info helps.

 

Is there anyone who has run both the C load Duratrac and E load KO2 in 265/75r16 that could comment on the difference in MPG between the two? Is it about the same, or which is worse? I would expect the E load KO2 would be worse since it is about 7lbs heavier, but I am not sure how much of an impact that will have.

I live in Michigan and I want to get some better tires for this next winter because the stock Goodyears were not the best in snow. I just don't want to kill my MPG too badly if I can avoid it (kind of want my cake and eat it too).

 

I'm running the Duratrac's in 265/75/16 in C load range and mounted them on the stock wheels and couldn't be happier with them now. I say "now" as I did have a few issues with them when I first bought them. We went through a couple of sets of them trying to get them to balance. I couldn't believe the tire shop would even put the the one tire on my truck. When I took it back we looked at the weights and there was 29oz of wheel weights on a single tire. Turns out there was a bad run of them that were taken back by GY.

I too experienced what I though was poor traction in the wet until I checked the tire pressure and found that the tires were pumped up to 42psi in the front and 40psi in the rear. This was way too high for my truck as I don't carry much gear normally other than a Leer cab. Doing the chalk test i found that I that the front tires only had about 50-60% of the thread making good contact and the rears were worse with only about a 3 inch strip in the center of the tire making good contact with the road. Clearly I was over inflated.

I played around with pressure until I figured out what worked for me and interestingly that pressure changes with the weather. In the summer I run 30psi in the front and 27psi in the rear. The truck feels good and doesn't wander or wallow all over the road. The contact patch is now even across the tire and the issues with traction are gone. I think those that are having issues with wet traction should play with the pressures and see if that issues goes away. The tires have about 18K on them at this point and are not showing any real signs of wear other than a could of cuts in the tread face from wheelin but this is normal. I fully expect to get 40-45K miles out of these before they need to be replaced.

As for the BFG's. I had a set of the KO's before swapping to these and really didn't care for them. They would pack up with mud and snow and provided little traction for the conditions that I played in/on. As for road manners, they were fine with decent traction in the rain but again the traction in snow wasn't any better than the original Long trails. They were quiet but rode hard due to the E rating. I personally think the KO's is still an old design and there are better tires out there.

 

Thanks for the feedback on the C-load Duratrac.

The New KO2 is very different than the old KO. It's really not fair to assume they are the same tire. My brother runs the KO2, and trust me, we get a lot of snow up this ways and they work very very well in the snow.

I'm really kind of torn about what to get, but I'll probably just pull the trigger on one and then try the other next time around ...

 

I agree with Jager91374 about pressures. I run 33 in my duratracs, and rarely carry heavy loads. I wanted a tire in a stock size 265/65/17 and the GY's were the best of only a few choices that exist out there - a couple of others are Nitto's and Falken Wildepeaks. I'm happy with them so far. I pull a horse trailer and my off road driving is mainly on trails and back country roads. I didn't want to go up a tire size and lose the stock gearing because it just does the job as it is. Going to bigger tires without rehearing is like dragging an anchor down the road. Tacoma's are ssslllooowww enough with stock gearing. My Duratracs are SL, and ride like a highway tire but with an aggressive tread. I like BFG's but E load is pretty severe on a small truck, and they don't come in a stock size.

 

In Pittsburgh, we have one of the highest number of days of precipitation per year in the US. My Duratracs have about 20k on them and are great in the rain and amazing in the snow. I've run KOs (older very similar model) on three different Jeeps and was very happy with them, but they were no where near as good in the snow (even on SUVs).

That said, I loved the KO's durability off road. I beat the shit out of them on all three of my Jeeps. As good as the Duratracs are in mud, dirt, sand, and snow, I'm afraid to take them on rockier/rougher terrain because the sidewalls seem paper thin.

If you're looking for an aggressive looking A/T that has great on road manners, I'd go with the Duratrac.

If you want to push it hard off road, go with the KO2s.

 

I'll chime in here. It has been exactly one month since I've made the switch. Installed new KO2 on 4/14/16 and also fueled up that day. I've only had two fill ups since then so it's still early to notice any long-term MPG changes.

You'll notice I did avg 15.6 MPG in the first fill up since installing the tires--tires were set to 45 PSI. I then dropped the PSI to around 38 PSI and my MPG dropped to 14.8 in the next fuel up. Not sure if there is any correlation. My driving style is 90% granny and 75% city.

One thing I noticed immediately was the additional weight of the KO2 vs Duratrac tires. Truck is slightly more slugish and I frequently venture above 2k RPM for freeway on ramps. With my Duratracs, I was able to keep it at or below 2K RPM most of the time.

My Duratracs only had approx 25K miles on them before I retired them. When they were new, I had no complaints. Over time, they became very loud; even with my Magnaflow exhaust. The vibration issues were constantly present. Wet pavement traction was terrible to the point where I felt unsafe driving. After I switched to the E rated KO2, those issues
disappeared. Felt very smooth, stable, and quiet. I'm hoping they remain this way for a reasonable amount of time.

 

Yeah, up here in Ontario's snow belt off Lake Huron, I run winter tires when the snow flies on an extra set of stock Tacoma wheels. Bridgestone Blizzaks. They're great.

 

Thanks for the feedback, let us know how the KO2 work out for you. Part of the reason they're on my list is the great experience I've heard from others running them in my area. I know they would work well for traction and durability. I mainly just worry that an E load is overkill for a mid size truck. Glad to hear you're liking them so far!

 

Not quiet as bad down here in SE Michigan, but we do see our share of that white stuff. I've considered keeping my stock wheels for winter tires and running AT on my SCS wheels I just picked up.

 

Yeah, it has the added benefit of keeping the A/T tread depth on the Duratracs sharp for the summer where their needed.

 

Sure, will do!

 

Went into my local dealer today to get prices on the KO2's and the duratracs, all the guys there run the KO2's on their trucks and love them. They couldn't believe I wanted Duratracs, said they wore unbelievably fast and flatted easily. Also the KO2's are much cheaper.

 

I know this is an old thread and the tire debate rages elsewhere, but I am searching for answers to the exact questions that you asked here for the same geographic area. I am hoping to hear what tires you chose after these posts and what you have learned since that time. I notice that your location now says Pasadena, California, instead of Michigan, so I’m hoping to hear about your experience specifically in the Michigan weather.

I live in Central Michigan, and my commute is mostly on paved roads. I would like to find a good balance between tires that are good in snow, ice and rain for daily driving, but also hold up relatively well on the trails in and around Gladwin/Gaylord. I’m not doing anything crazy, just want to be able to get in and out of moderately groomed trails and light two tracks without getting stuck in the mud or blowing out a tire.

Thank you.

 

Hi - I just bought a new 4 Runner and put BFGs on it coming from a Taco with Duratracs. You’ll hear a lot of debate about these two tires. They’re both great.

 

Thank you, especially helpful that you have experience with both. It gets difficult trying to decipher whether people like a tire because they look good or perform well.

 

Yeah, true. I live in a small town north of Guelph, Ontario, in a snow belt when the prevailing wind blows across Lake Huron in the winter. Similar conditions to Michigan, where you live. I use winter tires when it gets cold, even though a lot of guys in the south consider BFGs & Duratracs to be ok for all conditions. I use them as good AT summer tires, and the big open tread design is good when it’s muddy on trails. Some guys say Duratracs are noisy when get mileage on them, but mine were great. A big factor is to be ruthless about keeping your wheels in alignment, because any tire gets noisy when it gets cupped. I see lots of lifted trucks, and one thing they all seem to have in common, is they have alignment issues. It’s a challenge keeping a lifted truck in alignment when it’s getting beat up on trails and over rocks in the back country. Good luck, CorpsTaco.

 

Yes I always keep them rotated and don’t plan on doing a lift anytime soon, if at all. I plan to transition to two sets of wheels eventually and then I can just keep dedicated winter tires on one set and swap out accordingly. That’ll have to wait though, since someone stole my lottery jackpot this week haha. I guess they weren’t aware that I was counting on that money for new truck mods.

Thank you for the information.

 

I run nitro terra grapplers and have run them in every condition from the desert, SoCal, snowy passes of the grand Tetons, nasty Boston roads and the harsh NE winters and they’ve never let me down!