Best Tires for decent mileage

So, as a follow-up. The Duratracs now have 57,900 on them. (Truck at 237,900).
They've worn pretty well. I'm guessing I'll get 85-90k out of them.

 

And just quick update 3 years later.
My tires are now 8+ years old and about 75-80k driven, so I stopped at local Discount Tire and find out these Michelins are discounted. I was looking to get new same set of the tires, but now have to make up my mind and decide what tires I will get.
Thinking about just stick with Michelin and go with Defenders, they are highway tires not A/T as my curret set, but thats only option on Michelins I have now.

If anybody have some other suggestion for good looking, long lasting and tires that will perform, please go ahead and let me know.

My truck is TRD Off Road, 2 wheel drive, I don't do any off roading, just regular commute.

 

I have Hankook Dynapro AT's on my 4runner, P265 75 16 size. They have served me well, they did great in snow, rain, dirt, highway. They were quiet, balanced well and stayed balanced. I go about 50K on them and they have about 1/32 above the wear indicator.

 

I did the tire brand hopping for a while on my vehicles. I would always look at the Michelin's first because those are the ones always top rated for brands.
But I would cheapen up when I saw the next brand tire beside it for $50 to $70 per tire cheaper. Well, I got what I paid for.
Then one day my old Tahoe needed tires. And around tax refund time. So I ponied up for some Michelin LTX M/S.
I was blown away at the quality increase for the next 65,00 miles. And I have never bought anything else since.
Unfortunately my Tacoma and wife's Highlander both need tires at the same time.
And they will both have Michelin's.
Highlander is getting either the Latitude or Defender. The vehicle came with Latitude and she is at 64,000.
My Tacoma is going with either Defender or LTX A/T2.

 

LTX A/T2 are discontinued. That is why I am trying to figure out what will be my next set of the tires.

I was in Discount tire store today, to get tire replacement on wife's car, also michelin, Defender T H, but even that model is replaced with Defender 2, then I asked about LTX AT's since I saw online they have listed them as "backorderd", and guy said these are discounted also.

 

Michelin LTX M/S2 245/R17 are my current tire of choice. Highway at speed limit I will count on 20 to 21 MPG. This is the third set of LTX. Set one was the last set on the 4X Nissan Hardbody which were retired from a Toyota 4Runner with just at 98,000 miles. The second set were moved from the 4Runner when traded for the first Tacoma pickup and retired with over 80,000 because of a spike that ended a tires life. Set three was moved to Tacoma #2 and they retired at about 85,000 for the current set that has just 27000 on them. Keep them inflated and they will last. Best part is the newest LTX gave a boost in mileage. They are lighter than the previous set.

The trend got started when a buddy wanted some offroad mudslingers on his Dodge Ram and sold the rear LTX 17-inch tires off his dually. After that I have searched Craigs list for takeoffs and the last set was purchased online that did not meet the needs of the purchaser. Got all four for just less than 400$ out the garage door. My local tire shop assured me that they were new as they still had the factory wrap and would treat them as new warrantied tires. They may not look like off road tires, but they have not let me down in the snow, sleet, Texas black mud or a hard stop on the asphalt. Even the trip from Chicago to Dallas with 18' of U-Haul trailer was not a worry. Gas on the other hand was always needed with the U-Haul.

 

I was looking at Walmart's website and it looks like they have the LTX A/T2 in stock.
Although I don't know why they show 2 of those with different prices. The specs are the same.

 

Second this. I've also had great luck with General Grabber A/TX Both of these tires seem to be under the radar, but both are excellent choices

 

Definitely discounted. Called tire rack other day and they confirmed. Now I have to figure out if I want another AT tires or just go with LTX MS.

 

I have over the years on multiple Jeeps and Toyotas had best service and quietest ride from BFG AT tires. I like the Cooper AT also but it tends to be loud over time compared to the BFG. Try to get load range C, not E, for the Tacoma. This far I see no wear difference between the earlier KO and the newer KO2. They are really the same tire with updated side bites, mostly for looks.

 

I run cooper discoverer pizza cutters outside of winter. They've been absolutely fantastic. Really good road mileage and they were phenomenal doing high speed dirt in AZ and have been great on gravel and mud season here in the Northeast. They handle shallow mud pits pretty well too.

 

I have had 4 sets of Duratracs on my F-250 truck I drive for work for as a wildland fire supervisor. As you can probably imagine I drive in interesting conditions at times. They do well on and off road however they are quite noisy half way through their lives. They were E rated on that truck for obvious reasons. Only one failure due to a branch going through the side wall driving down a dirt dozer line in the woods. Just my 2 cents on the Duratracs.

 

To all of you who are recommending the defenders I have a question. Has anyone had trouble getting these balanced. I’m having vibration issues that weren’t present before the defenders were installed specifically at 55 and 75 mph. The back two have been replaced but that only helped a little bit. One rear wheel has over 7oz of weight and one front has almost 6oz. Seems a little too much to me.

 

That sounds excessive. I wonder about the wheels and other connected parts. Based on Jay Leno's Garage test drive of the latest Corvette with a Chevrolet engineer on his YouTube channel, in which both expressed respect for Chevrolet's choice of Michelin radials for the new model, as "Michelin produces balanced uniformly round tires." I've been buying Michelins since my first set of XZX 6.00-15s for a '69 VW Squareback at Twin Falls in early 1981, except for a set of Bridgestones on my first new vehicle, the '84 Toyota Longbed Deluxe (1989 at Missoula MT). LTX-ATs on a 1971 IH Scout II from Montana to my home at Cordova Alaska in 1996, X-Radials on later vehicles, which were discontinued (but the same tread pattern lives on) as replaced by the Defender M+S All- (4) Season tires. I replaced the original set of Dunlop Grand Trek ATs with Michelin Defenders after buying Barcelona Red DLT (Dad's Last Truck, spec'd the way I would have) with his passing. We agreed, "There's a lot riding on our tires."

 

At the end I got Michelin Defenders LTX MS. LTX AT2 lasted 8.5 years and 75k miles, they were still ok and one of the tires is my spare now, ... Replaced all TPMS sensors and Discount tire did not want put back original spare since it is over 10 years old. So, they used one of the 8.5 years old tires
Other 3 tires I sold very same day for $40.
Hope this Defenders last same as ATs not sure even if I will keep the car that long.

 

Let me preface this with I might be a bit more frugal than the average person...

My last two sets of tires have been 3rd gen take-offs. When my tires start getting to like 25% tread remaining I start perusing FB market and craigslist for take-offs. Can usually find a set of low mileage take-off wheels and tires for the $300-500 range from newish 3rd gen owners. Then I sell my used wheel and tires for $100-200...

 

If I got 115,000 on a set of tires....I'd be going right back to the well for the next set.

 

I tried to look some take offs but here in Houton seems to be hard to score some decent shape take offs for less than 1k, missed few sets in price range $750-$850 and just got tired of the spending time scrolling thru tire posts daily.
Also, most take offs from 3rd generation come with GoodYear tires, not my favorite.
And of course, right after I got new tires installed, I saw on fb marketplace good set with Michelins for $550.
btw new Defenders cost me $1085 out of the door, I am happy overall since same time I got 5 new tpms for only $100. Installed and programed. Discount tire do great job/deals sometimes. Overall, I am very happy with their service.

 

Update after 2 years... I am happy with Defenders, seems they perform better than AT2s on rain. And after 2 years and maybe 15k -20k miles they don't even show any wear so I am expecting they will last long time and probably I will be replacing them due the age before they wear down actually.