Goodyear Wrangler Authority, The Ranger's Review

After reading your review, and seeing all the other good reports I ordered a set of the new Authorities from Walmart.com. My Colorado was originally shod in 265/75/15's (When I bought it had 31/10.5 BFG AT's and I then ran 31 Duratracs when I inspected pipelines). So I ordered the 31/10.5/15's since they don't come in 265's. Never thought there would be an issue.

HOWEVER!!! Walmart would not install them on my truck. THEY WOULD NOT INSTALL THEM!!!

No matter how much I argued, the 250,000 miles I have driven on 31's (I got over 332,000 miles on my truck) nothing could persuade them to put them on my truck. Nothing; I said measure them, check on line, check everything. They said, Policy says no way, can't do it. "They aren't the same size as your original's" ????????

So, I recommend everyone just quit going to Walmart. The tire isn't worth it.

 

Damn. I guess I wont be getting upgrade sized tires from Wallyworld if I need to take the truck in there. I bet they'd throw them on if you dont have them mounted on the truck.

 

I had my 235/85s mounted at WM without issue... Definitely not a stock option... I guess it depends on the individual store or manager...

 

It might be something about the odometer and safety. I know some shops wont deal with spacers. They'll if they notice them after theh take the wheel off, they still wont mount a new tire up and put it on. I've had to go get other wheels from my house to get tires mounted up to wheels before. Insane but they dont want the liability. What they should really do is learn how to not over torque lugs.. .

 

Just an update on these tires. Put the tires on in January 2011 with around 80,000 miles on the truck. Taking them off today with with 186,000. Decent amount of tread left but some significant dry rot on the sidewalls. Buying another set today and hoping for another positive experience. Tires consistently performed very well in snow as they spend about 4 months a year in snow. A little loud but no complaints. I still dislike wal mart but I stand by this product.

 

Old post, but how do you like the Duratracs? I'm looking at some RTs. But curious of what you think about the basic design

 

Although you didn't ask me I'll give my opinion anyhow. My '11 is on its second set of Duratracs and it will eventually get a third set. Like all tires they are best through the first 50% of the tread depth as they wear. They are reasonably quiet for how aggressive they are but do get abit noisier as they wear. Tire noise doesn't bother me at and honestly, people who can't stand tire noise should stick with mild highway tread patterns anyhow.

 

Well I'm curious how I will like them. Did you ever use them in some snow? That's mainly what I wheel in.

 

I have a Jeep TJ on 35s for wheeling and 35s are really too small for any real snow wheeling. We do get snow, especially in the mountains and surrounding areas, and the Tacoma is my daily driver plus I hunt and fish is fairly remote, sketchy, places year round. The tires haven't been a huge limiting factor yet although there are better tires out there for specific conditions. And there are tires with much tougher sidewalls. The main limitation is the Tacoma itself because the IFS limits ground clearance and front articulation plus the truck's breakover and departure angles are terrible. Airing the tires down to ideal wheeling pressure, especially for snow, just compounds the clearance problem.