Ditching the Duratracs for a better highway ride.........maybe.

So I don't really have any complaints after a few thousand miles on the 265/75r16 C Duratracs other than road noise and a couple tire spins on wet roads. I've heard those both get worse over time. They have done awesome in the dirt/ice/snow but my needs are changing a little.

Currently - I fly to work so the only time my truck gets highway use is the occasional freeway sprint around town or fishing/hunting/camping on 30-70 mile trips at 50-60 mph highway. Other than that its just an around towner with no fixed daily commute. About 5-6K a year.

Near Future - New job commuting to Seattle from Spokane (300 miles @75 mph) one round trip every 6 weeks (5k a year) in addition to my normal personal 5-6k a year.

I still want close to the performance of the Duratrac for recreational use and need something that can handle crossing Snowqualamie Pass in the Cascades in the winter(I'll fly if its a bad storm). I also want something that will quiet things down a little so I'm not tired of listening to the extra road noise on a 4.5 hour drive. I'm also planning on making a 2k mile trip to Utah this summer with my son so a quieter tire for that would be nice too.

I got my current tires for a song and there are some nice rebates out right now on Falken AT3Ws so I'm thinking I can recover most of what I have into mine and be close to covering new tires at a minimal loss. Are Falkens enough of a on road improvement for my situation that it's worth it? Is something else better?

 

My Cooper ST Maxx have been quite mild mannered on the road and are pretty quiet. They have handled all the Utah terrain I can throw at it without issue, and I go up the cottonwood canyons to ski which is very similar to Snoqualmie (I lived in Renton for a while and would go visit family in Yakima pretty often). And I get 17-20 loaded down doing 80 on the freeway with them depending on the wind.

I think you would be quite pleased with them.

 

Funny you bring that up because I have always wanted to run those. My neighbor has the ST Maxx and raves about them but with less than 1/2 tread his are getting a fair bit noisy. Not to mention they are more expensive and heavier. I'm trying to manage MPG too since the commute is out of my own pocket.
Another option I was looking at was The DC Trail Country EXP. Made by cooper and strikingly similar to the ST Maxx.

Picture is @Btiller16 maybe he can chime in with an update.

 

I have noticed mine get a little noisier lately, but marginally at best. I don't notice it unless I have the windows down. They are def heavier than the Cooper RTX SL tires I had before. Those held up great for a standard tire, and they do make an LT version. If I didn't love my Maxx as much, I may try those.

 

I'm happy with my ST Maxx too and I regularly drive 6 hours round trip for work at interstate speeds. Mileage took a little hit over the highway tires I had previously but I went with C rated ST Maxx to hell balance that out

 

I ride Cooper Discovery, 285/75/17s. Smooth on road and decent traction off.

 

Pretty sweet. I saw those but they don’t come in 265/75/16. And I don’t really need anything bigger. Something bigger would look great but not really worth the extra hassles.

 

Hankook dynapro AT2 RF11. Great tire. Hodd pricing. I run LT on my truck and camper.

 

"hodd" I meant "good".

 

Generally everything is a compromise.
If you want good offroad you give up on road and vice versa.
There's no magic tire you haven't heard of.
To me its mts on the truck because an at to me is like diarrhea with no tp.
But I also do enough miles I have a car for work.
So my suggestion would be a mild at tire. Falkens or even Michelin. And a set of chains.
Or 2 sets of tires and wheels.
Or a Honda.

 

I hear ya on all those points. I’ve just heard the Falkens do just as good off-road as the Duratracs. I’m not really willing to give up the winter/dirt performance so I may just be living with the humm.

 

I've never ran the falkens but smaller knobs is less grip off road. Maybe in dry/rock where you have surface area, maybe even on hard pack.
But in deep snow and mud ya gotta fling the goo.

A summer and winter set isn't a bad way to go.
It's a big investment but then each set lasts twice as long.

 

So after making the drive a few times I’m pretty sure I need to do something.

The truck seems to wander quite a bit too. I was chocking this up to needing an alignment. I got that done and while it’s better it still wanders around. I did some looking outside TW and found this is a common complaint with Duratracs at freeway speeds.

I was planning on an OVT to help with all the crazy cruise control shifts but I’m probably spending that on tires now.