Duratrac weak sidewalls... anyone have real evidence?

I keep hearing people say Duratrac side walls are weak. I’ve heard a number of anecdotes but I’ve never seen someone show exactly how much weaker they are. I want to know if I buy this tire for DD and weekender off roaring (on possibly rocky/overgrown trails) will I just be constantly replacing them?

 

I read enough for me to steer clear of them. I also avoided Wildpeaks because of the balancing issues. Settled on Ridge Grapplers.

 

What's odd is it seems like an echo chamber. I hear a lot of people repeating that they've heard bad things but I've only seen 2 first-hand accounts. For such a popular tire that doesn't seem that high.

 

I had a set before, 10 ply though. Never had any issues. Try it yourself to find out.

 

Most of the trucks on my block run Duratracs, I'm in the minority with KO2s.
Saw a really nice Tacoma built up with 285 Duratracs and it looked good.

 

I had wildpeaks for 6 months, never 1 balancing issue.

 

I've had 2 sets of 10ply duratracs. Run them pretty hard. Never had a flat

 

Same as you, only ever heard 2nd hand accounts. I'm running them in load range C, 265/70r16 on stock wheels, no problems with sidewalls but then again they haven't lead a hard life. No real rock crawling to speak of. I do however definitely have a problem with balancing. I've done it many times and one or two of them just won't balance even after having it done at least 3 times. When the set is moved to the rear it basically doesn't exist, but it's definitely there when rotated to the front. Nothing crazy after the last balance, but it is definitely annoying. Annoying enough that I think I'm thinking about stopping rotating them as they're about half tread anyway.

I've thought about getting KO2's for my next set, but because I mainly got them due to the mucky conditions of the NW, I think I'll try duratracs again in 235/85r16 (only sold in load range E, no sidewall issues for sure) and hope I have no balancing issues.

 

Just a couple of my buddies tires. Even in load range E, they have 2 ply sidwalls IIRC.

 

In fairness, that tire looks cooked...

 

i love me some duratracs. i had em in the 18 (265/65/18) and 20 (275/55/20) inch variants when i had a runner. i dont ever remember them having weak sidewalls, but then again i didnt ever wheel them hard either. the only thing i remember them being weak is was road noise. for an at tire they hum like they mt lol. which i guess is acceptable cause of how aggressive they look. also if i remember correctly they were reasonably light for their size.

 

I blew one in load range C a few years backs. Freshly grated road and I hit a rock. Sidewall blew.

 

One thing that sucks about the duratracs is that they didnt do full depth siping anywhere, closer to 50% depth. Theyre wonderful winter tires for a few years, then its like flipping a switch and they become a whole different tire in the wet.

 

We have them on our service trucks that spend a lot of time on high tension line service roads, I can think of 3 side wall cuts that resulted in complete failures in the last two years. Granted that’s on f350s with utility bodies, so a fairly heavy load. Other than that they have been pretty good.

 

I haven't owned any as I saw enough on the web to steer me away. There are just so many brands and options I couldn't be bothered with something that had gotten a reputation like that even if I do like the way they look.

 

Bought a set of 265/75-16 load range C's in 2015 for deep snow, discovered they perform well on rocks so I run them year-round. Moved them to my second truck and still running the same set today. Sharp rocks and tree branches haven't hurt them at all. I air down to about 15 psi when wheeling.

 

I know a lot of people had good luck with them and I will say they are great in the snow but I will never buy them again. Less than 2k on the highway doing about 65.

 

WOW. That is insane!

Its strange that it only seems to happen to the DuraTrac model. You don't see similar complaints about the other Goodyear products as far as I can tell. Makes me think its a problem with the design - the tread, sidewall or interface area between the two.

 

The rubber dust pile indicates the tire has been shedding rubber internally for some time. Wonder if it had been driven grossly underinflated for a while:



That said I've done 60 mph on dirt roads at 15 psi with no issues. The pressure had gone up to 18 psi right after the run from the heating.

 

That's an interesting observation. I have to say those images are compelling so it is nice to see a rational explanation for it. Still... I have seen some decent evidence in this thread, enough to make me consider the Cooper AT3s. I _really_ want the Duratracs for their look.