[FrEsHDmAx]

Looking at throwing some new shoes on the truck within the next week or two. I have the cooper discoverer atp's on right now @ 275/65/20. I like them alot and they have lasted me a long time. But I've been reading about the Nitto Ridge Grapplers and the Duratracs. I have been trying to find somewhere that compares the 3 but haven't found it yet. Does anyone have experience between the differences of at least two of these? Trying to get a comparison on ride/noice/traction other than the salesman at the tire shop. Thanks!

 

[20dmax08]

No complaints with my duratracs. Great traction in the winter. Not a lot of road noise. Got 75,000 miles on them and a few burnouts still got thread left to go.


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[CA2500]

I didn’t like the ridge grapplers but seem to be the only one that doesn’t. A lot of guys really like them. I had them on for about 3000 miles and returned them to America’s Tire and got a set of the new Goodyear Ultra terrains. I like them a lot more. I didn’t think the ridge grapplers held traction well in on wet roads. Sort of hard to tell with new tires but I had to return them in 30 days. The BFG KO2 tires have been great but I only average around 38-40k miles per set

 

[Busa Dave]

I go through tires like a fat boy in a doughnut shop lol! Run mine about 35 to 30k max because I need the tread off road. On my previous truck a 18 F250 ran the Ridge Grapplers and then switched to the BFG KM3's for more traction. On the 2020 I have now and the difference in the trucks the ridge Grapplers are great. This makes my 5th set.

 

[Busa Dave]

are COOPER tires the only ones made in the USA? After some very bad, dangerous experiences with Chinese tires, both on my truck itself, and on my heavy trailers, I am always insistant on AMERICAN made tires.

What specific tires were they and how do you know they were made in China? Do you know how to tell where a tire is made and when it was made?

 

[Busa Dave]

Tires age and embrittlement sets in not just from age but heat cycling you can read up on this. Involved in Landing Gear Systems design, qualification and manufacturing (included tires) for several aircraft programs the latest the F35 and all of its variants use different MLG and 2 different NLG tires.

Just because there is "plenty of tread" does not mean that there is not a carcass failure in your future. Air pressure is one of the biggest killers of tires because people do not run them with the proper amount of air in them. The carcass flexes constantly when in use and if the AP is to low the flex area shrinks causing deterioration of the sidewall that you may not even be able to see. that is the summary.

Some of the best tires in the world are sourced by the manufacturer in other countries including Michelin just as an example. The MLG tires on the F22 are made in France …

When buying tires I always verify the DOT number is the same for all 4 or 5 and that they are not more than a year out of the mold.

 

[Busa Dave]

Busa is so right - tire pressure is CRITICAL to tire survival.

I do not try and out-guess the engineers. With only one qualification - here in the mountain and desert west, in the summer we face extremes of temps. You folks in the east think 90 degrees is hot. On the deserts I have to cross, 110 or more air temp. is not unusual - resulting in pretty seriously hot pavement temps. Couple that with heavy loads, and you have hot tire carcass temps. Air expands when heated. I find if I start out in the cool of a morning at, say 10 lbs psi under the recommended temp, by noon I am up to or even slightly above the correct pressure.

Additionally, the big problem I see with trailer tires is that most people store their trailers outdoors, where temperature/sun damage issues hasten the "drying out" process, coupled with the fact that even under ideal storage conditions, chemical changes means we are stuck - we HAVE to, if we are interested in highway safety, replace tires after an interval - I personally would say even under ideal conditions, ten years should be a maximum.

Just so you know ----- PSI COLD is just that the tire was designed to go over that pressure when heated during operation so keep that in mind. Want to make your head hurt----after driving in 110 ambient for an hour or so on blacktop use a laser thermometer and shoot against the tire! Will be up around 150 or so

 

[NHfireDmax]

I'm currently running the duratracs but had cooper ST Max on my 13 Dmax I recently sold... Both great sneakers