An unscientific review of Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires
I’m not a rubber scientist, nor a self-proclaimed truck tire expert. I have. however, driven from Maryland to Alaska and back again, driven the beach sands of North Carolina, rocky trails of Montana, snow covered roads in Minnesota and Alaska, and the muddy home trails of Maryland. After more than 25,000 miles on the Goodyear DuraTracs mounted on my 95 Toyota Tacoma, I think I can give a fair assessment of the tire’s performance.
Out with the wimpy stock tires and on with the Goodyear DuraTracs!
The best I can say about the DuraTracs is that I have not thought about them the whole time. Except for rotating every 10,000 miles, I don’t even think about my tires. That must mean they are doing their job.
Many miles later they are still performing.
A little bit of Augie’s Adventure tire history: I’ve always been a big fan of mud terrain tires; the bigger the knobbies the better. Between my mud bog racing past and the fact that when you do leave the asphalt here on the east coast, mud is the first thing you will encounter. Rock crawling is fun, and we’ve got our places, but between those rock gardens lays mud. Goose hunting, mud. Deer hunting, mud. Fishing a farm pond, mud. If you ain’t running mud tires you’re stuck.
Turkey hunting in the clay mud of Western Maryland.
Or so I thought. Two summers ago, when I prepared the Tacoma for a little exploring and adventure, I took the advice, alright the complaining, of my hunting partner to get a set of “not so damn noisy” tires for the truck. And he was right; the basis of the build was for long road trips and trail exploring when we got there. The Tacoma was not intended to be another big nasty rock crawler or mud bogger. She was to be a gentleman’s expedition truck.
I poured over the Internet for days, weeks, months, researching the best tire. Ok, so I spent some time on Expeditionportal.com reading some posts about tires. Those guys liked the Goodyear DuraTracs, So I got a set.
I don’t know much about the science behind the tread pattern design, but what I do know is that when you air down the DuraTracs to 14 PSI, they run great on top of beach sand and firmly grip large boulders. By adjusting the air in the tires to match the empty or full bed of the Tacoma, the road ride is as quiet and smooth as anybody could want or need.
Enjoying a fall sunset on the Outerbanks of North Carolina.
Last weekend I found myself hub deep in a clay mess of an old logging road. By the look of the mud all over the truck and the fact that I did not have to pull cable to get out of the mud, the DuraTracs must self-clean and dig in the mud pretty good. Are they as good as a new set of Super Swampers? Of course not, but at least now I can hear the radio when driving down the road.
Driving through the Northern Rockies.
I could not be any happier with the performance of my Goodyear Wrangler DuraTracs as a good all-around tire for the Jeep or truck that sees a wide variety of terrain and even some asphalt from time to time. Get them at a fair price here.
