The Short Story -- BUY THESE TIRES
The Long Story -- I work on a farm in Washington state. I'm either bombing down the highway (15% of my miles) or driving on crushed gravel roads or loose sand around my fields. I USE my truck and my tires. I've tried Duratracs, Coopers, Toyo M55s and this set was replacing a set of BFGs on my crew cab Tundra. I drive about 40k miles a year--and basically if a set of tires lasts me a year, it's stellar. The crushed rock we use on our farm roads EATS tires. M55's last about 15-20k. Duratracs last about 45k. I'm also on my phone constantly, so tire noise is huge. The Coopers I had got so noisy at 40% tread life that I had to replace them because I couldn't use the bluetooth in the F150 I was driving at the time. Duratracs were right up there with noise as well, especially at freeway speeds.
So, I was looking to replace my worn out BFG's and just got disgusted with the price of off-road tires, especially when most don't offer a treadwear warranty. I saw these and figured what the hell, at that price if they last 6 months it's worth it. Got them put on at my local tire shop, and he was intrigued as well. His comment was "well, we'll see if you're back next fall or sooner." Off the bat, I'm impressed. They are no noisier than the BFG's -- yes there is some "whine", but they are an off-road tire after all. As off-road tires go, they are very good. The traction in sand was outstanding. They do well on gravel, but they do tend to sling rocks just a little - better than a Duratrac or M55, which will gravel blast my undercarriage. I've been waiting for a month to write this review, hoping it would snow so I could really test the winter traction out, but we're having the warmest winter in years. The tires are siped better than any other tire I've run and the lug spacing looks like it will clear very well so I'm expecting they will do great. In that time I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary as far as treadwear, so I'm confident that they will last me a year (40k miles). But at the end of the day, it's the fact that they are doing all of this so well at the price that I paid that makes it a no-brainer. Especially if you're looking for tires for a hunting rig or weekend warrior truck, get these tires. My only complaint, yeah they're not the best looking tires. The BFGs definitely won in that department. But that's not worth $600 in my book, especially when I'm buying tires like most people buy wiper blades, and looks don't get me out of a mudhole or soft sandy spot 10 miles from the shop in the middle of a field.
