help me out: KO2 vs duratrac vs ?? in 255/75/17

[charwest]

we want to upgrade to a 32" all terrain tire on our stock fx4. other threads confirm duratrac fits in this size, and one post notes that a KO2 will as well (no lift, no mods, no rub)

what we want is more clearance, with the least hit to MPG and zippiness as possible. it is our daily driver, but we offroad and camp ("overland") regularly, almost every weekend. skinny tire sounds good to us. we don't care a bit about how it looks.

initially i was planning on duratrac, mostly because it was confirmed to work and was nice and light. some reviews talk about sidewall fragility, which is a concern to us as we travel solo and do some rock crawling. most reviews say quiet, although some say noisy. eyeballing the tread suggests it would be noisy but i dunno..

data:
hancook stock 265/65/17 35 lbs
duratrac 255/75/17 37 lbs (from one supplier) or 40 lbs (from another supplier and one website)
KO2 255/75/17 47 lbs (from one supplier and one website)

questions:

1) how does duratrac sidewall compare to stock hancook ATM? if its an upgrade, thats probably sufficient for us. i dont know if we need the burliest sidewall out there, given it sacrifices weight.

2) is duratrac popular because it is aggressive looking? this is far more aggro looking than our hancooks (it is listed as mud terrain on some websites) and i worry a little bit that it is popular because it is bad-ass looking, and not because of real all terrain function. i dont want to get a noisy tire with thin sidewalls because people think it looks awesome.

3) is there another tire i should be looking at? a quick look at falken wildpeak and general grabber (which seem to generally be liked) doesnt show a tire in this size or similar enough that i would get the clearance/narrow width i need to make it work confidently.

really would appreciate the help--

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[DrewKD88]

I'd throw in Nitto Tera Grappler and Trail Grappler tires into the mix as well.
Tera for more street
Trail for more dirt

 

[Sped68]

I put Duratracs on my Ranger but I’m running 275’s so not exactly apples to apples. No they’re not as quiet as the Hankooks but that’s not a shock to anyone. With that said I actually was expecting a lot worse, there’s some extra noise but it’s actually quite negligible under normal driving, wind, different road surfaces, radio on etc. I honestly don’t notice them. With you looking at the 255’s I can only assume they’d be quieter than mine.
I can’t really speak to the durability of the sidewalls of the Duratracs but after taking the Hankooks off and realizing how light the tire is and how thin the sidewalls are I can’t imagine a scenario where they could be more durable off-road.
The Colorado ZR2 and the full size Chev Trail boss comes stock with Duratracs so it might be worth checking out their forums and get some real life feed back from guys who’ve off-roaded with these regularly.
A lot of guys up here in Saskatchewan run these because they’re a great do all tire, snow, gravel, mud etc but still decent on the highway.

 

[RAYJAY]

I'd throw in Nitto Tera Grappler and Trail Grappler tires into the mix as well.
Tera for more street
Trail for more dirt

been running the tera's on my f250 for a while really good tire good wear and low noise

 

[NC_LFX4]

I’ve had DuraTrac’s(33x12.5R15’s) on my Wrangler since 2012. Replaced 2 with sidewall punctures over the years and one with a random bolt that punched right through the space between tread lugs near work. Can confirm they are LOUD, however my tires are a good deal wider than what you’re considering.

I’ve only been stuck with them one time and that was my own fault for letting my tread depth get too shallow before replacing them. I’ve rock crawled, driven cross country, and even driven most of the Marine invasion trails on Guam with water and red clay up over my bumper but they just kept chugging along.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

Check out tiresize.com it will show you all the mfgs that offer that size - pricing, tread width, circumference, etc. There is also a great wheel offset calculator under the “More Size Tools” tab that will show you if the new size gets in the way of the knuckle.

Start here:

https://tiresize.com/chart/

Good Luck!

 

[SPEEDBUILT]

we want to upgrade to a 32" all terrain tire on our stock fx4. other threads confirm duratrac fits in this size, and one post notes that a KO2 will as well (no lift, no mods, no rub)

what we want is more clearance, with the least hit to MPG and zippiness as possible. it is our daily driver, but we offroad and camp ("overland") regularly, almost every weekend. skinny tire sounds good to us. we don't care a bit about how it looks.

initially i was planning on duratrac, mostly because it was confirmed to work and was nice and light. some reviews talk about sidewall fragility, which is a concern to us as we travel solo and do some rock crawling. most reviews say quiet, although some say noisy. eyeballing the tread suggests it would be noisy but i dunno..

data:
hancook stock 265/65/17 35 lbs
duratrac 255/75/17 37 lbs (from one supplier) or 40 lbs (from another supplier and one website)
KO2 255/75/17 47 lbs (from one supplier and one website)

questions:

1) how does duratrac sidewall compare to stock hancook ATM? if its an upgrade, thats probably sufficient for us. i dont know if we need the burliest sidewall out there, given it sacrifices weight.

2) is duratrac popular because it is aggressive looking? this is far more aggro looking than our hancooks (it is listed as mud terrain on some websites) and i worry a little bit that it is popular because it is bad-ass looking, and not because of real all terrain function. i dont want to get a noisy tire with thin sidewalls because people think it looks awesome.

3) is there another tire i should be looking at? a quick look at falken wildpeak and general grabber (which seem to generally be liked) doesnt show a tire in this size or similar enough that i would get the clearance/narrow width i need to make it work confidently.

really would appreciate the help--

Falken Wildtrack AT3, closer to BFG ATs than Duratracs as far as traction/terrain, but almost equal to Duratracs in the snow. Decently light weight in the C load range.

 

[charwest]

I'd throw in Nitto Tera Grappler and Trail Grappler tires into the mix as well.
Tera for more street
Trail for more dirt

interesting. thanks

datapoints for people following my path:
tera grappler: no 255/75 option
trail grappler, mud terrain, 255/75/17 is 58.4 lbs and wider than duratrac 255/75/17

trail grappler: 10.28" wide
duratrac: 10.0" wide

the extra width and miniscule extra height as well worries me it isnt a guaranteed fit without mods.

short story: good options, but probably not the right fit as the tera doesnt have a similar option, and the trail is super heavy and wont necessarily fit stock fx4

 

[charwest]

The Colorado ZR2 and the full size Chev Trail boss comes stock with Duratracs so it might be worth checking out their forums and get some real life feed back from guys who’ve off-roaded with these regularly.

good tip. if theyre stock in a similar truck with offroad minded people it should be good data points, right?

a brief skim of the zr2 forum is not all that positive about them. hard to know what the bias and sampling error means, but it seems there arent that many happy supporters chiming in when people send in their sidewall tear photos.

https://zr2zone.com/how-are-your-duratracs-holding-up-t1220.html

still, hard to know what that means. i cant search their forum the normal way becuase i cant be bothered to register, but using google to search zr2zone it looks like far less people talk about their tires than us hancook folk. that in itself might be a data point- maybe there are more problems with hancook than duratrac.

who knows..

 

[charwest]

Falken Wildtrack AT3, closer to BFG ATs than Duratracs as far as traction/terrain, but almost equal to Duratracs in the snow. Decently light weight in the C load range.

yeah, everyone seems to like the wildpeak at3. unfortunately there doesnt seem to be a similar size to the 255/75/17 duratrac.

 

[Vandave]

Does the duratrac come in LT at 255/75/17? And does that really matter?

 

[ParkerAzJeff]

Have you considered 265/70R17? there are u bunch of options out there in that size. I installed Goodyear Ultra Terrains and have been very happy with them. I think they're a Discount Tire exclusive so that might limit your choices

 

[charwest]

Have you considered 265/70R17? there are u bunch of options out there in that size. I installed Goodyear Ultra Terrains and have been very happy with them. I think they're a Discount Tire exclusive so that might limit your choices

Yeah, been looking. But they are less tall (less clearance) and fatter (more weight) than the 255.

I think the perfect tire isn’t out there

As at least one thread mentioned, the duratrac w a kevlar sidewall might be our holy grail. But doesn’t exist.

 

[Sped68]

https://4wdlife.com/duratrac-vs-ko2
This looks like a fairly objective review.

It would make sense why the BF’s are approx 10lbs heavier If they have a 3 ply sidewall compared to the Duratracs. I guess it comes down to what’s most important, tire weight/fuel mileage etc or extra sidewall durability. With that said I still can’t imagine the Duratrac sidewall isn’t at least a bit stronger than the Hankooks, but I have zero data to support this claim.

 

[atowildcat]

Have you considered 265/70R17? there are u bunch of options out there in that size. I installed Goodyear Ultra Terrains and have been very happy with them. I think they're a Discount Tire exclusive so that might limit your choices

I've been running 285/70/17 on my Jeep Wrangler for 4+ years now. They have been great in the snow, mud and rain. I've taken them down to 15 psi and rock crawled some crazy areas. Been a great tire for me and I will be putting them on a Ranger this winter.

Still torn between 255/75/17 and the 265/70/17 Duratracs.

People love the BFGs out here, but they seem too heavy compared to the Goodyears.

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