Better tires to replace stock BFG's? (sticking with 35s)

Thanks for all the advice! Looks like the Duratracs are well-favored, so I reached out to Jimbo to see if we can work something out. I can see how these tires would do well in the snow with all that siping, and good to hear they still last! We don't really get consistent snow in CO, but when it dumps, it dumps and since this is my only car now, I would rather be safe than sorry.

I can't seem to find any pricing on KO2's, but given that KO's are $272 a pop on TireRack, my guess is that the newer KO2's are even more.

I'll check out the Toyo's and Nitto's as well. One other option that popped up on TireRack is the General Grabber AT2 at $225 a piece. I think I saw an entire thread on these, so I'll have to go back and look for it.

I think my spare has never been used. Would you guys recommend I spend the extra cash on a fifth matching tire and mount it on one of the SE wheels for a spare or just keep the original with the BFG on there in the off chance of an emergency?

Sergei said:

Thanks for all the advice! Looks like the Duratracs are well-favored, so I reached out to Jimbo to see if we can work something out. I can see how these tires would do well in the snow with all that siping, and good to hear they still last! We don't really get consistent snow in CO, but when it dumps, it dumps and since this is my only car now, I would rather be safe than sorry.

I can't seem to find any pricing on KO2's, but given that KO's are $272 a pop on TireRack, my guess is that the newer KO2's are even more.

I'll check out the Toyo's and Nitto's as well. One other option that popped up on TireRack is the General Grabber AT2 at $225 a piece. I think I saw an entire thread on these, so I'll have to go back and look for it.

I think my spare has never been used. Would you guys recommend I spend the extra cash on a fifth matching tire and mount it on one of the SE wheels for a spare or just keep the original with the BFG on there in the off chance of an emergency?

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Definitely buy a 5th matching tire. Get a sensor put in the rim and use it on your rotations. We've seen 25% more life on the tires by doing this on all of our company trucks. It will pay for itself in the long run.....

Sergei said:

I can't seem to find any pricing on KO2's, but given that KO's are $272 a pop on TireRack, my guess is that the newer KO2's are even more.

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$266 a piece free shipping, $1064 total HERE.

Sergei said:

I've got a 14 SCAB Raptor with 30K miles on it and what I believe to be the original tires - BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO Baja Champions 315/70/17 with an average of 8/32nds tread remaining. I

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8/32s is still a lot of tire. My summer performance tires on my car come new at 8/32s. The KO2 comes new at 15/32s. So you still have over half the life left in those, don't feel like you need to buy new ones.

2014RubyRed said:

Definitely buy a 5th matching tire. Get a sensor put in the rim and use it on your rotations. We've seen 25% more life on the tires by doing this on all of our company trucks. It will pay for itself in the long run.....

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It wouldn't pay for itself though. You get 25% more mileage since you added 25% more tire into the rotation. You also pay 25% more up front to order the extra tire. Dollar/Mile it is a wash. The benefit it does give you is more time and milage between purchasing an extra set. You just have to pay more upfront to get the more milage. Not trying to come across as a ********, it's just not a good way of thinking about it.

^ I didn't really follow the 5th tire pays for itself with rotations either. My question was more around any issues with the OE rim/tire having different mass/rotational weight than the rest of the SE wheels/new tires. I'm assuming it's a non issue for emergency situations since normal cars have dinky donuts for spares and do fine, but figured I'd ask.

Do most of you run your tires down to bald on these trucks, or at what point does it make sense to spend the money on new? I agree that 8/32nds is a lot of tread for a normal passenger tire, but I wouldn't drive a passenger car in some of the conditions I drive the Raptor either. Considering new tread on a Duratrac is 17/32nds, what I've got is more than halfway gone.

I've considered just swapping the existing tires to the new rims, but I would probably get new tires before this winter anyway, and not sure it makes sense to pay ~$100 to swap them now and again in 4-5 months.

Duratracs are excellent. Wait for the 'buy 3 get 1 free' deal and stack up the other rebates and you will be happy. (Basically comes out to almost 'buy2get2 free'. [search the tire forum for 'extreme couponing' lol]
Just did the deal for @Bussy this year and my truck last year.

I started out on a bad note though as I had two separate punctures on two different tires when I first put them on (I was not too happy at that point as I had less than 500 miles on them!), called Goodyear, had an inspection done and Goodyear took care of me. Excellent customer service to back up their product.

I have about 8k on them now and so far I have no complaints. Snoball 2015 and the MN winter was a piece of cake with these tires.

As far as the balancing goes, some people can balance tires, some can not. If they are not perfect, go someplace else, thats what I did.

Thats my opinion...

13raptorcrew said:

Duratracs are excellent. Wait for the 'buy 3 get 1 free' deal and stack up the other rebates and you will be happy. (Basically comes out to almost 'buy2get2 free'. [search the tire forum for 'extreme couponing' lol]

Just did the deal for @Bussy this year and my truck last year.

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http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f5/what-did-u-do-your-raptor-today-25089/index111.html#post787613

FYI if anyone is looking for it. Seems like the credit card and employee pricing really helps the deal.

13raptorcrew said:

Lol, during the summer months Ford dealers had overlapping tire sales for 2 days only (fri-sat) which included:
Buy 3 tires get one free
$60 mail in rebate form goodyear
$50 rebate for purchasing them the the Ford Service credit card
Price matched them from some generic tire website (cant remember which one, i googled the size/brand)
Employee pricing brought it down another $80 or so.
No tire disposal because i will be listing my old BFG's on craigslist.

FYI: these similar discounts may be happing again this summer.

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jschell1309 said:

$266 a piece free shipping, $1064 total HERE.



8/32s is still a lot of tire. My summer performance tires on my car come new at 8/32s. The KO2 comes new at 15/32s. So you still have over half the life left in those, don't feel like you need to buy new ones.



It wouldn't pay for itself though. You get 25% more mileage since you added 25% more tire into the rotation. You also pay 25% more up front to order the extra tire. Dollar/Mile it is a wash. The benefit it does give you is more time and milage between purchasing an extra set. You just have to pay more upfront to get the more milage. Not trying to come across as a ********, it's just not a good way of thinking about it.

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I managed a fleet of vehicles with the company I worked for prior to starting my own company. I now own 7 pickups with my business. IF you start using the spare that was bought with the truck, and rotate it in during normal rotations, you will see a cost benefit. Our trucks come with a matching full sized spare tire with a matching rim. If you didn't start with it, then that's just not good tire management. Why not use it? It still makes since to use whatever spare you buy so that it matches the rest of tires if you need to run it for a while. But hey, I've been doing this for about 25 years, so what would I know about it?

2014RubyRed said:

IF you start using the spare that was bought with the truck, and rotate it in during normal rotations, you will see a cost benefit. Our trucks come with a matching full sized spare tire with a matching rim.

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Yeah this makes sense that you will see a benefit by incorporating the spare tire into the rotation because you did not pay for that 5th tire at the time. It came "free" with the vehicle. However that is not what you told the OP of the thread. You told him to BUY a 5th tire because it will pay for itself. That doesn't make any sense.

2014RubyRed said:

Definitely buy a 5th matching tire. Get a sensor put in the rim and use it on your rotations. We've seen 25% more life on the tires by doing this on all of our company trucks. It will pay for itself in the long run.....

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By buying a 5th tire of course you will see 25% more life on a rotation. Because you bought 25% more tires than 4. So you pay 25% more out of pocket to buy 5 and you see 25% more life. This in no way "pays for itself." The ONLY benefit it gives you is more TIME between rotations.

2014RubyRed said:

I managed a fleet of vehicles with the company I worked for prior to starting my own company. I now own 7 pickups with my business.

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2014RubyRed said:

But hey, I've been doing this for about 25 years, so what would I know about it?

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Did you really take a discussion on tires personally and have to throw around your management experience?

I'm not challenging you as a manager or owner of your own business. I couldn't care less really. I just want to clarify to the OP that this is not a good way to think about it. YES if you start with the spare for the first time you will see the cost benefit. HOWEVER if you buy a 5th tire to throw in you no longer get the cost benefit. It is a one time deal using a "free" spare tire that comes with the vehicle.

I'm not challenging you as a manager or owner of your own business. I couldn't care less really. I just want to clarify to the OP that this is not a good way to think about it. YES if you start with the spare for the first time you will see the cost benefit. HOWEVER if you buy a 5th tire to throw in you no longer get the cost benefit. It is a one time deal using a "free" spare tire that comes with the vehicle.[/QUOTE]


For the new guys, this is a good example of hijacking a thread to make everyone else think the way you do.


Now this what is called ignoring the nube hijacker......

2014RubyRed said:

For the new guys, this is a good example of hijacking a thread to make everyone else think the way you do.

Now this what is called ignoring the nube hijacker......

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I wasn't aware that pointing out facts and simple math is somehow trying to get people to think the way I do.

Say you purchase tires that cost $250 a piece. Two different scenarios, you buy 4 for $1000 total or 5 for $1250 total. Say 4 tires last you 40,000 miles, or like you said a 5th tire adds 25% more miles so now 5 total lasts 50,000 miles. If you break it down to dollar per mile: 40000/1000=$40 per mile or 50,000/1250=$40 per mile. Buying 5 tires at once does not in any way pay for itself.

Just because i'm a "nube" here and you have 6 more months on this forum than me doesn't justify anything said. I've been around plenty of forums for plenty of time. This is hardly threadjacking as it is still pertinent to the original point of the thread. He is wanting to know good replacement tires that are worth the price. I was simply pointing out that buying 5 tires to somehow get one to pay for itself is not possible.

2014RubyRed said:

Definitely buy a 5th matching tire. Get a sensor put in the rim and use it on your rotations. We've seen 25% more life on the tires by doing this on all of our company trucks. It will pay for itself in the long run.....

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Anything further said here outside the tire discussion is not important to the thread. Feel free to PM me if you would like to continue this. Unbelievable that it even made it this far.