General M&S vs. AT tire for on-road traction

[chayos00]

Hey guys I was wondering about the difference going from my factory MICHELIN Cross Terrain tires to say something like the Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac (or another GY Wrangler tire)? I'm looking at traction wise on-road, I'm kind of an aggressive driver when it comes to cornering, I know I drive an SUV and it's not my wife's Acura TL. But hey this is the way I drive. Since I live in Tucson, AZ we have dry weather here about 90% of the time so that what I normally deal with. It's hard for me to break traction with my factory tires unless I really just floor in around a corner, but gotta love traction control stopping me from getting stupid. I get the trac control to kick in when it's wet around here but it's still like I'm driving on rails. So basically how big of an effect would it be like going to the GY Wrangler DuraTrac tires or something similar (waiting for my tires to wear out and treadlife reviews to come back before getting those GY tires) for traction purposes.

Now realize I'm not asking how it handles off-road, I'm curious about AT tires on road.

 

[Thai]

Personally, with what you want, i would stick with the Cross Terrains. AT tires are a compromise on-road. Or you may want to look into the Michelin Pilot SUV tires (or something similar in another brand)...they are higher-performance SUV tires.

 

[chayos00]

Personally, with what you want, i would stick with the Cross Terrains. AT tires are a compromise on-road. Or you may want to look into the Michelin Pilot SUV tires (or something similar in another brand)...they are higher-performance SUV tires.

I appreciate your response Thai, but I do eventually want to get some tires that are capable off road too. The wife and I would like to get into doing some back-road trailing in the future. I probably should of mentioned to that in the future I was thinking of getting the Toyotec 3" Ultimate lift when I do some off roadable tire.

 

[chaz]

coming from the crossterrain , a good AT tire for 90 % on road , in my opinion, would be goodyear wrangler with silent armour or bridgestone revo's , not only good offroad, but good on the street in the rain.

 

[Climb14er]

I drive a mix of 80% on road and 20% off-road, throw in some rain, hail and lots of snow and windy/curvy mountain roads that are ice-cold in the winter and blistering hot in the summer.

When I put on my Cross Terrains two years ago, to replace the stock Dunlops, I thought they'd be very similar to my two previous sets of LTX M&S's on my Toyota 4 x 4 pickup.

The only two similarities are the price and the smoothness on dry pavement. I've finally come to the conclusion that while the Cross Terrains are very good tires, for my dollar, I'm reading that there are better tires out in the market place.

I don't know why you'd want an AT tire for driving the super blistering hot roads of Arizona. I'd also venture to say that an AT tire is a step-down in performance (speed wise and cornering wise) than a Cross Terrain type of tire and definitely a high performance tire.

The CT's have not lasted one-half as long as my LTX M&S's and that's a real bummer considering they're just about the same price.

If I were in AZ and had your driving habits for performance and speed, I'd just get a high performance tire, pay the piper and have fun.

 

[Will_4R]

I do a fair bit of offroading, from gravel roads to more extreme stuff (for a stock truck) with Cross Terrains. Tractions has never been an issue except in clay-rich mud. 25,000 miles and no flats, cuts or chips in the tires. Most of the mileage is from highway driving, but it leaves the pavement on almost a weekly basis. I estimate about 10% of those miles are offroad. (Obviously highway miles add up faster than offroad miles).

From the Goodyear website, the Duratrac doesn't look like the right comprimize for your purposes. If you want something aggressive looking maybe the ever so popular Revo? Performance wise I think you will notice the loss on road without noticing much, if any, gain offroad if you go for the Duratrac.

 

[chayos00]

One thing that I think I should of mentioned before is that my previous truck was a 1994 2wd 2.3L I4 ford ranger. I used to have good year wrangler at's on it then I got some brigestone dueler apt's. I used to drive the same way in that truck with no problems. I'll post a pic of those tires when I get home. So driving on those kind of tires is nothing new to me. It's just that since the truck didn't have 4wd is why I never took it off roading much cuz it got stuck easily due to having an open differential.

With therunner I got 4wd with every intention to use it for that purpose.

Plus earlier I was saying that 90% of the time we have dry pavement arond here not that I am onroad 90% of the time. It'll more like every other weekend that I will take it offroad when I have the right tires.

Thanks for everyones input so far. Typing on a phone is a pain. I just got the net on my new phone.

 

[chayos00]

So does anyone else have any input s far as the traction difference of the AT tire s M&S tires for driving onroad. Now the tires I get will be used offroading not just for the pavement. I'm leaning more to the GY Duratracs, depending upon how long they really last.