Fishpilot
New member
I recently installed a set of MT Baja ATZ P3 tires and will do me best to provide some honest feedback to you all over the life of these tires. I'm a recent convert from Duratracs and did A LOT of research before making the switch. It is hard to find a decent review about anything other that the new KO2s, which I despise, so hopefully this will help someone out who is looking for some new rubber.
I've owned 2 sets of LT265/70/17 E-rated Duratracs on my previous 2 5th Gen T4Rs and loved every mile on them. The first set lasted 6 months until I was t-boned and totaled, subsequently destroying 3 of the 4 tires. I used the insurance money to buy another 4R and the first thing I did was drive from the dealer to the tire store in Albuquerque to trade up to another set of identical tires.
I was down to around 1/4" tread and was just starting to get some feathering and cupping on the outside edges. The tires acted like new until around 50k when I started noticing a more pronounced hum at anything over 40mph. I drove 6k from Philly to Anchorage with these tires, only because it was summer time, when they had 52-58K on them. A third of that last trip was pulling a 4k trailer, the second two-thirds was packed up with 1.5K on top, inside, and on a hitch rack. Other than the noise, the tires performed flawlessly. In their last few thousand miles I really started to notice an unsafe lack of wet weather traction during acceleration, deceleration, and cruising during heavy rain. Overall they vastly exceeded my expectations. I had no traction problems, never suffered a puncture, and always felt surefooted on the rock, sand, dirt, snow, mud, and gravel of the mountains and hideouts in NM, CO, AZ, and TX. 61,000 miles later and it was time to replace the old Duratracs.
I couldn't touch a set of replacements for under $1375ish (plus install) up here in the 49th state so I looked at options. Cooper, Nitto, Toyo, Kelly, BFG, Firestone, ProComp, Dick Cepek, General, and a host of other smaller named brands. Most were not as aggressive or were full on MTs which I can't justify when the roads are wet and/or frozen a large portion of the year up here. The ATZ P3s fit the bill I was looking for and there is one dealer in town where I could check them out before taking the plunge. I believe that generous siping is crucial for wet weather traction, the DTs had tons of sipes and never let me down. Most of the aggressive AT tires out there have some siping but seem to be very shallow, especially on the Cooper, Nitto, and Toyo offerings, and I was worried that there would be a drastic reduction in wet traction well before the tread was gone. The DTs had 3 medium-length sipes on each tread block (even at 61K), the ATZs have 2 longer zig-zag sipe across each tread block. The sidewall traction/reinforcements on the ATZs are similar to the DTs but protrude about 1.5 times farther out from the sidewall. Hopefully this will help in the slop. The space between the tread in the DTs had little ramps that, I think help in slop as well as help eject stuck rocks, the ATZs are smooth between tread blocks.
The tires are sized within a fraction of an inch in every direction with the DTs at 31.7" and 31.9" on the ATZs, both are E-rated and carry a 121Q service description with the M+S rating. MT lists the ATZs at 54lbs vs. the DT weight of 44lbs which I got of tirerack so I can't vouch for that number. I ran the DTs at 40-42psi, front and rear and am doing the same with the ATZs.
I've been in 4wd a lot lately so it's premature to report any mpg changes. The grip on packed snow, 2-6" deep untracked snow, and dry pavement is phenomenal as I expected. The tire noise at speeds up to 80mph is much quieter that I expected after seeing how aggressive these are. Very quite tires. Wet traction is excellent until the sun goes down and it turns to ice. Surprise, these are not the best ice tires out there! Dedicated ice and snow tires are the only thing that saves you on truly icy streets, these tires are keeping me safe but smart driving and traction control are doing more than any tire could ever do once everything turns to ice.
I plan on plenty of miles around here and will do my best to provide updates on any type of terrain I can find. Hopefully I can recommend these as strongly as I still recommend the DTs.
These tires ended up costing me $1104 after a military discount, not bad at all for up here.
I've owned 2 sets of LT265/70/17 E-rated Duratracs on my previous 2 5th Gen T4Rs and loved every mile on them. The first set lasted 6 months until I was t-boned and totaled, subsequently destroying 3 of the 4 tires. I used the insurance money to buy another 4R and the first thing I did was drive from the dealer to the tire store in Albuquerque to trade up to another set of identical tires.
I was down to around 1/4" tread and was just starting to get some feathering and cupping on the outside edges. The tires acted like new until around 50k when I started noticing a more pronounced hum at anything over 40mph. I drove 6k from Philly to Anchorage with these tires, only because it was summer time, when they had 52-58K on them. A third of that last trip was pulling a 4k trailer, the second two-thirds was packed up with 1.5K on top, inside, and on a hitch rack. Other than the noise, the tires performed flawlessly. In their last few thousand miles I really started to notice an unsafe lack of wet weather traction during acceleration, deceleration, and cruising during heavy rain. Overall they vastly exceeded my expectations. I had no traction problems, never suffered a puncture, and always felt surefooted on the rock, sand, dirt, snow, mud, and gravel of the mountains and hideouts in NM, CO, AZ, and TX. 61,000 miles later and it was time to replace the old Duratracs.
I couldn't touch a set of replacements for under $1375ish (plus install) up here in the 49th state so I looked at options. Cooper, Nitto, Toyo, Kelly, BFG, Firestone, ProComp, Dick Cepek, General, and a host of other smaller named brands. Most were not as aggressive or were full on MTs which I can't justify when the roads are wet and/or frozen a large portion of the year up here. The ATZ P3s fit the bill I was looking for and there is one dealer in town where I could check them out before taking the plunge. I believe that generous siping is crucial for wet weather traction, the DTs had tons of sipes and never let me down. Most of the aggressive AT tires out there have some siping but seem to be very shallow, especially on the Cooper, Nitto, and Toyo offerings, and I was worried that there would be a drastic reduction in wet traction well before the tread was gone. The DTs had 3 medium-length sipes on each tread block (even at 61K), the ATZs have 2 longer zig-zag sipe across each tread block. The sidewall traction/reinforcements on the ATZs are similar to the DTs but protrude about 1.5 times farther out from the sidewall. Hopefully this will help in the slop. The space between the tread in the DTs had little ramps that, I think help in slop as well as help eject stuck rocks, the ATZs are smooth between tread blocks.
The tires are sized within a fraction of an inch in every direction with the DTs at 31.7" and 31.9" on the ATZs, both are E-rated and carry a 121Q service description with the M+S rating. MT lists the ATZs at 54lbs vs. the DT weight of 44lbs which I got of tirerack so I can't vouch for that number. I ran the DTs at 40-42psi, front and rear and am doing the same with the ATZs.
I've been in 4wd a lot lately so it's premature to report any mpg changes. The grip on packed snow, 2-6" deep untracked snow, and dry pavement is phenomenal as I expected. The tire noise at speeds up to 80mph is much quieter that I expected after seeing how aggressive these are. Very quite tires. Wet traction is excellent until the sun goes down and it turns to ice. Surprise, these are not the best ice tires out there! Dedicated ice and snow tires are the only thing that saves you on truly icy streets, these tires are keeping me safe but smart driving and traction control are doing more than any tire could ever do once everything turns to ice.
I plan on plenty of miles around here and will do my best to provide updates on any type of terrain I can find. Hopefully I can recommend these as strongly as I still recommend the DTs.
These tires ended up costing me $1104 after a military discount, not bad at all for up here.
