So the wife texted me when she got to the hospital tonight for an overnight call to say she'd gotten ANOTHER flat on the damn OEM Pirellis Scorpions.

The roadside assist dude plugged it and then found the sidewall was cracked and leaking too. She said the low pressure light just came on as she entered the gated parking, so that damage must have happened pretty quick or when sitting at the air escaped.

Either way that's the second in < 20k (the first was literally a gravel rock from the driveway that pierced it and was too close to the sidewall to plug). So I'm done with that crap.

We bought the 19" wheels not realizing how limited the tire selection was, but ok that's fine it is what it is.

I'm planning on ordering 5 new tires tomorrow and though Tire Rack has 5 choices, 3 suck (two are versions of the Scorpions and one is similar). That leaves the following:

the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure
Adventure

Or the Goodyear Duratracs.

Duratrac


I'm leaning towards the Duratracs because of everything I've heard of them in the past.

You guys concur or dissent?

I'm running BFG KO2s on the Wrangler right now and assume these will be similar.

Thoughts?
​​​​​
And thanks in advance.

 

If I were reduced to choosing between the Adventure and the Duratrac, then sure, the Duratrac. Will definitely solve your “piece of gravel on the driveway” problems. And in the end, if you like Duratracs (a small but loyal corner of the online off-roading community seem to), then you’re all set — no need for more options.

That would bug the literal **** out of me, though, to realize I had TWO choices in tires, even if they were pretty good choices. Do you have a 400 or a 300? If a 300, man I would be looking at 18” wheel options, even OEM takeoffs to save some coin. The world of good off-road tires opens up so dramatically in 18.

 

P400 and I get why off-road enthusiasts would be bugged.

But this is my wife's daily driver, the soccer run vehicle, the ski trip vehicle (and holy crap I was shocked how well it handled a VT blizzard even on those Pirellis last year), and occasional OBX 4x4 section beach house run (and it made short work of that too even on the Pirellis).

So it already handled the worst winter and roughest beach and dunes duty we will throw at it on the Pirellis. I imagine the Duratracs will be nothing but better than that.

Or I at least hope ...

 

Apologies for derailing your thread a bit, but what did you air down to to drive on the sand? I have a P400 with 19s coming soon and not sure if they can safely go down to ~15 PSI for beach ventures. Thanks.

 

Derail away my friend.

So whenever we go to the house we spend a week or so running back and forth from the dunes/house/beach and the nearby town of Corolla for restaurants and bars and such. We don't air up for the few miles of pavement each day so we don't fully air down as per regulations.

I tend to leave the tires on the Defender or the Wrangler around 22 psi ish.

IIRC there was/is a Land Rover insider who has posted on this form who insists little to no airing down is necessary, but reluctantly admits a little bit may help on sugar sand.

In the 10 years or so experience we've had on the Corolla beaches I've seen EVERYTHING from Land Rovers to Ford pickups get stuck if they didn't air down at least somewhat.

So 15 psi is likely wholly unnecessary, but I would at least drop it towards 20.

Case in point - this chap got himself stuck and finally thought it was a good idea to obey the signs on the road to the beach that said it was mandatory to air down:

 

Ya know in the cold light of the morning with strong marketing wording and comparison info on both Tire Rack's and Goodyear's website, I'm now leaning towards ordering the new Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure as it looks like it might be a better overall use tire for the wife's mostly pavement princess (especially winter and rain and highway). Like I said if the Pirellis gave us enough off-road ability before I can't imagine these wouldn't be just as good and probably better.

I'm just waiting for my installer to call me back and confirm his availability before I pull the trigger and have them shipped to him.

Anyone else with experience or opinions on these limited options throw them out there while there's still time lol.

 

Isn't that the OEM tire all of us with the OffRoad pack got with our trucks? Or is it some new update?

If it is what I have, it's perfectly fine for street use, really a pretty decent tire. I did rip out a sidewall last summer pulling out of a gas station. Some ditz was left turning out and just couldn't pull the trigger as long as there was any car within 3/4 of a mile or something. And of course, he was half in the left, half in the right lane. I was turning right and decided to just go up over the curbing to get around him -- it's a freaking Defender, right? Right rear tire took a 2" gash in the sidewall. Nothing about that curbing was any different than the mildest off-roading is likely to encounter unless it's beach or mud with zero rock, so I made a mental note to always switch to my real wheel/tire combo when going offroad. I mean, seriously, I have gone gently over similar curbing dozens of times in road cars with performance tires without ripping out sidewalls.

 

I have the Wranglers on my 19s. Run 20psi on the rocks with no issues. Seems like they could go lower but they do great at 20.

 

Is is? Maybe. I mean, * sigh * I think I've told the story here before but I was never so certain it was true until today.

When we ordered our 2020 110 we thought long and hard about how we were going to use it. But being complete newbies to LR we assumed the 19" wheel would be better than the 20" for additional sidewall AND considering the primary off-road use would be beach/dunes for the OBX place we figured more street oriented tires would be better than the Off-Road ones. Back at that early part of the ordering process we figured out a way to get the locking diffs and terrain management stuff but still get the Pirellis. So we went out of our way to avoid the off-road tires.

Anyway - seeing the Pirellis in person gave me pause. Man that wasn't a lot of tread to begin with. But early usage in the sand proved the Defender just doesn't care. It was effortless through the hot, deep, sugar-sand in a way that even my JKU (with a Trac-Lok LSD and, at the time, chunky M/Ts) couldn't match. I mean the JKU gets the job done just fine, but the Defender was effortless. It was pretty amazing.

And then we got caught in a VT blizzard and had about 50 miles in more than a foot of unplowed snow and on untreated roads to get to the NYS border. I was terrified knowing I was on those Pirellis. But damnit if it didn't miss a beat. I had absolutely no problem (though I was quite conservative at times seeing others spun off the road).

I was really put off when in the first month or so the wife managed to put a hole in one of the tires WITH A PIECE OF GRAVEL FROM OUR DRIVEWAY. But we had four brand new ones and I said screw it and bought another. I've been diligently going with a 5 tire rotation to make them last. Hell it was just 2 days after the last rotation when Jenn picked up a "spike" of some sort in her tire (her description, I didn't see it) on the way to the hospital the other night. The LR mobile assistance guy patched it and then found the sidewall had torn. That's it. I didn't care how much tread was left I'm throwing them all away.

We went back and forth between these and the Duratracs. And your post gave me pause about these. According to Tire Rack these have a higher speed rating, same traction rating, and double the wear rating than the Duratracs. According to Goodyear's own website these might be better in the snow and wet too. I dunno. * shrugs * I'll find out this winter. And if we made another damn mistake, then I'll just suck it up, throw away another set, and try the Duratracs.

We'll find out when we find out. Can't see it from my porch (my JKU w/ the BFG KO2s).

that was good to hear. I appreciate you feeding my confirmation bias

Nice Blue! Sometimes wonder if we should have ordered THAT too.

 

I have a P300 2020 110 with 18" wheels and off-road tires, as well as the weight of a winch and rock slider bars.

Before the weight adds, I would air down to 28-30 psi; with the extra weight I am carrying I don't go below 32 psi or so. This is mostly because off-roaders have always need to air down, so it's a hard habit to completely quit.

The reason I am tempering my urges to air down is that is to do otherwise may limit the correct functioning of the active suspension system (consisting of the air shocks and the newly introduced variable damping force shocks -- magnetorheological dampers). This system is not directly controlled by the driver (other than by the mode control) and depends on the tire air pressure being set within the limits defined by the mfg. I do not desire to reduce the vehicle's capability to determine how hard to press against movements of each wheel (calculated separately by wheel many times a second, I expect).

You will find this written down nowhere by JLR -- which is a source of irritation to those trying to maximize the effectiveness of the vehicle . So, we cannot determine how the change in stiffness and weight of an off-road tire versus the OEM Goodyears impacts the systems capabilities.

And yes, THE INSIDER was QUITE insistent we should NEVER air down the tires on the NEW DEFENDER, while also declining to state why he was so emphatic.

As for getting stuck in that exact same powder sand as in the picture (not me in that white LR4 to be clear); yes, I too did that in my first modern Land Rover (a green LR4), but that is because I did not turn off DSC (a foolish rookie mistake !), so the vehicle ceased all forward momentum at the first amount of yaw. Plus, that LR4 did NOT have a locking rear differential.

My 2016 Evoque's wonderful drivetrain, coupled with my hard-earned knowledge of what the system was trying to accomplish, absolutely loved that exact same beach, as does a properly driven LR4 --- and the NEW DEFENDER, of course.

Enjoy !!