I heard the MT’s are pretty loud on pavement, def great off road I have heard. I have 3 hour drive on pavement to reach my deer lease so pavement quietness was important to me.

 

The AT’s have performed well in the mud.

 

Does anyone have any info on why the 19” (or maybe even 20” too?) Duratracs that come on the defender don’t have the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol?

The Goodyear website says all Duratracs but two are severe snow certified (see 1st photo).

I just installed 255/55R19s on my LR4 and was surprised that they don’t have the 3 Peak Mountain Snow symbol. What’s even weirder is that mine have a different snowflake (about 4 individual snowflakes around the perimeter of the tread blocks; see 2nd photo). I just called Goodyear and they were astonished and confused. Any thoughts?? Only thought I have is maybe since LR had Goodyear make these sizes for them, maybe GY skipped the actual certification process? Just a guess.

 

Unique among the Duratrac series of Goodyear Wrangler tires, the 3 sizes sizes developed for the Defender (255/70R18XL, 255/65R19XL and 255/60R20XL) did not exist prior to this vehicle's launch last year, were developed and are made in Germany instead of the US, are XL rated (other Duratracs are either LT or Standard Loads), so their specs are a bit different than your "typical" Duratrac as well.

No idea what that snowflake symbol on the blocks represents, perhaps it's just a design feature of Duratracs made in Germany, but the bottom line is that these tires are only M+S and not severe snow rated as far as the US is concerned, since they lack the 3-peak snowflake symbol (and are definitely not studdable.)

 

Thanks for the reply. I know this is a Defender thread, but think the LR4 situation bares some relevance. The 255/55R19 XL has been out for a while now, and from my understanding was made specifically to fit the LR4s. It, as well, is made in Germany and is not studdable. So the situation with the Defenders seems to be repeating itself from the LR4. The individual at Goodyear I spoke to said they are Severe Snow rated (given it wasn’t in the excluded sizes as indicated in my first post) but he wasn’t sure why it lacked the symbol. In all honesty, I think he was pretty confused himself. Him, nor his associates had ever seen that little tread block snowflake I have. So I took all he said with a grain of salt.

My hope is that they are pretty darn similar to the ‘normal’ Duratracs even without the symbol present. Again my thinking is that maybe they just skipped the certification process on the sizes made specifically for Land Rover. I wonder if being made in Germany has something to do with it. I’m not really sure, clearly .

Question for Defender owners with the OEM specked Duratracs: Do you have that little individual snowflake (not the normal 3PMSF [3-peak mountain snowflake]) on your tread blocks?

Ultimately, all that really matters (at least for me being in the US, as the symbol isn’t a requirement) is that they perform. How have peoples experience been in the snow with the non Mountain Snowflake symbol?

 

I have the 19" OEM sized / German made Duratracs and can confirm the snowflake symbol is indeed there and repeated every few blocks (interspersed with the Goodyear logo.) No clue how these tires perform on ice or snow where I live, however, I purchased them for off-roading and they are very good at that.

 

Another update: I drove in the city in Auto mode when we had a week of snow and below-freezing temps. We're on the top of a hill, so we got more snow than most of the city and I'm very happy with how the Toyos performed with snow over ice. They handled steep hills of snow over ice with absolutely no trouble. I was having the "Emergency Braking Not Available" fault at the time and I was unable to use Snow Mode, or any mode other than Comfort or Auto, which was very frustrating. Just got it back from the dealer last week and the fault is fixed but have not had time to get up to the mountains to do a real test of the tires in deeper snow. But I'm giving 2 thumbs up on the Toyos so far. Love the balance of looks, capability, and driving comfort.

 

This Duratrac photo is from a currently for sale Trek edition. Notice the tire's date code just says LR and does not have an actual date, so I think these are made specifically for LR and that is why the specs do not all line up perfectly with the rest of the Duratrac lineup.

For the 18" they actual show two different versions, a Q rated tire and a S rated tire. I did not check 19" and 20" sizes.

 

How have these worked out for you? Do you have any rubbing in any conditions, at any suspension height? Thanks.

 

I'd like to know how that size Wildpeaks are working out too !