I just bought a new set of skins for my '94 pickup in my signature, however, before talking about the new skins, here's a report on the ones that I ran before. When I first bought the truck it had 265-75-16 E-rated Toyo A/T's, -which for summer highway driving worked great. In the rain the Toyos were not good at all, I almost wrecked the side of my truck when I spun out one night in the rain going around a corner. The rear-end grabbed posi, broke loose and the truck swapped ends. I ended up sliding backwards off the road with the tires lit-up in 4th gear and mowed down a small tree with my drivers-side rocker panel. The good news was no door damage. That was a few years back, -but I felt it necessary to report. I pulled the Toyos off with about 45% tread left in favor of a set of 285-75-16 BFG D-rated KM's (old style).
The KM's were a great tire, and worked well for pretty much every type of driving I did. The weren't "excellent" in any one area, but worked "good" in all driving conditions. I do drive my rig HARD, meaning driving a 6700 pound rig around like it's a sports car. Hard acceleration, hard braking, burnouts, mud, snow, and sand. I do my best to rotate, but I didn't do great on rotating the KM's, -and my mileage on this set suffered as a result. I got almost 33k out of them before the carcasses were showing through. The KM's were not as "round" as they could have been, and I cursed at them on more than once coming home on a long drive with the kids and woman trying to catch some sleep on the drive home. I now have a brand new set of skins on the truck, -but they don't say BF Goodrich on them this time. After reading a *&%load of reviews, I have settled on a set of 285-75-16 E-range Goodyear Duratrac's.
I only have around 100 miles on the Goodyears, so I don't have a lot to report right now, -but they are quiet, grip like glue on wet pavement compared to either the Toyo AT or BFG KM's. They are also round, and required very little weight to balance (compared to the KM's). They are pretty heavily siped, so I'm nervous about burnouts, because I don't want the things to "chunk". I will report about burnouts at a later date. :hihi:
As we all know, fresh skins can be a bit "squirmy", -at least until they get a few heat-cycles on them. When I first hit the freeway, I thought, -man, these suckers are going back! As it turns out, America's Tire had them inflated at 65 PSI, -it was like driving on ice on the freeway ruts, -scary in fact. I have since lowered the pressure to 42 in the front, and 35 in the rear (unloaded most of the time). The truck drives 100% better on the freeway, -and sidewall flex is negligible.
I have not had the goodyears in the snow, sand, or mud yet, but I will report back with my findings when I do. So far, they have the Toyos, and KM's beat in wet-pavement traction. They are equal to the Toyo AT's in roundness, smoothness, and quietness. The ride once aired down a bit is Cadillac-smooth, and they still corner well.
My total bill at America's Tire with road hazard insurance, $1170.00 out the door, still less than the KM2's by $50.00 for the set of four, -hopefully a good investment.
So far so good, I will report more back later.