Well, turned out they are only D range, which is actually what I had on there before with the Intercos. I figured the numbers are ok with the volume and rating of the larger tire, plus having duals, I can put around 10k on the rear tires. I won't ever do that, but I have had 6k on it before. Normally in the winter I have around 2-4k on temporarily. The 10 ply is tougher but the Interco makes a serious sidewall anyway, so that was never a problem.
Got the Mud Brutes, they were so much cheaper than everything else I just couldn't turn it down. Almost $90 apiece cheaper than my first choice (well, second, after the discontinued Intercos) Toyo Open Country. When you own a dually you gotta be price conscious.
Mounted them up last night, balanced with Counteract. Counteract not only has some claims to better performance than Equal or Dynabeads, it is cheaper too. And the guy at the dealer I went through bent over backwards to provide me with the kind of customer service that you used to get in the olden days. Customer for life now.
The Intercos had Dynabeads in them since new, never once had a balance issue. I am particularly hard on tires, can't never get any kind of mileage from a tire, well these ones lasted me a lot longer than any other tires I've ever owned, and I was not gentle with them. I have to believe that at least part of that was due to the constant, permanent balance. I don't see any reason to ever go back to using external weights that lose accuracy as the tire wears and changes it's size and shape. Not to mention the weights can fly off. At the very least you would have to re-balance the tires every so often to keep it right. My vote is for doing it once for the life of the tire.
I was quite disturbed to see the condition some of these Intercos were in when I dismounted them. They looked fine from the outside, except for wear and gouges and slices from spinning them on sharp rocks. On the inside of a couple of them I saw what looked like evidence of a couple broken belts, or cords or whatever. And one when dismounted showed a ring around the sidewall that looked like a weak spot all the way around. I wonder if it happened when they were on the front, loaded down with the motor and the plow and hitting big frost heaves and potholes. Good thing I got these tires off when I did, they couldn't have had much fight left in them. Towing the camper to the mountains in a few days, having new rubber is going to buy a lot of peace of mind. I only hope the Remingtons hold up nearly as well as the Intercos did.
