I went back and forth for a few months on which tires I was going to put on the tacoma, was dead set on going with the bfg k02, but something started tugging at me as I was checking our inventory... I didn't want to run a 10 ply. I did want more strength and support since the truck is a little heavier, so the search through available 6 ply tires began, and I kept coming back to one option; the goodyear duratrac. My parameters were I needed a tire with good off-road capabilities, just not a mud tire, good handling characteristics on the road, and one which would handle the snow quite well.
Called our distributor and ordered a set and had them installed for the last week of deer season, which was really hard since I don't like anybody else touching my vehicles, but the guys in the shop did well and they balanced out great! Ran them through the woods and on the highway during that last week of hunting, then took a couple trips to the coast and have been mostly just driving around town, though I have taken them on a trail once. Here are my impressions so far, which will be updated as I get more opportunities to test them.
Highway: Definitely better and smoother than I expected. They do have the same tone and pitch as a mud tire, but with a lower and more tolerable volume. I don't mind some noise, I actually like a little tire noise, but on a daily driver/nicer truck than my first gen, I didn't want something loud. They track pretty straight down the road, though I do feel like they're slightly more twitchy than my last set, which could possibly be attributed to having nearly twice the tread depth and wider voids. Cornering characteristics are better than expected, too. They can actually hold nearly the same corner speeds as my previous at/hwy style tires.
Dirt/gravel: Great! Only issue I've had was when I drove down a very washed out trail and lost traction (no loss of momentum, though), though I was still at 40 psi. They brake very well in the dirt and didn't slip when I was side-hilling it.
Sand: Don't. Just, don't. Just like a mud tire, these want to DIG in the sand! Voids are too wide and they just claw and sink. Best example was when I was backing into a parking spot to go fishing at the coast, and the last 2 feet I was backing into angled a little steeper. As soon as I began backing up, the rear of the truck just dug a foot down. Only way I'd want to take them out on the beach would be aired down quite a bit.
Snow: None yet... thanks for rubbing it in!
Mud: Only got in a little bit of mud that last week of hunting. I stayed in 2wd as long as I could driving up a very sloppy mud/clay road, which ended up being a lot longer than anticipated, only having to engage 4wd when I got to a very steep uphill switchback and the truck wanted to walk sideways a little bit. No biggie, once in 4wd it did great. That was the only experience with mud so far, though, so I will definitely look for more opportunities to update.
Overall impression so far is I absolutely made the right choice. I will continue to update this thread as I go. If only winter would kick in
