I rotate every oil change at 5k, balance every 10k and get an alignment x2 a year. Currently at 40k on my 325/65/18 duratracs with plenty of life left on these primarily Florida run snow tires. Some people have told me they will wear faster with the heat but I think they are the best 35 inch tire for my setup. Thinking of getting the balance done at 5k instead of 10 but idk if that’s necessary and there are ZERO buckzooka rounds remaining for the centramatics in advance lol. What are your service intervals for your tires?

Mark, I would stay away from the Blizzacks, they have a reputation of go to tire because most tire shops push that tire over every other one. However, Blizzaks are made of two separate compounds the outer one is very sticky and makes for an exceptional snow tire however once you get through that first compound the second one is marginal at best. You’ll see a lot of Blizzacks on craigslist with1/2 tread and people telling you they still have plenty of life left, that’s because it reach the second layer and they don’t do as well on the road and the people know it.
I have first-hand experience with both Hancooks IPIKE, Michelin latitude-X-ICE and Dunlop Winter Maxx. The Hancook’s have a little bigger voids for snow, and do very well on ice. The Michelin‘s are tighter tread design and really shine on heavy ice and also do surprisingly well on snow too. Both of these tires maintain their traction properties throughout the life of the tire. The Dunlop’s came on wheels I bought for my Subaru. I had never run these tires and on the surface seemed geared towards ice with very small voids, I wasn’t impressed. However, after running them for 2 seasons they have surprised the hell out of me! On slick ice they hook up as soon as The Subaru’s AWD kicks in, absolutely no Squirrley behavior. I’ve tried to get the car stuck in deep snow and the claw right through it. I would definitely consider them again for the Subaru.


Regarding the OP’S question. Honestly I never balanced the tires enough. Now that I have the Centramatic balancers hopefully that is taken care of for the life of the tires. I typically rotate with every oil change.

Short answer-YES!
Long answer, Quality is rarely cheap, I’ve been running them on my Jeep with 35’s MT’s for 7 years. I’ve never balanced the tires and experience zero vibrations and smooth, even wear. It was my experience with my Jeep that convinced me to put them on my Dually. My experience with my truck has been 100% positive. I would buy them again in a heartbeat! The part numbers are in my original thread if decide to go that direction. IMO, buy them directly from Centramatic so you get the real thing.

EDIT- here’s the link:https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...installed.html

Rotate at 5k oil change and never balance because I use beads on my 37s and 40s

Balancing is old school but iif I had to do I would do it every 5k .

Great shovel wait till the thread I’m starting now