My 17+years of changing passenger, light truck, truck,OTR, loaders, graders and so much more tells me I think I know what i'm talking about. I'll give you an example. Take a tire and rub moror oil on it and let it sit for 2 weeks. in two weeks that spot is still gonna be slick, now take armor all and rub it in that exact same spot and let it sit for 2 weeks. when you go back in 2 weeks that armor all spot is gonna be dry thus drying the the rubber on the tire.
Tires are made out of styrene-butadiene (SBR) rubber. This is made from oil. Now mix 2 different oils together and they counter react with each other.

Now as for good year tires, To to any tire shop and take a good year a mich, and any off brand tire and put all 3 side by side. Now take a look at the side walls of the tires and put pressure on the tires, sit on them or push down on them and you will find that the good year side wall is much more flexable it bends in the middle of the side wall much easier than the mich, or bfg. The Mich and the BFG tires side wall is twice as strong in any size tire than the good year.
I never said good year is a bad tire. I specifically said I would not recommend good year to any one and I won't sell them to no one. Some people have really good luck with good year and they like them. If you like good year than stick with it how ever personally I don't like them, don't use them, and try hard to avoid selling them..

 

I agree, that most tire protectants do make the tire's look painted or just really grossly oily, plus it makes dirt, especially sand stick to the tire. I like to spray all of my tires with simple green or westley's bleche wite then scrub em and rinse them before washing the truck, this looks very clean without looking oily

here is an after pic of my 5 year old tires after a wash

 

Let me preface this by saying I'm not questioning your qualifications or background, I'm genuinely asking this question from a laymen point of view because something doesn't make sense to me.

I'm going to assume what you say about the side by side, off the wheel comparison is true, but then why do all three tires have the same load ratings? To me, it seems obvious if the sidewall of the Mich/BFG's are stronger that they would be able to have a higher load rating. Something I watched were load ratings on 31x1050x15 all terrains in everything I shopped for, knowing I would have some weight in the back this summer, and they are all identical.

Again, not trying to be confrontational, just doesn't make sense to me and curious as to what I'm not getting.

 

Love the color of your truck Sky, kicking myself for not going with something similar on mine.

 

thanks, I always told myself that I would paint my last truck this exact color, was so glad when I found this one already blue.

 

First off This is not a confrontation what so ever and i'm terribly sorry if I came off that way..
Basically what I was trying to say is that this is a quality difference. Both BFG and MICH are more expensive than the Good Year. The better quality you pay for the better tire your gonna get. If you have a set of good years on your truck and put a full load in, you will notice that the tire squats a lot compared to the mich and bfg. The side walls are built stronger than the good year. In my opinion its the quality material they use to make the tire. They may all be the same ply rating or same load range but again the mich has a much stronger side wall... Its just the way they are built..
I hope this helps clarify what I was saying in my earlier posts..

as for that pic of the truck with the nice tires. thats they way they should be washed is with just soap and water. I guarantee that if you had used armor all or anything similar to that, they would not look so good after all those year. very well taken care of and a nice truck. I like it.

 

So the blow outs you see, are they more on trucks in load situations, or just the tires in general across the board? I'm not worried about it happening with my set up given the little/light use of my truck, just interesting to have a convo with someone in the trade with insider knowledge.

 

its always a pleasure having a conversation with someone interested in knowing little things like this.. Yes most of the blow outs I have seen ( which is probably in the 10's of thousands buy now) have been under load.

 

Exactly. So if you take care of your truck...ie wash/detail it every so often, reapplying the oil based products should be no issue. More to your point, if you only apply a few times a year and let it sit then yes you probably have a problem...but then again why put it on anyway if your truck is always going to be dirty.

I've never really had that offspray issue unless I put a ton of detailer on my wheels then get on the freeway. DEFINITELY depends on what products you use cause some really suck *****.

I'll have to try that Black Magic stuff as well.

Yea so anyway...back to 5x135 wheels?? haha

 

So if you had to guess, would you think the blow outs were a fact of the tires having aged and the rubber had started to deteriorate, or severely overloaded?

It initially seemed odd to me that different sidewall compounds would have similar load ratings, but something I do see in other industries is a 'safety factor'. I could see that another tire 'could' withstand a heavier load occasionally or more likely, carry the full load of the rating even throughout the natural wear of the tire.

 

Yeah age does surly play a role. The older they are naturally the more of a chance they can blow out on you, but I've seen in may occasions new tires blowing out cause of heavy loads. Air pressure is a huge factor. If your driving empty and want a smooth ride, I would put something like 45lbs in a 65lbs tire. this would give you a much smoother ride and good gas mileage. but if your carrying a heavy load I would surely pump it to max air pressure.
Next time your at a tire shop, have them pull down a mich and a good year. Now look at the mich. the side wall is hard and tough. Now look at the goodyear. the side wall is soft and seems week. But if you look at the max are pressure recommended between the two tires the good year is gonna require more air than the mich. Good year uses a softer compound. This is why goodyear makes such a good slick tire for the indy cars.

 

I'll do that when I go in for mine. I don't try to overload anything, but had a Ram as my last truck, and ended up with 2800lbs in the back without knowing it. Had some Bridgestone Duelers and they squatted. Was nervous about driving home but it was only 5 miles through town so figured what the hell.

This has been really good advice. Since I have a Flareside I don't plan on having more then 1500lbs in the back, and I rarely tow, but I'll definitely keep a better eye on it should it come up.

 

That makes sense to me, something I never really thought about I don't actually use armor all on my tires, I don't like the shiny slick look it creates, but thanks for the info

 

After driving for about a week now on the Dura Tracs I can tell they're softer because of the way they drive on the freeway. In a small way this worries me in regards to how it will feel/perform towing my boat behind me in the summer. My prior BFG ATs were strong as hell. Other than that, no complaints. Guess I'll learn more about these tires come a hot summer day towing about 6000 lbs behind me

 

That looks good, I like the look of clean tires too.