Bilstein v Carli (Fox) v Icon

Regcabguy

Oil eater.
Looks like I've got even more unanswered questions now haha. I really do like the Falkens from what I've seen, so I'll probably give them another look. I'll look more at some of the other options mentioned as well. The 285/75 17 size isn't super common so everything might not be available.


Yeah, only going with load range E. As crazy as it sounds the stock tires are actually P rated, not LT. Pretty excited to get them replaced.

With a few exceptions 1/2 ton trucks come standard with passenger tires. I met a Canadian in Yosemite who complained of poor handling towing his trailer. It was a Tundra. He had all the appropriate towing gear,Bilsteins aside from P-rated tires. I pointed it out. He shook his head and was heading down the mountain to a tire shop for E-rated real tires. The other gripe was averaging 8 mph towing the camper.
 

Ducky's Dad

Explorer
I met a Canadian in Yosemite who complained of poor handling towing his trailer. It was a Tundra. He had all the appropriate towing gear,Bilsteins aside from P-rated tires. I pointed it out. He shook his head and was heading down the mountain to a tire shop for E-rated real tires. The other gripe was averaging 8 mph towing the camper.
It's not just the tires that are problems on the Tundras. I bought my 2008 Tundra used and it already had a fresh set of E-rated Toyo AT-IIs on it, but it handled like crap. 78M on original shocks, don't like ProComps but they were available right now so that's what I got. Truck handled better bit still not well. Lots of understeer. Don't like leveling kits, either, but leveling the front improved the empty handling immensely. Truck is a CrewMax so bed capacity is limited more by space than by weight capacity, thus not usually too heavily loaded. The gas mileage on my Tundra just sucks, but that's mostly because the TRDs (at least that year) came only with 4.30 diffs, whether you wanted that or not. I recently spent a few hundred miles in a 2017 Tundra TRD Pro and it is considerably better than the 2008 was. Guess what? The new TuRD Pro comes standard with a leveling kit on the front. Who'da thunk it?
 

Tex68w

Beach Bum
Toyo's were great when I lived in Kaliforniastan. Now that I am somewhere that has winter, they scary in wet weather and down right dangerous in the snow. Rubber compound is to hard which is why people get such great wear out of them. Went with General AT's this time, way better winter tire.

For shocks, Icon all the way. They have the most R&D going on and the best possible parts in there builds.

BTW, the majority of Fox off the shelf stuff is now made in Taiwan.

I’ve owned Icon kits on three different vehicles and by far and away their shocks have been the most problematic and disappointing. Having to rebuild a shock every 6 months under normal driving conditions is in no way acceptable or what one would consider “the best possible parts.”

They have decent hardware and allow for lots of options with all of their stages and individual parts, but their shocks are their weak point imho!
 

Bayou Boy

Adventurer
Toyo's were great when I lived in Kaliforniastan. Now that I am somewhere that has winter, they scary in wet weather and down right dangerous in the snow. Rubber compound is to hard which is why people get such great wear out of them. Went with General AT's this time, way better winter tire.

For shocks, Icon all the way. They have the most R&D going on and the best possible parts in there builds.

BTW, the majority of Fox off the shelf stuff is now made in Taiwan.

What PSI were you running for what truck? On my Ram 3500 SRW I've run 295/65r20 Toyo ATs at 50F/40R and 315/70r18 Toyo MTs at 45F/35R and had zero problems in rain. I've run the ATs in snow with zero issues either but admittedly it wasn't much as it was on occasional trips to Colorado in the shoulder seasons.

Most people significantly overinflate oversize tires that have higher load ratings than stock tires. With those pressures I had factory load rating in the front and 2000# of load capacity in the rear over the actual vehicle axle weights.

Don't guess. Use the Toyo Inflation Tables for pressure. Load rating is consistent for size/pressure across brands so you can use those tables for any manufacturers tires. The actual tables are from the Tire and Rim Association and not Toyo specifically.

https://toyo-arhxo0vh6d1oh9i0c.stackpathdns.com/media/2125/application_of_load_inflation_tables_20170203.pdf
 
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Bayou Boy

Adventurer
2000 F250. In the winter unloaded 40PSI. The other issue is it's a stick. Step on the gas, instant wheel spin. Let off the gas, instant sliding.

Edit, 35X12.5X17's

Yea the manual tranny will get you. haha

It's been a long time since I've driven a truck on the road in inclement weather without traction control. I don't have doors for my CJ7 so it only comes out on nice days.
 

ROKDKTR

Geo-Explorer
I was about to buy a set of BFG KO2s until reading this thread... to those with negative feedback on the BFGs - were they the older KO version? (Not the new KO2?)

Tire Rack customer reviews rate the KO2 as the top on/off road A/T tire (#1 of 16)... but Tire Rack doesn't carry Nitto, and for some reason they only carry the AT II among the Toyo Open Country line (and it's not even on the ranked list).

I'm curious what people don't like about the KO2, as I've seen many positive reviews on it on various forums... in terms of its off road capability, on road manners, and also snow traction (it's a proper snow-rated tire, not just "M/S"). I have Toyo AT IIs now, and they leave something to be desired in the snow.

I went away from first gen BFG to run Toyo MT and Duratrac for a fe years on my work trucks. The last year I've been running the new KO2 and it s much better tire than they used to be. So much so that my switch to a 35 in a few weeks is down to the BFG, the Falken if I can find them, or a Duratrac.

My Tundra does 80% of it's miles i northern Canada offroad on forestry and logging roads, oil and gas trails. Being a work truck first, I also have to consider the tire availability when I choose. I can't get something no shop can get if I'm out and about the country at work. I need something every tire shop has access to. That's a very solid reason for me to stick with BFG or Goodyear, Toyo is pretty good too but sometimes you could be out of luck and have to wait 3-5 days to get a new tire.

I like Toyo MT, but I'm not convinced yet that a half ton would run them without a big penalty due to weight. My Carli Dominator built Ram 3500 had them and they were perfect, but that was a different truck.
 

DVC

New member
I went away from first gen BFG to run Toyo MT and Duratrac for a fe years on my work trucks. The last year I've been running the new KO2 and it s much better tire than they used to be. So much so that my switch to a 35 in a few weeks is down to the BFG, the Falken if I can find them, or a Duratrac.

My Tundra does 80% of it's miles i northern Canada offroad on forestry and logging roads, oil and gas trails. Being a work truck first, I also have to consider the tire availability when I choose. I can't get something no shop can get if I'm out and about the country at work. I need something every tire shop has access to. That's a very solid reason for me to stick with BFG or Goodyear, Toyo is pretty good too but sometimes you could be out of luck and have to wait 3-5 days to get a new tire.

I like Toyo MT, but I'm not convinced yet that a half ton would run them without a big penalty due to weight. My Carli Dominator built Ram 3500 had them and they were perfect, but that was a different truck.
Good point on availability.

In the past month since my post above, I've since swung over to the DuraTrac; at this point that's what I'm leaning toward. And the fact that Ram announced that they're equipping the 2019 Rebels with DuraTracs sorta made me feel more confident about them too... You've had good experiences with them?
 

ROKDKTR

Geo-Explorer
Good point on availability.

In the past month since my post above, I've since swung over to the DuraTrac; at this point that's what I'm leaning toward. And the fact that Ram announced that they're equipping the 2019 Rebels with DuraTracs sorta made me feel more confident about them too... You've had good experiences with them?

I ran 2 sets of them on my 2015 Power Wagon and they were great. I only run them until about 50% tread then sell them and get new ones, but I liked them.

Every oilfield and forestry service seems to run them on their fleet trucks too, and they hold up very well.

I'm on the fence about the Falken WildPeak MT, but I'll figure out availability first. I like tough sidewalls for a lot of the trails we have with sharp trees and branches under the muddy water. ;)
 

Akdjmojo

New member
Hey guys. New to the form so kinda late here. I have icon 2.5” coilovers, upper arms, and their coils and 2.5” shocks on my ram 1500. They are 2 years old and I haven’t had any issues at all. Ive installed tons of the bilstein 5100 adjustable struts. I love my icon stuff but for the money the bilstein stuff works great. I always thought alaska would be the hardest on equipment. But maybe the icons don’t like the dry? The shop I work for deals primarily with toyo tires. But I like the Goodyear duratrak tires. So far the Toto’s have been some of the better as far as balancing goes. No one really seems to talk about that. I’m running 37” opencountry mts and they are smooth. And only took 4-6oz a tire to balance. Much better than the 10-14 I used for my Baja claw ttcs. Haha.
 

Tex68w

Beach Bum
Good point on availability.

In the past month since my post above, I've since swung over to the DuraTrac; at this point that's what I'm leaning toward. And the fact that Ram announced that they're equipping the 2019 Rebels with DuraTracs sorta made me feel more confident about them too... You've had good experiences with them?

We have the stock 33" Duratracs on our 2018 Power Wagon and so far it's the only thing on the truck that I can't stand. For starters, every single wheels has 10+oz of tape weight to balance out the tires, this is ridiculous and leaves me concerned with the future of keeping them balanced. Each tire has multiple indentations in the sidewalls from their poor build construction, I am already keeping an eye on these areas waiting for sidewall separation at any moment. The build of the Duratracs is subpar for a company like Goodyear IMHO and personally I wouldn't spend my money on these tires if given the opportunity to buy whatever I wanted. I'll be replacing them with 37's in short order so I am not too concerned, but there's no way I would run that tire for an extended period of time with any confidence.
 

Jimbo12

New member
We have the stock 33" Duratracs on our 2018 Power Wagon and so far it's the only thing on the truck that I can't stand. For starters, every single wheels has 10+oz of tape weight to balance out the tires, this is ridiculous and leaves me concerned with the future of keeping them balanced. Each tire has multiple indentations in the sidewalls from their poor build construction, I am already keeping an eye on these areas waiting for sidewall separation at any moment. The build of the Duratracs is subpar for a company like Goodyear IMHO and personally I wouldn't spend my money on these tires if given the opportunity to buy whatever I wanted. I'll be replacing them with 37's in short order so I am not too concerned, but there's no way I would run that tire for an extended period of time with any confidence.

I ran DuraTracs on my Raptor. They saw normal winter driving, unplowed trails from northern WI into the UP, and they went on plenty of high speed forest roads and closed courses designed for the Raptor. I never had a failure and was very impressed with their road manners. So much so, that I wish they made them in a 37! I currently have General Grabber X3 37x12.50R17's on my 2500. They winter traction isn't remotely the same as the DuraTracs, but I could get these faster for my build than the Nitto Ridge Grapplers. The Nittos will probably be my next tire and I'll bump it to a 37x13.5.
 

Tex68w

Beach Bum
I ran DuraTracs on my Raptor. They saw normal winter driving, unplowed trails from northern WI into the UP, and they went on plenty of high speed forest roads and closed courses designed for the Raptor. I never had a failure and was very impressed with their road manners. So much so, that I wish they made them in a 37! I currently have General Grabber X3 37x12.50R17's on my 2500. They winter traction isn't remotely the same as the DuraTracs, but I could get these faster for my build than the Nitto Ridge Grapplers. The Nittos will probably be my next tire and I'll bump it to a 37x13.5.

I am glad that you had a good experience with them, this has not been the case for the two buddies of mine that ran them on their JKU's, both had multiple sidewall failures and issues keeping them balanced. I knew full and well what I was getting as they came with the truck, but I've had every intention of replacing even before we took possession of it. IMHO, the Duratrac is a subpar tire in comparison to other options on the market.
 

Jimbo12

New member
I am glad that you had a good experience with them, this has not been the case for the two buddies of mine that ran them on their JKU's, both had multiple sidewall failures and issues keeping them balanced. I knew full and well what I was getting as they came with the truck, but I've had every intention of replacing even before we took possession of it. IMHO, the Duratrac is a subpar tire in comparison to other options on the market.

Yeah that's too bad. Wonder if they've changed something between production runs. When I sold my Raptor, I sold the wheels and tires to a buddy, who is still running them today (over 25,000 additional miles on them).
 

marshal

Burrito Enthusiast
Yeah that's too bad. Wonder if they've changed something between production runs. When I sold my Raptor, I sold the wheels and tires to a buddy, who is still running them today (over 25,000 additional miles on them).

im really not pleased with my duratracs either and have upwards of 7oz of weight on one face of the wheel on each of my wheels. Not only that but i just turned 20k miles and i have probably less than 5/32" of tread remaining, which is ridiculous.

did i mention they're obscenely loud?
 

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