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by Perry Mack
We mounted a set of 35/12.5/17 tires on Ion wheels and bolted them on to the Dodge Ram 1500 and hit the trails (and the pavement) to give them an abusive work out. I loved them so much; I left them on long after the tire test was over.
Aesthetically, this is hands down the best-looking tire - if you want a look that screams aggressive off-road. Goodyear has reinforced the sidewalls with DuPont Kevlar, which they say improves puncture resistance by as much as 35%. While we didn’t stab them with screwdrivers to find out, we did try to tear them up through the jagged rocks of dry washouts, counting on the sidewalls and shoulders to provide traction as often as the footprint. The tires came out unscathed, I can’t say the same for my rocker panels and I broke both lift blocks above my leaf springs.
The tread design is asymmetric. The larger blocks on the outside help cornering stability by providing a larger contact surface area, while the smaller blocks on the inside increase traction in wet and winter conditions. Quite simply, it works. Well enough that from a traction point of view, you can use these tires for your daily drives.
The tires were the loudest of those tested on the Ram 1500 (Cooper AT2 in 2013, ProComp Xtreme AT, Toyo Open Country MT, in order from quiet to not as quiet), keeping in mind that if you have a performance muffler or turn the fan on high it won’t make a rats ass bit of difference.
And in the same order, these tires took the longest to warm up on cold mornings, providing a ‘whump-whump-whump’ reminder that I should be finding a way to get to work off-road, not on.
Off-road, they provided spectacular traction in dirt, sand and over rocks and more than adequate traction in mud and snow. Airing down, the tires deformed nicely to provide a wide footprint. The only time I got stuck was when, in an attempt to follow a YJ (aka Stinky Jeep), I got hung up on the trucks’ frame. With a little guidance from our technical editor, Bryan ‘don’t-go-that-way’ Irons, I found a new line and kept crawling along.
The tire is best suited to the truck/driver who needs daily use but is primarily looking for invincible off-road traction and durability.