Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I am rolling with 235/75R15 Goodyear Duratrac tires. Nice and aggressive looking and great in the snow. But...

The thing that I am concerned about is even at 45psi there is a lot of visible buldging of the sidewall in the contact patch area of the tire that is easy to see as you are driving along the road (ie that look like your tire is a bit flat). Road noise also increases quite a bit when cornering...like when you drive on underinflated tires. The buldging doesn't seem noticable when parked. It is making me wonder if these tires do not have suitable sidewall strength for the weight of the LWB L400 in the same way that many tires did not have the sidewall strength to be safely used on a VW Vanagon.

For comparison purposes my BFG mud terrains on my Hilux Surf do not display a similar level of buldging until I air them down below 25psi.

I know the Duratracs are a popular choice for the Delica so just wondering what psi people are running and if you are noticing the buldging.

I've noticed similar with my GoodYear Wrangler Territory tires vs. my stock-from-Mardy Kumho's

The Territory's are 2 steel plus 2 polyester ply on the tread, and 2 polyester only on the sidewall

The Kumho's are the same on the sidewall, but an extra nylon layer on the tread. Not sure how mych of a difference that makes.

But I too was a bit concerned if I snagged something on the Goodyear sidewall, how tough is it really? I have no reference to compare it to, but I guess time will tell...

Normal for the type of tire

They are more soft/flexible compared to a hard as rock BFG AT.

Used to be positives and negatives to both types of tires before hybrids like the Duratracs came out. Too soft = faster wear / too hard = horrible in slick

Now, the rubber compounds and technology has changed making a lot of AT/mud/snow tires suitable for all year round that have a good life span and don't ride like rocks in the winter.

BFG AT KO's are old technology. The mud tire KM2's are better in snow/rain/softer compound than the AT's for example.

I actually tried to burst a sidewalk and couldn't.

If you're used to hard BFG's, the duratracs runs softer on the road.

Also, they can easily take a L400 LWB weight plus more. The 235/75/15 are being used on F150 forestry service trucks.

That last pic is almost what my Duratracs look like at 40psi driving down the highway... Now that I noticed it is weirding me out to watch when I drive. The tires on my Surf are KM2's 33x10.5-15 so they have a lot more of sidewall but buldge much much less. The actual tread on them is nice and soft...but the sidewall is firmer. Anyway good to know the Duratracs are designed squishy but tough. Figured they must be alrite since they are popular noone has reported being plaugued by the sidewall cracks of impending doom (symptoms of crappy flexi sidewall tires).

But food for though when tire shopping as flexi sidewalls regardless if by design or not are not the most desirable characteristic in tall heavy narrow vehicle at highway speeds. A lot of force gets transmitted to the sidewall in these vehicles. Highway is very different from low speed off road. A flexi sidewall will give worse handling as it fights the cornering forces and on a crappy tire the lateral force can momentarily seperate the tire from the rim causing a big mess. If you do mostly highway driving I would list the soft sidewalls of these tires as a con (but if you do mostly highway driving you probably were not looking at this tire anyway...) . They definately do give great traction on a the range of surfaces I have had them on.

If those were snow rated I would definitely buy them over the bfgoodrich ta ko's

235/75/15 Duratrac's are rated at 1,850 lbs @ 50psi per tire so a total of 7,400 lbs
The L400 LWB weighs in at 4,800 lbs so you have 2,600 lbs to play with.

Plenty of tire for the weight/size of the vehicle.

Duratracs are favorites for the big Dodge diesel guys that tow trailers. General consensus is that they ride soft on the road but all around are one of the best performance hybrid tires on the market.

nxski wrote:If those were snow rated I would definitely buy them over the bfgoodrich ta ko's

They are snow rated and the BFG AT KO's drive like hockey pucks in the winter compared most hybrid AT tires on the market.

BFG AT's were good in their day but it's old technology and the tires are down low on the list of performance in all weather these days.

Read what I wrote above

I used to love them until better tires came out. Every single person I know that used to run the BFG AT's now run something better.

I am running 31x10.5 Duratracs on my L400 and haven't noticed any bulging issues at 40psi. They are a little noisier at certain speeds on the highway - certainly in cornering - but this is a more aggressive tread than typical highway tires so one must expect the noise. That said, the tire noise is not intolerable and I have found I can drive thru the noise to a quieter ride at about 110-115kmh or below about 80. If you are running proper tire pressure you shouldn't have any issues separating the bead in corners unless you are really going into the corner hot at which point you might have bigger troubles.

The Jeep club we ran into out in Waiparous a while back also commented on the Duratracs... most of those guys were running them as well and aired down considerably. They had nothing but good comments.

I would think bulging also has to do with the width of the rim as well... narrower rim would equal more bulge. That said if Psilosin's tires look like the photo of Jfarsang's aired-down tires on the highway, I would be tempted to check the pressure again - perhaps your tires are "PSI-losin"... ......sorry, couldn't resist... They will look as though they are low on air though.

Cheers!
Ian

They actually have the snowflake symbol on them? I couldn't find many at tires that did. Nice to know that I'm driving on hockey pucks Good thing I like to slide around corners.