Another tire question

SDbernhardt

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I am looking to put a new set of tires on my 94 f350 dually 2wd. I am currently running 235 85 16 with no rubbing issues. My question is I would like yo put a more aggressive tire on the rears and am leaning towards the Goodyear duratrac tires as I have had them before, but don't know if the side lug of those tires will rub or if they are the right tire for a dually. Can anyone point me to a fairly aggressive tire for my rig. I do hual but not incredibly often but when I do I'm usually pulling 12000 behind me and whatever I can fit in the bed. Thanks for any input in advance.
 

79jasper

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Forget the size. But I have the cooper discoverer at'3 on mine. Fairly decent tread pattern. Haven't been stuck anyways. Lol

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LCAM-01XA

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The Duratracs are very wide, the 235/85-16 size will leave you with less than 1/2" space between the duals (just measured them). General Grabber AT2 are slightly narrower, so they do fit a bit better, and they are quite excellent in SRW application but not so much on a nose-heavy dually diesel 2wd (same exact truck with 4x4 and limited-slip diffs is darn near unstoppable tho). Not sure how wide the Cooper AT3 are in that size, but they are not all that aggressive tire - they are actually quieter on the road than the Grabbers and way quieter than the Duratracs, great all-around tire but I wouldn't expect it to pull you thru a wet field (if that matters to you).

I'd say if you're not stuck on the 235/85-16 size, drop down to the factory 215/85-16, but naturally in load range E (think the door sticker calls for D-range, to heck with that). Those can haul almost 2500 lbs each when in dually application, makes for near 10k axle capacity - should be plenty strong (certainly way better than factory), and allows you to run whatever crazy-gnarly tire you happen to like. Add a nice heavy load at the very end of the bed, and if you have a decent traction device in the axle you'll be able to go thru some places that before got you stuck just by looking at them.
 

SDbernhardt

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OK lcam so you are/ were running the duragraps? What if I put in a small spacer to make room. Or possibly same tire with a little less width? I would like to stick with the same height for sure but might could get a narrower set of those tires?
 

LCAM-01XA

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OK lcam so you are/ were running the duragraps? What if I put in a small spacer to make room. Or possibly same tire with a little less width? I would like to stick with the same height for sure but might could get a narrower set of those tires?
We have a pair of Duratracs as spare wheels for our dually, they are bolted directly against the flat bed rails so it's very easy to check how much space there is between the tire sidewall and the face of the wheel - less that 1/4", meaning when you have two of these face to face you're at under 1/2" spacing, and that is unloaded. Way too close for comfort, and we wouldn't run them like that even in an emergency situation - should the whole pair of rear tires on one side need replacing while on the road the plan is to draft in one of the tires from the other side and do mix and match and run only a single Duratrac per side. We have compressed air source onboard tho, so such shenanigans are easy to do, not so much if you only got manual tools to work with. In any case, the tires the truck actually rolls on are General Grabber AT2 - those are a bit narrower than the Duratracs, thus more space between the duals. Still kinda too close tho, so we run a 5/16" spacer between them - this is a thick as one can go and still have full thread engagement on the lug nuts, which you wanna have that for sure! Keep in mind that such a spacer throws the outer wheels off their pilot surface on the hubs (FU Ford for making those so dang narrow) so it's now very easy to not have the wheel centered properly and end up with all kinds of nasty vibrations. We've had BFG ATs on the truck as well, it was long ago but IIRC they fit just like the Grabbers - close enough to be a concern without the spacers, but maybe not close enough to pose any real danger. We also had some Firestones at one point, but they were a milder all-terrain model and thus fit best of them all.
 

SDbernhardt

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10-4 I appreciate all the info on the matter. Will post back when the truck is finished with some pics... She is in the middle of a makeover right now
 
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