Both the Atturo Trail Blade XT and the Goodyear DuraTrac are designed with advanced tread compounds that deliver superior off-road performance, while keeping on-road manners. However, the choice between the two can be difficult. That’s why I made things easier, by comparing their technical specifications, and performance data, and determined which one is the better choice for you.
As a tire engineer, my testing show that the Goodyear Duratrac, despite being more aggressive here, offers better wet traction on pavements. Moreover, its pliable comp0und also brings about superior comfort (in terms of bumps absorption). The Atturo Trail Blade X/T on the other side is better on dry, and shows up with greater fuel efficiency, noise dampening abilities, and rocky terrain traction. Though it lacks in mud and sand to its counterpart.
Table of Contents
Fuel Efficiency
The rolling resistance, which gets calculated by friction, a tire generates, decides the overall fuel economy. And although both tries here are not “fuel efficient” by any means, you are still better off with Atturo Trail Blade XT.
The tire although features a heavier structure, it’s relatively closed up lugs, brings its evenly distributed weight considerably down.
Whereas on Goodyear DuraTrac, with such wider tread voids, all blocks get to bear more pressure on them. And so it not only burns more fuel, but also its tread.
Detailed Review of Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac: https://tiredriver.com/goodyear-wrangler-duratrac-review/
Ride Quality
Two important features that determine the comfort of a ride are the tread noise and the tire’s capability to effectively manage road imperfections mostly with its structure. I’ll examine each of these elements in further detail.
Tread Noise
The amount of noise produced by tires can be attributed to the flow of air through the shoulder grooves. These air molecules then hit around giving rise to unwanted sound waves.
And let me tell you out of all (A/T) tires I’ve reviewed, the Goodyear Duratrac is one of the loudest.
Its balder structure allows for air particles to freely move every which way, and smite the walls around with full force. And this impact creates greater tread noise in comparison.
Atturo Trail Blade XT on the other side, is not too voided, and it’s lateral orientation of the lugs provide better streamlining to the air. This accounts for minimal impact from air, as it simply moves from corner to corner and out of the tread.
Comfort
The degree of comfort provided by a tire is impacted by various design elements, including inner structure and exterior construction. Though its also highly dependent on the tire’s on-road stability.
That’s why there are some mixed results seen when it comes to both these boys.
Atturo Trail Blade XT on one side gets to offer better distribution of its weight, with its crowded lugs, and they yield substantial steering response and on-road stability during cornering (for the most part).
Though the tire can’t mop up the bumps as much as the Goodyear DuraTrac which offers a malleable compound and greater tread depth giving you a lot of rubber area
Greater tread depth basically act as a secondary suspension, settling the vibrations down before they reach you.
Highway Grip
When evaluating the dry performance of these tires, I analyzed their grip, cornering ability and steering capabilities, let me talk about them one by one.
Directional Grip
Directional grip tells, how much rolling traction is being generated when a tire moves on a straighter path. And here, besides, tread structure, and composition, the overall central footprint, the tire offers, is highly significant.
This is because while rolling on a straight line, the weight concentration is right in the middle, and if tread makes better contact with the road from there, it would contribute to superior grip.
And that’s exactly what’s going on for Goodyear Duratrac. The tire although is very spacious towards shoulders, its central portion have a compact arrangement of lugs, and this yields shorter braking distances ( a measure of directional grip).
The Atturo Trail Blade X/T on the other side, takes longer to stop, as its laterally aligned ribs don’t allow for as much of a smoother contact with the surface (as its counterpart) while moving “longitudinally”.
Lateral Traction
The lateral traction of a tire, simply put, is its sideways grip. Its seen on corners and is dependent on the outer edges of the tread. This is because as the tire turns, its carrying weight want to shift in the opposite direction.
To put this in to perspective, consider this; when you take a sharp turn in your vehicle, your body wants to move in the opposite direction (of the turn) due to inertia.
The Goodyear Duratrac although has joined up shoulders, the wider gaps and wild circumferential groove rings surrounding them, don’t allow them to have good enough contact with the road. So overall grip suffers in this tire’s case.
Whereas the Atturo X/T comes up with better results. Besides greater shoulder footprint offering, it also offers a stiffer compound. So it’s lugs don’t want to bend too much, and the tire faces smaller amounts of under and over steering in comparison which results in faster handling times.
In other words, this tire in comparison won’t slow you down, and it comes with better speed ratings going up to H.
Wet Traction
Wet roads require a tire with strong grip and hydroplaning resistance. Both of these can be achieved through efficient water removal capabilities.
Basically a bulk of water gets gushed out with the help of grooves which is not a problems with both of our boys here having such voided structures.
The left over water particles however, which have to be dealt with siping, gets trickier, and considering this part, Goodyear Duratrac takes the lead.
It comes with interlocking siping, and supplies you with a pliable compound. Both of these factors ensure the siping slits stay malleable and provide more effective water absorption.
Sipes with such structure are more flexible to bend and create suction for the water molecules coming underneath.
Winter Performance
All-terrain tires are getting a lot better with snowy terrains. This is because they now carry a lot of features which dedicated winter tires have in common. And this is very true for Goodyear Duratrac.
The tire as I’ve mentioned already features a stretchy compound, so it remains pliable with freezing temperatures. In other words, it comes with better thermal adaptive properties, disallowing its rubber to get harder up too easily.
Moreover, you also a lot of squiggly siping on this boy, and of course my favorite part, its tractive groove technology, which is basically another “mini” tread pattern situated on the base of the grooves, which helps in holding on to the snow particles.
And with this trapped snow, the tire is able to create snow to snow contact which generates better results (rubber to snow contact shows more slippage).
Furthermore, although the tire isn’t so great on ice, it’s still has a option of adding studs (available on LT sizes), and it makes things a lot better.
Atturo Trail Blade XT on the other side, is missing with these features and its siping gets stiffer (with time) so it’s not that capable of gripping in.
Though I do like the fact that with lateral orientation of the lugs, you do get superb snow scooping capabilities on this dude, which comes in handy when things go slightly deep. But only if snow if fluffy.
Internal Built
Most of the off-road tires are resistant to punctures on rugged terrains, as they are equipped with cut resistant rubber, and powerful plies underneath.
Though still out of both, the Atturo Trail Blade XT comes out better with its 3 ply polyester, 2 steel belts and 2 ply nylon.
The Goodyear Duratrac on the other side, only offers 2 ply sidewalls, and so it’s more prone to getting punctured, in comparison.
Off Road Traction
Off-road terrains can get pretty challenging as they require a lot of factors, including durability and deep biters to name the most important two.
That’s why to keep things easier to understand, I tested both of these tires on the following terrains. Let me share my results with you.
Sandy Dunes
For enhanced performance on sand, it is always necessary to reduce air pressure, as this creates a “floating” effect for the tire, allowing it to handle soft surfaces in a better way, by staying afloat.
Though besides air pressure, there are two more key areas to look out for:
- The tire’s natural footprint/contact patch available.
- And the overall structure of the shoulders and sidewalls.
And considering both, I would have to rate Goodyear Duratrac better here.
This is because it’s sides are softer, containing one less ply in its internal construction, and providing a supple tread compound on top. So its not that prone to dig in.
Moreover it’s sidewall lugs are elongated, and with lowered air pressure they offer greater footprint to connect withe the sand.
Atturo Trail Blade XT on the other side, although offers paddles which offer great traction (like paddle tires do), the tire with its heavier weight, and harder compound, not to forget sharper sidewall lugs, gets to be more susceptible in to sinking rather than moving forward.
Side Note: Check out my guide on air pressure for off-road tires in all types of terrains, including sand.
Thick Mud
Mud is very challenging, especially when it comes to all-terrain tires, though I have to say, I am pretty impressed with both of these tires.
Atturo Trail Blade XT showed some pretty neat paddling properties. And it makes sense why its like that. It’s horizontally aligned ribs, scoop the thick clay backwards, generating forward moving inertia.
Though it’s overall traction was still not that great in comparison, as Goodyear DuraTrac does mud evacuation like champ, with it’s much wider outer tread voids.
Rock Climbing
While climbing rocks, there are two things that almost exclusively makes a tire great. One is the tire’s toughness, particularly from the sidewalls. And the other has to do with resistance to sideways slippage. Let me explain them both.
Rocky terrains is very “puncturing”, in my personal experience at least. It has a ton of sharp rocks, logs, and some really sharp piercing thorns.
And so in case of both tires, you would have more confidence maneuvering with Atturo Trail Blade XT, having 3 ply sidewalls.
Though in case of overall traction, you’d find Goodyear DuraTrac taking the upper hand, with it’s bigger biting mouth and pliable composition of lugs supplying grip in all directions.
Conclusion
Let me sum up things here quickly.
The Atturo X/T is a great tire to have on roads, though it’s wet grip can get a little better (it lacks in comparison here). And same goes for its overall winter performance too.
Though the tire does better in the fuel economy section, tread life, and comfort (in terms of noise).
On the other side, in case of rugged terrains, you’d be better off with Duratrac, where it’s mud traction is the most impressive.
And on roads, the tire’s offers superior cushioning to the bumps and enhanced wet grip.
