Both the Toyo Open Country RT and the Goodyear Duratrac are coming in hybrid/rugged terrain category. This means these tires have the shoulder lugs of mud terrain tires, and central lugs resembling those usually seen on all-terrains. Though still, both tires give out very different performance values. So let check them all out closely.
As a tire engineer, my testing show that the Toyo Open Country RT has better commercial traction in comparison, especially when it comes to rocky and gravely terrains. Though on smooth pavements, the tire is not so bad when things are dry, and you also get a “relatively” quieter ride with it as well. The Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac on the other side does well on roads, in terms of wet and winter performance, and off-road its great with mud and sand.
Table of Contents
Available Sizes
The Toyo Open Country RT has following specs.
- Sizes Rims: 15 to 24 inches
- Speed Ratings: T and Q only
- Load Ratings: SL, XL, C to F
- Weight Range: 43 lbs to 100 lbs
- Tread Depth Range: 13 to 19/32″
- Warranty: 45k miles
- Winter ratings: Only M+S
The Goodyear Duratrac on the other side has following specs.
- Rim Sizes: 15 to 22 inches
- Speed Ratings: P, Q, S, and T
- Load Ratings: SL to F
- Tread Depth Range: 16 to 18/32″
- Warranty: 50k on LT sizes
- Winter Ratings: 3PMSF and M+S
Tread Differences
The Goodyear Duratrac has a super impressive tread pattern with tons of features!
In the middle, the tire has squared-off lugs with zigzag biters and chamfered edges that are joined together from beneath by a dual tread compound, providing off-road bite and stability on dry roads and during rock climbing.
Surrounding the lugs are huge circumferential channels that divide them from the outer shoulder ribs.
These tread voids have biters on the base that act as a secondary tread pattern for snow grabbing and mud/dirt breaking.
On the shoulders, the tread has stud-able lugs (only available in LT sizes) and a powerful 3D full depth siping pattern for excellent cornering on wet asphalts.
The lugs are firmly joined by a base, ensuring great steering response as well.
Moreover, these lugs also extend down towards sidewalls and provide you with decent biters over there, which really help you with traction off-road (when you lower the tire’s air pressure).
The Toyo Open Country RT, on the other hand, also shows up with a hybrid structure.
Its tread pattern supplies 2 L-shaped lugs with sharp edges towards the sides.
These blocks have limited tread features and siping, which although impacts wet traction negatively, the on-road grip and tread wear is significantly improved with them.
Moreover, these lugs also have foundational supports underneath, so during braking and cornering, they stay at their place, and don’t limit the tire’s steering response by too much.
Moving towards shoulders, they are thicker/fatter, and have similar siping, and foundational supports underneath.
On the outer edges, they make mud scoops, and sidewall lugs, though they need some improvement as they aren’t that biting with lowered air pressure (compared to other R/T tries), but more on that later.
Durability
Although both tires have a hybrid structure, with aggressive mud-terrain tires like shoulder blocks, the Goodyear Duratrac is not able to provide you with a durable enough tire.
Its internal construction consist of simple 2 ply polyester carcass, with 2 belts and 2 nylon cap plies.
The Toyo R/T on the other hand, although has similar 2 ply nylon and 2 steel belts, it’s polyester casing consist of 3 ply polyester. So you get a better protection (on rugged terrains), with this tire.
Highway Performance
In order to accurately assess the dry performance of an all-terrain tire, we must consider its directional traction, steering, and cornering ability. Let’s go over each of these in more detail.
Directional Grip
This type of grip is calculated with braking distances and acceleration times, as it tells you about the tire’s rolling friction when moving straight.
And since middle section of the tread connects with the road with greater force (while rolling straight), the Goodyear Duratrac with a relatively more compact lugs there, offer superior efficacy.
The Toyo Open Country R/T although features decent footprint form it’s L shaped lugs, they still have wider gaps, and don’t make as solid of a rubber to road connection as the DuraTrac.
Handling Efficacy
The handling of a tire is calculated by evaluating its sideways grip, and steering feedback.
The sideways grip depends on the shoulder lugs, as during corners, they get to bear the whole weight on them. And since Goodyear Duratrac presents with relatively closer blocks arrangement, here as well, it’s handling performance is also better.
Although the tire offers softer tread composition, it’s shallower tread depth, and reinforced foundational supports resist bending of its lugs, and it shows up with faster steering response in comparison.
On the other hand, the Toyo Open Country R/T comes with greater tread voids, and it’s lugs are left unsupported, so you see lacking handling times with this tire.
Also Read –
Are A/T tires good daily drivers: https://tiredriver.com/are-all-terrain-tires-good-for-daily-driving/
Wet Traction
To grip on wet roads, tires need sipes. These are simply put, slits on the tread, which suck water particles in. They expand as they meet with the ground, expelling all the air out, and creating a vacuum, which slurps in water particles.
That’s why even though the Toyo Open Country R/T has no problem with hydroplaning with such wider grooves channeling water out every which way, it still lacking with it’s ineffective sipes.
They are limited in number and way to stiff to create as much vacuum for the water particles, as it’s counterpart.
The Goodyear Duratrac on the other hand, not only offer a lot more sipes in comparison, but you also get a softer compound, so these sipes expand and contract with more ease.
Moreover, like I showed you guys in the tread section, the tire is equipped with interlocking sipes. This wave-like 3D pattern is to ensure sipes remain pliable even while sharp cornering and sudden braking.
Ride Comfort
The on-road comfort although depends on a lot of factors, the two main ones in my books are noise, and bumps absorption abilities.
Speaking of noise first, the Goodyear Duratrac is a much louder tire in comparison. With wider shoulder grooves, it permits a lot of air to come in and strike the walls of the tread, (and that impact creates noise).
Moreover, with the tire’s softer tread compound, the generated noise create louder in-groove resonance, as they bounce off the surface with more ease.
Toyo Open Country RT on the other side, is less voided, and it’s stiffer composition keeps it’s tread resistant to noise echoing. Though with such rigid composition, it’s not able to absorb the shocks of roads.
Winter Grip
Out of both tires, the Goodyear Duratrac does a far better job with it’s interlocking sipes, offset edges, better interconnected tread voids, and tractive grooves.
All of these account for better snow holding abilities.
The interlocking grooves grab in the snow particles, while the biters on the base, hold on to the lodged snowflakes. This accounts for better snow to snow contact, which is what you want on this terrain.
(Rubber to snow contact isn’t ideal for maximum winter traction).
Toyo Open Country RT on the other side, lacks severely on this terrain, with it’s missing sipes and harder compound, which is not so thermal adaptive. So they tend to get stiffer with freezing temperatures making its traction very poor, especially on icy terrains.
Mud Traction
The more aggressive the tire gets, the better it offer mud traction. As thick mud needs room, and balder tires offer exactly that.
That’s why both of these hybrid tires here do a great job at escaping the clay out without packing up too quickly.
The Goodyear Duratrac on hand, comes with wild circumferential groove rings, with biters placed on the base of its grooves, so mud gets broken down as it passes out of the tread with ease.
Whereas the Toyo Open Country R/T comes with elongated lugs providing great scooping abilities a long with similar mud escaping.
Rocky Terrain Traction
Both tires although provide superb capabilities on rocks, the Toyo R/T yields better lateral grip, whereas the Duratrac is better off with directional traction.
The Goodyear Duratrac comes with flexible tread and smaller lugs in the middle. These render grip in all directions, whereas it’s lighter structural weight helps with the climbing.
Though the tire does not offer aggressive enough sides, it’s sidewall lugs are skinnier, and they don’t offer 3 ply internal construction like the Toyo R/T.
Sand Performance
In addition to reducing air pressure, tire weight and tread composition play an important role in a tire’s performance on sand.
That’s why with sharper sides, and much heavier weight, the Toyo Open Country R/T lacks severely.
The tire weighs almost 100 pounds (even out-crossing some of the mud-terrain tires), and it’s stiffer rubber composition and sharp serrated shoulder lugs really want to dig in.
The Goodyear Duratrac on the other side focuses better on moving forward, and it’s pliable compound provide better footprint connectivity with the sand, with lowered air pressure.
Grip on Gravel
Although off-road tires are made to withstand cuts, without proper stone ejectors, sharp dirt particles can still get embedded and cause damage, affecting traction.
That’s why Toyo Open Country RT with bold stone ejectors between the shoulder lugs gets to be less prone to allowing dirt particles to settle in.
The Goodyear Duratrac on the other side although keeps it’s tread clean, on the outskirts (of the tread), its central part is very inviting to all kind of debris. And so it’s directional grip gets compromised on gravely roads.
Fuel Consumption
With Toyo Open Country RT weighing up to 100 pounds, its not a surprise to see it consuming more fuel, in comparison.
With such heavier weight, it’s lugs get to bear more pressure on them, and they bend a lot more during cornering, braking and acceleration, leading to greater expenditure of fuel energy.
Goodyear Duratrac on the other side, although comes with a softer compound, its shallower tread depth, and reinforced foundations keeps it’s fuel economy better, still.
Tread Life
Out of both tires, although the Toyo Open Country RT gets to face greater rolling resistance, the tire is saved by it’s tread depth and composition.
It’s deeper (on average) tread voids, takes more time to reach down to a 2/32″ of legal limit, while it’s stiffer rubber compound does not wear too fast in the first place.
That’s why it’s overall tread life is similar to its competitor.
Conclusion
So it all comes down to this.
Overall, as I discussed above, even though both tires come in hybrid category, having mud-terrain like shoulder lugs, the on-road performance is still seen better on Goodyear Duratrac. This goes especially when things are wet.
Moreover, apart form that, the tire also offers superior efficacy in term of fuel economy, tread life and comfort (only considering its bumps absorption capabilities, and not the noise, as the tire is very loud).
Toyo Open Country RT on the other side although does OK on dry pavements, it severely lacks on wet and snowy terrains with its limited siping.
Though the tire shines off road mostly on rocky and gravely terrains (but lacks on softer terrains such as mud and sand, to its counterpart).
