DuratTrac RT Tires mounted on Cybertruck -- first looks & review

[MyOtherTruck]

I installed the Duratrac RTs 285 / 65 r20" on my cybertruck today. I had about 900 miles on the originals. I can already tell these new RTs are a bit more cushy than the OEMs.

The original tires were quiet - I barely heard them or noticed them. The RTs do have a bit of noise above 45mph. Not bad but more than the originals.

If anyone on the forum wants my original tires with 900ish miles, DM me now because I am passing them on to the first reasonable offer below $800! Just come get them from South Vermont by Monday!

Sponsored

 

[dalton108]

Last Friday, I took my car in to the service center to get a couple of issues from delivery (scratches and swirls on stainless + a pillar rattle) straightened out and installation of my Duratracs.

Tired of waiting! I want my truck back! Besides being more cushy anything else you can tell us about the ride quality? Handling?

I feel like I’m going to prefer the look of the OEM’s better what is your take on that?

 

[HaulingAss]

I installed the Duratrac RTs 285 / 65 r20" on my cybertruck today. I had about 900 miles on the originals. I can already tell these new RTs are a bit more cushy than the OEMs.

The original tires were quiet - I barely heard them or noticed them. The RTs do have a bit of noise above 45mph. Not bad but more than the originals.

The OEM AT tires are only rated to 65 psi while the "winter" Duratrac RT's are rated up to 80 psi and have a higher load rating (by 445 lbs. per tire!). So it surprises me that they feel more cushy. What pressure are you running?

Is the "cushy" feeling most noticeable in terms of steering response or in smoothing out the ride over rocks?

 

[btcrealm]

How do you think these will hold up to a launch ; P (the important questions, right?)

I'm probably going to keep the stock wheels and tire for general road use and pick up a set of beadlocks with some aggressive tires for playing. You can basically lift the truck to extraction, put 12" blocks under the 4 jack points and drop it back down to entry to swap the tires over. Overall very little effort.

 

[M0unt41nm4n]

You will have to tell us how long they last. I have had 3 sets of those... 10-15K on big diesel trucks. Never again for me.

 

[HaulingAss]

How do you think these will hold up to a launch ; P (the important questions, right?)

I'm probably going to keep the stock wheels and tire for general road use and pick up a set of beadlocks with some aggressive tires for playing. You can basically lift the truck to extraction, put 12" blocks under the 4 jack points and drop it back down to entry to swap the tires over. Overall very little effort.

You will need blocks higher than 12", Extract Mode creates over 16" of ground clearance.

And the tires might still be touching the ground, even after you put it in the lowest mode, I'm not sure that it will actually lift the wheels off the ground.

 

[SentinelOne]

You will have to tell us how long they last. I have had 3 sets of those... 10-15K on big diesel trucks. Never again for me.

ouch - good input....

 

[MyOtherTruck]

Last Friday, I took my car in to the service center to get a couple of issues from delivery (scratches and swirls on stainless + a pillar rattle) straightened out and installation of my Duratracs.

Tired of waiting! I want my truck back! Besides being more cushy anything else you can tell us about the ride quality? Handling?

I feel like I’m going to prefer the look of the OEM’s better what is your take on that?

You'll enjoy them. By cushy, I mean you can feel the threads themselves being softer and stick to pavement more. I am running them at same PSI as original tires as load is the same (and tire size is the same) The feel reminds me of when I change my Scorpions for Blizzaks in a good way (though not that drastic).

They drive GREAT. I put a couple hundres miles on them today on VT dirt roads, windy backroads, 55+ highways, etc. The tires feel great!

The look of these is way cooler than the stock tires and give the cyber truck more of a 'real' truck vibe. The side wall design just scream bad a$$!

 

[HaulingAss]

You'll enjoy them. By cushy, I mean you can feel the threads themselves being softer and stick to pavement more. I am running them at same PSI as original tires as load is the same (and tire size is the same) The feel reminds me of when I change my Scorpions for Blizzaks in a good way (though not that drastic).

They drive GREAT. I put a couple hundres miles on them today on VT dirt roads, windy backroads, 55+ highways, etc. The tires feel great!

The look of these is way cooler than the stock tires and give the cyber truck more of a 'real' truck vibe. The side wall design just scream bad a$$!

I picked mine up yesterday and I'm really happy with them so far, they don't feel too out of place on the street (and I'm pretty picky about that). The rubber compound feels soft and grippy, the additional noise is about what I expected (not loud enough to be troublesome) and the trip efficiency hit has not reared its head yet, I'm getting the same numbers I would expect with the OEM AT tires. I'm sure there's got to be a hit, it's just not obvious yet. I bet if I did more stop and go it would be obvious, but I cruised them over 60 miles home in variable Interstate traffic, from heavy traffic going 25 to 40 mph, to moving along nicely at 65 mph, to 20 miles of open highway 77-80 mph. That was about 1/3 of the trip at mostly 80 mph and it didn't crush the numbers, I got my lifetime average of 392 kW/mile.

I didn't weigh the new tires/wheels but the old ones at half-life all weighed just under 92 lbs. on my digital shipping scale. That included wheel weights but no wheel covers.

The steering response is a bit softer (as expected) but they don't feel mushy or overly loose. I can hear the slight rumble of the tread blocks, but I never heard any howling or objectional noises, even at 80 mph.

I don't expect them to last long but if they grip in the cold and wet as well as I expect, and have reasonable performance in winter conditions, I'll accept the tread life. My OEM AT treads are down to 7mm depth after 3900 miles and are wearing exceptionally evenly, with slighly shallower tread depth towards the outside vs. the center. This implies I might up the street pressures from 52 psi to 53-54 psi. I tend to do a lot of somewhat hard cornering on curvy roads so I probably need a couple more psi than most people. I also drive off-pavement about 1/4-1/3 of the time so that probably explains why the OEM AT's are not returning great tread life.

One thing that stood out to me were the new "winter" tires have about 20% more pressure rise as they warm up from driving than the OEM AT tires did. I tested them at 52 psi cold, and they all rose to 56 psi by the time I got home. I attribute this to two things:

(1) More heat created by the more distinct tread blocks and (2)the stronger carcass which is less "stretchy". I could also notice a slightly firmer ride when hitting pavement imperfections. The tires are even more of "truck" tire and have less give in the sidewalls. They should be considerably more puncture resistant with the additional sidewall ply.

All in all, they feel exactly how I expected them to feel, ie. a little heavier, slightly softer on the steering response, slightly louder and more grippy (taking into account the tread squirm). I'm glad there is no tread howl. The biggest surprise was that my Wh/mile efficiency seemed about what I would expect out of the OEM tires, even though I'm confident it was a little worse.

Keep in mind my observations are subject to change as I've only driven them less than 70 miles and at one pressure, I haven't pushed them really hard yet, and none of it was in the wet, snow, or off-road.

 

[SentinelOne]

I picked mine up yesterday and I'm really happy with them so far, they don't feel too out of place on the street (and I'm pretty picky about that). The rubber compound feels soft and grippy, the additional noise is about what I expected (not loud enough to be troublesome) and the trip efficiency hit has not reared its head yet, I'm getting the same numbers I would expect with the OEM AT tires. I'm sure there's got to be a hit, it's just not obvious yet. I bet if I did more stop and go it would be obvious, but I cruised them over 60 miles home in variable Interstate traffic, from heavy traffic going 25 to 40 mph, to moving along nicely at 65 mph, to 20 miles of open highway 77-80 mph. That was about 1/3 of the trip at mostly 80 mph and it didn't crush the numbers, I got my lifetime average of 392 kW/mile.

I didn't weigh the new tires/wheels but the old ones at half-life all weighed just under 92 lbs. on my digital shipping scale. That included wheel weights but no wheel covers.

The steering response is a bit softer (as expected) but they don't feel mushy or overly loose. I can hear the slight rumble of the tread blocks, but I never heard any howling or objectional noises, even at 80 mph.

I don't expect them to last long but if they grip in the cold and wet as well as I expect, and have reasonable performance in winter conditions, I'll accept the tread life. My OEM AT treads are down to 7mm depth after 3900 miles and are wearing exceptionally evenly, with slighly shallower tread depth towards the outside vs. the center. This implies I might up the street pressures from 52 psi to 53-54 psi. I tend to do a lot of somewhat hard cornering on curvy roads so I probably need a couple more psi than most people. I also drive off-pavement about 1/4-1/3 of the time so that probably explains why the OEM AT's are not returning great tread life.

One thing that stood out to me were the new "winter" tires have about 20% more pressure rise as they warm up from driving than the OEM AT tires did. I tested them at 52 psi cold, and they all rose to 56 psi by the time I got home. I attribute this to two things:

(1) More heat created by the more distinct tread blocks and (2)the stronger carcass which is less "stretchy". I could also notice a slightly firmer ride when hitting pavement imperfections. The tires are even more of "truck" tire and have less give in the sidewalls. They should be considerably more puncture resistant with the additional sidewall ply.

All in all, they feel exactly how I expected them to feel, ie. a little heavier, slightly softer on the steering response, slightly louder and more grippy (taking into account the tread squirm). I'm glad there is no tread howl. The biggest surprise was that my Wh/mile efficiency seemed about what I would expect out of the OEM tires, even though I'm confident it was a little worse.

Keep in mind my observations are subject to change as I've only driven them less than 70 miles and at one pressure, I haven't pushed them really hard yet, and none of it was in the wet, snow, or off-road.

please give us an update after some more miles - im patiently waiting to order some (have a bit of time before CO snow)!

 

[btcrealm]

You will need blocks higher than 12", Extract Mode creates over 16" of ground clearance.

And the tires might still be touching the ground, even after you put it in the lowest mode, I'm not sure that it will actually lift the wheels off the ground.

You could be correct. I have not done it yet. Someone had posted on X a few months back that it does work but I can't find that now.
I will test and update everyone with how well it works (soon TM).

 

[Broski]

Wow. If there’s that much of a feel difference, I’m curious how Blizzaks will feel?

 

[Gundo]

You can basically lift the truck to extraction, put 12" blocks under the 4 jack points and drop it back down to entry to swap the tires over. Overall very little effort.

Wait, the suspension will lift the wheels?

I've never seen an vehicle with air suspension do this.

This would mean Cybertruck is essentially retracting it's own suspension and wheels.

 

[65SoYoLO]

Wait, the suspension will lift the wheels?

I've never seen an vehicle with air suspension do this.

This would mean Cybertruck is essentially retracting it's own suspension and wheels.

nope. It will not lift the wheels off the ground. been there, tried that, also knew it would not work since it does not have a lifting bag on the truck.

 

[mjezzi]

Any updates with recent snow? I’m wondering how well they do on ice.

Sponsored