New tires mounted - Goodyear Wranger SilentArmor Pro Grades

[ASD Dad]

Got new shoes for my NV today.  Took off the terrible Hankook AT-M and mounted up some Goodyear Wrangler SilentArmor Pro Grades in 265/70-17 on stock rims.  Load E 10 ply, all terrain tires with two belts of kevlar.

 

These are "commercial" duty tires and are labeled Pro Grade by Goodyear.  Supposedly they have a tougher compound that resists chunking and excessive wear when towing.  They also have the snowflake designation for extreme winter use but I wont need that here!  

 

My Hankooks were great for about 20,000 miles and then started downhill rapidly.  By 30,000 miles they were very very worn (two were at the indicators already!) even with rotations and they were very noisy.  Granted a lot of miles were towing our 7600 pound camper but they are LT Load E tires!  Could not wait to get them off my van.

 

My cousin is on the board of directors for Goodyear so she sent me a friends and family discount code to get the Wranglers.  I had planned on getting BFG KO2's again (had them on my Tundra) but could not pass up the deal on the Goodyears and the SilentArmor tires are/were among the best they made.

 

I say "were" because technically they do not sell them anymore in stores.  They have a newer Wrangler AT Kevlar out that replaced them.  The SilentArmor were better rated and still a favorite of many owners.  Goodyear told me they still make them but only in very limited sizes and are mainly OEM tires for commercial 3/4 and 1T trucks as a special order.  They said a lot of construction guys and buyers like that want them so they kept them for that usage.  I ended up special ordering them online and having them shipped to my local Goodyear store.  Employees were surprised to see them, they thought they were long gone!  I was going to get Duratracs but my cousin and her fellow employees talked me into the SA's for my needs.

 

Only have about 50 miles of driving around on them so they are still squirmy from being brand new.  I have a 4 hour tow each way up into the mountains this weekend so that will break them in quickly!  Will probably be driving down some dirt and gravel roads this trip as well so I am looking forward to seeing how they do.

 

I'll update how these do as time goes on.  I am not driving the NV daily anymore but we still use it for trips.

[andy_george]

Thanks for the info! Excited for your longer term review!

[Bamps]

So far, I’m happy with my hankooks . . . ? Wrangler makes good tires

[ASD Dad]

I am very happy with the Goodyears so far.  The long tow was no problem at all and they felt great.  Now I also liked my Hankooks for the first 20,000 or so miles so time will tell on these tires.  

 

I only drive the NV for towing and when taking extended family out with our family so it is being driven very little.  Maybe 2 times a month now...  I have 3 very long tows already lined up in the next few months including through the Appalachian mountains on one so they will still get a workout.