Goodyear Wrangler Kevlar MT/R review/ rant

Been looking at getting a set? On the fence about going with any goodyear brand? Read on.
I had the stock rugged fails for about 15,000 miles before shredding two all to pieces. My truck is a weekend warrior thanks to my company DD work truck- so things like tread life and MPG don't particularly concern me- this, of course will bias my review.

I went with the 285/75/r16 (why the offroad taco has an inch smaller rims will forever bewilder me)
Did the cab mount chop and used 1.5" spacers on all four wheels for clearance.
I bought five because this is a trail toy for the most part and why let a down tire stop the party? -best decision I made with these POS tires.

The good-
When aired way down, the tread up the side walls basically turns these into tracks by adding a collective 8 or more inches to your tread contact width (about 1" per sidewall)
The traction when aired down is by far the greatest thing I've experienced. On rock climbs, it grabs hard and allows you to really put that 4lo gearing to work climbing rather than hitting it hard and bouncing up. All other terrain is handled just as well, though I've had limited access to icy conditions. The few times I could find snow, they kicked ass.
Highway wear is noticeable , but not nearly as bad as I expected with a softer, grippy open lug tread. Something about silica compound blah blah blah.


The bad
Because of the fact that theyre most at home gripping rock faces, they're a very soft rubber. I've got plenty of gashes and torn up tread to prove that. This also means they wear down quicker on the highway. Road wear isn't terrible, but absolutely a factor to consider. 20,000 miles or so on my only remaining original shows definite wear.

The ugly:
I've now been through FOUR OF THESE FUCKING TIRES in a 20k mile timeframe. Kevlar belongs in ballistic materials, not in your tires. All four have been torn and punctured through parts of the sidewall. Two through the corner where it meets the tread and two gashes through the sidewall.
One destroyed on a rocky climb, one on a wood stake in the dirt, two on smooth fire roads.
The soft rubber also is bullshit, as it cracks in the sun quicker than the 25 year old tires on the jeep in my driveway. Pictured below. Date stamp on the tire is 2013- its about a year old.

Given this, I called bullshit. Took it back to Certified Tire in chino and they called their corporate line to see what they could do for me. Best I got was 87$ for a new replacement due to pro rating the tread wear. Told me to call them myself, as customers often have more pull with customer service. Did that and same thing. All I wanted was one free replacement the least they could do, after buying thousands of dollars in the same overpriced shit tire. Dude on the hotline didn't seem to care and even with proof from the tire shop that I've bought so many.

Never ever getting these tires again. I'm mad because I when they're good, they're great. Until they're not. Goodyear has failed miserably with customer service and if I can help it, I'm going with any other brand to get the bad taste outta my mouth and wallet .

Pictured is a generic cool pic and another close up of the tire in question. Might have to zoom in but the lugs are cracking where they meet the tire. As of now, the cracking isnt catastrophic, but absolutely unacceptable for one year of age. What are these gonna look like in five years? Most likely it'll have been ripped open long before then. Either way ends in failure and a couple more hundred bucks I shouldnt have to spend.

 

Another issue is the backlog on these damn thing. Took me several weeks for them to show up and had to pay for freight shipping for each on top of pro rated amount and a new warranty . money pit that takes forever to deliver.

 

Man, mine don't look like that. Have almost 20k miles on them, getting louder, and they vibrate more. Still like 'em. Off road they kick ass, for me on road, they do all right. 305/70/17 on my truck, spin them off road all the time, no rock down here tho. Not missing chunks like yours.

 

Very informative review. This means the tires should perhaps be viewed in the same light as DOT-legal track tires...

 

See that's what pisses me off the most- they kick ass offroad and half the people I talk to say they LOVE theirs with zero issue whatsoever and manage to get 50k+ miles out of them. Then the other half agree with me and have terrible experiences with these expensive bastards. I want so bad to believe I got a bad set/ drove like an ass and deserved to pop a couple but I've been burned by em too many times now.

^^^ this.
One big reason I got these in the first place was seeing them on all the King of The Hammers race rigs- since my truck doesn't really see much pavement I could afford to get the best tires to play on.
I never thought of the fact that race teams get free tires and yeah they'll say all day how great they work and show you how they crawl rocks but they'll never show just how many tires they destroy or replace every race. Great marketing to create the illusion that one set of tires will last through the entire highlight reel of KOH...

 

So you have had these tires on there for 20k miles, many of which is off road and you get some cracking where the lug meets the tire? Doesn't sound out of line to me. That is a pretty hard life for a tire, lots of flexing and forming over objects. It isn't like you only drove a thousand miles off road and 19k on highways, off road eats up tires sooner than street driving. Let us know how that works out for you.

Tyler

 

No, the ripped up lugs are all my doing, and I've got no problem with that- it means they're being used and doing their job.
The problem I have is the cracking from sun damage on the tread where the lugs attach to the tire. I didn't do that. Its hard to see on a pic with my phone but its got cracks around almost every lug on the tread- not just the leading edge where I coulda gouged it on a rock but surrounding the whole thing. Again, I've got 30 year old tires lying around that look only slightly worse on the outside.