Worth upgrading from Duratracs to KO2's?

My '20 came with Duratracs. They're fine I guess, nothing particularly bad about them - except I just don't like the way they look. My daughter's '08 Tacoma needs new tires all around, and the ones I've priced will be about $850 out the door. I'm thinking about putting my Duratracs on her truck and buying something new like KO2's, which I had on my '08 4Runner (two sets) and are currently on my son's '07 Tacoma.

So if I'm spending $850 on her tires, I can simply give her mine and for an additional $300 get some KO2's for my truck (price difference + installation on her truck). Anybody have both the Duratracs and KO2's who can chime in?

Honestly at this point it's just about the look of the tire and an opportunity to switch to something I know and like for $300.

 

I had duratracs on my previous 2015 sport taco, and they were great. I liked the look also. When I got the 4 Runner I went with K02s right from the dealership. They’re great as well. You can’t go wrong, both are excellent choices. Marginally, the K02s are better, and look way cooler on a 4 Runner.

 

duraracs are way better because I have them!!!!!

 

Why are you paying so much for KO2's? I just priced a set out for $830 for the set. Unless I'm not understanding the math.

 

Not sure what you are confused about. Tires + tax + mounting/balancing + disposal fee + .... = what I posted.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah that $1150 is a lot for KO2's assuming you're getting the stock tire size.

 

Yes.

 

Where you from? If you have a lot of wet seasons I recommend a different tire than KO2’s. I like my ko2 however I’m not in love with them. I will be going toyo at 3 or ridge grapplers. May want to open your tire options.

 

Sounds like a plan I would do. My daughter drives my 2012 Tacoma TRD OR with my last set of KO2s on it.
Duratracs are good tires. KO2’s my favorites.

 

KO2's ordered. Then I'll swap the Duratracs to her truck.

I did try to sell her on the idea of getting Nitto Terra Grappler G2's for her truck (on sale right now at NTB) but she said she wants "off road looking" tires lol.

 

Done. Waiting for her Tacoma to have the Duratracs put on. There is definitely a different feel to the KO2's that I like and am familiar with. Happy to have them on the truck.

 

Nice, I was a big fan of the KO2’s for the look too.
But the Nitto’s are definitely growing on me.

 

I’ve used the BFG Mud and Snow since the early 90’s. So Ive been fully committed
But, have heard and read the KO2’s having some serious inconsistencies with their rubber
Not everyone mind you.......but some horror stories of wheel wobble and tires only lasting to 20k miles tops
Just research this as I decided to jump ship this go around. im new to the forum so sorry for my post being a Debbie downer.....just an FYI
I’m back in a 2020 Venture and seriously loving it

 

I've never heard any of that trash talk from anyone that I believe actually ran a set of KO2s.
Welcome to around here. Congrats on the Venture.

 

I ran the Duratracs on the vehicle I traded in on the TR4; a 2005 GMC Yukon. Great tires off road, but horrible in snow. My dad just bought a brand new set of KO2s for his Jeep Wrangler despite the negative reviews for wet weather and snow traction. We'll see, I guess...

Goodyear has been suspect of late of changing their rubber compounds. My Duratracs were so hard that they were bad in snow. Same with the current set of Goodyear Wrangler Authority tires on my 4Runner. 10,000 miles and 1mm of tread wear. Drove through a snow storm with them and the dash was constantly lighting up warnings since they lost traction if I touched the gas. Horrible tires for snow.

 

Heard it from three different sources actually and was surprised myself. Initially our tenured Fire Dept field mechanic.
Then the guys who installed my 5100’s, Off Road Warehouse San Diego, and Also, employee @ Tire Pros.
Like I said, it’s always good to do your research and do a little fact checking. So “Grain of salt“ I’ve loved them for years & a little bummed .......but at least there’s a lot of great choices

Thanks For the congrats, I’m digging it. Ridiculously enamored &
Feel like a kid again with a new bike

 

I have KO2's as well on mine. Great tire, aggressive, drives well on the street and works very well off road... i just checked the actual mileage on this set is 20,157 miles with plenty of tread life remaining.

 

Great to hear that. I’ll be back in a set when my current set wears through

 

Poor wet traction, terrible braking, bad mud traction, reasonable snow performance, good dirt traction, notoriously undersizedfrom its specs, with tread blocks that chip away, a widely known build quality issues that result in a tendency to not balance.

I wore them down to about 7/32nds of inch of tread and then got rid of them. I wasn't happy with them and I was tired of constantly fighting vibrations.

















I feel like K02s are a sub par tire that get an easy pass from way to many people for simply riding the coattails of the original KO. The K0 was the dominant tire in the A/T market for decades, eventually the market caught up and left them behind so they pushed out this pos. I would never even consider purchasing them again.

 

Great pics
4X4 Memory Maker

 

A little too late to be saying all those negative things about the KO2 (mine are about to get mounted this Friday) lol. But, as far as vibrations are concerned - from my reading and following on this forums and the other 4Runner forums KO2 still has vastly smaller number of people reporting issues when compared to wild peaks and some other tires. I am not taking away from your experience, and I would hate to have the same issues with my set of tires, but statistically - KO2 is still consistently top performing tire from the choices available.

 

This is my fifth Toyota vehicle with KO2's and I can say I've never experienced any of the problems mentioned above. In fact, it's the first time I've ever heard any make those complaints. Maybe it's just an offroading thing.

 

I ran a set for 29K miles with 0 problems. I went with bigger tires and sold the KO2's with 80% of their original tread. They also wore very evenly.

There's a guy on the Tacoma forum with over 70K and still loves them.

I have no idea why a small handful of people have a bad experience, but the vast majority of people seem to really like them. Just look around, though, and you'll find that for every great tire out there, someone has had a bad experience with it.

There are some other tires that are getting very popular as well. The market has become extremely competitive. If your expectations are realistic, you'll probably be happy with most of the AT's on the market.

Make sure to rotate them every 5K!

 

I don’t know, sometimes when we hear info from supposedly reputable people in the industry we give them “too” much credibility. Good to hear others are doing great with them. And your right, there is a crap load of competition on out there....which isn’t a bad thing for consumers and Adrenalin Junkies such as myself

 

I had a jeep that had KO2 and they were fine (so far). They got about 24,000 miles on them and have good tread still, they are from 2015. I have driven them in very deep and wet mud and they got very good grip despite me not knowing what I was doing. Have not had any issues that some are describing, so maybe its an issue with newer KO2 or these issues happen later in the tires life.

 

I was told this is a more recent issue

 

That is the truth! More competition = better products and better prices.

This discussion is a perfect example. In 2017 I was researching tires for my Tacoma. Back then, all of the cool kids were running KO2's or Duratracs. Now, just 2 years later, there are many tires that are considered equal, or better. While there may be better options, depending on your situation, both are still great tires for most of the folks who use them.

I went with Toyo AT3's this time around. While I'm very satisfied with them, I believe I would have been happy with another set of KO2's.