Open Shoulder Tires vs Closed Shoulder Tires

Open shoulder, to much winter to justify the small mpg gains of closed

 

Closed better for highway. I’ll run either depending on price. Prefer closed Lugers. I pay price in fuel mileage either way. I like traction and long wear of Luggers.Highway use closed better uniform shoulder wear.Little better mpg. Better design. Opens good for mud work. Same as Steers w/ decoupled groove better for hwy vs w/o for local work. Either one will work. Best stay with tires designed for your application.

 

All the closed shoulder tires I’ve tried sucked! Esp in heavy rain, snow, slush. When it came time to spend my own money, Michelin XDN2s is what I choose. I also like the Continental HD3 Hybrids, but they have reliability issues. That being said, I would try the semi closed shoulder Michelin X Multi Energy D.

 

I like the hankook dh06, performance wise is a little better then the xdn. Price was is $200/tire cheaper

 

If you run daycab, do alot of travel on gravel roads, and any amount of those drive tires are not under a trailer or fender.... Then I would go closed shoulder, open shoulder throw many more rocks that break the rear windows of daycabs. But if drives are covered or no window in back then id run open shoulder.

 

Nice! I’m a Hankook fan for light duty stuff, will def check these out! I’m so done with Michelin!

 

Check some of the other offerings they have to, I called about it the other day and it's out of stock in western Canada for at least 3 months. DL12 was recommended and available by my tire guy, it's a little more highway but still open shoulder by the pictures

 

Just a follow up, my tire guys are now stocking tons of DL12's. They said whole fleets are switching to them, from Conti HD3's, XDN2's Brigestone 710's etc etc. I guess they are the hot ticket for price/traction/wear/puncture resistance and such. About $285/tire less than XDN2's in 22.5H. Only issue thus far is pressure, they need to be EXACTLY 100psi cold, or things start go go wrong. 95 or 105 and you will have issues.

 

I prefer open shoulder. Gives a chance to get that arkansas mud out of the tread. Im already pretty fat at 245/70 etc or 265/60 for that reason plus weight carrying in excess of vehicle capacity. I had the back seat removed from the Tahoe to where it's a permanent cargo vehicle now. Not very pretty inside but very spacious to where two people can sleep on a mattress in the back. Or a ice box or a cabinet or lots of cut timber.

My cement mixer was total open shoulder and a form of Cross Ribbed tread. For absolute forward or reverse traction. It will be very slippering on the highway in the rain on curves or ice if you didnt watch the #### thing. But it's a small price to pay for being able to walk on a layer of loose shale rock up a 40% offroad. When you want to move those tires would make you move.

HOWEVER, I have sunk a time or two into land that had too much water under the dirt. It would not support any weight loaded at all. Down two feet you go. Tow truck please. I was always getting stuck as a newbie until most all of my Arkansas locals took me around back and beat a lesson

Grass Brown = No water, Drive on it.

Grass Green = water, sink into it get stuck. Make everyone mad.

Got it.

Back home in the bourgeois land of 1/4 acre subdivisions or city blocks you don't get that many opportunities to learn redneck trucking growing up.

 

So that means the Sonora is out, along with Death Valley etc. I tend to go places with a OTR tractor trailer where it's too hot, too cold and sometimes not the best air if at all.

If the company wants to play the 100 PSI game, they need to install tire monitoring and balancing plumbing to the wheels and tires to keep them at 100 PSI 24/7 off the air compressor and with a gauge or three in the cab so I can pay attention to it.