I have just had fitted today a set of Bridgestone D697 265/60/18. I wanted an LT construction without going larger. The initial impressions are good, they appear to be almost as quiet as the Wranglers and handle fine. As they wear I will get a better idea but so far so good :).
I have had bad experiences with both the standard Goodyears and with GG AT2. The sidewalls of either of those are so soft that I consider it dangerous just to drive on a dirt road. Just on Saturday the last straw was a rock punching right through the middle of the tread of one of the Goodyears leaving me with only three of them, it was a sharp rock but I have never seen anything through the tread and belts quite like this before, all my problems in the past have been slashed sidewalls. I think I have now managed to destroy 5 GGs and two Wranglers in ways that they can't be repaired. Certainly would have to be crazy to drop pressures as it exposes the sidewall even more. Conversely I have had good experience with Cooper STT in the 245/70/17 on Dynamic steel rims. Have done a fair bit of serious offroad with them and also a trip to Tassie and back towing the camper and they have only recently got too noisy for touring and that could partly be a matter of alignment and balancing. No more damage to tread or blocks than I would expect given what I have done with them.
This is the rock that went right through the Wrangler and the hole it made.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/11/1068.jpg
Cheers,
TimJ.
