A few weeks ago I put on a set of Firestone Destination A/T's size 245/70/16. And while I only have about 500 miles on them I thought I give my review of them. I replaced the stock 235/70/16 Wrangler SRA's which I thought sucked and now I know they sucked. The stocks had about 38,000 miles on them and I only drove the stocks from 29,000 to 38,000 miles since I bought the jeep used.
The tires are great, stopping seems to be faster - the ABS is kicking in a lot less often. Corning seems to hold a little better - there is a LOT less tire squealing when getting on or off a highway exit/entrance ramp. The Jeep feels a bit more stable in the turns although to be honest, I'm sure a bit of that has to do with the extra width. The biggest difference I noticed (on the road) is road vibration is dramatically reduced over areas like expansion joints and those vibration ribs before tolls. Maybe it's the compound, maybe it's the extra height? I run the tires at 35 psi so they should be harder than the stocks which I ran at 33 psi. but over all they feel slightly plush.
Rain - I haven't driven in a down poor yet so I can't speak about their hydroplaning resistance. However, on wet roads where I would need to make left hand turns across traffic the inside wheel would spin with half throttle causing you to loose power of control or both. With the new tires, I can make those left turns without any problems under 1/2 throttle from a stop. If I give enough gas obviously they will spin (when wet) but now there is control where as in the past it was much more unpredictable. I also use 4-full time less when the roads are wet.
Off Road - Man what a difference!
Sand - In sand they are great, small tire spin in the past no longer happens. again, I think the extra width does help a bit here as well but the tread pattern seems very good for the sand and helps grab some traction
Mud - In about 3" of mud I could really feel the tires bite into the bottom of the mud, I let the engine speed take me through with no problems at all (again only 3".) With the old stock tires the engine speed was enough to have the tires slip very slowly and giving it gas made them spin as though they were on ice. Some traction but you had to work to find it. At very slow speeds the tires won't clean themselves but they did seem to find a new bite every time. Give it some more gas and the wheel spin will clean the tires and they are always looking for another bite.
Mud holes - I never really did them with the stock tires but I found a few in the Pine Barrens this weekend and I'm certain I made it through a few sections that I would not have made in stock tires.
Dirt/gravel/sand mix - great! I honestly had a hard time trying to get the wheels to spin in 2wd when trying to drift around a turn. With the the stock tires while going about 20 I only had to give about 1/2 more gas the car would downshift and let the drifting begin, no problem. Now doing the same thing giving 1/2 more gas it would downshift and grab, no wheel spin at all. 3/4 gas and only slight spin before they hooked up fast. So while it's lot more traction I'm going to need to re-learn how to drift on the trails or risk hitting a tree. At low speeds the worked great too. I pulled beepbeepjeepjeep out of a mud hole this weekend and I could feel the wheels biting on a reverse pull in 4L. Up and down hills can now be done in 4L at controlled speeds with lots of traction rather than 4H with prior momentum and lots of wheel spin. In the stocks 4L still worked well but the wheels would spin well before they now break traction with the Destinations.
Rocks - not yet
Snow - not yet
MPG - not enough fill ups for a true comparison. But it seems like I may take a small hit in the city and almost none on the highway. I think it has more to do with the extra weight (about 3lbs at each wheel)
Sound - I really haven't been able to tell any difference over the stock.
deflated - not yet (running lower psi)
Rubbing - After about 500 miles or road driving and some basic sand/beach driving and dirt roads I haven't have ANY issues from the rear or from the front with the wheels straight or at full left or right locked turns
HOWEVER, last weekend while wheeling in the pine barrens and going up a hill with large sand ruts was the first time I had all 4 tires stuffed at various times from axle flex/articulation and they did rub a little bit at the top.
The rear's rubbed the very center on the outside edge the wheel well. It got the very end of the outside fender flare where it turns inside the wheel-well as well as the plastic wheel well just inside of that overlap in the same spot.
I could not visibly see where the front tires rubbed but it was probably in the same spot. I had the wheels centered, and maybe turned about 10 - 15 degrees in either direction when they were rubbing.
The rubbing was not enough to have any effect on engine speed it just made a noise that I've never heard before in my jeep but I don't think it's a big deal. So if you are thinking of going up a size like I did you won't have any issues on the road, you probably won't have any issues on most dirt trails to your fishing holes or camping trips and you'll have very little rubbing when you're really off the road. The only times you'll ever get to full flex you'll be going pretty slow (or should be) anyway. On a positive side I can now say "rubbin's racing!" (even though I'm only going 5 MPH it's still fun to say!)
Overall I'm very happy with them and would highly recommend them.
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