As predator hunters, our trucks are a vital part of our hunting equipment. And they take a beating during normal use. Sometimes they need some new toys too.
Background
My rig is a 2004 Ford F-250, 4 door, 4X4, short bed with a 6.0L Powerstroke diesel engine, and the Torqueshift automatic O/D transmission. She has 179,000 miles on it, many offroad in RUGGED terrain,
On my most recent trips into the mountains and hills of AZ hunting for foxes and bobcats, my tires had really begun to break down. I was running a set of Big O Bigfoot A/T's, and they had begun to peel around the edges of the tread. The loose shale and chunky rocks of the hills, were cutting them up. I continued to run them, since only the body plies were showing, but Thursday a glint of steel caught my attention, and I found that the steel belts were showing through in several places that the rocks had cut the rubber away. It was time for tires.
Research
Knowing that my tires wouldn't last long, I went online to do some research into a good, all purpose tire. I know that I could spend the money and buy an top quality off road tire, but they do not tend to stand up to highway miles as well, and I have a trailer that I tow that I am not giving up. I also did not want to go with a road tire, since the trails I am going onto would eat them up on the first run. Finally as a predator hunter, I am also economically minded. I want a tire that is going to give a quality for the money.
I went online. The most user friendly website that I found was Discount Tire. It was easy to navigate, you can get an instant quote, see available inventory, and even set a quote/appointment at the local shop. I also tried the Bridgestone/Firestone site, not as easy to navigate, and you can only get a quote for 4 tires. The Yokohama site was easy to navigate, but no price info. So I knew that I was going to buy the tires at Discount, so then it came down to the tire.
I have Bridgestone Dueller Revo 2 in the rear, so I know that those tires hold up, but at $595 or a pair, I looked at some other options. I was looking for a tire that could tow the trailer, but had enough rubber on the tread edge to resist rock chunking and tearing. I decided to go with the Cooper Discoverer ATP. Here are some pics with the LT265/75R16 Cooper Discoverer ATP's mounted up. Discount was great, they had the truck in and out in about an hour, just enough time to get a bite to eat. They look good.
I will report back the results as I put them through their paces.
I also started to see wear on my seats. Doing up to 20 stands a day seems to be taking a toll on my seats. So last night I used a Cabelas gift card that I got for Christmas to buy some seat covers. I compared all of the available seat covers, and I decided to go with the Cabelas Rugged Trail universal fit seat covers. They are made from nylon pack material, where as some of the others I looked at were made from neoprene. My thoughs here are that the nylon will wear better. I went with the grey colors, to match my interior. They had the black/grey, tan/black, and camo/black. The grey/black that I bought cost $25 each.
I went out this morning to install them. The design is very intuitive, and I had them installed in under 45 minutes. They slid right over the seats, and clipped in place with some well thought out straps. They seem to be pretty tough, and they look pretty good. In terms of installation, they were a 1 coffee cup rating out of 5. I had them installed on my first cup of coffee. They also did not require ANY use of foul language nor the throwing of any handy items.
It was perfect, we had some setbacks. I had one of the plastic clips break, but that didn't present an issue. The cut away they put in for access to the seat controls doesn't exactly line up, but I can live with that. For $50 I think that they are worth it.
Here are the pics
The backs have pockets that look like they would be useful or a predator hunter
So if you are in the market for seat covers or tires, give these two products a look.
Background
My rig is a 2004 Ford F-250, 4 door, 4X4, short bed with a 6.0L Powerstroke diesel engine, and the Torqueshift automatic O/D transmission. She has 179,000 miles on it, many offroad in RUGGED terrain,
On my most recent trips into the mountains and hills of AZ hunting for foxes and bobcats, my tires had really begun to break down. I was running a set of Big O Bigfoot A/T's, and they had begun to peel around the edges of the tread. The loose shale and chunky rocks of the hills, were cutting them up. I continued to run them, since only the body plies were showing, but Thursday a glint of steel caught my attention, and I found that the steel belts were showing through in several places that the rocks had cut the rubber away. It was time for tires.
Research
Knowing that my tires wouldn't last long, I went online to do some research into a good, all purpose tire. I know that I could spend the money and buy an top quality off road tire, but they do not tend to stand up to highway miles as well, and I have a trailer that I tow that I am not giving up. I also did not want to go with a road tire, since the trails I am going onto would eat them up on the first run. Finally as a predator hunter, I am also economically minded. I want a tire that is going to give a quality for the money.
I went online. The most user friendly website that I found was Discount Tire. It was easy to navigate, you can get an instant quote, see available inventory, and even set a quote/appointment at the local shop. I also tried the Bridgestone/Firestone site, not as easy to navigate, and you can only get a quote for 4 tires. The Yokohama site was easy to navigate, but no price info. So I knew that I was going to buy the tires at Discount, so then it came down to the tire.
I have Bridgestone Dueller Revo 2 in the rear, so I know that those tires hold up, but at $595 or a pair, I looked at some other options. I was looking for a tire that could tow the trailer, but had enough rubber on the tread edge to resist rock chunking and tearing. I decided to go with the Cooper Discoverer ATP. Here are some pics with the LT265/75R16 Cooper Discoverer ATP's mounted up. Discount was great, they had the truck in and out in about an hour, just enough time to get a bite to eat. They look good.
I will report back the results as I put them through their paces.
I also started to see wear on my seats. Doing up to 20 stands a day seems to be taking a toll on my seats. So last night I used a Cabelas gift card that I got for Christmas to buy some seat covers. I compared all of the available seat covers, and I decided to go with the Cabelas Rugged Trail universal fit seat covers. They are made from nylon pack material, where as some of the others I looked at were made from neoprene. My thoughs here are that the nylon will wear better. I went with the grey colors, to match my interior. They had the black/grey, tan/black, and camo/black. The grey/black that I bought cost $25 each.
I went out this morning to install them. The design is very intuitive, and I had them installed in under 45 minutes. They slid right over the seats, and clipped in place with some well thought out straps. They seem to be pretty tough, and they look pretty good. In terms of installation, they were a 1 coffee cup rating out of 5. I had them installed on my first cup of coffee. They also did not require ANY use of foul language nor the throwing of any handy items.
It was perfect, we had some setbacks. I had one of the plastic clips break, but that didn't present an issue. The cut away they put in for access to the seat controls doesn't exactly line up, but I can live with that. For $50 I think that they are worth it.
Here are the pics
The backs have pockets that look like they would be useful or a predator hunter
So if you are in the market for seat covers or tires, give these two products a look.
