Goodyear Fierce Attitude M/T vs Goodyear DuraTrac

Goodyear Fierce Attitude M/T vs Goodyear DuraTrac: Though Goodyear Fierce Attitude M/T is an all-terrain tire, but has all the features of a perfect mud tire. Goodyear Duratrac also being an all-terrain tire can’t beat its opponent off the road due to its comparatively lower void ratio.

Attitude provides a pleasant and comfier ride on mud and snowy terrains, while Duratrac moves confidently on road.

Side By Side Comparison

Goodyear Fierce Attitude has a quite aggressive and open tread design.

The shoulder lugs are placed in pairs, the pair has a huge space in between the two blocks and they are connected with each other at the front.

All the central tread blocks are of similar shape and are placed in groups of four. Each block has a deep cut on it.

The grooves of this tire are very wide and the lateral grooves in the central part are a little narrower than the other grooves.

One long, wide and deep sipe is engraved on all the shoulder lugs and the stone ejectors are also placed in the shoulders.

Coming to Goodyear’s other tire. The design of Goodyear Duratrac is relatively compact. The shoulder blocks are placed in the similar style as of its counterpart (BTW, Its shoulder blocks reminds me of Falken Wildpeak AT3w).

Both shoulder blocks in the pair have a wide space between them and are joined from the ends.

The central blocks are placed in pairs separated by narrower grooves.

The lateral grooves are narrower than the spaces between the shoulder lugs.

Several sipes are placed all over the tread and several holes are available to install studs for ice traction.

And no stone ejectors can be seen in this tire.

On Road Dry Traction

The dry grip of Duratrac is better than its counterpart due to increased contact patch. As this tire has much bigger footprint so it provides better grip on dry roads, the handling of this tire is also better than the other tire as its shoulders have lesser spaces in between them and the contact patch from shoulders is increased resulting in better handling experience.

Attitude due to its massive groove width has very low contact patch so its dry is not as good as its competitor. The handling of this tire on dry roads is also not good due to low contact patch of shoulders with the surface. So overall ranking of this tire in terms of dry on road traction is much lower than the other tire.

	Attitude	Duratrac
Dry on-road Grip	Low-Moderate	High
Dry on-road handling	Low-Moderate	Moderate

On Road Wet Traction

The wet traction of Duratrac is also way better than its counterpart. This is due to two reasons, first of all the increased contact patch and secondly frequent number of sipes. The increased contact patch improves the grip while sipes help to wipe away the water while helping the tire to move forward confidently. But hydroplaning resistance of this tire is not as good as its opponent as it has lower void ratio so it provides lesser space for the water to evacuate.

Fierce Attitude does not provide a good grip or handling experience on wet roads due to the absence of sipes. That’s why it is recommended not to drive at high speed on wet roads while using this tire. Though it isn’t able to impress on wet roads but when we talk about highly flooded roads then this tire comes into play. As due to its higher void ratio it provides much more space for the evacuation of water and does not allow water to come in between the tread and the surface, decreasing the chances of accidents.

	Attitude	Duratrac
Wet on-road Grip	Moderate-high	High
Wet on-road handling	Moderate-high	High
Aquaplaning resistance	High	Moderate-high

Off-Road Traction Comparison

	Attitude	Duratrac
Mud traction	High	Moderate-High
Snow traction	High	Moderate-High
Ice traction	Low-Moderate	High
Rock traction	High	Moderate-High

Mud Terrain

Attitude is the clear winner in this section. We won’t be wrong if we say that dealing with mud isn’t a problem for this tire, the credit goes to its extremely wide grooves. These grooves grab more amount of mud particles at once and as the tire accelerates, they are thrown backwards and the tire does not face any problem. While cornering the wide spaces in the bulky shoulders help to evacuate mud efficiently and improving the steering response.

Duratrac is also a good tire to be used on mud but due to its relatively lower void ratio it isn’t able to beat its counterpart. This is because it has lesser space for the evacuation of mud and so it won’t be able to provide as good grip as Attitude, in the heavy mud. Its shoulders are having wide spaces but these spaces are not as wide as the other tire so they won’t be able provide the same steer response and smooth ride as the Attitude can.

Snow Terrain

The soft snow also requires wider grooves as if the grooves aren’t wide enough to throw the snow particles backwards, the tire may get stuffed with snow, resultantly losing the grip. Attitude again excels in soft snow as well due to its massive voids that throw the snow particles backward and provide a smooth ride. On ice this tire isn’t able to provide efficient grip and handling due to its lower contact patch and absence of sipes. The tire won’t be able to grip as its counterpart and it can slip as well.

Goodyear Duratrac has more biting edges that help to move on snow. But as its grooves aren’t wide or deep enough as of its competitor so it won’t be able to win in soft snow as it has less evacuation ability and it can throw less snow particles at a time. But on ice it beats Defender, all thanks to its increased contact patch plus frequent sipes that help to wipe the water away, improving the grip of the tire. This tire also consists small holes to install studs while moving on ice to improve the grip and avoid slipping.

Rock Terrain

Goodyear Fierce Attitude wins again in this section due to its higher void ratio. The wide grooves increase the biting ability of a tire on rocks and help it to crawl. This tire can easily crawl on rocks and as it has massive grooves so it also does not need any stone ejectors as stone/pebble particles can’t get stuck in wide grooves but still it consists small ejectors in between its shoulder lugs.

Duratrac can’t beat its opponent on rocks but still is able to provide decent traction on rocks. All thanks to its wide shoulder grooves that provide biting ability and improve the handling experience. This tire moves well on pebbles due to its closed central blocks that grip the pebbles well.

Comfort

The on-road comfort of Duratrac is much higher than its rival this is due to its increased contact patch and less void ratio. Due to less void ratio, it provides less space for the air particles to move back and forth in the grooves, the air particles hit the groove walls, creating sound. So this tire produces less sound while moving at high speed. Attitude produces louder noise due to higher void ratio that allows more air to be trapped inside it.

There is no doubt that off road comfort of Attitude is much better than its counterpart. This is again due to its higher void ratio that provides the feel of a lesser inflated tire and as the vehicles moves on rough surfaces it takes the effect of jerks, providing a much comfier ride. Duratrac also provides comfortable ride but isn’t able to beat its companion due to lower void ratio.

Quick Summary

Both are all season and all terrain tires.

Goodyear Fierce Attitude:

• Has higher void ratio.
• Provides higher hydroplaning resistance.
• Provides higher traction on mud and snow.
• Crawls well on rocks.
• Has higher off-road comfort.

Goodyear Duratrac:

• Has higher contact patch.
• Provides better dry traction.
• Provides good performance on mud.
• Provides good grip on ice.
• Produces lower noise while moving on highways.