Tires Maxxis or OEM FORD

Your trails sound pretty similar to what I ride. I have a set of Ardent 2.25s that I really like.

I love my aggressor on the rear, rolls and grips well.

I also have a minion DHF for downhill and "rowdy" trail or wet/sandy conditions. It rolls a lot better than I expected for such tall knobs

just mounted a few pairs of maxxis tires, dhf, hr2, a dhr, and an ardent exo casings, all done by hand, found them quite easy to mount beads poped right on.

Me and my girlfriend have both been running tubeless Maxxis folder tires on Easton Rims for five seasons and I never had any problems mounting them.

I've mounted and remounted a handful of EXO casing maxxis tires recently with almost no effort at all. Typically I don't even use a lever to mount them, only remove. They all seated on the first try with a hand pump too.

I've had to mount two different DHFs in the past couple of weeks and both times struggled to even get the tire onto the rim. Super tight to lever over the edge and had to be meticulously centered as low as possible on the opposite side just to have a chance. It seemed to take a lot more pressure than usual to get the bead to seat. I like the performance so far, and it is a go-to tire around here

They're fantastic for DE's / non-competition for all the reasons you list. I 100% recommend for HPDE for both performance and bang-for-buck. Pros: -They last a very long time compared to every other R compound tire out there (I've run Toyo, Hankook, Hoosier, etc etc.) -Cheap compared to other 100 treadwear tires. They ship straight from Maxxis and come with a T-shirt. -Not a lot of fade, both during a session and over multiple heat cycles -They give you a lot of feedback and tend not to snap loose

I liked the handling but the OEM tires were trash (as they often are). Luckily I ran over some road debris that caused to get a new set of tires anyway. Once that was sorted out it is pretty entertaining.

The last vehicle I had it happen to was on my 2002 Ford Sport Trac. The tires on my Sport Trac only had 24,000 miles on them when they began cupping. I could not stand the noise from these tires, which I eventually put on the rear so that at least I couldn't feel it in my steering.