Tires Vredestein or Maxxis

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 run 2.35s and it certainly doesn't fit super well, however it's not that big of a deal. but if i'm going to have it on the rack for a longer drive I just air down the tire. i run the nevegal dh tire or the maxxis holy roller so the sidewall knobs interfere, I just crank down the straps.

If the DHFs are hard to mount on a given rim, particularly Stans, wait till you try a Maxxis Ikon. One of the hardest tyres I've ever installed.