Tires: Tire Wear, bridgestone dueler ht, goodyear assurance comfortred

Question
I have two issues I need addressed, but are related. My wife drive a rural mail route, and we had problems with our tires on our 2007 Saturn view. The Bridgestone Dueler HT's looked like they had been chewed on with chunks starting to disappear after 6,000 miles by 14,000 we had them replaced with another set only to have them do the same thing. We switched to Goodyear Assurance Comfortred which were smoother better tires all around accept they to started looking chewed up really fast also needing to be replaced in about 29,000 miles.
The second issue with both was the constant punctures of both. There was no better tires ply wise in the manufacturers specified tire size so we went with a different size ultimately with a better ply rating for the puncturing. We traded her mail vehicle for a new one, a 2010 Chevy Colorado. It too is starting to show the chewed up look in the tire tread after 4800 miles is the rubber compound better for the gravel roads in an on/off road tire? Can we go with a tire size other than the 215/70/16 that Chevrolet says must be used on this truck? What are your suggestions on these matters?

Answer
Sean,

OE tires - that is the tires that come on the vehicle from the assembly plant, are designed with rolling resistance in mind.  As such, certain properties are sacrificed - and among them are wear, traction, and what you are interesting in - chip/chunk resistance.

It is pretty safe to say that ANY replacement market tire will do better - and clearly an all terrain or an on/off road would do better still.  Just be aware that there are always compromises when selecting tires, so don't give away something you find desirable just to improve the chip/chunk resistance.

I looked on Tire Rack and I see they have several tires that fit the description in your size, so I don't think you need to consider a different size.