I put a few sets of tires on my diesel Fords. My latest truck, a 1997 Ford PSD has 260k miles of hard work on her.
My suggestion is go with E Load Range Coopers. They are a safe, solid and reliable tire with very good traction on/off road and in snow.
My second choice would be BFG ATko, if they still make them. Excellent side wall stiffness. Decent traction, except in heavy mud, and will last 35-40k miles if you rotate religiously.
ABSOLUTELY AVOID: Firestone and Goodyear NO EXCEPTIONS!
The truck came from the factory with Firestones (as did the 1990 Ford before). I asked the dealer to take them off before delivery, but we couldn't come to terms on replacement tire cost and the wife wouldn't allow me to buy new tires when the truck had four brand new tires on it. Well within the first 12k miles three out of the four suffered sidewall blow-outs while the truck was on-road and unloaded (thank God). The strangest part is they were all rear tires at the time. She saw the light in a hurry! I just bought used tires to fill the hole and used the spare in the rotation.
I tried Goodyears (ATSC's I believe) once when the tire dealer sold them to me for $90/each the day my inspection was running out. Thought I got a good deal. Boy I was wrong. Absolutely zero sidewall stability. Felt like I was driving on marshmellows. They lasted only 26k miles and they were replaced by Coopers and I have never run another tire since. That was six years and 150k miles ago. I will never look back.
