what's a good truck tire?

poorboy · Oct 13, 2001

what\'s a good truck tire?

I have just spent the day looking for a good tire to put on my little f-150. Since I drive 2 miles a day to work round trip to work and approx. another 2 around the farm I was looking for a pretty aggressive treaded 16 inch tire. Also since I abuse the thing because I won't go ahead and buy a 3/4 ton until I get things lined out on the farm I'm looking for a 8 or 10 ply tire. The good-year ats looked close to what I needed but I'm not sure because all of the places I stopped at usually just had suv type road tires. Question #1, what tires are out there along this line that go well especially in mud? Question #2, how much larger can I safely go on a 97 f150 since the 235-75r16's look so little? Thanks guys, I'm sorry that I seem to only ask of this board and can seem to never add. Seems like this year has been so busy that I do well to read all the posts.

JATO_RaT · Oct 13, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

The best bulletproof, best wearing tire is the XPS series from Michelin. Either the XPS traction or XPS Rib. The standard truck size is 235 85 16. I have some huge tires on my truck which came with it. I would trade straight across for some much smaller but much tougher, much longer wearing, better traction and much, much quieter XPS Tractions from Michelin. About $ 160.00/tire. Really made for 3/4 ton and up as the 80 PSI pressure makes a 1/2 ton ride hard. Rat...

bgott · Oct 13, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Call your Ford dealer and see what tire sizes they can reprogram your truck's computer to work with.

woodmills1 · Oct 14, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

for the past 8 tears i have been using an independent brand full snow tires on my one ton chevy dump. very good snow and mud traction with fair wear life. these are campaigner ct lt235/85r16. i buy them from a local independent tire shop at $130 each. however if you want quiet don't get full snow tires.

JJT · Oct 14, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

In My opinion BF Goodrich makes the best light truck tire you can get. 3 ply side walls, priced right and they get decent wear. I've use AT, (all terrain) for years, they also make a more aggressive MT, (mud) tread. I tried half a dozen different manufacturer before I found the BF's. I will not use anything else.

treeboone · Oct 14, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Tirerack.com is to tires what tractorbynet is to tractors

Bird · Oct 14, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Poorboy, I agree with JJT. Unless you're shopping strictly for lowest price, I'd go with the B.F. Goodrich All Terrain TA. However, since you mention 8 and 10 ply tires, one point to consider is what air pressure you intend to run in your tires. Unlike tractor tires, most car and light truck tires need to be run at no less than 80% of the air pressure listed on the sidewall to avoid tread separation or bubbles. And you need to consider what air pressure the wheel was designed for.

Many years ago, I had an uncle with a half ton pickup who put 8 ply tires on it, and overload springs, and was only running 50 psi with a slide-in camper on the truck. One of his rims split. The tires were made for that kind of pressure, but the wheels weren't. And in 1990, I decided to beef up the suspension under my 5th wheel travel trailer and found that moving up from 4 ply to 6 ply tires required new wheels also because the OEM wheels were not rated for more than 35 psi.

In '91, I spent 4 months working in my brother's tire dealership in Anchorage. He was primarily a Goodrich dealer (no longer in the business, so I have no interest in selling Goodrich tires), but since there was not then a Uniroyal dealer in town, we also handled any warranty service for Uniroyals. During that 4 months, we never had a warranty request on a Goodrich tire, and the only warranty question we ever had on the Uniroyals (4 or 5 of them if I remember right) was on 3/4 ton GM pickups and suburbans with tires rated for 75 psi and being run at 45 in accordance with the vehicles owner's manuals; i.e., too low an air pressure causes too much flexing.

Sorry if this is a little long.

Bird

jdkid · Oct 14, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Hi ya
We have the BF MT's on one of our 4x4's and i have to say we will not buy them again poor grip in the mud and to soft for rocks ,the best tire we have had are cooper discovereys(?)STT not to bad for road sound but good grip in the wet and good milage out of them could be worth a look ..they do have a web site but i have not got address at hand
catch ya
JD Kid

woodmills1 · Oct 14, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

good point with the wheels. those on my dump truck are stamped with a load rating. if i remember they are just under 2,500 each

JATO_RaT · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

The rating for 235/85 16's should be closer to 3042lbs/tire, single, at 80 PSI. The Michelin site will list the XPS tire under the Semi truck tire, not the light truck tire. Expect at least 80,000 miles out of the XPS traction providing you rotate the tires. I only wish they had a set in 16.5 size. I may have to settle for some BF Goodrich or Goodyears when my current tires wear out because of my rims. Rat...

CVHoss · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Poorboy,
For mud traction, I'll go with JD Kid on the Cooper STTs. We used to do quite a bit of off-roading in a Jeep. Went through some mud holes where the tires were throwing a 20' rooster tail, but never had to use my winch to get out.

For wear, I don't think you can beat a General tire, though their tread designs leave a little to be desired for pure mud use. I've only owned two sets of General tires, and that's only because I've never worn them out. I ordered them on my new one ton truck and with a shade over 13,000 miles, they look like the day the truck was delivered. Put about 30,000 miles on the set on a previous truck and when I traded the truck, they still had more tread left than some other brands of new tires.

Hoss

RichZ · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Hoss, how are the Cooper STT's in the snow?

Rich

CVHoss · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Rich,
We don't normally get a lot of snow around here, but among the 2"-6" snows we usually get, we did have one very heavy 12"+ snowfall. The tires on the Jeep did very well at getting it going and didn't stop too bad. I used the Jeep to go gather up some employees to take to work. Never got stuck in the snow. I will add though, that I had modified the Jeep extensively to include a 4" spring lift, posi-trak in the rear and 4.11 gears. The tires themselves were 33 X 12.50, so they had plenty of tread width to bite with. If you ever need any info on how to turn a $10,000.00 Jeep into a $22,000.00 Jeep which you can then sell for $9,700.00, drop me a line, cause I'm your guy./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

turn a $10,000.00 Jeep into a $22,000.00 Jeep which you can then sell for $9,700

I love it, Hoss./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif One afternoon while I was working in my brother's tire dealership, a teenager came in and was asking questions about lift kits, wide alloy wheels, and those big tires. My brother told him we could do the things he wanted done to his pretty little Chev. pickup for $2,200.00 and the kid left to go talk to his dad. Never expected to see him again, but sure enough in a few minutes he came back with his dad and they paid for the job (high school graduation present). I said it seemed a darned shame to have to charge someone $2,200 to ruin his perfectly good pickup, but he was happy with it./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

patrickg · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

My suggestion, reread Bird's post. Then consider something that starts numerous "discussions".

The tire pressure listed on the sidewall of the tire is N O T so much a recommendation as a warning and I S N O T right for most folks most of the time. It I S the highest cold inflation pressure that the tire is rated for B U T should usually be used only when the load on the tire is approaching the maximum rated load. You need to match the inflation pressure to the load. Pickups are quite light in the rear with no load and typically get overinflated. The saving grace of this situation is that the combination of light loading and wrong tire pressure doesn't eat the tires nearly as bad as heavy load and too little pressure. Anyway load range E tires with aggressive tread are available from various manufacturers that are rated for way more than the axles on your truck.

I like your thinking. Low miles, so might as well go for the gusto as they won't be driven enough to wear out very fast. I'm running Michelin X steel belted 19.5 inch 745's with mud and snow tread as a compromise for highway driving and moderate 4X4 performance. I get off road less than 5% of the miles and the bloody things sing on the highway but, oh well. Alcoa rims are rated for 3000Kg (over 6000lbs each) tires are rated about 4750 lbs each with dual rear wheels). All this on a Dodge 1 ton because I don't like to worry about my tires at full interstate speeds hauling a service body and a large cab over slide in camper while towing.

There is a 16 inch "G" rated tire (S T R O N G) B U T it is only waranted by the manufacturer for use on one specific rim and that is a trailer rim (for heavy RV applications like monster 5th wheels etc.)

Your rims would fold before the tire failed. Unfortunately I never saw it in other than highway tread. I was interested in it until someone pointed out items such as Bird mentioned like rim failure. I couldn't find strong enough rims so I went to 19.5 Alcoas. My tire and wheel upgrade just made sure that the weak link in the chain wasn't a tire or rim or springs or shocks. I didn't do anything to improve the gross axle rating.

If you persist in overloading your truck as I have done to 6-7 Fords and one of my two Dodges, at least shorten your suspension maintenance/inspection schedule to catch impending bearing failure and such to head off catastrophic failure if able.

Gool luck,

Patrick

RobertN · Oct 15, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

On my last truck, I had very good luck with Big-O Big Foot XT's. They were more agressive than AT's, but a little milder than MT's.

I found they handled the weight of my 11' camper very well. I also put 2 yards of road base on the 3/4 ton a couple times(short trips). I have used BFG's before, but found the Big-O tire had a stronger, stiffer sidewall. I did not have as much flex while cornering.

In my case, I had 35x12.50-16.5's on an 8.5" rim. I believe they were an "E" rated tire. By manufacturer rating, they had much better weight rating than a comparable BFG.

I will probably buy that tire, albeit a smaller diameter, when the tires wear on my new truck.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

JATO_RaT · Oct 16, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Robert, I have had those tires on my 3/4 ton truck. I think Big O offers some of the greatest service around. Their tires are so so. They are manufactured for Big O by various manufacturers. Those ones I believe are made by Kelly Springfield. Not the longest wearing, not anywhere near as tough as the XPS tire from Michelin. The tire weight on the XPS is probably 30% heavier then any other comparable size tire, even compared to the Michelin X series. Part of this may be due to the extra steel not only in the tread, but also in the sidewall. I have had one flat with the XPS Traction, got it at the dump when a pair of barbers scissors found a way to get through all that steel. Check them out when its time, you can get a highway tread or a traction tread, both of which are either extremely quiet or pretty quiet running respectively. My current tires are 16.5" which is a bummer since the selection dwindles drastically. They are far to big for me and actually have a lower weight rating. My next tires will not be this big. Rat...

Bird · Oct 16, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

My current tires are 16.5" which is a bummer since the selection dwindles drastically.

Rat, I've got the same problem with my old F250. 16" wheels sure would give us more choices.

Bird

StanInCalif · Oct 17, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Rat, Bird-
The Cooper Discoverer is still readily available in 9.50R 16.5 load range "D". By all accounts, it is a mightyfine tire from a company that stands behind their product.
My last three sets of tires have been from Cooper, and I'm very happy.

stan

poorboy · Oct 23, 2001

Re: what\'s a good truck tire?

Well I guess I waited too long to replace the tires on the little purple truck. I took the wife out last friday night for anniversery dinner. Traveled another 50 for chainsaw replacement sat., which is a whole post of its own, and drove to work monday. I got to looking at my tires during a break. The tread was seperating in the middle of the tire for about a foot and the wire was showing and a ridge was forming. Scared the you know what out of me. I guess they had just dry rotted and or too much air pressure. Anyhow, after changing the tire that night, dad decided to use it to pick up a load of corn. I told him of all the reccomendations I read here and he can back with a set of BFG all terrain AT's in a 265 8-ply. He said he had got them for the same price as the 245. I'm a little concerned about the tire pressure of 45 psi. and the size, but they sure look good and I can't refuse the price or the thought. I'll sure keep a close eye on things. Thanks guys for all the info.. Does everyone appreciate the value of this board?