Truck Tires

[syncmaster]

just got back from the back country (and yes i slow down on gravel roads for other cars), seems i ran over a sharp rock and gave my tire a nice 1 inch gash. Luckily i found a tire shop in Pincher Creek - the guy was supposed to close at 6 but was doing paper work when i got there with my flat.

 

anyway he recommended i get Light Truck Tires at least 6 ply or higher if i do those roads regularly.

 

Not being much of a tire expert, i was wondering if anyone had recommendations as to is it really needed or are a replacement 'P' rated tire ok

 

do the tires on gravel roads make that much difference?

 

thanks

[slingshotz]

just got back from the back country (and yes i slow down on gravel roads for other cars), seems i ran over a sharp rock and gave my tire a nice 1 inch gash. Luckily i found a tire shop in Pincher Creek - the guy was supposed to close at 6 but was doing paper work when i got there with my flat.

 

anyway he recommended i get Light Truck Tires at least 6 ply or higher if i do those roads regularly.

 

Not being much of a tire expert, i was wondering if anyone had recommendations as to is it really needed or are a replacement 'P' rated tire ok

 

do the tires on gravel roads make that much difference?

 

thanks

 

Was in the same boat as you last year, we do lots of driving on gravel roads and gashed my oem stock AT tires. Read hundreds of reviews before I settled on Bridgestone Dueler Revos. They are a more aggressive AT tire that is not 10 ply. If you do not have a full size truck, do not go with 10 ply tires as they will wreck your suspension as the tires are too stiff. If you do not need decent offroad abilities and the majority of your driving is not offroad then the Pirelli Scorpions would be my second pick.

[Tungsten]

What kinda truck has P rated tires on it?

10 ply or load range E tires can go to 80lbs of pressure for carrying heavy loads.

When i was a seismic salesman i drove 40K a yr mostly on gravel and i had 10 ply on a Ram 1500 never had a problem.

[dube]

I put goodyear wranglers (5 ply with silent armour yeah right!) on my truck and had a nice thumb sized rock come through last time out. Picked up a screw on another and ended up ruining that tire by my own lazy stupidity.On the other hand goodyear has a decent prorated warranty on every tire they sell.Both tires within a month and a half and came to 75 bucks each installed. Considering they are 250$ tires I can afford to ruin at least one more before the season is up

 

I think tread design has every thing to do with it. These tires really seem to pick rocks up and once one gets lodged in the tread it's only a matter of time. They were were recommended to me by someone who is on gravel every day so it's disappointing to say the least. Having said that I'm happy with them otherwise. Decent on mud slicked roads and surprisingly good in snow. Quiet on the highway and don't hurt my mileage too much.

 

I think if you're doing off highway driving ruined tires is just a fact of life. I know lots of guys in the patch pack 2 spares because getting back to back flats is not uncommon on some roads.

 

Good topic, interested to hear what everyone has to say.

[CDone]

I run Toyo M55's on my F150. Most of the logging crew trucks on Van Is. run these tires, tough as nails, not as noisy as some 10ply's. Price wise they were decent, not sure what a set would run today, but 4 years ago they set me back about $700 (including tax) on the Island. Will definitely get another set, although I will probably go back to stock size instead of the 275's

 

Colin

[agbff]

Just picked up BFGs Km2's, they are the ten ply model for my tacoma, and i dig em. little noisy at 110km+ though...

 

Hey slingshotz, how do you figure a ten ply tire would ruin your suspension? I could see if the tire was much to large or causing rubbing, but i don't think the stiffness of the tread would have anything to do with it. Not picking a battle, just curious

[syncmaster]

well seems i better get some better tires - oh well its only money - now to see what shops are open on a Sunday - refuse to shop Crappy tire, those clowns never seem to get anything right.

 

thanks guys (gals)

[jimbow]

nokian vatiiva are another one to look at - available only at Kal Tire and not cheap but i've used them for a few years now

 

as a consumer reports subscriber i can tell you pirelli scorpion atr were the top rated at tires followed by yokohama geolander a/t-s and bridgestone dueller a/t revo. nokians weren't included in the testing.

[syncmaster]

nokian vatiiva are another one to look at - available only at Kal Tire and not cheap but i've used them for a few years now

 

as a consumer reports subscriber i can tell you pirelli scorpion atr were the top rated at tires followed by yokohama geolander a/t-s and bridgestone dueller a/t revo. nokians weren't included in the testing.

 

 

i am expecting tires will run between $900 - $1100

 

almost as much as a new rod

[Simpson]

nokian vatiiva are another one to look at - available only at Kal Tire and not cheap but i've used them for a few years now

 

 

Have had the Nokian for 55K km now on my frontier., not an issue... they ride nice and handle all conditions well. They come with a 80K warranty. I myself have been very please with the service as Kaltire 42ave.

 

Blew two of the factory BF Goodrich (long trail my ass) the first 2 months I had the truck and ta boot through the side wall so could not be repaired. They were completly worn by 45k KM.

[slingshotz]

Just picked up BFGs Km2's, they are the ten ply model for my tacoma, and i dig em. little noisy at 110km+ though...

 

Hey slingshotz, how do you figure a ten ply tire would ruin your suspension? I could see if the tire was much to large or causing rubbing, but i don't think the stiffness of the tread would have anything to do with it. Not picking a battle, just curious

 

I didn't really understand how they would either until I talked to a few different good tire shops as I thought the first guy was trying to upsell me. The way they explained it is that 10 ply tires can handle a lot of load on the side walls which you want for full size trucks, especially if you are towing or hauling stuff. I have a Frontier so unless I was going to load it up to the max payload all the time, the stiffer tires basically transmit all the road bumps right into the suspension instead of letting the tires take some of the sting out of bumps.

 

There's nothing technically wrong with putting 10 ply tires if they are the right size on a medium/light truck but it just means that over the life of your truck, the suspension it will wear out faster. Just imagine putting on an old fashion wooden wagon wheel style tire on a truck that has no give, it would be brutal on the suspension. However, if you do 99% driving on smooth pavement it's not really that much of a big deal as the suspension barely has to work in the first place.

 

And I'd have to agree on the Nokian tires too, I run the full Hakkas for the winters and they are awesome, it's just their offroad ability for their AT tires weren't that fantastic that directed me to the more aggressive Revos.

[birchy]

Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo's FTW!

 

www.tirerack.com is an awesome site for researching this stuff..