New Tires Needed

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

New tires for my truck are on the horizon and I’m trying to break free of my usual analysis paralysis. Background: ‘02 Chevy Silvy 2500 HD, XC LB 4X4 gasser currently with a topper. 90% on-road driving (including snow during the winter), off-road tends to be FS, gravel, DVNP style roads. Currently running Toyo Open Country AT2 in LT265/75R16 LR-E. They’ve been great tires but boy, do they howl with almost 40k miles on them. I’ve narrowed my choices to two tires:

Toyo Open Country AT3, 3-peak snowflake rated.
Michelin Defender LTX M+S.

I’ll run the same LT265/75 (one size larger than the pitifully small OEMs) and LR-E. The 3PS rating on the Toyos are a bonus, but the smoother, quieter ride of the Michelins are attractive. I’m wondering if that will translate into slightly better MPG which would be welcome these days. Both tires garner good reviews for off-road performance with the Michelins praised for their “sleeper” performance considering a milder looking tread. The Toyo tread has worked well for me, and they look the part!

Anybody here have experience with either tire? Feel free to add your 2cents to this never-ending circular discussion.

 

[Jon R]

Also check out the Michelin LTX AT2. Good traction and quiet. A little more aggressive tread than the Defender M+S.

 

[Lighthawk]

Brand new set of Falken Wildpeak AT3 's on our 3500 and no noticeable tire noise with Hwy 80 with speeds at 70mph+
We did 400 miles of pavement on our trip. I like 'em.

 

[Stray Dog]

X2 on the Michelin LTX.

Replaced Cooper Discoverers on my F 250 with camper. Mileage on these tires is twice what I got on the Coopers. Little road noise, good traction.

Have put them on my current F 150 with camper and like them very much...

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Thanks for the replies, all appreciated. Yes, I’ve considered the Falkens also, Coopers, too. At one point I was going to go tall and skinny, 255/85, but I’m concerned about already lower around town MPGs with a taller tire. MPG is not the only factor in my choice, but considering the price of gas these days it’s certainly one of them.

Other comments are welcome.

 

[Beach]

My Cooper ATPs are holding up very well, they are good in wet weather, have very little sidewall flex, and are pretty quiet for a all terrain tire. They are not great in mud but much better in mud than the Mich. LTX tires on my Tundra. If you occasionally drive in mud(not deep stuff either) the LTX tread clogs immediately and turns into a racing slick. Other than that LTXs are the great in wet weather , great longevity and quiet on the road.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

 

[fish more]

Replacing my tires on the Super Duty, taking off Toyo AT II and replacing with Goodyear Dura Tracs 295 70 18. I had some Dura Tracs on my last F150 and they did very well in the snow, the Toyo AT II not so well

 

[SkyP]

One thing to consider with any brand is how readily available they are in a pinch.

On my recent Utah trip, 2000 mi from home, we had something get caught under my 4WD F150 and cut a deep groove in the left rear tire ruining it- still held air but not trustable at highway speeds.
Luckily Discount Tire in St George had the needed KO2 in stock- and also luckily I had bought the warranty so the $250ish tire was replaced free.

How likely would one be to find a Cooper or a Toyo in an urgent situation? Don't know but I suspect they are less likely to be on hand. In fact locally they sell, but don't seem to keep on hand, either Cooper or Toyo.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Thanks for the added replies. Just returned from Chico round-trip pulling a trailer. Toyos rode smooth as butter, 5/32 tread remaining. Darn, paralysis continues.

 

[eyemgh]

We currently have a year on our Wildpeaks on a ‘08 Silverado through a ski season, quite a few forest roads, and a DVNP trip. We’re building another rig. It’ll have 35/12.5 R17 Wildpeaks. They aren’t as good in the snow as studded Hakkapeliitta’s, but what is? The bottom like is they’re good enough that we never felt we needed to swap out to dedicated snows. We’re up the hill 3x/week.

 

[ronaldos]

I recommend Goodyear Unisteel G614 RST, I am using it and very satisfied with these tyres. We run very heavy loads and these tires are the best we have found.

 

[AWG_Pics]

We decided to try 8 ply Continental Terrain Contacts. Been to Utah and AZ 3 times from Portland. Good on highway, quiet, and very good on the backroads and 4WD tracks. Will probably stick with them when they wear out. Very little wear so far.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Thanks again for all of your replies.

 

[ntsqd]

Previous tires on our CTD/Camper were Yokohama GO15 A/T's in a 315/70R17 size. We got about 50k out of them. IF I recall correctly they were Load Range D's with a 50 psi max cold pressure rating. I ran them at 50 on the pavement and at 40 on the rougher dirt stretches. I thought them to be great tires, Plenty of traction in every condition that we encountered, hiway snow, hot desert pavement, sand, gravel, the usual Left Coast range of surfaces, just no off pavement deep snow. Did get into some moderately deep icy snow on Sherman Pass one trip, but they handled that without drama as well. One interesting observation is that they would chirp from the rear Power-Lock in tight parking lot turns when the previous Goodyear DuraTracs of the same size did not do that. I recently had to replace them and the GO15's were not available. I had to go with the ages-old stand-by, BFG A/T's in the same size. These are Load Range E's, we'll see how those work out. The BFG's do seem to be physically shorter than the Yoko's were. I am seeing about two miles per hour slower at the same highway cruising engine RPM with the BFG's than I saw with the Yokos.

Have a set of the same Yoko GO15 A/T tire in 31-10.50 on our 4rnnr and I have been very impressed with them. I have been in deep off pavement snow with them and the truck had no trouble following the JK on 37's that was breaking trail. I'm sure that the dual ARB's helped in that situation, but the tires had to do their part too or the whole thing would have fallen apart.

 

[ckent323]

Bepfre leaving for Alaska I bought four new Michelin Agilis® CrossClimate M/S Tires in 235 85 R16 for my Dodge W250 ClubCab Diesel Longbed carrying an 2007 FWC Keystone.

They worked well on and off pavement in dry and wet conditions and tire wear seems to be good a but they were not quite as good on snow as I recall my Michelin Defender tires were. However, the locations of use and the conditions were not exactly the same and my memory may very well be faulty. Neve-the-less I am happy with the tires so far (over 6,000 miles in 3 months).

Edit: They run quiet and are 3 peak rated

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Up and back to the cabin yesterday and the howling of the tires is driving me nuts. I may not get the full mileage out of these Toyos before I go deaf, so new shoes soon! Thanks all.

 

[eyemgh]

I couldn't get Wildpeaks for our new rig, so I settled on snowflake rated A/T IIIs.

 

[Vic Harder]

Previous tires on our CTD/Camper were Yokohama GO15 A/T's in a 315/70R17 size. We got about 50k out of them. IF I recall correctly they were Load Range D's with a 50 psi max cold pressure rating. I ran them at 50 on the pavement and at 40 on the rougher dirt stretches. I thought them to be great tires, Plenty of traction in every condition that we encountered, hiway snow, hot desert pavement, sand, gravel, the usual Left Coast range of surfaces, just no off pavement deep snow. Did get into some moderately deep icy snow on Sherman Pass one trip, but they handled that without drama as well. One interesting observation is that they would chirp from the rear Power-Lock in tight parking lot turns when the previous Goodyear DuraTracs of the same size did not do that. I recently had to replace them and the GO15's were not available. I had to go with the ages-old stand-by, BFG A/T's in the same size. These are Load Range E's, we'll see how those work out. The BFG's do seem to be physically shorter than the Yoko's were. I am seeing about two miles per hour slower at the same highway cruising engine RPM with the BFG's than I saw with the Yokos.

Have a set of the same Yoko GO15 A/T tire in 31-10.50 on our 4rnnr and I have been very impressed with them. I have been in deep off pavement snow with them and the truck had no trouble following the JK on 37's that was breaking trail. I'm sure that the dual ARB's helped in that situation, but the tires had to do their part too or the whole thing would have fallen apart.

+1 for the Yoko Geolandar G015. Have them on the 2006 chev and will buy the same for the 2015 we have the camper on now. work well in snow/gravel/pavement.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Hmm, I’ll add the Yokos to the list. I had two sets in p-metric (different model if I recall) on the Suburban. Neither set made it to the mileage warranty but America’s Tire made good on the credit. Perhaps the LT versions are tougher. As always, thanks for all the suggestions.

Added: as I get older (and wiser? ha ha) quiet tires become more important. I’m not rockcrawling so big voids in the tread are not necessary. I’ve also elected not to go with my favorite Flowmaster exhaust for the same reason.