Tire advice

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la_morris

Advanced Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
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59
Location
Austin, Texas
I'm in need of tire advice. I bought a set of Cooper Adventurer AT tires from Pep Boys not quite two years ago. Long story, but they were not the tire or vender that I wanted. Very few miles on them but have had several flats and slow leaks. Valve has been replaced on one tire even though there was no discernable problem with it. Just found another flat today. I don't have any confidence in these tires and wondering if I should just consider them rubbish and start over. As an older single woman, having reliable tires is extremely important to me. What tire suggestions do people have if I do get a new set? I have a 2003 SR5 Tundra with a Fleet shell (with furnace and cooktop). Thank you,

Leslie
 
I have a 2004 Tundra 4wd with an ATC Ocelet. It's a built out shell so probably somewhere in your trucks weight range. I originally had BFGoodrich KO2 tires. I felt that they didn't get the mileage they should have so when I had to replace them, I went with Falken Wildpeak at3w 265/75r16LT which is a +1 size for this truck. Gives me a bit more ground clearance. I know there's a lot of tire pressure discussion, but I run 40# rear & 36# front and seem to get good handling on highway & off-road. I only air down in deep sand. So far the wear is what I would expect & road noise is fairly minimal for a LT tire.

Rick
 
Jon,

I live in Central Texas, so highway driving to get to cooler places then nothing crazier than dirt forest service roads.
 
For mostly highway and firm dirt or gravel, I would recommend considering Michelin LTX A/T2. I haven’t had a tire failure with Michelin LTX tires (other than picking up the occasional nail or screw) in probably 5 sets on my trucks and Yukon over the last 20 years. It’s an excellent smooth and quiet road tire with decent off road traction for gravel and dirt. Not a mud or crawling tire, but it doesn’t sound like you need that. Good tire life, too. I’ve been buying from Discount Tire.
 
Jon R said:
For mostly highway and firm dirt or gravel, I would recommend considering Michelin LTX A/T2. I haven’t had a tire failure with Michelin LTX tires (other than picking up the occasional nail or screw) in probably 5 sets on my trucks and Yukon over the last 20 years. It’s an excellent smooth and quiet road tire with decent off road traction for gravel and dirt. Not a mud or crawling tire, but it doesn’t sound like you need that. Good tire life, too. I’ve been buying from Discount Tire.
Click to expand...
My experiences with Michelin LTX tires have been a carbon copy of Jon R's: Zero failures, excellent traction on reasonable gravel, dirt, and even sand surfaces (with adequate pressure lowering for sand), and exceptional tread life. I got 70,000 miles on the last set on my 2002 F350 single rear wheel diesel and many thousands of those miles were highway miles heavily laden between NC and the Rockies. The set of LTXs now on my daily driver 2015 F150 will soon be 5 years old and have 69,000 miles with at least 6/32" of tread remaining and zero sidewall cracking. I regularly run them at 75 mph in the peak of summer's heat with complete confidence in their soundness. I plan to run them all summer this year and replace them in the late Fall before wintertime rains and snows in the NC mountains.
Foy
 
As discussed in many threads, everyone seems to have different experiences base on their rig/driving habits?

I had the Michelin LTX on my former F150 without a camper and while they were fine, I only got 37k out of them, and I drive like a grandpa.. Same with Cooper Discoverer AT3..

Currently on BFG KO2 and at about 25k with plenty of tread life left..
 
No tire lasts long on texas hiways..so run a good e10 an live with it.. nitto here
 
Dennis, can you say more? What is it about Texas roads that wears out tires and I have to admit I don't know what e10 means. Thanks
 
la_morris said:
Dennis, can you say more? What is it about Texas roads that wears out tires and I have to admit I don't know what e10 means. Thanks
Click to expand...
I'd enjoy hearing more from Dennis about that also. Here in NC our concrete aggregate and asphalt aggregate is nearly always crushed granite as contrasted with crushed limestone used nearly everywhere in the midwest and plains states, and the Rockies. The granite aggregate is considerably more abrasive than average limestone aggregate, so one would expect higher rates of tire wear here in the mid-Atlantic states with other factors being equal.

On both my "big truck" and the newer "little truck", well over 50% of my mileage is open highway. In the 19+ years I've owned the big truck, I'd say the real world figure is 65-70% while the newer F150 is 55-60% highway. I've enjoyed +22 years with a whopping 1.6 mile commute and the majority of weekends have found me on the highway to either the Blue Ridge Mountains or to the coast of NC or Virginia, each of those representing 400-500 mile round trips. I also drive like the 68 year-old grandfather which I in fact am.

I rather suspect Dennis has a larger component of city/suburban miles than I have had.

Foy
 
E 10 are upgraded tires an in my opinion texas uses chiped stone an tar for hiways an again in my opinion really don't use a roller on them long enough to compress the rock
 
Here’s a link to an EXPO thread that contains a tire comparison. It is about 9 years old, but I believe it still has good information to help when choosing tires.

I’ve had very good results with E rated Cooper Discoverer AT3 tires on Ford Super Duty trucks.

Hopefully this kelps helps.
 
Far and away most of our driving is on pavement or graded dirt probably 90% - 95%. Mostly in dry, rainy or snow conditions. Only about 5% of the time or less do we drive on rutted or two track roads or trails. So for us a 3 peaks rated mud and snow tire makes the most sense.

Importantly: Road noise low, handling excellent, traction dry - excellent, traction rain - excellent, traction snow - good.

Very little experience using these tires in with mud.

I do carry chains for front and back because I make multiple trips to the Sierra (Mammoth or Tahoe) for skiing every year. I rarely need the chains - almost never.

I am a big fan of the Michelin LTX M/S E rated tires. I have run several sets on my 93 Dodge W250 Diesel and I have always gotten more than 60,000 miles on them. I am presently running Michelin Cross Climate M/S, they were bought and mounted in June 2021 and so far they are performing very well.
 
Another vote here for the Michelins.

Although I have a set of spare rims mounted with BFG mud terrain’s I switch to for the really rough stuff, for pavement, gravel or snow the Michelins can’t be beat.

They also wear like iron.
 
If the tread pattern suits you then the Michelin LTX are a fantastic tire. I have used them for decades on my construction pick ups before retiring.

I have used the Coopers two times. Both on 79 Series outfitted for overlanding in Africa. And in both cases I have gotten a flat. I guess there’s a reason we had to each carry two spares!

Currently on my F-350 that I use with my Hallmark camper I have a second set of Toyo’s and have been very happy with them. I used them going up the infamous “Haul Road” to Deadhorse without any flats.
 
Makes me wonder how much is the tire and how much is simply bad luck. Perhaps any tire would have gotten a flat in the same circumstance.
 
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