Truck Tire Time

[bodywhomper]

Thx. I’ve never bought tires from Costco, and their nearest store is about an hour away.

[Cocximus]

I'm not exactly sure how much lift my WK1 Grand Cherokee has, but I have about 6" gap to the fender line with 255/70r18 tires. It's a stupidly low geared transmission for the diesel, I am wondering if bigger tires would drop my revs and not cost me any extra fuel. This car will see mostly low speed local roads and be used primarily for offroading I might occasionally take it on highways. I give zero shits about look, what tire size should I be looking for?

[mcski]

What year ?

[Cocximus]

2008

[SkiLyft]

New tires:
275/70/18 K02s

Discount tire matched Costco and beat them by $80.

$1309 out the door.



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[bodywhomper]

I went with toyo open country atIII lt265-75-16 for my land cruiser. Found an indie shop locally based on recommended from my well guy. $1100. Currently inflated at 50psi. I haven’t read that toyo document yet to figure out best recommended cold inflation.

[zion zig zag]

Anyone ever done the chalk method to determine proper tire inflation? Idea is to put a thick line of chalk across your tire and then drive on some blacktop and the chalk line should show up full width edge to edge. Supposedly you can tell if its over or under-inflated.


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[Foggy_Goggles]

Re: inflation

My and my friends experience is that for optimum traction and wear on 3/4 tons, the required pressure in to low to turn off the TPMS. I run 70psi and rotate at 5k when I change the oil. It seems to be the sweet spot to keep the sensor off the get 24months out of a set of tires.

Whilst we are ranting about other people's vehicle choices, I have no idea why you would chose the drive a 3/4 ton for a daily unless you needed the towing or hauling. The ride sucks and the parts are pretty expensive even on a gasser.

[anotherVTskibum]

Anyone ever done the chalk method to determine proper tire inflation? Idea is to put a thick line of chalk across your tire and then drive on some blacktop and the chalk line should show up full width edge to edge. Supposedly you can tell if its over or under-inflated.


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Yes.

I did this, eventually, after switching to LT tires on my F-150. I didn't quite believe the results initially and kept the pressure too high long enough that the wear pattern proved the chalk test right.

I'm not quite sure how it would apply for a tire that doesn't have a flat profile by design, though, which raises questions for my current tires

[anotherVTskibum]

Re: inflation

My and my friends experience is that for optimum traction and wear on 3/4 tons, the required pressure in to low to turn off the TPMS. I run 70psi and rotate at 5k when I change the oil. It seems to be the sweet spot to keep the sensor off the get 24months out of a set of tires.

Whilst we are ranting about other people's vehicle choices, I have no idea why you would chose the drive a 3/4 ton for a daily unless you needed the towing or hauling. The ride sucks and the parts are pretty expensive even on a gasser.

I don't know about other brands, but Ford trucks can be reprogrammed so the sensor matches what you actually run for tire pressure.

[Muggydude]

Falken Wildpeak AT3W has served me very well this winter in Tahoe, Utah, and Colorado in my camper van. I read some test somewhere that showed the KO2s had better braking distances in snow and ice, but the Wildpeaks are a little more quiet and efficient (deeper trade depth for a few sizes too). The van has so much extra traction because of it’s weight (8,000lbs) that I don’t feel the need for snow tires. Plus they’d be worn down super fast with all the pavement miles input on the van driving to Tahoe and back from SF area. On a lighter pickup snow tires are a lot more important IMO

Ford AWD is great, Van does well in deep snow (up to 2 feet!) as long as there is a firm base underneath it (and you don’t ground out the rear diff by going into the loose snow on the shoulder of a forest road… oops [emoji28])

https://youtu.be/YljA9_70oj0

Guessing the snow as about 1.5ft deep here, over 2ft when you can see the snow coming up over the hood. I wish the dashcam had been pointed down more, the snow was bubbling up to the top of the grill most of the drive.

Dad’s F150 gets Cooper Discoverer XLT for summer, and Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3 studless for winter. Would probably get KO2s if he only had one set

[SchralphMacchio]

One thing I like about those Hakka LT3s is the snow traction indicator … it’s a snowflake symbol on the center tread, then engraved 40%/60%/80%. So presumably you have at least as much “snow traction life” as the number you can see. And when the snowflake disappears, presumably it’s as good as any other 3 season tire at that point.

About that time of year for me to take those off and put the Michelin LTX AT2s back on. I’m finally going to order some junkyard rims as I’m tired of paying $150 for mount and balance 2x a year.

[SchralphMacchio]

Lol so I got my used OE 8 lug 18” wheels, had my Hakkas put on them, took them home, rolled them into my walk-in crawl space … and I was barely physically capable of stacking them in the spot where I used to stack just the tires - so f$&@ing heavy! [emoji23]

Come November when it’s time to swap back, I’ll reorganize some space and just chock them standing upright against the wall. What a weakling I am [emoji23]

[El Chupacabra]

In case anyone's looking for cheap load range E tires, in 245/75/16 size, Walmart has these Cooper Discoverer A/Ts for $117 each. Mounting and lifetime balance at Walmart is around $17-20 per tire. I have a set on order for my new old truck.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cooper-Di...Tire/354267680

I had similar Coopers many years ago on the old truck. They wear well, snow traction is acceptable for the first couple of years, then the tires seem to get harder and slippery. There are much better winter-oriented tires out there.

A big factor for me selecting these is price. This is for a beater truck, camper puller, not a daily driver. Just not willing to spend $1000+ for a set of tires that will eventually need replacing due to age, not due to tread wearing out.

[Dr. Crank]

Just put some Firestone Destination A/T2s on my truck. The ride was nice driving around town but too early to say much more than that. Truck tires have gotten spendy! I was really hoping to avoid having to get two new sets in one year, but...

The tire shop screwed up. Didn't see my old summers tires and wheels in the bed. Not sure how they missed that but they then pulled the studded winters off the steel rims and planned to put the new tires on those steel rims before they realized their mistake. Truck came back with winter rims and tires separated. I was hoping to get another season out of the winters. They said the tires are due to be replaced. I beg to differ. Admittedly some of the studs are worn off but the tread is about 6/32. Any thoughts on if new AT type tires with the 3PMSF are much of a downgrade in snow compared to winter tires that are down to their last season or two? Don't want to buy new winters this year. Could press the shop to remount these ones but more hassle and they have apologized and offered a discount in the future fwiw

[east or bust]

Trying to decide between BFG Trail Terrains or Yokohama Geolandar G015 for my 4runner.

Don’t think I’d be disappointed with either TBH.


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[snowaddict91]

Trying to decide between BFG Trail Terrains or Yokohama Geolandar G015 for my 4runner.

Don’t think I’d be disappointed with either TBH.


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I hate buying tires because I over-analyze everything. With that being said, we used to run G015s on the wife's Rav4 before we went to dedicated snows, and they were fantastic in the snow for an AT.

She switched jobs and drives 1500 miles/mo of rural backroads, otherwise they were good enough not to bother with a second set of tires.

If you do run dedicated snows in winter, flip a coin or buy whatever's cheaper.

[bodywhomper]

Mr Crank, my personal experience, studs help more on ice than studless.

My fwd minivan has p-metric geolandar go15 as their summer tires. Good traction on the steep loose moondust dirt roads that we often drive in the summer to access close by fun zones. Some areas that we frequent are notorious for traction problems for many cars and trucks, but it’s always been fine for us with those tires.

[SchralphMacchio]

They said the tires are due to be replaced. I beg to differ. Admittedly some of the studs are worn off but the tread is about 6/32. Any thoughts on if new AT type tires with the 3PMSF are much of a downgrade in snow compared to winter tires that are down to their last season or two? Don't want to buy new winters this year.

I’m with the shop … I think 6/32 is pretty shot for a winter tire. My Hakka LT3s are 17/32” when new, and the snow rating indicators don’t look like they go even halfway down the tread blocks (meaning when you can no longer see them then the tire no longer performs to spec in the winter). Non LT sizes probably aren’t quite as deep as 17/32 but they’ve got to be at least 12/32 when new?




My guess is that a brand new year round 3PMSF tire would outperform an old winter tire with only 6/32.

[John_B]

Just put some Firestone Destination A/T2s on my truck. The ride was nice driving around town but too early to say much more than that. Truck tires have gotten spendy! I was really hoping to avoid having to get two new sets in one year, but...

The tire shop screwed up. Didn't see my old summers tires and wheels in the bed. Not sure how they missed that but they then pulled the studded winters off the steel rims and planned to put the new tires on those steel rims before they realized their mistake. Truck came back with winter rims and tires separated. I was hoping to get another season out of the winters. They said the tires are due to be replaced. I beg to differ. Admittedly some of the studs are worn off but the tread is about 6/32. Any thoughts on if new AT type tires with the 3PMSF are much of a downgrade in snow compared to winter tires that are down to their last season or two? Don't want to buy new winters this year. Could press the shop to remount these ones but more hassle and they have apologized and offered a discount in the future fwiw

Tell them to pound sand and put the damn tires back on. It's BS that they "accidently" pulled the winters off and didn't put them back.

That said 6/32 seems pretty worn out but thats your call to make not the tire shop that messed with stuff you didn't ask them to.

I have a deep hatred of tire shops so my biases may be showing.

[SchralphMacchio]

Agree that it was Crank’s call and not the shop’s.

[Cocximus]

Thres a virtually unlimited supply of brand new wrangler takeoffs going for $300-500 in my area. I scored 5 on rims for $550. Not the best, but damn that's a good price. I could go through one or two a season and still save money.

[SoVT Joey]

Just ordered my winter skins, went with studded duratracs in a 285 75r18. Had a set before and have regretted not having them ever since.

[Dr. Crank]

Thanks all. I was pretty annoyed with the shop. At one point they told me over the phone that the tires were at 3/32” so legally had to be replaced but clearly that wasn’t the case. It’s games like that that’ll lead me to sharing John B’s hatred of tire shops. Appreciate Schralph’s input too. It’d be interesting for me to see how the AT tires do over the winter. We do have another vehicle with dedicated winters

[bodywhomper]

I used this toyo doc to calculate the cold pressure for the new LT tires for my land cruiser. https://www.toyotires.com/media/pxcj...s_20200723.pdf

The shop that mounted the tires put them at 55psi. He had no clear reason for the pressure other then “because they’re LT tires.” Using that document, I dropped them down to 45psi.