Tire Recommendations?

[SHMIV]

Back during the summer, I spent a stupid amount of money to fix the A/C on the Shaggin Wagon, then it broke again, shortly thereafter. TBH requires a functional A/C at all times. Seriously, a couple of weeks ago, we were in Wyoming, it was 2 degrees, and frozen water was dumping out of the sky; she was in the back of the truck with the A/C cranked to the max.

What does all that have to do with tires? Well, I was not about to spend more than the value of the van to fix the A/C (though, in retrospect, it would have been cheaper), so I bought a vehicle with functional air conditioning. It's ridiculous. Really, it is. I do not need a Chevy Avalanche 2500, 4wd, with a 500 cubic inch engine. But, I have one, anyway. It makes my wife happy and irritates hippies, so I like it, as absurd as it is.

So, the question is, what is a good all terrain tire? A tire that will bite soft ground, but won't get squirrelly on wet pavement?

I don't really need tires, yet, but the time will come. I don't want to be buying the only available tires because I waited until the last day before the inspection expires to think about it, lol.

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[MarcSpaz]

My preferance, in order...
Goodyear Wrangled MTR
Nitto Mud Grapplers
Nitto Trail Grapplers
Bridgestone Dueler AT's


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[dorminWS]

If you contemplate a lot of highway use, consider the biggest Michelin that will fit the truck with an all-purpose tread. My experience with them has been uniformly good. I doubt they'd put low-profile tires on a 2500 like they do on their Tahoes and Suburbans, but if they did, I'd get rid of them if I could. About as useless as teats on a boar hog in snow and mud, in my experience.

[zykur]

I'm not sure what size you need and these are what I have on my car not truck but I swear by them. Continental EXTREMECONTACT DWS, they are a little noisy but they are like riding on rails in all conditions.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... mpare1=yes

[SHMIV]

Thank you, Gentlemen.

Yes, most of my driving will be highway. But, I can foresee a little off road time, mainly in the course of completing a project. Of course, if TBH has her way, the Avalanche would get lifted, fitted with some Mickey Thompsons, and would go through every mudhole and swamp that we encounter.

I don't have anything against big, meaty, mudboggin' tires; I just don't want to go sliding all over road if the weather gets a little moist. I've had that happen before, and I didn't much like it.

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[MarcSpaz]

You slid on a wet road with mud terrain tires on it???

[SHMIV]

Um, yep. Well, the road wasn't adorned with mud tires, Marc, the truck that I was driving at the time was fitted with them, though, lol. I was younger, at the time, and had no prior experience with 4wd vehicles or chunky tires. And, nobody told me about it. So, like most things, it was something that I had to figure out on my own. Didn't hit anything, so that was a plus.

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[MarcSpaz]

That's why I asked. I am shocked. Your experience is 100% opposite of mine. I have been running mud terrain tires on all my trucks for decades and have way better traction in rain and snow compared to any other tire type I have ever tried. I can't get my tires to spin in the rain if I tried. Can't get truck to slide either. It will roll over first. And in the snow I have such good traction I can't do donuts regardless of the amount of snow on the road.

Very odd...

[SHMIV]

Must be the tire brand. I can't remember what I was running on my old pick up, but they were likely El Cheapo Craptastics, or something similar. I just remember that the truck got a little slippery in the rain, after having some meatier tires put on.

I used to drive my mothers Jeep Cherokee on a regular basis, too. Her all terrains also got slippery when wet. I forgot which vehicle I was driving, once, and ended up spinning up the road like a top. Glad I was the only one on the road, that night.

And, even my current tires on the Avalanche are less than adaquate in wet weather. Although, with this truck, I assumed as much, and have driven it accordingly. I can't remember what brand tire is on that thing, either. Whatever the previous owner saw fit to install, I suppose.

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[MarcSpaz]

Wow... well good luck with the search anyway.

I spun out while driving my race car. Got caught in the rain on the way home and I had Mickey Thompson racing slicks on the car. That is some major scary stuff... having no control as you spin around in circles at 45-55 mph.

[OakRidgeStars]

I've been running BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A tires (P245/75TR-16) on my pickup for years. They're not very fancy and they fully meet the criteria below:

Inexpensive
Long lasting
Black
Round

The first three criteria are somewhat less important than the last one.

[MarcSpaz]

I've been running BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A tires (P245/75TR-16) on my pickup for years. They're not very fancy and they fully meet the criteria below:

Inexpensive
Long lasting
Black
Round

The first three criteria are somewhat less important than the last one.

Actually, I think they are flat on the bottom.

[SHMIV]

Oh, yeah. Not the ideal ride, to say the least.

Like I said, the tire brand may have had something to do with it. That's why I brought the subject up; I figured that there had to be tires in existence that perform well in a variety of terrain and weather conditions.

It's nice that actually be able to buy quality tires. Used to be, I'd buy used tires or the cheapest new tires that I could find.

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[OakRidgeStars]

Actually, I think they are flat on the bottom.

That's OK, so am I.

[Swampman]

As has been said, depends on the size. I'm on my second (or third) set of Cooper AT3's on my Explorer that just turned over 313,000. Just picked up a 2000 Silverado CK2500 and a 28' travel trailer. The Chevy has the same Cooper tires on it, but with an 'E' load rating for towing. Never had a problem in rain or snow, but mud is a different story. They really are highway tires. I routinely get 60 - 65K out of them with proper inflation and rotation. When you do get tires, or maybe before, check out the load inflation tables that Goodyear publishes for truck tires. Helps extend the life.

[Snakester]

My '04 Tacoma came with BFG T/A 's....At 53k miles I bought a set of Nexen SUV and put 58k miles on them. I paid $604.00 for them in '08 . In August '14 I put another set of the Nexen's on , paid $643.00....Not to bad of a cost increase. Driving my truck 99.9999% on paved roads I like a good "quiet street tread " . So if you want to keep TBH happy , I wouldn't go putting a set of 40 " Super Swampers on it !

[dmharvey]

I have BFG All-Terrain KO2 tires on my 2014 Tacoma and I like them a lot. My driving is about 75% highway and 25% city, plus the truck sees a decent amount of time off-road too. I had Firestone Destination ATs on my Jeep and I liked those a lot too...performed well both on and off road.

[SHMIV]

Lol, Randy; TBH is the one that wants the big ol' Super Swampers. She'd be the one converting our truck to a swamp toy, not me, lmao.

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Well, Gentlemen, I appreciate the input.

Now, if I can just find a set of rims that TBH and I both like, I'll be doing good.

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[jdonovan]

Really the dividing line in my world is mud.

If you are going to see enough mud that you need to get through, then you must get a open block mud tire. In years and years of offroading I've never seen a AT tire work in the mud. ever.

If you are 80% street 19% off road 1% mud then go with the all-terrain, they should work reasonably well in that situation.

I'm with mark on the tire selection
Goodyear Wrangled MTR
my #2 would be would be the BF Goodrich mud's

[Palladin]

Co-op Grip Spurs if you want to get muddy.