[rockadanny]

So far in my research I'm considering either:
Toyo Open Country AT
BF Goodrich Rugged Trail T/A
BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO

I drive 85% on street (sometimes towing horse trailer, which is why I need E load rating), 15% on farm (steep gravel driveway, wet pasture). Live near Atlanta so on street I am concerned about wet traction, occasional 1" of snow, sometimes icy. Never do any trail or mudding so do not need serious off-road tires.

Having difficulty in these areas:
1. Tire which does well on wet street (SAFETY!), but also wet pasture, some mud but not much;
2. User reviews I've seen are all over the place. Just like audio opinions
3. I am more concerned about safety and traction than longevity of tread, but I don't want to pay $800 for tires that are only effective up to 15k miles.

Please help.

[TomS]

I just put some General Tire Grabber HTS on my daughter's F150 2wd and they love them.  Great reviews too.  I found the lowest price online (about $98 at Sears' site) and the local Atlanta Discount Tire guy matched it. 

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/findTireDetail.do?c=1&rcz=30316&ar=70&rf=true&rd=16&rc=GAAINT&cs=235&dVeh=dVeh&tc=GENRAB&yr=1999&pc=32612&cf=false&vid=013595&sw=false

I could probably get the guy's name if you want, but it was about $500 or so out the door.  Great service there too.

Tom

[rockadanny]

Thanks Tom. Will look into these.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Years ago I was in the service dept of a Chevy dealer. 3/4 ton and one ton trucks were a dime a dozen, so naturally, I knew quite a bit about what tires worked.
Since, I've migrated to manufacturers more concerned about the H and V rating than the "E" load range, if you catch my drift.

Anyway.....
Michelin made a helluva great "E" range tire. Lasted forever. It was called "LTS rib" something (sorry, memory sucks  ) We saw them on cab and chassis type, "bread truck" type and tow truck type vehicles all the time (3500 and 4500 series). However, their off road capabilities aren't much to speak of.

Yokohama made a fantastic off road/street tire called "Geolander", but I can't recall if they're made in "E" range. They may have stopped at "C"??? Might be too aggressive of a tread for your use though.

You didn't say what year the truck is, but Ford trucks for decades have been a tire manufacturers wet dream. When the front springs begin to sag, it'll wear the inner tread down to the cords, yet leave the outer half of the tread looking just fine. Might wanna spend the money and get new springs if that's the case. 15k of mainly street use your advertising seems a bit low for an "E" range tire.

How big is this horse trailer? Do you *really* need "E", or can you step down?

Check the Tire Rack website for comparative shopping, reviews and prices. They're the tire gods as far as I'm concerned.

Hope that helps,
Bob

p.s. I'm a Michelin fanboy. I've used the same set of LTX M/S "C" range tires for the last three trucks I've owned. My current vehicle has 55,000 miles on these tires. I cant recall how many miles I put on the other trucks with these tires. But you gotta admit, It's pretty cool to keep buying used trucks, but move the same set of tires from one to the next. 
Yea, I like my Michelins.
Oh....Did I mention I've got just under 50% of tread depth remaining? 

p.p.s. I just checked the size on mine, and they're LT265/75-16 "C"
The same size as yours????? I assume you had a bit of dyslexia when you typed the size in the title???
I highly recommend them. They do come in an "E" range.
Oh hell.....  ..... I see if I can find them for you.

[avahifi]

I second the Tire Rack suggestion.  Check the user report statistics there on all of the appropriate tires in the range you need. You will find them all neatly grouped together.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[jtwrace]

and most importantly no matter what tire you purchase be sure to check the date code.  There are new tires and there are "new" tires. 

Safety first!!!

Video:  http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4822250&page=1

Technical: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ok......>> HERE << is the Tire Rack website for 265/75-16 "E" Michelins.
There are several choices in the LTX models. They're now calling them "LTX M/S2", cause the "2" must mean they're better. 
The M/S is "Mud and Snow"
I don't see the LTS "rib" model. Maybe they don't sell them anymore?

The LTX M/S2 have two prices for white and black letter. They both get a 9.1 out of 10 for user ratings. This means I'm not making stuff up. 

The bad news, the whites are unavailable until the middle of next month. The blacks are backorder. 
That doesn't mean your local tire place can't still get them sooner.

They also have a LTX A/T (All Terrain), but that tread pattern is too aggressive for what you need.

Give serious consideration to my recommendation. Buy them now, thank me later. I've sold hundreds (maybe thousands?) of sets of Michelins over the past couple decades. Out of all them, there may have been four or five folks pissed that I steered them wrong.

Ok. That's enough from me.
Good luck,
Bob

[decal]

All I've ever run on my truck since it was new (1997) are Cooper ATR.

[rockadanny]

Wow. Lots of good info. Thank you all.

Tire Rack - awesome site! VERY helpful.

Doh! LT265, not 256

2003 - will check the front springs too - thanks for the tip!

Trailer plus horses about 4500# and driving over stones so I figured I'd be extra safe with "E". Still think I don't need 10 ply? And when I get hay from the pasture we stack about 42 bales on the truck. I then have to drive it through hilly, sometimes muddy pasture, then down stone driveway, then on highway for a few miles.

Even though I use the truck infrequently for hauling, when I do haul I need to be safe so am willing to pay extra for that, if necessary.

[woodsyi]

I had Tire Rack drop ship 4 tires to a local service station where I left my car.  Everything went smoothly and it ended up much cheaper than what I would have paid at a tire shop like NTB which is affiliated with Big O Tire, Merchant's Tire and Tire Kingdom to offer national coverage.  I got a nice aluminum toolbox out of it too. 

[TheChairGuy]

I use a combination of Tire Rack reviews (their tests, as well as user reviews) and Consumer Reports testing (there is at least 1 tire test per year so the models tested are fairly current).  Your library probably has back issues of Consumer Reports.

Between the two, I get the right read on the right tire for each car and need.

I have never ordered from Tire Rack, however, as I have two local guys that match their total prices on the same tires - that's total pricing including the tires, mounting, balancing, stem valves, (sometimes) alignment and the disposition of tires (maybe that's only a California thing?)

Unless you're in the country, there is probably one or two local guys in your area that will pile on discounts until they reach the Tire Rack pricing.  My guys give sizable discounts for AAA, for instance.

Good luck and don't skimp - I have in the past on tires and paid the price with awful handling, etc.  It's an amazingly important part of your vehicle and most people make the mistake of downgrading the tires that came as stock because of the high cost....but you shouldn't as it's literally your life and that of your family handing in the balance for these tires 

John

[TomS]

I actually live fairly close to Tire Rack, driving wise, so have bought tires and custom wheels direct from them for years.  Since they moved to scattered distribution centers and just in time supply chain they don't always have the tires in stock when and where I need them.  That was the case for when I bought those truck tires - either Generals of Firestone which were the highest rated for my needs.  You also have to make sure you know exactly how much extra the local installer is going to charge on top of it.  In the end, the local Discount Tire made the deal good in Atlanta (price matching Sears online), such that it was quite a bit lower than Tire Rack, so I went that route.  Very happy with them.

[TooManyToys]

Wow, I never thought I’d be in a truck thread while on an audio forum.

D-A-D,

I’ve been a F-250 & F-350 owner of the last 10 years and managed a vehicle testing facility for 25 years so you know my background.

We used to go through tires in some cases every 1,000 miles, and in other every 5,000 miles.  We bought a lot of tires and installed them in my facility.

Michelin are the best constructed tires we used.  And you could easily see that when using the Hunter GSP-9700 road force tire balancer.  They always had the least amount of variation from belt overlap.  I put Michelins on everything I own unless I have a special need.

Your use of the F-250 is about the same as my ’03 F-350 SC 4x4.  You really should stay with the E rated tires with the horse trailer.  They will provide better sidewall stability even though you may not need the weight class.  You can actually get the same weight carrying capacity with a D rated tire, but it will have more sway with a softer ride.  The E rated tire will also provide a little better mpg due to the sidewall stiffness.

We would buy tires from either Tire Rack or our Ford dealer.  For us (mass quantity industry account) both were around the same price by the time shipping was included.  This included an addition discount from Ford since we were doing the mounting and balancing.

Which brings up the point, do your homework if you go the Tire Rack direction as to the costs associated with getting the tires installed.  You may find a dealer who will be competitive when all the costs are totaled up.  Tire Rack used to have a installer locator on their website to help find an installer.  But I would highly, highly recommend that you find one that has the Hunter Road Force balancer as well.  It is the only way I will ever balance the tires on my vehicles after having owned one.

BTW, on my truck I use either the stock Firestone Steeltex (Es not D as the Ds had a separation issue) or BFG All Terrain T/A KO, although in a D range.  I wanted a little softer ride and although I tow a 6,000 lbs trailer, it ain’t horses.  The BFGs do have more road noise then the OTR style tread, which should be expected.  Compared to the stock tires, better wet and snow traction as well as better traction on our farm.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Agreed ^

[rockadanny]

OK. I bit the bullet. $840 out the door with lifetime balance and rotation. Not even TireRack + shipping + mounting + anscillaries could beat my local tire center.




Thanks for all of your assistance.

And for the audio portion of this adventure I decided to spin this (loudly) on the way home:

Yee-haw!

p.s. I have no idea what type of balancer they have there. Just crossing my fingers on that aspect.