replacement tires: questions!

[Swissy]

Hi all!
I've searched, so excuse the yet another question on tires. but since no one ever really seems to have the exact needs, truck, etc... I thought I'd ask.

I have a 2000 7.3L F-250 extended cab, with a shell. I'm looking at replacing my stock tires on stock rims. Mostly summer miles, as I will be getting dedicated studded snow tires here in Alaska this fall. So I need a good summer tire. Driving distances of 300+ miles at a time, lousy Alaska 2 lane rutted, pothole filled frost heaved roads. Occasionally towing a 5500# boat, but that's mostly from one end of town (parking pad) to the other end of town (launch ramp). Not too worried about noise (silverline exhaust will cover that!) but more concerned with performance on lousy Alaska roads and wet ones at that (It rains a lot here). Ride? Bah! It's a TRUCK!! LOL! Looking for load range E, higher mileage wear, and in this day and age good MPG.

Local dealers sell Nokian (sp?), and I think things like Cooper, Goodyear, BFG, and such. And there's Costco tire dept as well. And tirerack.com has decent shipping to Alaska as well.

Recommendations? Anything I should stay AWAY from?

Thanks!!

 

[kingkevindavid]

I have always found that I like Michelin's. they give an outstanding ride and last for a long time. The LTX series are what I go with, they have a couple different choices in the LTX line. That being said I still have my original BFG's on my truck and I have been very surprised with how well they have performed and held up. I have about 50,000 on them and probably will get about 10,000 more until I have to replace them.

 

[big_rooster]

for a dedicated street tire you cant go wrong with michelins i've seen people get over 80k on those on a dually.

 

[bushpilot]

i got such good milage outta the stock 16" BFG Rugged Trail
tires (70k miles) that i put another set on.

i got the replacements from costco for 138 each mounted and
balanced (they are e-rated)...costco also throws in the free
road hazzard (might be important in alaska) for the life of the
tire.

 

[bbressler]

I went with Firestone Transforce HT (highway). They are upgrades to the old Steeltex tires, I've alway had good luck with.

The ones I've got now are at 65K, but I've got one that's running just a little thin. ALL tires do better if you rotate them OFTEN. I had a ex-tire-shop-owner tell me he rotates his every 4000 miles. It works.

I paid $450 for the four tires...not sure about road hazard. I've never had a flat on these tires. 'Course I don't drive in Alaska either

 

[CHPMustang]

I'll mention Michelins as well.
We have over 23k miles with the LTX M/S 285's on our Excursion.
Our LTX's perform great on wet,dry and snow pack surfaces.
Balancing requires minimum or no weight adjustments(every 4k-5k miles)
Dealer states this set will go beyond 60k miles at our current treadwear pace.

Recommend? Absolutely!

PS; I'm familiar with rough roads also,Texas surface streets are abusive,glue those fillings down!

 

[bushpilot]

+1 on the CONSISTANT rotation...i rotate mine every other
oil change (10k) if i can...and even at 70k miles i wasnt very consistant.

ideally every oil change (5k) would be nice...no longer than it takes
its cheap insurance !

 

[Crumm]

I would recommend:

1. Toyo
2. Michelin
3. BFG

I would stay away from

1. Cooper - been known to come apart
2. Firestone - too many recalls

I really like my current set of Toyo's but the Open Country M/T is probably way too aggressive for what you are looking for. I run the same tires year around as I don't have a need for studs up here in Fairbanks where the weather stays colder than yours(cold=sticky road, warm=slick road). For a summer tire with E rating I would look at something like the Toyo M-54 or the M-606 if you wanted a little more traction in the rain. I think you have a Alyeska tire down there that carries the Toyo line.

 

[treyloco]

I've ran cooper s/t on my f150 and got around 70k on them w/ regular rotations. Now I have them on my dually w/ close to 50k and have at least 10 to 15k left on them. they are very good on street and moderate mud and ride extremely smooth. Never had a problem w/ any cooper tire I have ever bought. All 6 of my service trucks before Katrina had cooper a/t and one of them had almost 70k on them. they also cost less than most of the other brand name tires out there.

 

[NASCAR Mike]

Consumer Reports rated the Nitto Terra Grappler as the #1 rated. I put them on my 05X and I love them. Big improvement over the stock BF Goodrich. They are E Load rated too.