Tire Options?

[Grizzly]

I’m sure this is out there somewhere.
Best Steers?
Best Drives?
Overall bang for buck.
What kind of average life should either be getting?
How often or tread depth is anyone changing to stay ahead of blow outs.
Running Michelin X lines steers, almost 2 yrs old and close to due.
Goodrich DR454 drives bout a year old still going good.
And..........go!

[Lonestar10]

5 or 4/32nds on steers and 3 or 2/32nds on drives/trailer the less tread the better for fuel mileage. unless your off in the rough ALOT wearing down your tires to near legal limits is the best for your mileage and your tire maintenace account and dont use retreads anywhere.

[Waterloo]

Michelin steers, the drives, I guess it would depend on where you go and what you haul. Where do you run? I'm up North, and need something that is good in the snow and ice. if I was down South, and never came up this way, I would run trailer tires on my drives. Seriously. LOL!

[Chamberpains]

Michelin steers (200,000 miles) and Bridgestone m710 drives. Don't have miles on these yet.

Rotate rotate rotate them. Retorque your wheel bearings regularly and change your shocks regularly. Don't wait for them to show signs of blown out. There should be no reason you cant get 300k+ out of drives if you do these simple maintenance tasks. Unless your off road or some hammer dick that can't find the strength to lift your foot off the accelerator.

[ynot]

So much hate for retreads, they're not as bad as people make them out too be. They do have their issues an here's my take on them after running off an on for years.

They do require more up keep then virgins. for some reason recaps dont hold psi as well as virgins. With that being said they're also more sensitive to being run low on psi an are more likely to blow then a virgin from building heat.

Buying random recaps is like rolling the dice since you dont know the history of the tire how often were they curbed where they ran low on psi all the time weakening the sidewall. So I recommend talking too tire shops an get a guarentee you will get your same tires back from the retread plant lowering you risk of a bad tire. If your luck you can find a retread shop in your area an drop them off direct, there's a shop in my area ya drop the truck of at 8am an ya pick it up at 5 an they've pulled the tires recap'd them an threw them back on, the only issue with that is the tires are still hot from the oven they say ya can drive on them but chance of blowing on or more in the first couple hundred miles with some weight on them increases ten fold, I recommend letting them sit 24-48hrs too let them cool an the glue too set. I ran a set of those for a couple years an never had a blow out.

Recaps are cheap so they can help get ya outta a bind if money is tight, but on the flip side they'll never be as fuel efficient as a good virgin over the life of the recap. So that's also something too keep in mind.



When buying virgins I've also been a Michelin guy I've had the best luck with them an lean on the ya get what ya pay for motto since they are the most expensive. I know a lot of guys have had good luck with bridgestone an I've been tempted too try a set on my next tire change in the fall. I hate Goodyear with a passion I've ran them a couple times over the years an for so.e reason the just never lasted or end up with funny wear.

[dhirocz]

I ran Michelin eco's for steers, they lasted me 150k. I might have gotten 180k out of them but I got a bolt in one of them so I just replaced them with Bridgestone R283a's. So far I like them. I noticed my michelins wore around the shoulder alot, something I didnt like. It made the truck a bit touchy as the tires wore down, and I could not find a cause for this in the front suspension.

Yes, please rotate your drives. I added this into my yearly maintenance regimen. Ive been using an X pattern, dont know what else others have been doing.

I recommend staying away from the aggressive, deep lug high grip designs unless you realllly need them. I made the mistake and bought 726ELa's that are still on the truck, (half worn, I'm approaching 140k on them) they cost me more in rolling resistance under load than they are worth in higher fuel costs alone. Dont rely on a tire sales guy to have your best interests in mind. They have ratings for rolling resistance online on several truck tire websites. Its not worth loosing .6 mpg by buying a novelty tire you dont need. When these wear out, ill be replacing them with M710's or a similar high rated virgin tire not made in china.

I do run crossfires and balancers on my wheels. They do seem to wear better and more even on each wheel end. And yes, shocks are also a must if they are old. I dont get much more than 60-80k out of a set of monroes.

Make sure your tire guy changes the valve stems. For some reason, alot of them dont like to do it.

[hookliftpete]

Whats a good place to get shocks?

[Lonestar10]

amazon if you can get a corrisponding part number for the shocks the dealerships rip you off on. Gabriels ive saw some people put on.

[Chamberpains]

FleetPride, napa and places of the such have good prices. You don't need fancy, expensive shocks. Gabriels or Monroes take the abuse just fine, do the job just as well as expensive ones and are much more affordable.