Light duty trucks and tires.

[Mustang_Cougar]

Today I put a new set of all season passenger car radials on my 2WD Ranger. The main reasons I didn't go with a dedicated light-duty truck tire were ride quality and price; and so far, so good. The truck handles better in the snow and the tires (Hankook) were roughly half the price of truck tires. Had I known the ride would be that much better and the savings that great, I would have switched to passenger radials on the last tire change.

So, what benefits do dedicated light-duty truck tires have for small, 2WD trucks?

 

[alreadygone]

None unless you tow, or off road.

Bob

 

[JHZR2]

Id venture to guess that a tire like te BFG AT KO would benefit you in the snow, as compared to a standard M&S tire, due to its 'snow tire' rating. Given the traction issues that unloaded pickups can have, a bit grippier snow tuned tire could be a good thing.

Of course, you could put blizzaks on the truck

JMH

 

[1sttruck]

The special compound in Blizzaks wears kind of quickly, and it's also only about half the tread, so some can wear them out in a season. Goodyear Silent Armor Wranglers are also severe snow rated, they run very quiet but you feel bumps more, and they're expensive.

The Comcast guy that got stuck on our street a couple of days ago had a 2wd Ranger, with Conti street tires that were worthless; he was sliding backwards and sideways.

 

[Stewart Fan]

Quote:

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None unless you tow, or off road.

Bob

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Or run close to GVWR all the time. The stiffer sidewall on an LT tire will handle heavier loads better.

If the ranger is just a commuter/grocery getter the P rated tires will be fine.

 

[JTK]

Quote:

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So, what benefits do dedicated light-duty truck tires have for small, 2WD trucks?

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IMO, for your application, absolutely none. Like the other fellas said, unless you do heavy towing, hauling or off roading, there's no need for more costly LT tires.

Joel

 

[Hirev]

If you stay on pavement they will be OK. However if you go offroad even if its just logging roads its a different matter. Only once did I put a set of all season passenger car radials on a pickup, won't do that again. I do a lot of driving on dirt logging roads. Passenger car tires were very allergic to any mud in a pickup. On top of that very prone to get flats if you just went down dirt logging roads, especially if they had Shale Rocks that are so common in the PNW back roads.

 

[williar]

Stay on paved roads and don't carry a load and you probably will be fine. But check the load rating of the tire on the manufacturers website and compare it to the load/weight of the pickup at each wheel. I go to a public scale and weigh each axle separately. (Divide the axle weight by 2 to get the wheel load.)

 

[JustinH]

I have a 98 nascar f150 2wd 4.6L

I run the stock size P255/70/16

I bought a set of firestone destination LE tires, which are just your run of the mill all seasons with M+S rating as well.

I drive around in the buffalo winter with the truck with zero problems. Just put about 400 pounds of sand over the axle, and its never been a problem.

This is not an off road truck however, I wouldn't dream of taking it off the pavement.

 

[GMGuy]

Just to be devils advocate for a moment, why stay on paved roads? By that logic I should be putting LT tires on my cars since a large portion of my driving involves gravel roads.

Alex.

 

[alreadygone]

Alex,

Might not be a bad idea.

Bob

 

[MNgopher]

As stated by a lot of the others, if you are on the pavement most of the time and in an area where either there isn't a lot of snow or your local public works folks are good at snow and ice removal, or doing heavy duty hauling towing, there is no benefit to the Passenger tires.

I had a '97 Ford F150 2wd pickup. It came with passenger tires standard. They were quiet on the road, gave great gas mileage, and had decent snow traction when new and using sandbags. At winter number two, the snow traction declined to a point that they were downright dangerous.

However, I do enough off road, logging road, and construction site driving that I invested in a set of All Terrain tires and never looked back. The passenger tires didn't give a lot of flexibility in anything but dry, firm haedpacked off road conditions.

In addition to the switch from Passenger tires to AT tires, I have also switched my current '99 F150 to LT tires from the stock P-series tires. I prefer a fairly "firm" ride, and the LT tires made a huge difference in that regard. Others may not agree, but that's been my experience.

 

[MNgopher]

Of course I see my error in my post - I meant to say that there is no benefit to light duty truck tires if none of the scenarios I mentioned apply!

 

[H2GURU]

I asked the tire guy the same thing and he said it was the wall thickness and the tires ability to carry a heavier load, if called upon to do so that males it a "light truck tire". I'm sure they are now "justified" in their higher pricing also.