Help! I need to understand more about tires (F150, vehicle, joint)

[linicx]

Frankly i am tired of paying for what was supposed to be 60,000 miles tires only to find out what I really bought was cow patties and over-priced 20,000 mile tires. At $150-$200 per tire I deserve more than a bad smell.

I understand sidewalls and width and size, but not much else. I don't drive a vehicle hard. I found a wesbite with pages of confusing jargon and not much else useuful to me.

What do I need to know to make an infomed decision? Does the tire brand actually make much difference? Is there one or two brands that hold up well?

I'm looking for:
17", All-weather/deep tread, deep sidewalls
good rating
long wear
NOT rock hard rubber
for F-150 Super Cab.

Thanks.

[seven up]

There is a Tread Wear Rating given on each tire according to test results done on the specific tire. You could go by those ratings to try to achieve the most longevity.

Written ratings by supposed "customers" are iffy as they could easily be written by employees or the competition.

Best of luck in your search.

[Hemlock140]

Truck tires typically wear faster than passenger car tires, but if they are wearing out too fast you could have a problem with wheel alignment, bad shocks, tie rods, ball joints or wheel bearings. You should get all that checked soon after buying new tires, or best at the same time. If the warranty is 50k, you should get close to that. Off brand tires made in China will never make it that far, but the most common problem is new, name brand tires that are already 2-3 years old when you buy them. Sitting in a warehouse the rubber ages, so while they look new will wear faster and even get cracks in the sidewalls within a year or two. The link below shows how to check the date. I have a Ranger and have been really happy with the Firestone Destination ATs, but they are a bit rugged if you are not going off road at all. Look at the Destination LE. My wife has them on her Jeep Liberty and they are more of a highway tire. The Goodyears that came on the Ranger and on her Jeep were terrible.
The tread lasted, but they had lousy traction.

Tire Tech Information - Determining the Age of a Tire

[OTG-ZR2]

Spend the money on a good name brand tire.

For an f150 assuming its a 4x4, I would recommend a BFG All Terrain last set I got close to 60 000km for a set with some wheeling.

[Merc63]

Originally Posted by linicx

long wear
NOT rock hard rubber

Here's youre problem, wanting two opposite characteristics. In order t wear like teflon, then will GRIP like teflon. Grip on the pavement is NOT due to tread grooves or tread design as much as it is the compound of the rubber. And a soft riding, good gripping tire will simply not last as long. Period.

I've never bought tires by how long they were supposed to last for this very reason. I want my tires to grip. How long they last is almost immaterial.

[Tourian]

^agreed^

Rock hard rubber = long wear = higher number treadwear rating

[NJGOAT]

Merc63 hit the nail on the head. The better performing the tire, the worse the tread life. That is your trade off. You can have poor performing tires with long wear, or good performing tires with short wear, your choice.

FWIW, I highly recommend the General Grabber HTS for light trucks and SUV's. Great all around performer and decent tread life.

[M3 Mitch]

FWIW, if you do the math, you spend so much more for fuel per mile than for tires, it does not make any sense to either cheap out on tires, or select something with hard compound that will last, but, as noted above, will not grip. Particularly not on dry pavement.

Goat's recommendation of the General truck tire, HTS is a good one; look on Tire Rack's website and you will find it, it's a very good all-round truck tire, most sizes are low rolling resistance, decent overall compromise of wear life, grip, cost.

OP, it would help if you at least give a clue what region of the country you are in, there are some tires I would recommend for a guy in Florida or SoCal where he is almost certain to never see snow, that I would not recommend to someone in Oswego NY, unless they planned to store the truck over the winter.

Final comment - are your tires wearing evenly? Do you rotate them? Do you check the air pressure often enough to be sure they are not under-inflated? (another bane of the Great American Motoring Doofus)

[hoffdano]

I have had extremely good service from Michelin LTX A/S tires on both a Ford F250 and my Honda Ridgeline. They were standard equipment on both vehicles - good enough that when time came to replace them I bought them again.

On my Ridgeline the rear tires are the originals and now have almost 81K miles on them. I estimate they will last another 10K.

These tires have not only excellent wear, but have good all season performance.

There are several LTX tires - including a M/S (mud and snow) version. Our F250 had LTX tires with a higher load range, appropriate for a 3/4 ton truck.

[Grandpa Pipes]

Originally Posted by linicx

Frankly i am tired of paying for what was supposed to be 60,000 miles tires only to find out what I really bought was cow patties and over-priced 20,000 mile tires. At $150-$200 per tire I deserve more than a bad smell.

I understand sidewalls and width and size, but not much else. I don't drive a vehicle hard. I found a wesbite with pages of confusing jargon and not much else useuful to me.

What do I need to know to make an infomed decision? Does the tire brand actually make much difference? Is there one or two brands that hold up well?

I'm looking for:
17", All-weather/deep tread, deep sidewalls
good rating
long wear
NOT rock hard rubber
for F-150 Super Cab.

Thanks.

I don't care what brand of tire you buy what matters most is keeping the tire inflated to the proper PSI 100% of the time. I always get many thousand more miles out of all my tires using only a tire gage and air pump weekly.

Problem is doing this is so damn simple 99% of the people don't monitor their tire PSI much beyond "it looks like it's going flat".

I can take a set of 60,000 mile tire and run them out to 90,000 or more just by taking care of the air PSI. On truck tires air PSI is even more important since the rough tread patterns just eat gasoline. Now add low tire PSI and you might as well have a tanker truck parked at home!

I've found that if a person inflates their tires (Cold) ,and keeps them there, to just 3lbs PSI below max PSI , as stated on the tire sidewall, the tire will be in perfect balance for wear and low rolling resitance to save gas.