Looking to replce the tires on my Chevrolet Z-71 1/2 4wd pick-up. I am thinking of going with a heavy duty tire. Like a D or E rating. Anybody done this? Did you stay with the stock size? Mine are 275/75/16. Brand you like? I do mostly highway driving. Thanks for your help.
Larso
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Replies
Lots of info at tirerack.com
I just mail ordered some from another website, they shipped 4 tires for about $40.
Unless you carry ALOT of weight, why step up with the load-range? ahh....what was the question ?
Exactly.............I want to be able to carry more weight and have an extra margin of safety. Thanks for your thoughts.
Larso
Your tires may be able to handle the higher weight but will your axle, transfercase, driveshaft, u-joints, ball joints, king pins, springs, etc. be up to the task, are you upgrading those as well?
When ever you build up one thing it just creates more stress on the other components.
With over 240,000 miles on my chevy 1/2 4x4 z71 pickup I can honestly say that I have explored almost all of the options.. By far the best tire for heavy loads is the stock tire.. I regularly overload mine hauling wood from the sawmill to my timberframe. Sometimes by more than 100% over it's rated capacity.
Sure I could hunt squirrels in trees on the way home but I've never had a tire failure.. Far and away the best tire is exactly the one the factory sold most of them with, The goodyear wrangler.. stock size and I just fill the tire to 45 PSI every chance I get. Average tire life is over 65,000 miles and sometimes as much as 85,000
It's important to select the best wrangler for your pickup Goodyear makes several differant versions of the Wrangler. Don't try to cut corners and buy the cheaper versions, it's false economy..
I know that you want to out engineer GM but trust me the stock tire is more than good enough, it's really the best. I do buy all my tires from the tire rack. ( you can just go to http://www.tirerack.com ) Sure I get a better price than my local goodyear dealer gets me but then I have the hassle of finding someone to mount and balance the tires for me.. Lately with the cost of mounting and balancing I'm not really saving that much over just buying them on sale at the local Goodyear dealer. (someone I don't want to deal with) but I have the satisfaction of being right and too me that's a big deal!
Get some of those noisy ones so you can annoy the guy next to you.
How do people drive those rigs?
Brain dead from the music they have on?
Joe H
With the higher load range, you'll gain greater resistance to tread and sidewall puncture, good I guess if your highways are particularly bad, or the worksites you're at. However, the extra carrying capacity will not be matched by the rest of the drivetrain, so that part is illusive at best.
In exchange, you get greater rolling resistance, higher sprung weight with commensurate greater wear on drivetrain and suspension, lower gas mileage, harsher ride, sometimes more noise.
That said, if you need the puncture resistance, it really is the only way to go.
Pierre1,
Puncture resistance, Hmmm,.... I drive onto differant job sites 6 to 8 times a day sometimes more. I've been doing it since I bought the truck in 1997. I've had three punctures in that period.. Stock tires!