Coloradokevin

I finally decided to register for Mike's forum here because of my recollection of all of his tire talk on Cumminsforum. Anyway, I'm currently hunting for tires myself, and I'm trying to decide on a size. My vehicle currently has 285/75/16's (which came with the vehicle when I bought it), and my local Discount Tire place has already told me that they won't mount that size on the 2nd Gen Dodge stock rims anymore (apparently their corporate office thinks those tires are too wide for the stock rims). Here's a wee bit of what I'm hoping to accomplish, and some advice would be appreciated: 1) Maintain my current ground clearance as much as possible (we end up on 4x4 roads quite a bit out here in the Rockies -- obviously this is not a rock crawling Jeep, but clearance still helps). 2) Find a tire that can handle driving curvy mountain roads at highway speeds, predictably (I worry if the narrow profile of the 235's will hurt me in this regard). 3) Find a tire that will still do well for towing relatively heavy loads (though honestly our "heavy" loads are typically no more than a 4,700lb horse trailer, plus the weight of two horses, water, and tack -- less than 7,000lbs total in most cases) 4) Improve my snow driving performance (I think the 235's might help here). 5) Maintain off-road capability (not sure how the 235's would stack up here, but I suspect it will sacrifice a bit in deep mud when compared to the other options -- deep mud isn't too prevalent in CO though). 6) Find a tire that will work pretty efficiently on these vehicles... fuel isn't getting cheaper, and I don't like hammering on the engine, chassis, and brakes more than I need to for my typical "mission" (I think the 235's may help here, but maybe be a bit behind the stock 245's). Basically, good fuel economy and not burning through wheel bearings, ball joints, etc. would be nice. 7) Find a tire that will give me a decent life before requiring replacement. Anyway, I'd appreciate any input you guys might have on this subject! Everyone I know with these trucks around here are running LARGE wide-profile tires that I don't really think are necessarily the best at accomplishing the job I'm looking to do. But, I'd like to learn more about the other end of the tire spectrum before spending the big money on tires! Too many guys seem to simply suggest wider/taller/mud terrain tires for winter use out here, and I don't believe that those are the best options to go with. I'm looking at a couple of possibilities at the moment: 1) A dedicated winter tire, then another set of a different type come spring. The Cooper Discoverer M+S looks like a good option here, and is priced well. Probably a 235/85/16 or 265/75/16, depending on what I decide about size. 2) An aggressive all-terrain/all-season tire. I was thinking of the Goodyear Duratrac here, in the same sizes I mentioned above.