Time For New Tires......considering 315/75R-16's on stock aluminum wheels

[LiveOak]

I am currently running BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO tires in size 295/75R-16. They have been great tires but they are getting a bit thin on tread. I will have to replace them in a few months. I am considering moving up to 315/75R-16's but Walmart is not carrying them and they are EXPENSIVE this time around. I have been looking at and reading up on review for the Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac, the Kelly TSR Safari, and Hankook Dyna Pro MT. For the folks who are running 315/75R-16's on stock rims, what tire are you running and what has your experience been with them. I realize the 315/75R-16 will rub the lower track bar arm and possibly the fender liner if turned sharp enough, the 295's I am running now do the same thing. I am off road quite a bit, and I want as tall a tire the is decent in mud as I can run without getting into a lift kit or leveling kit. Thanks in advance for your reviews and comments.

[walsey]

Im running hankook mt's right now but they are 285x75x16's. I've liked them but i've only had them for a short time. I bought them used but they've held up good so far. I can't comment on the 315's personally but I have a couple buddies running cooper at's and they both really liked them. I think they got them on sale for around 800 bucks a set. I will probably go up to that size when mine wear out. As far as the leveling kit if you fit 295's without a lift or level I assume you would be able to fit 315's as well. I like a leveling kit so I went a 2.5 inch leveling kit I just need to fill some space with bigger tires. Good luck:thumbup2:

[AH64ID]

That's a WIDE tire for OEM rims. I personally didn't like the fact that 285/70/17's took a pressure change each time the load was changed to keep the tread flat, I can't imagine the PITA that would be on 315's. Unless you are at a constant and HEAVY weight I wouldn't consider that a good choice. Being 75's they may not be as bad, but that's still a lot of section width compared to the rim width.

[diesel4life]

The duratrac by goodyear are a little pricey but so far they have been a great tire. They do very well in the snow and. As good as could be expected in the mud for a 7k plus truck. I agree with the statement about bieng too wide but thats all personal preference.

[Homestead]

I ran BFG 315's for awhile on the OEM aluminum wheels and liked them a lot but couldn't get them to wear flat. I'm very picky about tire pressures and tires wearing flat across the tread so I do all the tricks to get there....chalk the tread, etc etc.I needed up getting rid of them at about 25,000 miles.I am now running Goodyear Duratracs in 285 size and they wear dead flat with mileage sitting at about 70,000 miles on them right now.I have talked to and know a few people who run 315 Duratracs on stock OEM wheels and they get the same results that I am getting so the next tire purchase, real quick actually will be 315 Duratracs.The Duratrac is in my mind an awesome tire. Up here in Alberta, we get every scenario when it comes to weather and conditions and throw living on a farm into the mix and you get a good workout for a tire. I have zero complaints about them, never had a flat to date and recommend them.Jeff

[CUMMINSDIESELPWR]

ill be getting the duratracs in the 315/75/16 size here shortly been researching for weeks while funds become available. nice thing with the 315's they are 3ply sidewall, load E (i think) and good for offroading! ive heard negative things from folks running a lesser load duratrack on heavy rigs but it just makes sense. c load tires arent meant for our rigs

[diesel4life]

[C rated tires are designed for dakotas and rangers, they would be grossly overloaded and dangerous to run on these heavy trucks. When i bought my former 2000 it had 8 plys on it. They were in good shape tread wise but the front end had a wobble to it i just couldnt figure out, esp if the truck was loaded. After checking the front end out a few times and having it aligned, i finally condemned the tires and bought a set of 10 plys. It felt like a different truck, night and day difference. Ill personally never use anything else on my rig. As far as a good mud tire, ive always had better luck with a slightly narrower tread. It lets you push past the slop that gums up your treads and digs right into the hard pack. Then again, it probably all depends on the area you live in. Around here once you get past the top soil theres generally a decent layer of clay underneath. Swampy areas may be a different story.

[flagmanruss]

My OEM wheels are losing the plating around the center cap & I'm thinking of new rims when I finally deep 6 the Michilins that came on it. I'm stock height wise & with my legs, getting in is not a sure thing even with the step I added. BUT, I'm wondering if I could get away with 17's which are only 1/2" higher than my 16's in the same size... without lifts or other changes. Reason I'm thinking this is the 4.10 gears which for better or worse, I'm running... but a bigger circumfrance would cut into the final ratio a bit. Thoughts?

[AH64ID]

Most 265/70/17's are within ± 0.5" of 265/75/16. Only half of that will effect you entry height, and I doubt you notice any of it on cruise rpms. The only way to drop rpm's would be to go a size larger, with a 285, in either rim height, it's about a 4% reduction in cruise rpm, and about a 0.5" gain in entry height.

[diesel4life]

Many people run take offs from 3rd and 4th gen trucks with no issues (they are 17" wheels). Ive actually been looking for a set of 4th gens for a while now but havent had any luck. Theres pros and cons to them, for starters theres not as many options for tire sizes in the 17 as the 16 inch rim. Plus they are a little more money when replacing tires. But they do handle a little better than a comparable size tire with a 16" wheel (less side wall, less roll). I think they look better also. But your not going to change the overall height unless you go to a taller tire like a 75 or even an 85 which you could do with your 16" wheels for less money. My truck had factory size tires when I bought it and I went to a 285 75 which measures around 32" iirc. So it does give you more top end gearing per say but at the expense of fuel mileage. I lost about 1 mpg by stepping up.

[LiveOak]

Not meaning to resurrect an old thread but I am about the pull the trigger on 8 more tires.  These are the SAME tires that are what I was discussing above in this post.  These have been great tires, the tread holds up fantastic, we only had one flat and that was because some ****** bag shot on of these tires but otherwise they have done very, very well.  Most of them still have quite a bit of tread left on them but these tires are pushing 9 years old and some of them may be older.  Typically it is recommended NOT to run a tire for more than 6 years and in some instances I believe BFG says upto 10 years if they are regularly inspected.  I'm not sure I want to take that chance especially since we periodically make sugar barrel runs and being her truck is a long bed carries eight 450 lb. barrels of sugar and mine being a short bed carries six 450 lb. barrels of sugar.  I have been searching and reading reviews on various brands and size tires and the BFG's seem to have by FAR the best review (I can understand why).  I would like to go with the 295/75R-16's but this is a very odd size tire and few if any stores carry them so if we ever needed to have a tire replaced while on the road, we would either have to wait for a special order to come in of buy all new tires.  295's rub very little, fill up the wheel well, and provide great traction & flotation for when we are driving off road.  In order to stay with a tire size that is readily available and widely carried, we would have to drop down to the 285/75R-16's which I do NOT want to do, or step up to the 315/75R-16's which we currently are running and aside from the lower track bar rubbing issue have had very good luck with.  The only draw back is and AH64ID mentioned it above is that if we are not carrying any load or much of a load, the rear tires must be deflated to around 35 - 45 psi or whatever allows the tire tread to run flat on the pavement so as to provide an even wear pattern which so far has not been a big deal for us.  The 315's also have the highest available weight bearing capacity.  

 

These are what I am planning to order:

 

All-Terrain T/A® KO2

 

BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 315/75R16 127 R Tire

 

As much as I hate to support Walmart, they have stores nationwide and a decent road hazard warranty in the event we had to replace a tire.   

 

The floor is open for discussion, opinions, feed back, rotten tomato's, etc.  

[LiveOak]

I was also looking at these too.  Has anyone used these tires?  If so, what was your experience with them?

 

Kelly Safari TSR 315/75R16 127 Q Tire

[Doubletrouble]

 I haven't used them but I had a half ton not long ago with 33x12.50x15 Firestone destination M/T 2's on it. For an off road tire they were great in mud, snow and whatever else you get into. I don't know what they have in the way of a heavy duty tire but might be worth a look.

 Also, a good friend of mine has a dodge 2500 crew/long bed Cummins and he runs procomp's. Not sure which model but they're pretty aggressive as well. He loves them.

 Just thought I'd throw in my $.02

[Mopar1973Man]

All i can say is swap the axle gears for 4.10s. Final ratio will be too low.

[LiveOak]

I have been going back and looking over my notes and why I purchased the 295/75R-16's in the past and I forgot that they are as far as I know the largest size true load range E/10 ply rated 128 load index tire that will fit on our trucks.  

 

Unfortunately Walmart cannot get them right now and cannot order them either.  I suspect due to the Corona Virus situation.  I am not sure if they will ever get them in stock in a reasonable time frame.  Walmart does have the Toyo Open Country A/T II 295/75R16 128 R Tire in stock.  

 

Does anyone here have any experience with Toyo tires?  I have never heard anything bad about them and the builder that came to the farm to look at our home building site had them on his 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 and he said he liked them and has not had any issues with them.  

 

I am very concerned that as our nation continues to circle down the world's toilet, that more and more things that we use and take for granted are always available will NOT be.  There is already a  wood/building supply shortage, automobile shortage, gun shortage, ammo shortage, shoes, to some degree various foods, and I could go one.  Yet a symptom of how our political leaders have sold AmeriKa out and addicted it to cheap Chinese schitt!  (rant over)  I am beginning to think that I should buy what I can get now before they are not available.  (I ran into a similar situation with ordering tires for our Kubota RTVX 1100C) 

 

I have tried the El Cheapo tires in the past and although they did pretty good on the road, they were horrible off road and were EASILY punctured by rocks.   

 

If the Toyo tires are a good tire and Toyo has a record of good quality products, I think I would be happy with them but would prefer the BFG's.  

 

I have not pulled anything heavy in years, only the occasional load of sugar barrels.  The 315's with the 3.54 gears although pretty tall, do get great fuel mileage when the truck in not loaded heavily.  The taller tires and off road tread I need for ground clearance and traction in mud and and off road use.  

[Mopar1973Man]

315's tires make your final ratio 3.27:1 to the ground way too low in final ratio you NEED to change to 4.10 gears to reduce stress on the drive line. MPG number is not correct either being your odometer is no longer close to correct and percent offset don't work either. You need to track mileage with a GPS. Optimal final ratio should be 3.55 to 3.73. Like myself I went from 31.7 inch (235/85 R16) tires to 30.5 inch (245/75 R16) tires and final ratio is 3.69:1. Really hard on the transmissions and driveline. 

[storylor]

I have the Nitto Exo Grappler tires on my 2016 RAM 2500 Laramie Crew Cab. I love the way it performs on and off road. 

[LiveOak]

As it turns out, Walmart finally showed the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 295/75R16 128 R Tires in stock and allowed ordering.  I immediately ordered 8 of these tires.  I have been using this size or larger for almost almost 17 years.  I get what you are saying about final drive ratio.  I may change ring and pinion set when and if I update the axles with Eaton Truetrac differentials.  In the mean time this set up works for me.  Thanks for the replies and suggestions.  

[LiveOak]

Just wanted to get back to the forum and let everyone know that my mounting and balancing experience went MUCH better than expected but then again, they knew I was standing right there watching them work on my baby.  The girl who logs in customers for tire service got in my truck to move it and I immediately noted the WTF look on her face so I immediately began walking towards my truck thinking "does she even know how to drive a manual transmission vehicle???  Turns out she did NOT and the rest of the shop saw me walking that way and the manager who DID know how to drive a manual transmission vehicle brought my truck in the shop. 

 

From there on, it went pretty smooth.  The guys in the shop asked me why I was replacing the tires as they still had a LOT of tread remaining.  I told them the tires were at least 10 years old and I felt they were NOT safe.  I could sense their intentions of re-using my tires until they started removing them from the wheels and the side walls tore they were so dry rotted.  It WAS LONG PAST time for those tires to go to the shredder.  I again warned them about using the old tires and they had decided to not use them.  

 

These tires were soooooooooooooooooo much smoother, no wondering around on the road, and just as quiet as the old tires.  They did a good balance job as I took a short run up to about 85 mph indicated on a remote stretch of road which was probably well over 90 mph and they were still pretty smooth.  

 

Now I can pick up a load of sugar barrels or a 330 gallon IBC tote of sugar syrup with confidence and not be close to over loading the tires weight capacity.  These tires are about 3/8 inch in width less and about a half inch less tall than the old tires.  Lastly, I can again now make sharp turns and NOT rub the lower track bars.  The final drive ratio is a bit better but still pretty tall but very tolerable.  

 

I'll come back and update this post at a later date to let your know how these tires are performing long term.  For now, I'm very happy with them!  

[Doubletrouble]

Glad to hear you had e had a good experience buying your trucks new shoes. 

 It's amazing how many people do not know how to drive a manual trans vehicle. It like a built in theft deterrent these days. Lol