Tires for F-450

iamtheari

iamtheari

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Ari
One of my partnerships has a 2008 Ford F-450. The rear tires are showing sidewall cracks so I guess it's time to get at least 4 new tires, maybe 6. Our main use for the pickup is to pull a trailer with medium size equipment (e.g., a Bobcat T650 which should be about 9,000 lb) to a destination about 60 miles away. It's about 30 miles of pavement, 15 miles of decent gravel with moderate grades, and 10 miles of two-track dirt roads, also on moderate grades. It sees year-round use here in the tundra. It is used probably once a month at most.

The current fronts are Hankook DH07 in 245/70R19.5. The rears are Toyo Hyparadial in the same size. The rears are the ones with cracking sidewalls. The fronts look to be fine. But I'm okay replacing all 6 if it makes sense. Does anyone here have recommendations for us?
 
Just put Cooper's on my f550. No complaints so far. Beat the hell out of the stock Continentals.
 
Racerx said:
Just put Cooper's on my f550. No complaints so far. Beat the hell out of the stock Continentals.
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Thanks. Which Coopers? Any experience off the pavement? I'm totally new to commercial type tires but so far I do know that I don't want to spend that much dough to get 6 of something I hate. :)
 
I run Cooper Discoverer AT3 xlt on my Excursion. Good wear, not too noisy, good enough on gravel, snow (only tested in 8-10") and slick boat ramps. Just a good all around all-terrain. I wouldn't want to rely on them in truly nasty/deep mud or snow, but for mostly paved use with occasional runs in the soggy pasture or icy road they've done fine.

No complaints with Nitto TerraGrapplers either, but I like the Coopers more.
 
iamtheari said:
Thanks. Which Coopers? Any experience off the pavement? I'm totally new to commercial type tires but so far I do know that I don't want to spend that much dough to get 6 of something I hate. :)
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The one takeaway I have on tires for this size truck and up is the role of the sidewall. In a commercial truck type tire, the sidewall has more of a load bearing roll resulting in tire pressure being more critical, so airing down for offroad work is not a good choice, especially when loaded. This results in the tire being more of a pizza cutter when on soft surfaces.
 
TCABM said:
The one takeaway I have on tires for this size truck and up is the role of the sidewall. In a commercial truck type tire, the sidewall has more of a load bearing roll resulting in tire pressure being more critical, so airing down for offroad work is not a good choice, especially when loaded. This results in the tire being more of a pizza cutter when on soft surfaces.
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Thanks for that. It makes sense but I hadn’t thought about it. I’m not a hardcore off-roader so I don’t tend to mess with tire pressure or try to get through the two-tracks when it’s muddy. I just need something that can keep me moving up the gravel hills with a load on.
 
Roadmaster257. Most of my driving is highway. I do go on job sites and have to get in gravel or turf for my crane to reach, only 25'. Haven't had a problem there. But it's not far off road. The original Continentals sucked. They'd shed random chunks and finally had a blowout on a rear dual. Sounded like a .308.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I run Cooper Discoverer AT3 xlt on my Excursion. Good wear, not too noisy, good enough on gravel, snow (only tested in 8-10") and slick boat ramps. Just a good all around all-terrain. I wouldn't want to rely on them in truly nasty/deep mud or snow, but for mostly paved use with occasional runs in the soggy pasture or icy road they've done fine.

No complaints with Nitto TerraGrapplers either, but I like the Coopers more.
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My truck currently has Michelins but I've looked at Coopers as replacements when the time comes. Some suggest I use what came on the vehicle but I've read some great reviews on Cooper tires and they are a little less expensive. I did put Hankook tires on my van. They were a good tire for the price ...
 
I have always had bad luck with Goodyear.

Cooper is owned by Goodyear.
 
I have been running Cooper tires for years, and have been extremely satisfied. Never a premature failure or lumpy ride, and good life. Very satisfied.
 
I ran Cooper tires on pickups and 3/4 ton vans. Nothing but good luck.

One time I bought Goodyears for a 3/4 ton pickup that towed a open race car trailer. At 23 miles the left rear blew, doing damage to the fender. Luckily I made the remaining 70 miles to the track, then got 1 mile from home before the right rear blew, again damage to the fender. A Goodyear service center mounted the tires and set them at recommended air pressures after weighing the loaded truck and trailer. The service center was good enough to refund the money for the tires but the damage went another few years before it was settled.

So no Goodyears for me. And as much as I liked running Cooper tires it is unlikely I will trust anything Goodyear has it's hands in.

Presently I have Michelin's on my truck and have no complaints, but I am not sure I am wanting to pay the high price to replace with the same brand.
 
Michelin is best but expensive. I think falken is close to Michelin quality at a better price. Hankook is pretty good also.
I don't like Cooper's or Goodyear.
 
Given that you're running 19.5s, I would question whether the things most folks on here are used to running would be available. Commercial tires tend to be a different ball game.

The main thing is you've got steer/all position and drive tires. Given your description of how this gets used, I would make sure to put "drive" style tires on with some good treads, which is probably what you have now. Replacing all 6 isn't necessarily needed, but if you a 4x4 truck and the fronts are steers, it might make sense so you have more traction. With that kind of use you're describing, the tires will develop cracks before they run out of tread. So I would more look at an aggressive tread pattern and leave it at that.
 
225/70r19.5 cooper "Work" steer tires and Roadmaster 257 drives
 
Ted said:
Given that you're running 19.5s, I would question whether the things most folks on here are used to running would be available. Commercial tires tend to be a different ball game.

The main thing is you've got steer/all position and drive tires. Given your description of how this gets used, I would make sure to put "drive" style tires on with some good treads, which is probably what you have now. Replacing all 6 isn't necessarily needed, but if you a 4x4 truck and the fronts are steers, it might make sense so you have more traction. With that kind of use you're describing, the tires will develop cracks before they run out of tread. So I would more look at an aggressive tread pattern and leave it at that.
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Thanks for the detailed thoughts on tread wear. I'll have to research the fronts we have a bit more -- the truck is a 4x4 and I definitely want to get the benefit of that when it's needed. The DH07 on the front are marketed by Hankook as a 16-ply, M+S rated, regional haul, drive position tire. So I think I'm good there unless it's important to match fronts to rears.
 
I wouldn't worry about matching fronts to rears.
 
A much lighter vehicle, but I run light truck Cooper Discoverer AT3's on my Xterra. 265/75LT16. Great tread pattern for snow, not bad at all for dirt/mud, a bit noisy on the pavement but not terrible. I like them a lot.

The thing I would recommend checking is what the load rating and tire pressure should be for the weight of the vehicle. For mine, I run about 40 or 42 psi, and that seems to wear evenly and not be too harsh. With the trucks I've had if you have either a significantly higher load range than required tire or a high pressure, the truck feels like it's bouncing down the road. That may not apply to newer heavier trucks with better suspensions than I've driven, though, no idea.
 
The local tire shop has two options for us if we decide not to order online. The choices are Sailun S740 or Falken RI151. The latter sounds like a road-only tire, so I'm considering the Sailun. Does anyone know the brand or the tire and have a cautionary tale to share?
 
Albany Tom said:
A much lighter vehicle, but I run light truck Cooper Discoverer AT3's on my Xterra. 265/75LT16. Great tread pattern for snow, not bad at all for dirt/mud, a bit noisy on the pavement but not terrible. I like them a lot.

The thing I would recommend checking is what the load rating and tire pressure should be for the weight of the vehicle. For mine, I run about 40 or 42 psi, and that seems to wear evenly and not be too harsh. With the trucks I've had if you have either a significantly higher load range than required tire or a high pressure, the truck feels like it's bouncing down the road. That may not apply to newer heavier trucks with better suspensions than I've driven, though, no idea.
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Just about any 10+ply tire in an F-450 is going to feel like bouncing down the road unless you've got something heavy in tow, lol. Running 65-80psi isn't going to make the tire too compliant with bumps.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Just about any 10+ply tire in an F-450 is going to feel like bouncing down the road unless you've got something heavy in tow, lol. Running 65-80psi isn't going to make the tire too compliant with bumps.
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That makes sense, but a lot of it is subjective. The Xterra, or the Bronco I had years before that, weighed within 200 lbs of each other, at around 4400. With 6 ply at 35-40 psi they both rode great to me, with even tire wear. At 50 psi, they bounced down the road. But...friends would drive those vehicles with the 6s and think they were too rough.

The F-250 we had years ago was completely fine on 8 ply to me, but some people hated it. Maybe because the stock shocks were pretty much useless...but this was a 70's truck and they were all like that. And I'll take that back, the 70's Jeep/Kaiser pickups rode pretty smooth on the highway. Rough off rode and seemed to like to catch fire, but smooth on the highway.

I've never driven a 1 ton, but have 3/4 and 5 ton. Either of them will ride just fine, to me, with the right setup, so I'd have to think a 1 ton would, too, especially a new one.
 
I ran Sumitomo AT tires on my 1/2 ton for years. Now have cooper AT and like them as well. Sumitomo makes commercial truck tires and I wouldn’t hesitate to use on 250/350/450 type vehicle.
 
iamtheari said:
The local tire shop has two options for us if we decide not to order online. The choices are Sailun S740 or Falken RI151. The latter sounds like a road-only tire, so I'm considering the Sailun. Does anyone know the brand or the tire and have a cautionary tale to share?
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Looking at the tread of the sailun, it looks pretty comparable to the Roadmaster 257 I have. Roadmaster and Sailun both come out of China. Roadmaster however is a subsidiary of Cooper so that at least made me feel better about offshore tires. The Falken tread doesn't look like what your looking for.

Can always buy em online and have your shop put em on.
 
I do my best not to buy Chinese tires. Particularly for the front axle. Pulling a heavy trailer and losing a steer tire is usually a pretty bad day. Iirc i paid $800 each for the two US made steers i bought this summer vs the $300 Chinese option.

My experience has been then the Chinese tires dry rot much faster. To be fair, Michelin seems to have this problem as well. I also hear anecdotally of more Chinese tires having blowouts. A lot of farmers liked the "double coin" Chinese tires, but most would only run them on drives & trailers. I run recaps, which are probably no more reliable, but at least it's employing workers here and not Chinese semi-slave labor.

I've always been a Cooper fan, but most of their heavy duty and trailer tires have moved to China, so you have to be careful.

I don't have anything with that size wheel, so i can't give a specific recommendation.
 
I currently have a chevy 3500 and a F450. The F450 has the same size tire being discussed by Ari. Mine needs tires also but I don't run it on the highway or even off my own property very often so I haven't replaced them. They are expensive tires... Strictly based on prior experience with Falken, I would choose them again without reservation. We are really happy with the Falkens; they seem to be an underrated high quality tire.
 
FORANE said:
I currently have a chevy 3500 and a F450. The F450 has the same size tire being discussed by Ari. Mine needs tires also but I don't run it on the highway or even off my own property very often so I haven't replaced them. They are expensive tires... Strictly based on prior experience with Falken, I would choose them again without reservation. We are really happy with the Falkens; they seem to be an underrated high quality tire.
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What type of Falken? The type the local shop has looks very highway-only to me, but maybe they can order in something different since they carry the brand.
 
When the manufacturer lists "Tread depth", are they providing the depth to the physical bottom of the tread, or to the top of the wear indicator?
 
iamtheari said:
What type of Falken? The type the local shop has looks very highway-only to me, but maybe they can order in something different since they carry the brand.
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The ones we've bought a couple sets of were for car and van use. They were the FALKEN 255/55R18 109V XL ZIEX CT60 A/S BW https://a.co/d/6Qn0GgL

Looks like they also offer commercial sizes but they're pricey.
Falken BI-877 Open Shoulder Drive Cruiser Radial Tire-245/70R19.5 133M https://a.co/d/aDvIrrN
At that price I would likely take a chance on alternatives.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
When the manufacturer lists "Tread depth", are they providing the depth to the physical bottom of the tread, or to the top of the wear indicator?
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Whenever I have measured it's to the bottom of the tread. Maybe some manufacturers measure differently?
 
How many plies do you recommend?
 
Aggressive tread vs slick tires.
The aggressive treads actually have less rubber (much of the tread is air).
The slicks, much more rubber. Slick as in highway type tires.

Does this mean the slicks last longer?
(More rubber = longer time to wear that rubber down - also, smaller contact area means more stress per sq in of tread.)

Assuming other things like temp rating, rubber composition are the same.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
When I was driving in pastures with mesquite regularly, anything with less than 10 ply meant constant flat tires.
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I learned about ply ratings when I bought a Chevrolet 1500 and got 3 flat tires the first week I had it home. We don't have mesquite, but our "gravel" roads are usually surfaced with scoria, which is a localism for a type of clay baked by naturally burning coal veins. Thousands of miles of county roads are covered in dusty, brittle, pink razor blades. The former owner of my pickup had apparently never been off pavement.
 
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