Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives load range C or E tires for half ton 4x4?

I put 265-75-16 rated load range E on my '03 Taco and the last time I had them rotated the tire guy said, "Gee, these are a little too large and rated too heavy for your truck, Why'd you go with these?"
I like them a little stiff and I had him check the mileage, 60K on a 50K warranty tire and they'll last till spring at least....

The only trade off is they're stiff when CRAWLING in rocks and the traction isn't as good as softer tires in Rocks but the sidewalls are as good as new and I'll buy them again for the 99.5% or driving I do.
No flats, no drama, throw a couple elk in back and drive home with a gear trailer behind.

Edit to add, My hunting partner much prefers load range C as they're softer and he's in the rocks a lot more than I am.

I'd probably stick with the P rated tires, given your description of how you use your truck.

I replaced the worn Michelins that came on my Tundra with stock size E rated Goodyear Duratracs. I got them since I do a fair amount of driving on logging roads, tow a 4,500 lb trailer, and haul occasional loads that are at the limit of what the truck can handle. While the D/T's are grippier off road and have the stronger sidewalls, there are significant downsides to them. They do not handle as well as the Michelins, acceleration and braking performance is noticeably reduced, the ride suffers, and I drop a couple of mpgs. I believe that this is due to the much greater weight of the E rated tires.

Long story short, I bought a set of OEM Tundra take off wheels and tires on Craigslist to use in the summer, and put the D/T's on in the fall and take them off in the spring since I do most off-roading during that time. It works for me, and the wife is happy with the cushy ride on summer road trips.

If I only wanted to mess with one set of wheels and tires, I'd get the P rated Michelins in the most aggressive tread they had, and call it a day.

[quote=sigguy

I replaced the worn Michelins that came on my Tundra with stock size E rated Goodyear Duratracs. I got them since I do a fair amount of driving on logging roads, tow a 4,500 lb trailer, and haul occasional loads that are at the limit of what the truck can handle. While the D/T's are grippier off road and have the stronger sidewalls, there are significant downsides to them. ]quote

I didn't find that to be the case.The DT sidewalls rolled on bends when under a heavy load,even inflated to max. This was on 2500 Dodge, Cummins along with a 1500" slide in, pop up camper, and a three horse bumper pull trailer, loaded. Running down the road at about 16,000 pounds total. I put Cooper SST Max's on it and it does much better

Sorry, you addressed a question to me and I was out of town. SL or standard load tires are the same as P (for passenger) rated tires. Here is a small chart that may help. The pressures listed are what achieves maximum load carrying capacity for the tire. So...if you run a E rated tire lower than 80, it's load carrying capacity is reduced from its rated max to something less. There are charts available to show what happens to carrying capacity as pressure is diminished. You don't need to run D or E tires at their max psi on a 1/2 ton, but you DO generally need to run them at a higher psi than the original P rated tires called for.

Link

One more link. It is maybe more than you wanted to know, but pay particular attention to page 11, which describes the procedure for determining the proper tire pressure when going from a P metric to an LT (D or E) rated tire.

Link

I can believe that. Your 3/4 ton diesel must weigh at least 1K lbs more than a 1/2 ton gasser, plus your load. I have to keep my D/T's at 48 lbs per tire on the Tundra empty, or it handles like crap. Yep, the sidewalls seem to have a lot of flex. By wanting stronger sidewalls, I was hoping for more abrasion resistance on the D/T's than the P series Michelins.

For Pat's needs, I still vote for a good P series tire like Michelins.

I had LT tires on our 1/2 ton suburban for several years without a problem, than switched to P-metrics. 2 flat later in the sidewalls and I am back to LTs, but this time they are Michelin Defenders E-rated. They run down the road real nice and mileage is as good or better than the P-metrics I had on before. The "P" were a different brand though.