Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Tire Options

My 2014 Ram is going to need a set of tires by mid-summer. I'm looking for something not made by BFG or Goodyear. Snow and wet conditions are what I have the most issues with. The stock Goodyear Wrangler SRA's that came on the truck were OK in sand, gravel and mud. Sucked in snow and rain.

I put BFG KO2's on at 50K miles and they've not impressed me either. I do have 62K miles on them, so that part is decent.

I do hit the woods on most weekends whether it be fishing, atv's or logging roads. Lots of gravel roads, plenty of sand, plenty of snow, and some mud.

What are you guys using that you like?

What I've noticed over the years, we are talking using 4WD's for some 49 yrs. of experience here, is that there are two sets of conditions where one needs a 4WD. One is on pavement with snow and ice. The other is what you are concerned about. Mud, sand, and soft snow.
For your use, there is no perfect answer, but some understanding will help. Soft, deep sand requires enough tire to float over the sand with the truck's load. Differentials that shift power to the wheel with traction help a lot. Frankly, unless your are driving over sand dunes, I've found I don't need big wide tires. The biggest Michliens ( Sp ?) I can mount, 265's, on my stock Ram wheels work fine, even with my heavy camper, at least most of the time. They work fine on icy roads. Rubber that doesn't get hard when really cold, and special cuts on the tread to allow the tire to flex and clean allow them to grip really well on nasty icy roads.
But they are a poor choice for real off road use. The softer rubber get eaten off the tires quickly. They have little side wall protection. And they load up with mud. That's why most real off road tires have harder rubber and stiffer, beefed up sidewalls. For mud use, they have the classic mud patterns. These work well in soft snow if it isn't too deep. The trouble is they don't last long with "mud & snow" thread patterns.
Frankly, any tire used off road is not going to last near as long as one that stays on the highway.
You've been using AT tires. These are a compromise. But they don't work well in soft snow, or mud. What you can do with them is to mount snow chains. Those will make a world of difference in snow or mud. But, of course, they are a pain the neck to use.
Good luck.

Toyo Open Country AT IIs, Cooper AT3s, Falken Wildpeak AT3W, NItto G2 Terra Grapplers


I have BFG KO2s on my truck currently, but those were all tires I gave consideration to. The Toyos were 2nd choice to the BFGs.

Lots of good tires available nowadays that its hard to chose. This winter I went with Kumho roadventure AT 51. Been a very good tire for snow packed and ice covered roads. The National Park Service runs them and I was impressed with their performance when I was riding along. We were on some steep & icy trails and I mentioned that he was still in 2WD, he said “I know “. Never did engage 4WD.

If you are working at heavy loads, look at the Cooper SST's they have a much stiffer side wall than most.I don't believe any tire on a pickup without 4wd will do much good in the snow unless you put 1000 pounds in the bed,and maybe chains

I am running Cooper ATP's and liking them. The AT3 is similar and more widely available.

Cooper AT3's (my 14 Taco) USA

Falkin AT3W's (Thailand)

new ones from General........linky........Mexico ?

http://generaltire.com/tires/light-truck-crossover-suv/grabber-a-t-x

Discount Tire Direct !!!!!!!!!

https://www.discounttiredirect.com/

Take a look at the Nitto Ridge Grapplers, very nice tire. I’ve been running a set of 35” ones on my wife’s Jeep since last summer and they have been great. We had a pile of snow this year and she loved them on the ice and snow. She said much better than the Duratracs she had on before.

Probably what I’ll be putting on my F150 when my current tires wear out.

Thank you gentlemen. I’m considering the cooper at3 so far but I’ll check out the others as well.

I've run Toyo Open Country MTs on my last two trucks. The current truck has 30K on the tires, the most I've ever gotten ... any tire, any vehicle. They are not "done" but they are in sight of replacement. I'll probably do the same again. 4 years on a set of tires is something of a miracle for me. Although ... I lost about 2 mpg when I switched to them. That's around 5%, maybe a touch more, so it's worth considering other options.

Tom

Another vote for AT3s from me. It's about the best compromise I've found.

Happy with the AT3's on my Tundra.

Hankook DynaPro ATM's on mine

I am partial to the Hankook Dynapro ATM. Most of my off-road driving is in sandy washes and ranch roads.

Back in Jan I put Nitto ExoGrapplers on my F-250PSD. They are far and away the best I've ever had on hard-packed snow/ice. They provide plenty of traction that I often don't use 4WD around town. "Go" is impressive, "Stop" is even more impressive, I can really feel them bite. No better or worse fuel mileage than what I got with my previous BFG ATKO2, noisier on the highway than the BFG though. Obviously I don't know how they'll wear long-term, but, I did have a set of Nitto TrailGrapplers on the same rig and they went 40K with easily another 10K, but, it was fall and I like good tires for hunting/winter driving so I replaced them early. On a 1/2 ton I'd expect 60K+ assuming regular rotations are the norm and smoky burnouts are not.

general grabbers

I have the Toyo Open Country RT's on my Ram 1500. They have been a great tire, they have around 20,000 miles left and still have great tread. They are a stiff tire, towed 8,000 pounds from here to Seattle over the summer and they were so stable. Love them off road and they are pretty quiet on the road. They are in between a normal all-terrain and mud terrain in tread pattern. Just another option.

I’ve owned a bunch of trucks and many sets of tires and I have pretty much gotten to where there’s only one tire I consider when buying new tires and that’s Toyo Open Country AT’s.

How about Falken Wilepeak A/T3? The look like a decent pattern and they're rated pretty well on Discount Tire.