Best forest service road tire

[aorams]

Bought my first new truck ever and thinking about doing an immediate tire upgrade for hunting season. It came with Michelin LTX Trail 265 70R18. These may be just fine but I’m looking for recommendations on tires that’ll get me through the rainy fall seasons here in WA. Truck is a ‘22 Toyota Tundra. Not interested in getting bigger tires just more appropriate ones. Recommendations?

 

[Ag 04]

Tires are in short supply, so best of luck. Try to get a 3 ply sidewall.

 

[Tmac]

Bought my first new truck ever and thinking about doing an immediate tire upgrade for hunting season. It came with Michelin LTX Trail 265 70R18. These may be just fine but I’m looking for recommendations on tires that’ll get me through the rainy fall seasons here in WA. Truck is a ‘22 Toyota Tundra. Not interested in getting bigger tires just more appropriate ones. Recommendations?

That tire tread pattern will do surprisingly well on Forest Service roads. It won’t do mud well, but most don’t. It is at risk in rocky terrain due to the likely 4 ply tread 2 ply side wall rating. I had my Tundra in rain, snow and ice, they performed very well. The main reason to upgrade from it is puncture resistance Imo. I went to a 10 ply tread 2 ply sidewall rating Falkin Wildpeaks. I did go up in size to LT275 70R18‘s. The LTX does come in a 10ply E rated tire I believe. The Wildpeaks are a AT Mud Terrain hybrid. There are a number of others too. For forest service roads a regular AT tread is good. Maybe get a good AT design in an 8 or 10 ply, Cooper, Toyo, etc., and put the original tires back on after hunting season as they will ride better on road.

 

[swavescatter]

Pick your tread/size but get a 10ply as described above. These are generally sold as load range E now but are the 10 ply that folks refer to.

Lower your tire pressure and the ride won’t be so bad. If you run the pressure on your door jamb you’ll lose a couple teeth. Look up the load rating for that specific tire versus pressure if you’re towing. Chances are that you won’t need as much pressure to match your factory tire load ratings at the stock PSI.

Unloaded I’d run about 35 PSI or lower on forest roads.

 

[aorams]

That tire tread pattern will do surprisingly well on Forest Service roads. It won’t do mud well, but most don’t. It is at risk in rocky terrain due to the likely 4 ply tread 2 ply side wall rating. I had my Tundra in rain, snow and ice, they performed very well. The main reason to upgrade from it is puncture resistance Imo. I went to a 10 ply tread 3 ply sidewall rating Falkin Wildpeaks. I did go up in size to LT275 70R18‘s. The LTX does come in a 10ply E rated tire I believe. The Wildpeaks are a AT Mud Terrain hybrid. There are a number of others too. For forest service roads a regular AT tread is good. Maybe get a good AT design in an 8 or 10 ply, Cooper, Toyo, etc., and put the original tires back on after hunting season as they will ride better on road.

Thanks! I like what I’ve been reading about the wild peaks. Are yours on the same truck?

 

[BravoNovember]

Cooper discover AT3 XLT is the only tire I’ll get put on now.

 

[Tmac]

Pick your tread/size but get a 10ply as described above. These are generally sold as load range E now but are the 10 ply that folks refer to.

Lower your tire pressure and the ride won’t be so bad. If you run the pressure on your door jamb you’ll lose a couple teeth. Look up the load rating for that specific tire versus pressure if you’re towing. Chances are that you won’t need as much pressure to match your factory tire load ratings at the stock PSI.

Unloaded I’d run about 35 PSI or lower on forest roads.

Tire Pressure Calculator

Easy to use tire pressure calculator. Use our tire pressure calculator to calculate the new tire pressure needed when changing tire sizes.

tiresize.com

You might want to run some numbers here. My 2019 Tundra with factory 4 ply Michelins at 30 and 33 pounds has a given load rating. The 10 ply E rated Falkins needed 40-43 pounds to achieve the same load rating. It's worth a look. I did go up a size in my comparison above, not sure how much that matters.

Counter intuitive, but I’ve had it verified by manufacturers. I do not know why, my guess is the stiffer side wall, while tougher, needs more air pressure as it does not flex as well, which could build up heat faster at lower pressures. If someone knows the reason, I’d love to know.

 

[Tmac]

Thanks! I like what I’ve been reading about the wild peaks. Are yours on the same truck?

2019 Tundra. Factory 4 ply 275/65’s, Wildpeaks are 10 ply 275/70’s. Basically went from a 32“ to a 33“ ish tire. Also raised the front an inch with a mild suspension lift. Mileage dropped, put a hard tonneau on and milage went back close to factory. I wanted a little more ground clearance and tougher tires, for rocky blm roads. Most forest service roads I have been on are better than most blm roads, especially the less traveled ones.

 

[Tmac]

Thanks! I like what I’ve been reading about the wild peaks. Are yours on the same truck?

As far as the Wildpeaks, so far very impressed. They have little road noise for such an aggressive tread. 18k miles on them so far, wearing very well. I had duratrac’s on a different rig, after 10k miles noisy as heck. I came from regular AT design Coopers and Toyo’s, which were not overly noisy either and did very well.

 

[Ralphie]

I put 10 ply hankook dynapros on my Toyota land cruiser. Not saying they are the best but I’m happy with them. And I’ll air down to 25 or so for rocky roads and slow going.

 

[swavescatter]

Tire Pressure Calculator

Easy to use tire pressure calculator. Use our tire pressure calculator to calculate the new tire pressure needed when changing tire sizes.

tiresize.com

You might want to run some numbers here. My 2019 Tundra with factory 4 ply Michelins at 30 and 33 pounds has a given load rating. The 10 ply E rated Falkins needed 40-43 pounds to achieve the same load rating. It's worth a look. I did go up a size in my comparison above, not sure how much that matters.

Counter intuitive, but I’ve had it verified by manufacturers. I do not know why, my guess is the stiffer side wall, while tougher, needs more air pressure as it does not flex as well, which could build up heat faster at lower pressures. If someone knows the reason, I’d love to know.

Interesting. For sure worth reading into for your specific setup. Most people never actually scale their trucks either so they have no idea what weight their tires are seeing…

 

[Tmac]

Interesting. For sure worth reading into for your specific setup. Most people never actually scale their trucks either so they have no idea what weight their tires are seeing…

Yep, I‘d have lost my lunch money had I bet on it.

 

[Amos Moses]

I’ve been a big fan of the BFG KO2s on my 17 f150. I’m probably close to 40k miles on them and lots of life left. They start out real quiet, but I’m getting a bit more road noise now. You’ll also feel the bumps in the road a lot more with a 10ply.

 

[chizelhead]

I would go more than 4 ply even though on FS roads you will likely be fine with 4 ply. I liked 6 ply tires which I thought was a good compromise, but they don't seem to make them anymore. I have 8 ply BFG KO2 which I like and hard to go wrong. I've used Goodyear Duratracs with good success. I ride on them all year with no problems so I don't think it's worth switching tires through the year unless you like doing that sort of thing.

 

[JoeDirt]

I put thousands of miles on a year driving on logging/forestry roads for work.

No siping, the less the better. Little rocks will get stick in there and eventually work through.

Mud terrain seem to do better. (less siping)

10 ply load range "E" seems to do better (no sidewall pinching)

A hard tire chips and is worse (chips and as bad as siping)

For example a lot of loggers use M55 tires, they are too hard.

I personally run Cooper ST Maxx and they have been flawless, I do pack a compressor and tire plugs.

 

[CoStick]

As far as the Wildpeaks, so far very impressed. They have little road noise for such an aggressive tread. 18k miles on them so far, wearing very well. I had duratrac’s on a different rig, after 10k miles noisy as heck. I came from regular AT design Coopers and Toyo’s, which were not overly noisy either and did very well.

They are great until about mid tread and they get noisy. Really noisy, they are about the perfect tire for the first half of their life for sure,

 

[aorams]

I put thousands of miles on a year driving on logging/forestry roads for work.

No siping, the less the better. Little rocks will get stick in there and eventually work through.

Mud terrain seem to do better. (less siping)

10 ply load range "E" seems to do better (no sidewall pinching)

A hard tire chips and is worse (chips and as bad as siping)

For example a lot of loggers use M55 tires, they are too hard.

I personally run Cooper ST Maxx and they have been flawless, I do pack a compressor and tire plugs.

https://m.tirerack.com/tires/description.jsp?tireMake=Cooper&tireModel=Discoverer+S%2FT+Maxx&partnum=77QR8DSTM

These also seem pretty awesome. Could they be too much tire for my application?

 

[JoeDirt]

https://m.tirerack.com/tires/description.jsp?tireMake=Cooper&tireModel=Discoverer+S%2FT+Maxx&partnum=77QR8DSTM

These also seem pretty awesome. Could they be too much tire for my application?

No I have them on my Tacoma

 

[id_jon]

I just put a set of ST Maxxs on my 86 toyota pickup. They look great and are super quiet on the highway so far. I've only had them for a couple weeks, but they're awesome so far.

 

[sneaky]

I ran a couple of sets of ST Maxx on my Tacoma. Great tires, tough. You'll get a lot of miles out of them on a Tacoma if you rotate them regularly.