You’re probably here now for the very same reason I wrote this article. You need 4 x 4 truck tires and you don’t know the first step. Well, hopefully by the end of this article, you’ll know exactly what you need to know to be able to go out and shop with confidence and know that you are getting the best 4 x 4 truck tires that you could get to suit your situation and vehicle.
At first picking out your 4 x 4 truck tires just seems like picking out anything else. You go into the store and pick them up! Then you see the differnt sizes and are asked about loads, terrain and measurements that mean absolutely nothing to you. So let’s start at the beginning.
I’m sure you have a budget in mind and if you don’t you can skip this part. But for those of us that have a budget, that kind of narrows the choices right away. I also pick up on a lot of people opinions in 4 x 4 truck forums. You can go into any thread and get reviews that come from real people that have used the tires under real conditions.
Now.. 4 x 4 truck tires bring images of a huge truck crushing it’s way over a bunch of defensless little smart cars with a big toothy snarl painted on the grill. Maybe that’s just in my head. At any rate, the size of your tires depends on what you are using them for or, how cool you want to look.
So I guess that makes your first choice one of are you going for cool factor or performance and usage first?
If you are going to be using the vehicle under harsh conditions as well as road then the the 4 x 4 truck tires that you get will have to both be quiet on the road as well as hook up in the mud. There is a bit of a connection between how soft and grippy your tires are versus how well they will wear. So ultimate mud slinging ability will probably mean quick replacement if you choose to also make those tires endure your daily 30 minutes ride to and from the office.
I won’t really get into the low profile tires because most people looking for 4 x 4 truck tires specifically are usually into 4 x 4 because they like off road and low profile tires are well, not the best for bumps and clearance reasons.
Here is where the real gap between on road and off road 4×4 truck tire choice comes in. The tread. The spaces are wider on a truck tire meant for the mud versus one that will be used for the road and needs to grip pavement. The mud slash off road tire wants large gaps between the treads so that it can pull through and fling off the slippery mud. Large gaps on a street tire mean less gripping surface and less ability to put the power to the road.
With those couple of considerations in hand you are actually getting close to going and looking at some tires. Now go grab your owners manual for you truck. Inside you’ll find the class of tire and size requirements that you’ll need for that particular vehicle. I say use the owners manual because then you can put it beside you while you check out tires on the computer. If you don’t have the manual though the drivers side door usually has it on a sticker there somewhere.
Now that you know what stock looks like you have to figure out if your new 4 x 4 truck tires are going to be stock or if you are going to bump it up a bit. This is where it gets tricky because the amount of size increase you can accept depends on clearance issues. If you get a new set of 4×4 truck tires and slap them under the beast without checking this stuff, you’ll hear some awful noises the first time you hit a big bump or take a sharp turn. You might even leave body panels behind.
We all want to get the most bang for our buck so if you are wanting to keep these tires on as long as possible and you are down to your final two choices you can look at the uniform tire quality grading or UTQG and comparing this grading between the two tires will tell you the tread wear ability of each. Obviously the better the rating the longer the tire will last.
Now having gone the independent route myself and trying to figure out what to do, use and a bunch of other time wasting activities.. gues what I ended up doing? Walking into a tire shop and asking the professional what would be the best deal on a tire that would go on my vehicle if I wanted to do this with it. Then I took it from there. Funny. Ask a professional and save yourself the time and effort. Sound advice.
Oh, and before you buy ask if there is a special coming up. I was going to buy some 4 x 4 truck tires in August and I just asked if there were any specials coming up and there were. If I waited 3 weeks (hard I know) I would be able to get 4 tires for the price of three. Worth asking eh?
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