Tires for dually pickup?

[Robert_in_NY]

I need to get new tires for my truck (2006 F350 crew cab long bed dually 4x4). This is the first time tire shopping for a dually truck. Normally I buy all terrains as I do use the truck around the farm and I deal with quite a bit of snow a few months of the year so what should I get? My mechanic has the same setup as I do and he recommends the cooper discover Ht3. My tire guy thinks I should stay with a standard all terrain where as my mechanic thinks the solid outer ribs will hold up better. What do you guys with dually experience think would be the best option. I trust both of these guys but my tire guy has a single rear wheel super duty and no real world personal experience with dual real wheel trucks other than selling tires when one occasionally comes in. Spending $1300 on tires isn't fun so I want them to hold up a couple years like on our single rear wheel trucks.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I need to get new tires for my truck (2006 F350 crew cab long bed dually 4x4). This is the first time tire shopping for a dually truck. Normally I buy all terrains as I do use the truck around the farm and I deal with quite a bit of snow a few months of the year so what should I get? My mechanic has the same setup as I do and he recommends the cooper discover Ht3. My tire guy thinks I should stay with a standard all terrain where as my mechanic thinks the solid outer ribs will hold up better. What do you guys with dually experience think would be the best option. I trust both of these guys but my tire guy has a single rear wheel super duty and no real world personal experience with dual real wheel trucks other than selling tires when one occasionally comes in. Spending $1300 on tires isn't fun so I want them to hold up a couple years like on our single rear wheel trucks.

Only owned one dually back in 96 and 97 but remember it was more important to have good tires on it vs SRW trucks.

I am sold on the Goodyear DuraTracs. Had them on 3 trucks now.

The Coopers are a good tire also as is Yokohama. I have had good luck with Falken also but they are a trade off. Budget vs performance.

Chris

 

[Looking4new]

I would take the mechanics' advise.

 

[DT86]

I'd stay away from Cooper Discover.

I had a set that was sh*t. Let the same guy talk me in to a second set for a huge discount. They were also junk.

 

[yelbike]

Only owned one dually back in 96 and 97 but remember it was more important to have good tires on it vs SRW trucks.

I am sold on the Goodyear DuraTracs. Had them on 3 trucks now.

The Coopers are a good tire also as is Yokohama. I have had good luck with Falken also but they are a trade off. Budget vs performance.

Chris

I'm having duratracs installed on Tuesday. I've had two sets on my wife's trucks. They've been great.

 

[brown40]

I've been looking at options on "tire rack dot com"... it's nice that they have ratings, miles driven, performance characteristics, pricing, and recommendations for each vehicle--whether you buy there or not, its a good source for information. The "E" rating is the limiting factor for DRW options, and it ups the price considerably. I have general altimax snow tires on our two cars, and they are fantastic, but don't carry the tow rating for DRW. You pay for the extra plies and rating as trucks get heavier, and lose a lot of options. It'd be a good starting point to determine your budget, and whether you're looking for durability, wet road performance, ice traction, etc.

 

[Looking4new]

I have Dunlop Mud Rovers on my 4x4 and I won't have another set. I am going back to Pro-Comps even if I have to step up a size. Pro-Comp stopped making 30x9.5x15's so I will have to go to 31x10.5x15. I have enough clearance on the fenders that IF I wanted I could go as high as 33's, but I would need new rims.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Budget wise isn't a huge issue. I'm not looking to spend any more than I have to but don't want to waste my money.

What I'm most curious about is the tires for cooper tires I listed have Solid outer ribs which are designed for commercial applications and are supposed to wear better. The all terrains are like most tires with grooves in the outer ribs but my mechanic believes they'll wear fast and possibly uneven.

I do need a tire that is good on pavement as I tow a 31' travel trailer as well as a 14' dump trailer and equipment trailer hauling the tractors and excavator. But I do work off payment often as well so that is why I'd prefer the all terrain tire. Just not sure how well they'll hold up on a dually because of what my mechanic warned me about.

 

[Looking4new]

I would still take what the mechanic said and run with it. The mechanic has a dually, he speaks from experience.

 

[BHD]

I have always ran an aggressive mud/snow type tire, on my two dually trucks, I have owned new a 1978 and have a second short bed 1980 one tone,
one thing with a dually your tires on the rear have more float, and when empty you can get stuck on very little snow, when I bought the 78 it had bias tires, and it would get stuck on a 1/3" of snow, the radial tires are much better, but with the dirt roads and blizzards and snow drifts, I want all the traction one can get, if the snow is really bad, take the duels off and run singles with out the dished wheel then the front and rear will track the same, or nearly the same,

most of the time I have been running retreads done by https://www.treadwright.com/?utm_so...il&utm_term=0_c40c145b9d-41d09b3a77-188141093

 

[terryknight]

we run ATs on all our dually trucks. pick up, dumps, the box truck, everything that may see anything other than pavement gets an AT of some kind

 

[Bird]

All my experience and knowledge is dated, but when I had a 1989 one ton dually, extended cab Chevy, living in and pulling a 32' fifth wheel, the original tires were about worn out when we decided to go to Alaska in March, 1991 (still lots of snow), I put a set of B. F. Goodrich All Terrain T/A tires on my truck and never had any complaints or problems with them; however, I probably only put about 10 to 12k miles on them before trading the truck and trailer for a motorhome.

 

[Btown]

My only words of advice is do not buy retreaded tires. They are cheaper and supposed to be good, but they are not. Know someone bought 6 for his dually. Not even 5k on them and one fell apart. That one was on the front of the truck. Just not worth your safety. I think they should be illegal on tractor trailer trucks too. Up here in the northeast the seem to be all over our highways.

 

[coobie]

As someone else posted go to 301 Moved Permanently and do a lot of reading on reviews of tires.Very informative site.

 

[bucktaker]

I run mich LTx on my 07 gmc CC 4x4 diesel Dually

 

[Bird]

My only words of advice is do not buy retreaded tires. They are cheaper and supposed to be good, but they are not. Know someone bought 6 for his dually. Not even 5k on them and one fell apart. That one was on the front of the truck. Just not worth your safety. I think they should be illegal on tractor trailer trucks too. Up here in the northeast the seem to be all over our highways.

You know ONE person who had bad luck with a retread? I've known lots of cases of NEW tire failures. That's the reason for warranties. It's been many, many years but I ran a full set of 4 on car with never a problem once and I ran just 2 on another car with no problem.

I think they should be illegal on tractor trailer trucks too. Up here in the northeast the seem to be all over our highways

I assume you are talking about the tire rubber you see along the highway. Did you ever stop to inspect any of it? If you do, you can determine whether it might have been retread that came off, or whether it was a tire that came apart, tread, cords, and all. When one of my brother owned a couple of 18-wheelers, he said he got more mileage from the retreads than from the original new tires.

A blanket statement to not buy retreaded tires is like a blanket statement to not buy a particular brand of car, truck, or tractor.

 

[Btown]

You know ONE person who had bad luck with a retread? I've known lots of cases of NEW tire failures. That's the reason for warranties. It's been many, many years but I ran a full set of 4 on car with never a problem once and I ran just 2 on another car with no problem. I assume you are talking about the tire rubber you see along the highway. Did you ever stop to inspect any of it? If you do, you can determine whether it might have been retread that came off, or whether it was a tire that came apart, tread, cords, and all. When one of my brother owned a couple of 18-wheelers, he said he got more mileage from the retreads than from the original new tires. A blanket statement to not buy retreaded tires is like a blanket statement to not buy a particular brand of car, truck, or tractor.

I work on interstate highways. Everyday highway workers remove them from the roadway. I have first hand experience of this everyday I work. They are junk.

 

[Btown]

You know ONE person who had bad luck with a retread? I've known lots of cases of NEW tire failures. That's the reason for warranties. It's been many, many years but I ran a full set of 4 on car with never a problem once and I ran just 2 on another car with no problem. I assume you are talking about the tire rubber you see along the highway. Did you ever stop to inspect any of it? If you do, you can determine whether it might have been retread that came off, or whether it was a tire that came apart, tread, cords, and all. When one of my brother owned a couple of 18-wheelers, he said he got more mileage from the retreads than from the original new tires. A blanket statement to not buy retreaded tires is like a blanket statement to not buy a particular brand of car, truck, or tractor.

I work on interstate highways. Everyday highway workers remove them from the roadway. I have first hand experience of this everyday I work. They are junk.

Have you ever seen what happens to a 80,000 tractor trailer when they blow a front tire. I have numerous times. It is not pretty. I have seen highways shut down for 4 plus hours to remove the wreckage. I value my families and other people's lives too much to skimp on tires.

 

[Soundguy]

you see people running caps on fronts? / tractors? vs just trailers?

 

[Bird]

I haven't kept up with the trucking laws in quite a few years, but the last I knew it was illegal to run retreads on the front axle of the 18-wheelers. So it's very likely that a blown front tire on an 18-wheeler was NOT a retread. Yep, tires that are not retreads have actually been known to blow out on both cars and trucks. But yes, I know a trucker could have violated that law, but I haven't personally seen one do that.

I once had a right rear tire on a 1956 Mercury blow out when I was doing more than 100 mph. I also had a left front tire blow out doing more than 100 mph on a 1966 Chevrolet police sedan. No power steering on either of those vehicles, neither had retread tires, neither had worn out tread, and neither resulted in any kind of accident or loss of control, so blaming accidents on retread tires without doing a proper investigation is nonsense.

But since all retreads are junk (according to Btown), I just don't understand how Bandag has been able to keep selling them to trucking companies for more than 50 years. If an accident occurs as bad as Btown is talking about, the police (state or local) should have had an accident investigation specialist to determine the exact cause. Of course the cause MAY very well have been a blown front tire, and that tire MAY or MAY NOT have been a retread.

And of course it's been about 43 years since I graduated from the Northwestern University Traffic Institute's Long Course (9 months), and it's been about 23 years since I worked in a tire dealership, so some of my knowledge is admittedly dated.