Quote:
Originally Posted by Fill The Coolers
I've been snooping here and there about tires suitable for towing to go on my Ram 1500 this season. I had the OEM passenger tires on the truck which were fine when I was towing the pop up and then switched to Cooper Discoverer AT/3. That set wore quicker than a pencil eraser and brought me to eyeballing a set of Michelin Defender LTX M/S's. My OEM size was 275-65-R20 but in order to get a LT rated tire in 20" I have to switch to a LT265 60 R20. Has anyone made a switch from passenger to LT rating in a 20" size?
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I have. My truck came with stock P rated Pirelli Scorpions and I swapped them out for LT (Load Range E) Goodyear Duratracs. They are larger than stock diameter too. 285/60R20. The truck is much more stable footed and ride quality is still great. The Duratracs have a little hum to them at highway speed, but this is to be expected for a near mud tire. I air them up to 60psi rear and 50psi front when towing, and run 45psi all the other time. 35,000km on them and they still look new. Max pressure is 80psi.
This tire is overkill for a half ton but I did that on purpose. They aren't being pushed to their max loading, not even close. The Duratracs are also the lightest option for an off-road tire of this size and weight rating, nearly 20lbs lighter per tire than other mudders. This kept my fuel mileage from tanking after the swap.
They say that every 1lb of unsprung weight (rotational mass) added simulates 9lbs of carried load by the truck. So if you increase your tire weight by 10lbs per tire, 40lbs of added upsprung weight would equate to 360lbs the truck "feels" like it's carrying around all the time. Something to keep in mind when researching a new tire.