M/T vs A/T and General Tire Discussion

[HARDTRAILZ]

Not with blacked out wheels. Turn the letters in.

[Wahugg]

I've always thought that white letters in is the more popular choice with off-roaders. It is ultimately up to you. As Kyle said, black on black matches well, but maybe you'll like the contrast of white on black. The only functional benefit of having the white letters in is saving them from rubbing up against curbs while street parking.

-Wahugg

[HARDTRAILZ]

Black wall is by far the "offroad" look.

[Trail X]

Well, the 285/70R17 fits without rubbing, lock to lock. Still no trimming needed with 33"ers.

I also confirmed that the Mastercraft are made in USA (I had heard they were made by Cooper, but I hadn't confirmed they were, nor had I confirmed they were made in USA).

It took a good bit of weight to balance them, but they ride real smooth. I expected the E range tires to ride rough, but I really like them so far. They feel much more stable than the C range.

The only negative I've found so far is that the tires don't have the "bead protector" feature built into the sidewall, but its a minor gripe. I knew the tires didn't have that before buying.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Look good. I am curious what PSI will work best with the E vs the C. My E pro comps wore perfect at fairly low 30ish psi because of the stouter construction.

[DirtyBacon04]

Lookin good James! Rig looks a lot better with the bigger tires.

[ErikSS]

Truck looks good James. My tire pressure monitors kick off around 32psi. I run 34psi to keep them off but I would probably run 30psi if the light didn't bug me.

[bartonmd]

Look good. I am curious what PSI will work best with the E vs the C. My E pro comps wore perfect at fairly low 30ish psi because of the stouter construction.

It's almost entirely width vs. sidewall dependent. The 245/70-17 LT/E BFT ATs wore perfectly at 45psi (where BFG told me to put them, for the TB), but wore the sides in a HURRY (like a couple hundred miles and the sides were low enough that I could visually tell a difference) at 32psi. The issue is sidewall strength vs. width. For a given width, the harder the sidewall, the higher the pressure needed to equalize the pressure from the tread to the pressure from the structure of the sidewall. With a wider tire, there's more square inches of contact patch to spread x-amount of load over, so as the tire gets wider, the pressure required to equalize load gets less. These LT265/70-17C BFT ATs are specified for around 37psi for the weight of the TB.

Call the manufacturer with the stock 245/65-17 at 32psi, and they'll tell you what pressure whatever size and load rating you put on needs. There are general load/inflation tables, but if they have one for that particular tire, it'll be more accurate.

Mike

[TBYODA]

Well, the 285/70R17 fits without rubbing, lock to lock. Still no trimming needed with 33"ers.

James I think you are on to something with pushing the LCA forward giving you + caster.

[Marineguy]

Hope y'all don't mind me butting into your conversation, but I've got a little experience with tires. I worked my way through college in a tire shop and probably sold and installed 5,000 tires in a four year period, on everything from sub-compacts to medium-duty dump trucks. One thing I can say about tires back then (1996-2000), Michelin made the absolute best tires out there. This was an indisputable fact. Of the hundreds if not thousands of Michelin tires I handled, I only saw two defects, and they were purely cosmetic. They X-rayed every tire before it left the factory. When mounted on the balancers, the tires had no run-out whatsoever, looking like they were cut by a CNC machine. I had some customers come back with "defects," but they were invariably due to poor alignment, bad shocks, underinflation, too-wide rims, or just general misuse. Michelin makes BF Goodrich tires; they have for decades. The BFG brand was always kind of an odd animal. They were suppsosed to fit between the Michelin and Uniroyal brands, yet the All-Terrain T/A, Mud-Terrain T/A, and Baja T/A were no-expense-spared awesome tires. They were priced the same (and in some ways made better) than the Michelin LTX A/T and LTX M/S, which were supposed to be the top of the line. Then there were the other tires, the Long-Trails, I think they were called. They were typical cheap tires. The thing is, they were OEM on a lot of trucks, and a lot of people go into a tire shop and just demand the same tire the manufacturer put on. So we sold lots of them. I think that's really the only reason Goodyear still sells tires. Their tires were junk, but they came stock on so many vehicles, people demanded them as replacements. They weren't cheap. Price was on par with Michelin, but quality was more in line with General, which were far more afforadable. I always liked General Tire, for those who want a good cheap tire. Bridgestone/Firestone always made good tires as well. They weren't Michelin quality, but they were good. They kind of got a bad rap with the whole Ford Exploder fiasco, but I attribute that more to Ford specing a top-heavy vehicle to run at a lower PSI to force the tires to skid rather than roll the truck. When people don't keep up with their pressures, they eventually drop to unsafe levels. When they start at 35 psi, you've got a lot more time to be lazy than when starting at 28 psi. Tires rarely "blow up." Usually people just drive around in blissful negligence until they get down to 15psi and ride on the sidewalls, which then rupture.
Speaking of tire pressure, the Michelin America Small Tires Fitment Guide (MAST) had a chart int he back which prescribed a specific tire pressure for numerous light truck tire sizes at specific axle weights. The number on the sidewall is a max; the number on the door placard is a recommendation. The only way to truly determine the right tire pressure for your vehicle in your load configuration (pavement running) is to constantly monitor your tread depth. If the shoulders start wearing, your pressure is too low. If the center is wearing, you're too pumped up. Of course if you don't rotate your tires, they shoulders will wear on the front no matter what.
An old trick to determine the correct pressure for your application is to draw a chalk line across the tread and go out on a short trip. Check the wear on the chalk line and adjust pressure accordingly.
Back to the original question, MT or AT? I go with ATs. My trucks are daily drivers as well. I've encountered very few obstacles I couldn't get past with aired-down ATs. I've had three sets of BFG AT T/As on two trucks and swear by them. I can't wait for the KO2s to come out so I can put a set on my Yukon. I only hope I can wait another month. I typically get 70k miles out of them. I found that MT tires were a lot more susceptible to cupping when customers failed to rotate frequently.
I think I might actually put a set of Firestones on the Envoy, just because I always buy my BFGs at Sam's Club, and they frown upon straying from the stock size, as I plan to do. I can get a great deal on Destination ATs at the Firestone dealer. Maybe it's time to try something new.