Starting to seriously think about replacing tires on the ranch truck. It's a 2500HD, 265/75/16 is the tire size. Currently have BFG KO2's and they have done pretty good but i always want to consider better alternatives, if they exist.

60% caliche roads, 25% on the ranch with mud and rocks, and 15% of the time is spent on the FM roads or state highways. Central Texas, Mills/Comanche/Hamilton counties. There is some flint in the caliche so it's hell on tires. Do need an E rated at minimum. Mesquites and *****ly pears abundant.

What's the best tire to hold up in these conditions with this intended vehicle use?

COVID did away with Kevlar tires for the most part, but we have some Goodyear MT. Kevlar that have been bulletproof.

But nothing wrong with what you running.

I also run some Nitto Mud Grapplers I think it is and get awesome mileage out of them. 50-60K and I'm on third set on my truck. Not in brush much but about 30% ranch roads of red dirt and caliche. Frequently with 3000# feed in bed.

Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone are all good.

I've switched one truck from KO2 to Duratrac and been pleased. Seems like the KO2 just wear faster.

As far as durability with rocks and thorns, I'm not there yet. It almost seems like it takes a year or two for some of the flexibility or pliability to wear off to where rocks/thorns sort of bounce off and can't penetrate.

Reading that it sounds stupid, but it seems like new tires don't pick up puncture causing material for a while and then at some point they do and the flats start.

I just bought some centennial dirt commanders MT in that exact size - E rated for $620 on eBay free shipping from Parrish tire for my 4x4 Tahoe I'm driving to mexico lease

Only have 15 miles on them but they weren't too loud and smooth for the price. Can't speak to long term but my vehicle is staying on ranch full time once it's down there

Mud grapplers or trail grapplers? Muds sound like a B-17 going down the highway.

OP, I had good luck with Nitto Ridge Grapplers on my last F-250. Run nothing but Toyo MTs for several years prior to that.

Also hear nothing but great things about the Falken AT3.

Wagon wheel

Had some Nittos last 100k miles on my last truck.

Didn't even know tires could last that long.

MyNameIsJeff said:

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Mud grapplers or trail grapplers? Muds sound like a B-17 going down the highway.

OP, I had good luck with Nitto Ridge Grapplers on my last F-250. Run nothing but Toyo MTs for several years prior to that.

Also hear nothing but great things about the Falken AT3.

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Yea pretty sure they mud and they are loud. But in a deleted F250 it's not that bad and I get to listen to same tires for a long time.

MyNameIsJeff said:

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Mud grapplers or trail grapplers? Muds sound like a B-17 going down the highway.

OP, I had good luck with Nitto Ridge Grapplers on my last F-250. Run nothing but Toyo MTs for several years prior to that.

Also hear nothing but great things about the Falken AT3.

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Not answering for Dude, but I started running the trail grapplers on my last truck and that's what I go with now. I exclusively ran the BFG All Terrain tires for 15 years, but I had two of them get damaged at the same time about 3 years ago and the BFG's that were E rated were on back order, and I couldn't wait. I ended up putting on the Nitto's and I couldn't be more impressed with the road noise and tire wear for an all terrain tire.

With the amount of off-road usage you stated, I would look pretty strongly into one of the more aggressive tread patterns like the trail grappler or even some of the mud terrains.

If you're looking to stay with more of an A/T and you don't like the BFGs, I would look at either the Toyo ATIII or the Nittos. I would personally lean towards the Toyos over the Nittos but that's because I still have a bad taste in my mouth about the first tread compound Nitto had on their Terra Grapplers that lasted 30-40k miles at BEST.

You could also look into the Goodyear Kevlars and in your particular use, the crappy ride won't be an issue. I am still not a fan of Goodyears either as they had a myriad of issues when I worked at DTC. They seem to be better now but I wouldn't run them on my vehicle unless they came from the factory.

BFG also has a new tire out that I believe is called the HD Terrain or something like that and is marketed for something closer to what you intend on using it for. I haven't seen one in person nor has anyone really been running them long enough to know how they'll "hold up".

Good luck!

Coopers seem to work out in rural west Texas.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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With the amount of off-road usage you stated, I would look pretty strongly into one of the more aggressive tread patterns like the trail grappler or even some of the mud terrains.

If you're looking to stay with more of an A/T and you don't like the BFGs, I would look at either the Toyo ATIII or the Nittos. I would personally lean towards the Toyos over the Nittos but that's because I still have a bad taste in my mouth about the first tread compound Nitto had on their Terra Grapplers that lasted 30-40k miles at BEST.

You could also look into the Goodyear Kevlars and in your particular use, the crappy ride won't be an issue. I am still not a fan of Goodyears either as they had a myriad of issues when I worked at DTC. They seem to be better now but I wouldn't run them on my vehicle unless they came from the factory.

BFG also has a new tire out that I believe is called the HD Terrain or something like that and is marketed for something closer to what you intend on using it for. I haven't seen one in person nor has anyone really been running them long enough to know how they'll "hold up".

Good luck!

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My Terra Grapplers lasted 100k miles. What year did you buy them? I got mine in 2019

I never bought them, I just worked on them for 5 years or so. This was the first two generations of Nitto from around 2005 (maybe earlier) to about 2011 or so. I think they switched the compound in 2013-2016 range but not exactly sure.

The new compound that you have seems to last regularly into 60k+.

I run Ridge Grapplers on both my 80 series land cruiser and my F-250. F-250 is some ranch work in missouri and then oil field caliche roads of WTX & NM. You can do better in mud, but for a good all-around tire that isn't loud on the road, it's done me well.

For my land cruiser... I haven't been stuck yet Was down by my pond this morning in some pretty soft stuff drinking coffee and enjoying a great sunny morning watching my chickens rummage for food and my dogs look for squirrels and anythign else they can chase. They did me well climbing back up the hill to the house.

I remember the terrible nitto Terra grappler, had some in like 07. I later had some nitto crosstrek's in 2014 that lasted 80k and even then, bad shocks wore them out. Could have done 100k

I reallllly want to try the BFG HD Terrain but the only reviews I've read here were not good. I think the complaint was wet pavement traction

I've seen a ton of people running these Falken Wildpeak tires.. Never tried them but I'd like to find people that have and get their opinion.

People on Reddit love the Falken wild peaks.

I can see that being an issue. I've wondered if the Nitto Ridge Grapplers have the same problem.

I switched from BFGs to Toyo's

Woods Ag said:

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I've seen a ton of people running these Falken Wildpeak tires.. Never tried them but I'd like to find people that have and get their opinion.

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I have Falken Wildpeaks on my 2016 Tacoma, but I only have about 5k miles on them so far. I am very happy with them and like them better than the Bridgestone Duellars it came with or the Continentals I had on it after those. They are quiet, have good traction on wet roads and in the little bit of mud I have been in, they are fine so far. I had a bad experience with short treadlife and an inability to keep the BFG TKOs balanced on my older Tacoma and havent used them since, so no direct comparison on the newer truck.

I had Falken Wildpeaks on my '19 Ram 1500. The Falken's come on the truck from the factory, but this was a new set when I bought the truck used. They were good tires, no real complaints. I used them up in the mountains of CO, so they saw deep snow, ice, mud, dirt roads, forest service roads, and trails very frequently. I liked them just fine.

That being said, I went with Coopers when it was time for new tires. This is my second set of Coopers on different vehicles. I had a pair of ST Maxx's on a Wrangler in the mountains. I loved those tires. They were fantastic off road, and still had very good street performance.

Now that I am back in TX with a typical highway commute, I decided to go with rubber that focused more on pavement manners. I went with the Cooper Discoverer ATP's, because they were more affordable at a larger (unique) size that fit my truck well. I have been VERY impressed with these as well. Great highway manners, no noise, and handles some typical ranch stuff with ease.

Continental TerrainContact A/T

Had three of 4 Nitto Grapplers separate. One did it on 130 around Austin. I have since shied away.
The last set of Michelin's on both my truck and wife's SUV came no where close to their mileage and I was underwhelmed with their overall performance.

Continental has become my all-around tire manufacturer - I run conti GP5000s on my road bikes, switched to CrossContact's on wife's car, ran ControlContact Sports on an Audi I had and replaced the Michelin LTX on my Ram 2500 with TerrainContact A/T. The TerrainContacts have performed well and I've noticed better off-road grip when towing our camper through park trails, etc.

Cooper ATP all the way. I had them on my F350 work truck when I was a service tech in the Eagle Ford. The truck had work bed full of tools, a crane, and was usually pulling a loaded trailer. Lots of really crappy lease roads and the tire held up great. They blew BFG's out of the water. The price on them is a nice benefit as well.
ETA: OP you will most definitely need E rated tires on a 3/4 ton truck.

RustyBoltz said:

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Continental TerrainContact A/T

Had three of 4 Nitto Grapplers separate. One did it on 130 around Austin. I have since shied away.
The last set of Michelin's on both my truck and wife's SUV came no where close to their mileage and I was underwhelmed with their overall performance.

Continental has become my all-around tire manufacturer - I run conti GP5000s on my road bikes, switched to CrossContact's on wife's car, ran ControlContact Sports on an Audi I had and replaced the Michelin LTX on my Ram 2500 with TerrainContact A/T. The TerrainContacts have performed well and I've noticed better off-road grip when towing our camper through park trails, etc.

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The Terrain Contacts were what I had on my Tacoma before I got the Falkens. They had good traction and I got plenty of miles out of them, but they got pretty noisy near the end of their life. I wouldn't notice it necessarily at the time I was driving, but I would get in my truck the next day after driving several hours the day before and the stereo would be REALLY loud. I would apparently just turn it up without thinking about it to cover the road noise.

On a budget: pathfinders from Discount. Affordable and pretty solid.

Deerdude said:

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COVID did away with Kevlar tires for the most part, but we have some Goodyear MT. Kevlar that have been bulletproof.

But nothing wrong with what you running.

I also run some Nitto Mud Grapplers I think it is and get awesome mileage out of them. 50-60K and I'm on third set on my truck. Not in brush much but about 30% ranch roads of red dirt and caliche. Frequently with 3000# feed in bed.

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50-60K out of mud grapps is almost unheard of. How often do you rotate them?

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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I can see that being an issue. I've wondered if the Nitto Ridge Grapplers have the same problem.

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Have friends with ridge grapplers and they haven't had any issues like whats being described. Only thing I've heard of about those tires is their traction on wet roads leaves a little to be desired.

Cooper
Last BFGs didn't make it past 25,000 miles
30,000 plus on Coopers and still going.

My Kel Co said:

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Deerdude said:

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COVID did away with Kevlar tires for the most part, but we have some Goodyear MT. Kevlar that have been bulletproof.

But nothing wrong with what you running.

I also run some Nitto Mud Grapplers I think it is and get awesome mileage out of them. 50-60K and I'm on third set on my truck. Not in brush much but about 30% ranch roads of red dirt and caliche. Frequently with 3000# feed in bed.

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50-60K out of mud grapps is almost unheard of. How often do you rotate them?

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Not often enough due to lack of convenient shop to do rotations, but about every 10K. Yea truck at 160K and on third set I've got another 15-20k on this set.

I live off a long gravel road with a low water crossing. I do literally thousands and thousands of miles of gravel roads every year. It's a caliche road. I've tried a bunch of different tires over a bunch of different vehicles, and my #1 favorite are the General Grabber AT/X I have on my current expedition

The BFGs KO2 are pretty solid but suck on road - the Grabbers are way better on road

I've had Cooper discoverers that were good on the gravel but crummy on other off-road I do like mud and sand.

I had Falken Wildpeak AT3s that came on my RAM 1500and a strongly DISLIKED them. The sidewalls started to wear away from the deep gravel

Overall the Grabbers are for sure the best all terrain tire I've had

Any experience with either of these?

I'm on the road/ROW/ranches for most of the year all over the SW US and K02s are what i roll with. Just got over 80k miles out of mine. Never had a flat either

I had a set of those on my work truck that I liked. Never had any issues with them but got rid of the truck before i put very many miles on them. We run those on a lot of work trucks but our guys are notorius never getting their oil changed much less a tire rotation so its hard for me to say how well they would do if properly maintained. Overall I liked them.