Ok, first time poster, excited new 4x4 truck owner. Just bought a 2018 Chevy Colorado. Had the min van for awhile but wanted to get off the beaten path. Now, the wheels it came with were Good year wrangler fortitude ht tire (265/70 16). Advertised as an all terrain tire. A friend has told me that I need ten ply tires if I want to hit the mains\ resource roads or I will have a blow out. Have been directed towards the BFG AT ko 2s, because you know, 10 plys. From what I understand, the amount of plys, is basicly the same as a load rating. 10 plys- 121 load rating. My current tires are a 4 ply rated at 112 yet I just found All terrain tires that had a load rating of 112 but were two ply. I just want a tire that I don't need to worry about while out on the mains, Menzies/ duncan bay, big tree creek etc etc.What do you guys think? Always open to opinions and explanations.
Thanks!
Any E rated all terrain tire will do. I have E rated 265 70 r16 ko2s and I have never had any issues.
Be prepared for a really rough ride at hwy psi though.
Thank you for the response, I've read that it's a rough ride when going up to a stiffer tire. Brought that up with a guy at a local tire shop and he said lower your air pressure on the roads/ highways. Softer ride but worse mileage I'm guessing. If I stuck to the better graded main's/ resource roads, on what I'm running now, do you think there would be a big risk of a flat?
2018 Chevy Colorado.well your not going any were in that truck your going to need to worry about tires ...Let some air out for the logging roads don't drive at race car speeds you will be fine and i can tell after 40 years of wheeling this Island theirs a lot of places you can go see in that truck .............
Awesome news Lauchlin, really looking forward to exploring this beautiful island of ours. The big issue too, is the buddy who said we need to upgrade our tires put fear into my wife. She called a couple tire shops and asked the same question, they all said gotta have ten ply, course they all want to sell tires for a living so I figured I'd ask on here. I said I'd check but I was pretty sure we'd be okay if we stuck to logging/ resource roads and took it easy. Being new to this I'd be taking it easy anyways. Just so I understand better, If I let air out, the tire will be softer. Would the worry about a flat increase as it would be more prone to deflection/ pinch flats? Or, being softer it would roll over terrain better, making less of a chance for a flat. How much would you recommend letting out? Sorry to keep pestering but have a ton of questions.
Thanks, and really appreciate the help.
I don't take air out on gravel cause the bumps don't bother me ...........every year thousand of people in there city cars are out in the back country driving around on there city car tires having a blast exploring back country on the Island all the people in Zeballos don't run 10 ply tires or Tahsis or a hundred other places on the island stop worrying go have fun and we all get flats at some time or another my golden rule is never go alone .............
I agree! It's convincing my wife that's the problem.
Thanks again for the pointers guys.
If you have the money buy some ko2's anyway. Even if you dont need them, they are snowflake rated, and look really cool lol.
I don't know many people here, so I'm often out alone in some pretty remote places, and it's a nice peice of mind to know I have good tires on my truck.
I bring recovery gear, food, and other emergency stuff with me to last at least 2 weeks everytime I go out alone.
I tell people where I'm going as well.
We have been out twice so far, went solo but stayed on well traveled resource roads, saw other vehicles out and about. Took food/ first aid kit supplies and tried to make sure we were prepared for an emergency. Also kept the inlaws aware of our location/ plans. Want to go out more, but am making sure I do it the right way. Grown me is way more responsible than young me. Cant imagine what situation I'd put my self if it was twenty years ago. Lol
One thing to remember is “ply ratings” don’t actually refer to the number of plies in the tire. It’s just an indication of load capacity and truly one of the most nonsense rating systems we still use for whatever reason.
I run 6-ply ”C”-rated k02s tires for a compromise. They are a little softer on the highway than 10 ply, and not as heavy so they save your fuel economy a bit as well. You can get k02s and Duratracs and several other AT tires in 6-ply depending on the specific size.
My only comment on k02 is have low expectations of them in winter even with the “snowflake” rating. In my experience they perform very poorly in snow compared to the all-season wranglers that came stock on my truck. They look great, and work well off-road, but a good tire for winter they are not, at least in my experience.
Thanks stocklocker, the plys/ load rating was throwing me. If a 6 ply tire is doable on resource/ logging roads, what load index/ rating would that be? 112? 118? That's the part that confuses me.
Thanks
My Frontier's stock size is 265/75R16. I went with P265/75R16 Hankook Dynapro ATMs. Been running them a few years without issue. It has a fullsize spare, I also pack plugs and an inflator.
I had a Tacoma with 10 ply Bf Goodrich KOs on it for five years. It was such a harsh ride, the extra weight really killed the fuel economy and braking.
The load index will be specific to a certain tire size and may change between tire sizes when the ply-rating does not. For instance, a certain brand and model may all be “e-rated”, but each individual size will have a specific load index that that size of tire can handle. A 285/75/16 E-rated tire may have a different load index than a 265/70/16 E-rated tire even though they are both “10-ply/E-rated”. It’s probably not a value you need to worry a whole lot about unless you know you are fitting a specific camper or plan on carrying a lot of weight. Worth looking at regardless when you are making up your mind. Google has reasonable explanations of load index on several sites.