Best Budget tires for SUV/Truck

Are you suggesting changing the wheel size on the truck because of costs? If so are there any pro's con's in doing so?

I only ask because I am kinda clueless on this stuff. My 2016 truck has only 23k on it, but the tires almost look like they are starting to dry rot and the tread is wearing a bit. I thought I'd get much more life out of them. I believe they are wrangler SRA P275/55R20. It's only a matter of time so I am keeping an eye out for a deal. Ideally I'd like to change the wheel to black from chrome.

 

I'd only swap rims if you have 15" or 16" where tire chooses are getting slim and your really care about what you can get. If a tire is a tire to you there still plenty of choices in each wheel size for most modern vehicles. The larger rim sizes ha e come down in price but you won't come out cheaper buying new wheels cause usually they are more expensive the larger the rim for some reason not much more and since they been putting bigger rims of trucks for like 15 years easy now there plenty of choices available including budget and no names. Like someone said if you have a newer vehicle the. Eat way is to buy a set of factory takeoffs from someone swapping wheels, often you can get a decent set of tires for a good price this way. Run them or swap tires to your wheels if same size and sell the wheels themselves.

 

I just looked at my records and I got 60k from the kumhos. It's a 4cyl 4runner with mostly highway driving.
The Goodyears were at 40k when I replaced them and could have gone a little longer.
I was wrong about having 25k on my current BFGs. They're at 40k now and still have more to go.

 

I went to look for pics. I had just got a smart phone not long before I took off those Kuhmos , so I don't have a picture of when they went on. I usually keep things like this so I can have a date to go back and look when they were put on. I do remember though it was literally 12 to no longer than 16 months after I bought and installed those tires this pic was taken. All tires looked the same basically. You can see wear bars worn across in various spots showing tore was worn out. This was my wife's vehicle. I rotated them once.. and kept check on the pressures. She only drove give or take 15k a year. So a rotation was done around 6k miles or so. The good tire to the right of them is one of the Good year wranglers I got from my buddy from the dealer as a brand new take off from a jeep wrangler.

 

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. Just go find a size of rim that is available on your vehicle. For instance, 17 and 18" are available on my yard of truck. You can't go smaller than that though, you'll hit brakes and components.

I see what you are saying clemsonfor , but for me, having a set of summer/ road trip tires/ rims makes sense enough for me. One set of hankook dynapro AT2 in the 18" 265 70 r18's was $57 a tire less than the 20" version of that same hankook in the same size that my truck came with. That's $228 right there on one tire change

 

Weird. The vehicle weights are similar. I put mine on in the summer of 2014. Maybe they changed the tire composition after you bought yours. Or maybe there's something about the warmer weather in your part of the country. Supposedly asphalt is different in different areas to deal with climate variations.

 

Horkn clemsonfor So are there any pro's or con's to downsizing tire size? Is the ride any different and or am I sacrificing anything besides costs? I tow a small boat a bit in the summer and my utility trailer mostly for wood and other oddities. Again forgive my ignorance not much of an automotive guy.

 

Going from thinner sidewalls like on the 20's to the same rolling diameter 18's per say, well getting you a less harsh ride. More rubber, more flex. Technically a /lower sidewalls will give you better handling, but that's not really something that should be considered on a 4x4.

Also, less chance for road rash on the wheel of with more of sidewall.

 

Thanks Horkn .........much appreciated

 

For sure if you have two sets of tires that you change with season. I didn't realize you would still see a $50 difference from an 18 to 20"

 

Just be aware if you change your tire size it will effect your speedometer.

 

A smaller rim will give you a larger sidewall if you retain the same overall diameter, which you want to do, as to not mess with gear ratios and speedometers. A larger sidewall will in theory give a more comfortable ride as you have more sidewall fusion, like extra suspension. Will any differences be able to be felt...I don't know and probably not 9n normal driving.

 

Only if while wheel/tire size is changed. It's possible to have virtually the same diameter with a 20" wheel as an 18" wheel. As long as you stay with the factory offered pairing.

 

Dealer can recal speedo to new tire size though, no?
I know I seen it done on a '96 F250 when they went to oversized rubber...

 

Yup, like I said “if you change the tire size”

 

Yes but only to size that is optional from the factory.

 

And on Ford all wheel drive vehicles you could get a flat on one of your well worn tires and put one new one on, the tread depth difference could be enough to cause problems with the abs /stability control. I learned that the hard way!

 

I know that '96 was definitely not OEM size rubber...but, there very well may have been some aftermarket parts involved...signal converter or some such thing...but I do know there was some secret code to get into the speedo programming too...1st I was aware of it on that generation of truck...

 

I don’t need to tell you, Things were much different in 96 as far as electronic controls.
I’m sure modern vehicles could be programmed to whatever you would want if you had the technology to do so.

 

You can buy AlfaOBD to program new tire size on new Ram Trucks.