Tires for my Excursion Tow Rig/Daily Driver
 

Fellas -

The tires on my 4x4 2003 7.3 Excursion have seen better days. It's my daily driver and tow rig, and I'd like some tires that will last a while and be able to handle a decent load.

I pull an 18' trailer fairly often and have a few cross-country towing trips (Texas to Washington DC) planned this summer.

Not too worried about price; I don't mind paying for good tires. Will be mounting these on the factory wheels, but might try to get something a bit bigger to fill out the wheelwells a bit, but nothing that would need a lift or cause interference issues. I'd be more comfortable with a recognized brand name tire.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Scott

tires
 

good year silent armors are the best out there load range E.
i have a set of 5 factory bridgestone duravis 245/75/16 for sale with 18k miles that came on my 2006 yukon xl 2500 if you are interested $400 for the set

Michelin's are hard to beat for long wearing, quality tires. I had a set on my 06 Duramax and they were great.

Check out... http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f13/ for better info on that truck and tires.

I can tell you what not to go with.

I put a set of the Cooper Discovery ATR on my F-350 dually.JUNK,or in other words,they suck!Rear of the truck wonders on corners.I did some research,and it seems they have a softer sidewall.Just wonderful!

The truck handled great when it had the original Generals.

Our customers swear by the Michelins.

Thats what I`ll be buying next.

Mark.

i just replaced tires on my ram 1500 4x4 with uniroyal larado.i have a friend that just put them on his excursion and was really impressed with them. they say they are made by michelin. you can get them (e) load rated. very very happy with the ride and handling on these tires. we just bought a 27 ft camper (6000lbs) and it tows great with the uniroyals. the michelin ltx would be great also but are more money and i think they are close to the same tire. bought them at national tire and battery .

Thanks, Mark. That's good to know. I've had tires with weak sidewalls before - Bridgestones - ruined several tires by hitting bumps while going too fast.

Scott

I've always had good luck with Michelins. Checked out their website and saw a few tires that should work.

Thanks,

Scott

Good info. I'll check these out.

Thanks,

Scott

I was pretty happy with the Pirelli Scorion STR-A tires that I put on my last truck. The original tires on it had real soft sidewalls and had too much movement with a loaded trailer. I put on the LT rated Scorpions and it was rock solid. They are somewhat of a highway tread but open enough to not be useless in snow or mud.

They are one of the original equipment tires on both the Dodge Ram 2500/3500 and F-250/350. The price is real nice on them too, I paid about $120 each for LT265/70R17.

I've tried several different 235/85-16 load range E tires on the two Dodge diesel trucks we've owned. Those trucks are heavy, solid front axle, and very hard on tires. If I get 30,000 miles out of a set, I'm happy.

Anyhow, we tried a set of General Grabbers.....JUNK.

Firestones no name brand, decent.

Bridgestones, JUNK, and by far and above, the WORST tires I ever purchased.

Goodyear H/T's, very good tires.

Kelley Springfields (currently on the truck), very, very good for the price.

You always hear that Michellins are the best, but I just can't bring myself to spend over $800 on tires, when I can get 4 Kelly Springfields for $117 each, mounted/balanced.....Cliff

scott, i got 60k out of the original bfgoodrich rugged trail t/a's that came new on my excursion. had no complaints at all out of them. they wore very evenly and still had some tread left.

Look into Continentals. I use http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....TR7CCLX#Survey

It's a great site to compare brands and has feedback from actual users and owners. I've had a couple of sets of Continentals. I've owned 4 or 5 sets of Michelins over the years and have been disappointed in their noisiness (especially in our minivan) and don't think they are worth the 50% price premium over Conti's or other premium tires. In the comparisons the Conti's are the highest rated tires.

When I was looking for tires for my Yukon, many folks with full size SUV's said to get BF long trail T/A's. Decent price but in my size they were rated Traction B whereas other sizes were Traction A.

I looked at the ratings on tirerack and decided on Michelin Cross Terrain because they had good ratings and reviews, and Costco carries them (they have the best tire prices around that I've seen).

Nice handling, good traction tires for the Yukon; don't know if they would be good for your usage, tho.

george

FYI - The traction, tempature, and tread ware ratings are determined by the tire manufacture so comparision between brands are inaccurate. Tread ware is you would see the biggest differance.

Also the traction rating is for "wet braking" so I can see why differant tires size could be rated differantly.

You should be able to go up to a 285/65/16 from your 265/75/16 without any problems. I would make sure whatever you get you stay with an "E" load rating.

I have a 99 F-350 diesel I bought used, it had brand new Firestone Steeltek tires on it, they lasted me over 70k miles and most of those were pulling my 20' fiberglass boat or 3 place snowmobile trailer.
When I needed a new set of tires I asked for them and they changed the name on them, they are now called Transforce, I have been very pleased with them...over 60k on the set that is on there and they are still in good shape.

I had Bridgstone duelers on a previous truck...they were okay...didn't seem like the tread lasted as long as the Firestone's have.
JB

Fellas -

Thanks for all the input. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Scott

I like the Michelins that I put on my 96 Suburban 2500 4x4. They're E rated and tow great.

I wasn't as impressed by the tires on my 93 Suburban 2500 4x4. They're BF Goodrich Long Trails. I believe the side wall was softer than the Michelins. The rear end felt a little twitchy in curves when towing a fairly heavy open car trailer with a car on it. Both vehicles were set up identically (454 4x4 4.10 gears 4L80E trans). I won't buy a set of BF Goodrich again, and my next tires will definitely be Michelin.

Mike

Be careful changing tire sizes.... you are messing with more things than you realize. Your PCM, ABS both read the vehicle speed sensor.... meaning it will effect your fuel economy and performance, your speedo will be off and the vehicle will never be traveling at the speed that the PCM thinks it is. If you have a handheld programmer, make sure you reprogram to allow for the tire size change.