Hey all - REALLY could use some help with getting the right tire for my needs!

I recently installed Fuel Vapor 20x9 wheels with 285/60/r20 KO2s, but not sure how this happens these days, they were out of round. Tried balancing and indexing to the wheels, small improvement, but totally unacceptable ride quality. Shop took them back, paid up for 295/60/r20 Toyo OC ATs. While not as bad as the out of round KO2s, the highway road noise is an annoying drone, and the ride also is not tolerable.

Putting the stock 20" wheels and stock 275/55/r20 tires back on immediately brought the nice ride back. Am I SOL in getting light truck AT tires to give a nice ride at 80 mph highway speeds? Should I try putting the stock Hankooks on the Fuel wheels?

Use is mostly highway driving, towing during hunting season and some off road, but mostly rutted logging roads and clear cuts. Any advice or suggestions appreciated!

 

Those sizes are all D or E rated (10ply) tires. If you want to keep your highway ride and sound, stick with a p rated tire.

Usually 275/60/20 is as big as you can go in p rated with one exception of the Nitto terra Grappler G2 that goes 275/65/20.

Try the falken wildpeaks, Nitto terra g2s, Michelin at2, cooper discoverer at3w, etc.

 

Try a set of Michelin Defender LTXs ,I highly recommend having any tire and wheel combo Hunter Roadforce balanced also. My 35x12.5r20 LTX ride smooth and quiet .HTH

 

I have Nitto Ridge Graps on the stock 20'' sport wheel 285/65/20. I did level the front, no rubbing at all. I have no complaints about the ride....it is stiffer, but I knew that was going to happen.

 

I had the Michelin LTX MS2 from the factory. Great tire. I upsized to the Falken WIldpeak AT3 in a 275/60/20 and have absolutely no regrets at all. Awesome looking, performing and riding tire at half the cost of the Michelins. There is not a $600 per set of 4 difference here.........

 

It seems like buying tires is a crap-shoot anymore. After reading outstanding reviews I purchased Nokian Rotiiva A/T's new from SimpleTire.com for a previous truck- 275/55-20. According to the installer they were a pain to balance and had to take back for a re-attempt but wasn't very successful. Purchased my F150 and to my surprise they were the exact same size. So, since I was going to sell one set anyway and could use the A/T's for NE Ohio snow, I elected to keep the A/T's. Well, that and the fact that I'd get more reselling the original Michelin's with 20 miles vs 5000 on the Nokian's. True to form, they would not balance and by this time it was too late to get any support from SimpleTire. Well, other than buying new... so now, I vibrate at speeds above 75mph and getting to the point that I'm ready to bite the bullet and buy new from a local store. Not sure where the QC is on these products, but to have two of four with balancing issues should not be happening.

 

You aren't the first person to buy a set of KO2s and find out that a couple of them cannot be properly balanced. I have a coworker that went througth numerous balancing episodes with both the local Ford dealer and Discount Tire. They eventually replaced two of the worst ones. It solved most of his issues but he still had a third tire that was difficult to balance. If you google this issue, it isn't exactly uncommon. Also, while it sounds like it's most likely the tires, make sure your installer used the hub rings that Fuel provides and installed the wheels properly. It's important that the proper torque procedure be followed when mounting wheels that are not hubcentric.

I second what Scrappy Doo said above. You are likely unhappy with the ride quality because you are replacing a standard load tire with a more heavy duty, extra load tire that has stiffer sidewalls. Mounting the factory tires will probably solve the problem if that's what you want to do. Or you could consider one of the sizes he suggested and get a little bigger than stock but still in a standard load. Not saying it's the only choice but I am running the Falken Wildpeak AT3W in 275/60/20 on Fuel Contra wheels and I love them. They ride every bit as good as stock and are very quiet for an aggressive all-terrain. I can't personally attest to their offroad ability but there are plenty of reviews that say they do very well. Good luck.

 

I went Cooper AT 3, they spun extremely true on the balancer very happy with them.

 

Wait - I'm confused (again) '2017ExecFx4' told us he has 285/65-20 Grapplers. Did he omit the "LT" prefix? Or are these tires P-rated as well? I thought the largest P-rated width was a Grappler 275?

What is the threshold after which tires switch from P-rated to LT?
Do all LT-rated tires have a "LT" prefix stamped on the sidewall?

 

Yes, the 285/65-20 TG's are only in LT.

Everything said above is why I went with the P275/65-20 Nitto TG G2's. They are only 4 lbs heavier than the stock tires vs 15+ lbs heavier for some of the LT's.

My go to tire guys (regardless of vehicle) happen work at a Ford Quick Lane. Needless to say half the dealership employees own late model F150's and 1/4 of the customers do. Most are either leveled or lifted and have larger tires. I went there asking for BFG KO2's and he quickly told me to NOT put LT's on my truck.

His recommendation was 305/55-20 Nitto Terra Grapplers. I didn't want to put that wide of a tire on the stock 8.5" wide wheels. His second recommendation based on that was the 275/65-20's.