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In our last episode, it took me 9 months to finally have the time to refinish a set of King Ranch wheels offered for sale locally. Please see the other thread for reference.
This thread is about the tires since there seems to be some interest.
The wheels are 17x7.5 inches and I bought a set of LT265/70R/17 General Grabber A/Tx tires to mount on them. These are load range E tires and are (as far as I can gather) the replacement for General's A/T2, which were very popular. The previous tires on my terribly beat-up FX4 wheels were Cooper Discoverer H/T 265/70/17 with barely 3/32" of tread left. They were going to fail my coming state inspection in October, so I finally got off my *** and finished the wheels.
In that previous thread, jbrew offered some insight regarding tire pressures and how these tires should be run. As he predicted, the tire shop inflated them to 30psi and sent me on my way. Before I put them on the truck, I re-inflated to 65psi.
First Drive:
I took the truck on a 20 mile drive to camp and noticed a few small things. First, these tires are very quiet. There's a soft whine between 25 and 35 mph that goes away completely by the time I hit 40. It's an interesting sound, because it sounds like the small turbofans in a Lear or Gulfstream spooling up. Otherwise, the ride is shockingly quiet.
Also noted, these tires are heavy. 3.55s are not enough gear. I feel like the truck can now not get up and go like it did. It's not horrible, but noticeable. I'm near 70 lbs per corner adding in the weight of the rims. It's a big difference.
At 55mph, I did a little shallow slalom maneuver to see how things felt side-to-side. At 65 psi, it was a weird sensation. The front turned in, then there was a very short but very perceptible pause, and then the rear end followed the front. Kind of like swaying. I upped the pressure to 72 psi and it's better, but still there. There's also 5/8" of tread on these tires, so that could be squirming around a little too. I might play with pressures more. It feels like the rear end is wagging a little when you make turns at speed.
Braking was completely normal. No change.
The ride in general was very compliant. Even at 72psi it's quite comfortable. Jbrew offered some fantastic advice about looking up F-250 door jam stickers to figure out where to start with the pressures. I'll be researching that and playing around a bit over the next couple weekends.
On dirt and sand up at camp they were excellent. My driveway at the cabin is dirt and about a 8% grade. I was previously unable to back up on it without going into 4wd. The A/Tx's don't seem to notice and dig right in. No more need for 4x4 normally. I'll be interested to see how they wear and how well they do in the snow.
Last edited by 10thGenScab; 09-10-2018 at 05:03 PM.
General makes a great tire! I run Grabber AT2 in fall winter hunting. They really wear well and provide great traction in deep snow.
I would expect the same of the ATx.
Nice truck! I love seeing older models in mint shape like yours!
General makes a great tire! I run Grabber AT2 in fall winter hunting. They really wear well and provide great traction in deep snow.
I would expect the same of the ATx.
Nice truck! I love seeing older models in mint shape like yours!
Well, my truck is a 30-footer. She looks good from 30 feet away. Still needs body work, but going strong otherwise.
Update: I took the trail up to camp yesterday after a heavy rain. The trail is a single-lane dirt road up a 10% grade... just dirt and mud, no stone. Going up in 2WD, the tires seemed to plug up with mud and i lost momentum half-way up. If I had started out faster and kept my foot in it more, I think I might have made it, but with a lot of wheel spinning and drama.
Once I put it in 4WD, there was no issue at all and I simply drove up the rest of the way. Overall, still very happy, but I expected a little better. Maybe I'm just a bad driver :-)
Man, those wheels did turn out nice! Glad the tires are working out for you. I, too, had to be "coaxed" into running my E's at higher-than-seemed-right pressures. The truck actually rides better with the higher pressures.
Man-o-man, I agree.... those wheels turned out nice. I usually don't like the "darker" wheels much, but I like those.
Your suggestion to go to a body shop for the clear coat should have been on my list, but I'm too cheap and too lazy. Fortunately things are holding up so far. And the tires are doing a resounding "good enough" so far. For the total $ i have into this, I'm happy.
09-10-2018, 05:01 PM
New Tires - General Grabber A/Tx
