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Street/freeway drivability vs tire size & profile

ChrisAwesome

ChrisAwesome

1/2 ton status
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Location
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I don't have much experience of driving oversized tires. How would you describe behavior of a truck on a freeway at 70mph on:
a) 35" tires with flat/square profile
b) 38" tires with round profile

Not sure if they have special name, but I noticed that mostly mud tires are more round than regular tires.

SS-TSLSX-2.jpg

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They all flatten out once the vehicle weight is on them, assuming proper inflation pressures. The more aggressive you get, the worse the handling will get. TSLs suck on the pavement, plain and simple. They're squirrely, wear out super fast, and driving in the rain and snow is damn near like driving on ice. So do any of the other aggressive mud tires - Boggers, Pitbull Rockers, Iroks, etc.
 
Yep. Swampers bring the suck on the street

Best advice for street is to use the lightest tire and size to do the job. Rides better and hets better MPG
 
I use to drive my k5 on 42x14x16.5 bias ply iroks on stock H1’s at 70-75mph with airspft pellets in them, and they drove surprisingly smooth. Also drove 39.5x13.50 bias iroks on 15x10 rims, with weights on rims to balance. Both wheel/tire combos were taken on 500-600 mile trips, and was pleasantly surprised compared to what I was told. I’ve also driven 39.5x18x16.5 boggers on my old k30 and they were horrible, even with weights, not to mention how loud they were. The iroks were loud but were tame compared to the boggers.

I think tread pattern has alot more to do with ride quality and noise than tire size.
 
Tread pattern, radial or bias, properly balanced etc.

I have street driven radials up to 38" .I found it no big deal .

Do not get bias ply tires.

I drove my 38x15.50 swamper radials at 80 mph all the time. Drove the truck to Moab several times. Even on my bias 39.5s I thought it was fine.

I'd stick to a milder mud terrain or even an all terrain.

Now mind you I have been daily driving something with relatively large tires for a long time now .
 
muddybuddy said:
I use to drive my k5 on 42x14x16.5 bias ply iroks on stock H1’s at 70-75mph with airspft pellets in them, and they drove surprisingly smooth. Also drove 39.5x13.50 bias iroks on 15x10 rims, with weights on rims to balance. Both wheel/tire combos were taken on 500-600 mile trips, and was pleasantly surprised compared to what I was told. I’ve also driven 39.5x18x16.5 boggers on my old k30 and they were horrible, even with weights, not to mention how loud they were. The iroks were loud but were tame compared to the boggers.

I think tread pattern has alot more to do with ride quality and noise than tire size.
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What is "airspft pellets"? And what do you mean by "rims with weights"? Is it standard small weights added when balancing a wheel?
 
ChrisAwesome said:
What is "airspft pellets"? And what do you mean by "rims with weights"? Is it standard small weights added when balancing a wheel?
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Airsoft pellets, like for a bb gun, similar to the like below, but plastic (metal can rust with moisture exposure and get stuck together). I think i put about 16oz in each tire.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gameface...-Match-20gr-Airsoft-BB-Ammo-10-000ct/22001696

Wheel Weight are the traditional way wheels are balanced.

Obviously radials are the way to go. At the time, Interco didnt make radials in a size that i wanted, and th radials that were similar in size were 20-30% more than bias. Now there are alot more radial options in the 35-40” range. If you plan to daily the truck, definitely go radial. Generally, the compound is much harder and will wear much better.
 
I have tire pellets in my 42 Pitbulls to balance them and they roll fine on the street..just a soft compound so I wouldnt daily drive them.

Toyo mud terrains are a great dual purpose tire. I have run 2 different sets of 38s on two different trucks both daily driven. they last a long time and ride/handle great in my experience. down side is they are a super heavy tire. 38 toyo weighs as much as my 42 pitbull

I had a brand new set of 35 inch Goodyear Wrangler MT kevlar mud tires on a brand new F150 right off the showroom floor..barley lasted 3k miles..was not happy at all with them.
 
I used to drive my 39.5” bus TSL’s hundred miles or so at a time at 80mph thru Bay Area California freeway traffic with zero issues. I think a big part of that was the hydro assist though.
 
Smokinthehippies said:
I used to drive my 39.5” bus TSL’s hundred miles or so at a time at 80mph thru Bay Area California freeway traffic with zero issues. I think a big part of that was the hydro assist though.
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This is the key.
Obviously everything that was said about a good balance the right pressure and a tread that is not too aggressive but to drive a vehicle with big tires, the hydro assist is invaluable.
You will see when you drive it.
I have toyo mud terrains. 37"
 
I think a lot of it has to do with the manufacturer. My old SX's shook the truck like crazy, those things were shaped like eggs. But my Powerkings ride very well, even at 70+ mph. Steering response is very lazy, but it's also a crew cab dually with a worn rag joint.
 
USSkoval said:
I think a lot of it has to do with the manufacturer. My old SX's shook the truck like crazy, those things were shaped like eggs. But my Powerkings ride very well, even at 70+ mph. Steering response is very lazy, but it's also a crew cab dually with a worn rag joint.
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That's one more thing to address, the rag joint is fine with stock size tires, add big tires and it becomes overwhelmed and the solution is a ujoint style connection.
Aaron throughout the years kept changing his setup and ended up with the right components and then I bought it. :D
Now I am replicating the same ideas on my suburban and then the blazer can go to a new home. I just want to have it in the meantime I have been itching for some off road driving and now I can.
 
35's can ride like crap too. All supsension and steering compenants, ball joints, tierod ends, steering slop is your worst enemy on road and not having enough caster
 
The round profile tires are rounded because they are Bias-ply tires. Bias-ply tires need to be more rounded, in order to be more street friendly due to their stiff sidewalls. The flat square tires are Radials. Because the sidewalls flex more they can have more of a squared flat design that has more tread contact with the street to make them handle better.

When Bent77 says "Swampers bring the suck on the street" he is not kidding (especially bias-ply Swampers). I have a set of IROCK bias-ply 36" Swampers on my truck, and I do not trust them at over 65-MPH because I can feel them start to flex out of shape over 65-MPH from the centrifugal force put on them at Interstate speeds that those tires were not designed for. I have balancing beads in my IROCK's that work pretty good at speeds over 20-MPH.

Once these IROCK Bias-ply tires wear out (and they will quickly driving around on the street) I am going to get a set of 385/70/16 Toyo M/T tires that are radials

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1-ton said:
The round profile tires are rounded because they are Bias-ply tires. Bias-ply tires need to be more rounded, in order to be more street friendly due to their stiff sidewalls. The flat square tires are Radials. Because the sidewalls flex more they can have more of a squared flat design that has more tread contact with the street to make them handle better.

When Bent77 says "Swampers bring the suck on the street" he is not kidding (especially bias-ply Swampers). I have a set of IROCK bias-ply 36" Swampers on my truck, and I do not trust them at over 65-MPH because I can feel them start to flex out of shape over 65-MPH from the centrifugal force put on them at Interstate speeds that those tires were not designed for. I have balancing beads in my IROCK's that work pretty good at speeds over 20-MPH.

Once these IROCK Bias-ply tires wear out (and they will quickly driving around on the street) I am going to get a set of 385/70/16 Toyo M/T tires that are radials

full
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I just picked up a set of the 385/70 toyos. Good looking tires. They replaced a set of 42" bias IROKS that I didn't want to run on the street.
Have not driven on the toyos yet. Still finishing up an LS swap :thumb:

I have used airsoft BBs to balance large offroad tires before. They balance well but you can hear the the beads every time you come to a stop or going a certain speed. The beads would clang against the steel wheel and sound kinda like brakes scrubbing metal to metal.
This time around I got some actual balance beads to put in the toyos. They are much finer beads and are silent. I will report back with how well they ride in a few weeks hopefully.
 
K5chevyLQ4 said:
I just picked up a set of the 385/70 toyos. Good looking tires. They replaced a set of 42" bias IROKS that I didn't want to run on the street.
Have not driven on the toyos yet. Still finishing up an LS swap :thumb:

I have used airsoft BBs to balance large offroad tires before. They balance well but you can hear the the beads every time you come to a stop or going a certain speed. The beads would clang against the steel wheel and sound kinda like brakes scrubbing metal to metal.
This time around I got some actual balance beads to put in the toyos. They are much finer beads and are silent. I will report back with how well they ride in a few weeks hopefully.
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Cool! I bet those Toyo's will make your truck handle like a whole different truck compared to those Swamper bias-ply tires.
 
I have the 40 inch toyo mts on mine, they drive great. they didn't shake at all with no balancing.....until they got flatspotted trying to miss a deer.
 
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