Street Tires

[arg3x]

I just bought my Uncle's 2000 Tundra, V8, 2WD. This engine is amazing - if gas prices weren't so high I'd be getting speeding tickets left and right. I have absolutely no plans to ever take this thing offroad, especially since it's just 2WD. Our other cars are AWD Subarus, so we'll just use those in the snow. About the most extreme thing this truck will every do is to haul a load of junk to the landfill.

Anyway, the tires on it right now are 265/75/15 Goodyear Wrangler RT/S, which look to me more like an off-road tire. Does anyone have a recomendation for a street oriented tire? I'm mostly interested in handling and mileage, and I'm open to using a different size (keeping the same rims though).

Thanks

Adam

[sevenpedaler]

You aren't going to find a "street tire" with that size rim. You may as well just get a good all season with a less agressive tread that will ride nice on asphalt. I really like the Toyo M410. I had three sets on my other trucks and now have the Proxes ST's on my Tundra. For the money you can't go wrong with a Toyo. IMHO
http://www.toyo.com/tires/tire_lines/lightTruck_suv/

[Gatorman76]

The Wrangler RTS' wear like iron, and ride that way, too. Get some Firestone Indy 500's in 255 70 15( since you have 15" rims). They ride great, look great, stick like glue, & have a 55,000 mile warranty. I think they have a 30 day return policy, or used to.

[v8Toilet]

If you want to get better acceleration and mileage you want to go back to the stock 265/ 70 size because the 75 aspect ratio is hurting your acceleration and mileage. The other thing you want to pay attention to is rolling resistance. Consult Consumer Reports on this as they do testing on different brands and come up with a rating for rolling resistance on tires. They claim that mileage can be as much as 2-3 mpg different from the tire with the worse rolling resistance to the tire with the best. The tire I have you see in my signature was rated good for rolling resistance as well as very good in there testing. Michelin tires also rate very well in that category.

[ToyzOnly]

Nov. '05 issue - Consumer Reports on street tires.
Click on the pic. to see the big picture. It's kinda hard to read but, it's readable.
Rolling res. is the 5th column over.
Welcome to the club "arg3x" .

[Owyhee tundra]

The Toyo HT is also rated high for low rolling resitance. They have a similar tread pattern to the Michelins but cost way less. They are also rated to be supper quite on the highway.

[v8Toilet]

Originally Posted by lildamit

Nov. '05 issue - Consumer Reports on street tires.
Click on the pic. to see the big picture. It's kinda hard to read but, it's readable.
Rolling res. is the 5th column over.
Welcome to the club "arg3x" .

That's their ratings for passenger car tires not truck tires. They do separate tests for truck tires.

[ToyzOnly]

Originally Posted by v8Toilet

That's their ratings for passenger car tires not truck tires. They do separate tests for truck tires.

OOOPS. I saw Michelin X radial as #2 and I guess that threw me off.
Some guys are running the michelin X radial on their Tundras.
Isn't there some 2WD truck owners running "P"(passenger) rated Highway-All season tires?
I guess the word "touring" by a tire's name shoulda been my first clue.
Sorry 'bout that everyone.
UPDATE: Some Light truck/SUV tires come with a "P" rating
(that doesn't always mean passenger, "P" can also stand for metric).Amount of "Ply's and load rating distinguish a passenger tire from a light truck/SUV tire. I think I'm catchin' on....

[My03Tundra]

I have Michelin X-Radial LT tires on my truck. At the OEM spec PSI they ride a bit firmer then the original BFG tires my TRD Off-Road Tundra originally came with. They also pick up a bit more of the road noise, but it is a negligible difference.

Overall, they grip the road very well, still provide a comfortable ride and handle very well on the highway. I haven't had a direct test to see how they handle in the rain but others who've driven them in loose traction situations rave about them. They aren't racing tires, and I didn't expect them to be.

I also thought with all-season tires I'd get better mileage because of a lower rolling resistance. Nope. At least it stayed the same and didn't change for the worse. I'd say drop down to the 265/70R16 size. I had a tricky time finding some all-season tires with that size.

As for price for my tires, I paid just a little under $700 for them from Costco with road handling warranty included with the price. I think the exact price was $698.??. I thought it was a pretty good price for the tires, even though I really wanted the Michelin LT MS tires.

[v8Toilet]

Originally Posted by My03Tundra

I have Michelin X-Radial LT tires on my truck. At the OEM spec PSI they ride a bit firmer then the original BFG tires my TRD Off-Road Tundra originally came with. They also pick up a bit more of the road noise, but it is a negligible difference.

Overall, they grip the road very well, still provide a comfortable ride and handle very well on the highway. I haven't had a direct test to see how they handle in the rain but others who've driven them in loose traction situations rave about them. They aren't racing tires, and I didn't expect them to be.

I also thought with all-season tires I'd get better mileage because of a lower rolling resistance. Nope. At least it stayed the same and didn't change for the worse. I'd say drop down to the 265/70R16 size. I had a tricky time finding some all-season tires with that size.

As for price for my tires, I paid just a little under $700 for them from Costco with road handling warranty included with the price.

The stock BFG tires had similar rolling resistance ratings in Consumers testing. I think Toyota chooses tires for their trucks with low rolling resistance on purpose.

[rcbuzzb]

My 03 came with 265/65/17 Dunlop Trekkies that did NOT handle the curves.

I got a set of Kumho Exsta STX 275/60/17, kept the stock rims. These tires are SUV/Truck high performance,all-season maybe just a little, they work fine in the wet but they look and work more like something for a big sports car. tirerack.com had compared them favorable to the Pirelli Scorpion Zero, I had those a long time ago on my Frontier and the result was the same: Great.

Total different driving, huge confidence factor, along with upgrading to Bilsteins and bolting on a Hellwig, on twisty roads it is in a magic zone now.

The tires being slightly wider and slightly shorter have tons of grip. Biggest problem is ultimate sport sedans and powerful sport bikes, 98% of them just get in the way now, and the few that try tailgating after being
passed, they just fade back a little more with each curve. The truck does this effortlessly, staying in between the lane lines and having a margin of safety just in case. Now if there is a fully visible empty curve it can go a lot faster than that, pitched sideways at speed and slid a good ways. I upgraded the brakes too, but they don't see a lot of use. It still does mild off-roading like uphill fire road sections, and it pulls its trailer with a very high degree of stability. I would say the truck is now easily 150% of what it was new.
I've noticed the old spontaneous motorcycling-moment grins, they're back! And the tires, of course, are the foundation and cornerstone(s) of this greatly increased all-around driving satisfaction.

[MATRDguy]

I Had a set of Firestone Destination LE's which were absolutelt the BEST tire i ever had on any of my trucks.!! It wore very well , GREAT traction in the snow and rain, and VERY reasonably priced. u should look into them. Check out the reviews on tirerack.com . sure there r some complaints but thats all some people know how to do..

I think ud like them!!