Good thing I had both hands on the wheel ! - Page 2

calclimber · 10-03-2009, 01:26 PM

The first thing the guy at the tire shop said was, you've got the wrong load rating for this vehicle. When I first told him I just wanted one tire to replace the blown one for my spare I could see the look of concern for me and my family in his eyes. It was a no brainier to get a four new E rated ten ply tires. I kept the best D rated for my spare. Out the door three year warranty $ 1,100.00. Cheap insurance and piece of mind.

**BroncoHauler** · 10-03-2009, 02:42 PM

Craig,

Have you noticed an improvement in handling since going to the E rated tires? I did when I made the switch, though I have to say that the previous D rated tires were years older with many thousands of miles on them, so it's not a completely fair comparison.

Herb

DUKCSUN · 10-03-2009, 04:44 PM

OK, so after reading this I am definately going to go with E-Rated for my next set of keds. However, I really like the 315 size that I'm running right now (315/75/16) and after considerable research, the only "good" E-Rated 315 I can find is the Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac. I saw that one guy posted some pictures and comments but since I've been a BFG AT/TA guy for so long I have NO idea what the word on the street is regarding these tires. Does anybody have good info to share? I'm looking to get them soon in prep for a long Hwy haul to Utah so any input is appreciated.

I'm pretty dead set on sticking with an E-Rated tire and this looks like the only choice (unless you count the Dunlop)

yvrr · 10-03-2009, 05:46 PM

Looking at the BFG website, the 285-75-R16s D rated tires that we run are rated for 3305 lbs. per tire at 65 psi while the D rated tires are rated for 3750 lbs. That is equivalent to 13,222 lbs total vs 15,000 lbs total for the D rated tires. That means that the Ds are rated for about 25% more than needed for our vehicles. I would think that the E series tires would be harder riding...anybody know?

jage · 10-03-2009, 09:30 PM

bryanlaws, when I was thinking about 35" tires I found a lot more options on a 17" rim that were rated E... one of the reasons I stuck with 33s, because the rim expense put it out of reach.

johnf · 10-04-2009, 03:16 AM

Craig,

Glad everyone is ok. Great job on controlling the van! You are lucky that the tire appears to have stayed in one piece and you did not have any body damage to the side of the van or the wheel well. Some people end up with pretty severe damage.

When we bought our van from SMB we did not buy any tires from them. Since SMB did not offer any credit for the new tires that came standard on the van, we thought we might as well get some use out of them until we figured out what other tires to buy. We have the E350 and the stock tires from Ford were load range E in the 245 size. We ran those for a while but long before we ran out of tread we switched to the larger tire size 285/75/16 and I noticed improvement in the handling. I could feel the slight decrease in torque on start up from a dead stop due to the larger size, but overall with the better handling I prefer the 285 size over the 245 size. Our current (load range E) tires are rated for a max load of 3,750 pounds per tire at 80 psi. I might be wrong, but if Ford puts load range E tires on the vans when they are stock, I would not feel comfortable using load range D tires, especially considering how much most of our vans weigh.

One thing I always check when buying new tires is the date on the sidewall to make sure I am getting ones that were recently manufactured. The date would be easy to miss if you did not know what to look for. The date is stamped with a four digit number that represents the week and year, for example if you see 1408 you know they were made in the 14th week of 2008.

John

DUKCSUN · 10-04-2009, 08:22 AM

Jage,

I am WELL aware of the additional options with 17" rims.

In truth, that is just about the only thing I wish I had done differently when I bought the van. Not only are there more tire options with the 17" rims, if you ever want to upgrade the brake package (something I would like to do even though I don't tow a lot) you need the 17" rims to accomodate the bigger brakes.

With my teflon rims I suspect I "might" be able to get someone to buy them for a decent price or trade but like you, the tire AND rim purchase is out of range. I REALLY wish they had mentioned that little fact when I was purchasing as I just didn't know any better at the time.

I haven't really tried to see if there is a "market" out there for the 16" teflon rims but I probably should before I jump onto a new set of tires but I'm afraid to find out.

Since I'm less than educated on tire sizes, etc. Do you know what size, on a 17" rim gets me to the same overall size/diameter tire? (If you want to move this thread to prevent highjacking go ahead)

**daveb** · 10-04-2009, 09:33 AM

Craig, glad you made it through that one. Very scary looking ordeal. You'll probably feel better on those class V trails as well; I know it made me feel a little better. Because of my trailer, I kept with the same size/brand in the E class 285 R16 BFG/AT's and stuck the best D's on the trailer. The handling improved quite a bit and the mileage went up as well. I'm sure you found at 70-80lbs the ride is rough but the mileage improvement is worth it IMO. I do a lot more airing down now. Washboard at 75lbs is a shuttering experience.

Jeffrey · 10-04-2009, 09:59 AM

Looks like I'll be going with the EEeee's !!

EMrider · 10-04-2009, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveb

Craig, glad you made it through that one. Very scary looking ordeal. You'll probably feel better on those class V trails as well; I know it made me feel a little better. Because of my trailer, I kept with the same size/brand in the E class 285 R16 BFG/AT's and stuck the best D's on the trailer. The handling improved quite a bit and the mileage went up as well. I'm sure you found at 70-80lbs the ride is rough but the mileage improvement is worth it IMO. I do a lot more airing down now. Washboard at 75lbs is a shuttering experience.

The airing down process is my one major complaint with the E tires. I've got the extreme onboard air and it takes eons (ok, more like 45min-1hr, but in hot weather it feels like eons) to air back up from 40psi. But I did also notice a small improvement in MPG when I switched to the Es.
Rob