Highway tire recommendations?

[sbgrimm]

I need new tires. We do 98% of our driving on highway, with the rest on Forest Service or BLM roads looking for a boondocking spot every night. I've searched the forum for info but now looking for more up to date advice.

Our SMB is a 2005 E250, 2wd with LSD. We've been running Michelin Defender LTX M/S, 225/75/16. It's been a great tire for our needs. Unfortunately, it has been discontinued and my tire shop is pushing the Michelin Agilis LTX LT. I'm not sure I want that since it's fairly new without a long track record.

Not long after we bought our van we had a blowout in rural Oregon and the local Les Schwab put us into their private brand AT tires. I hated the noise and the wandering on the highway so had them swapped to the Defenders when we got home. That's my only experience with AT tires. If there were an AT tire as quiet and with good tracking as the Defender I'd consider it.

Any recommendations for a quiet and well behaved highway tire?

[N147JK]

We are the same as you - 98% paved road. I just put a set of Michelin Agilis CrossClimates on my '01 E250 (LT225). Perfect ride - stable and quiet. But I only have one trip on them. I did notice that even after only 4000 miles I can easily measure some tread wear. Maybe this is normal, but I'm not sure how long they will last. But so far the road performance is very good.

[The_Vermonster]

The closest tire to the Defender is probably the BFG Commercial T/A All Season 2.

Other tires that I would be comfortable with.
Falken Wildpeak HT
Goodyear Wrangler HT
Continental Vancontact A/S (these came on my dad's Transit and he likes them so far)

With the types of driving you do, an AT tire is probably overkill. But I wouldn't shy away from every AT. The Falken Wildpeak AT3W gets glowing reviews, and I've been a big fan of the Nokian Outpost ATs. Newer AT tires are getting much better on the highway.

[REF]

Seeing as you’re in Durango, and if you drive at all in snowy conditions, I’d suggest you look at getting a 3 peak mountain snowflake (3PMS) rated tire. A few options in this article……

https://tirehungry.com/the-8-best-al...r-the-highway/

[sbgrimm]

Thanks Ref, I'll have a look at those. We generally park the van during the winter and use the Subaru to get up the mountain to the ski areas. But we've woken to a surprise snow before while boondocking, so it's a good idea to run 3PMS tires just in case.

[dhally]

We have the Michelin Agilid Crossclimate in OEM size. They are great on wet and dry pavement, gravel, and dry dirt/rocks. Haven't tried snow and ice yet. Normal wear for mileage.
Every time I try a non-Michelin I'm dissapointed...

[moorefc]

I like the cooper AT3s after a couple sets. Maybe slightly worse mileage than a dedicated highway tire, and wet stopping on pavement said to be not quite as good (I don't notice it). Long lasting, track well. My previous SMB had highway tires and they were much worse in slippery steep off road.....
Contis are another AT good choice based on driving them on a transit...


The problem is how much do you want to push the "am I going to get stuck" exploring that better offroad camp question. Do you air down? If not ATs are easier....

[mikracer]

I've had two sets of the cooper discoverer at3 and they are really quiet. They aren't snowflake rated but got decent reviews for snow. I think I got about 50k miles out of my last set.

[deserteagle56]

You couldn't go up or down a size so you could stay with the Michelins?

[sbgrimm]

Originally Posted by deserteagle56

You couldn't go up or down a size so you could stay with the Michelins?
Attachment 48420

No, those sizes you referenced are 4 ply versions with max of 50 PSI, not suitable for heavy vans like SMB's. There are only 2 LT (light truck, 10 ply) rated Defender LTX M/S tires and both are larger than I want to put on my stock van.