Tire recommendations for heavy gravel road use!

Captain PartyMarty

Crew Member
Hey Guy’s

I am thinking about getting new tires for my f350. My current tires are Falken wild peaks and they are pretty much done with about 30k on them. The gravel roads I drive have completely chewed them up there are cuts, rips and chunks falling of the treads.

What would you guys get for heavy off road tires?
 
Hey Marty - I had the nitro ridge grapplers on my diesel. Same as you - 35k and they were done. Worn down and really cracked from the gravel roads. I went with cooper AT3 - designed for heavy diesel trucks and easy on the road. So far, way better on the gravel roads (no rips or cracks) however they bring half the gravel roads home with them. Smooth on the highways - hard to find a tire that will last on the cracked rock gravel roads and still be user frequently on the roads. Another big factor is weight - cooper AT3 is way lighter than Nitto Ridge Grapplers so a bit better fuel economy and feels lighter on highways. I was told the bf all-terrains is an excellent tire but has soft rubber and will wear quickly on a heavy diesel truck. I was annoyed the Nittos only lasted 35K!
 
Forester I know up north that spends a lot of time on logging roads runs Geolander G015's. They went from multiple flats on a trip with stock ford tires to never getting any with the G015's on the work trucks.
 
Yep, I'm gonna echo the M-55 chant, or the Nitto Severe Service.

I've been in forestry consulting for a decade up in the North Island and we ran those tires on the crew trucks (F150s) and they seemed to last the longest. But these tires are terrible on ice - much harder rubber than the KO2s (which I have on my personal truck - 2010 tundra) or the Nitto Ridge Grappler. I had a set of the Nitto Exo Grapplers on my Tundra and they were great in the snow and off road, but wore down quickly as one would expect of a winter rated tire on a heavy-ish truck. Any "snow flake" tire will have pretty soft rubber and wear quickly on logging roads.

My neighbour (logger) has the Cooper AT3s on his personal truck and they seem to be lasting very well for him - he hauls his boat / camper with them around the North Island. But his work truck has the M-55s.

Not a big fan of the GeoLanders as a dedicated gravel road tire. The fleet trucks where I work now have a lot of these tires and they seem to get trashed pretty quickly on the vehicles that go off pavement, but otherwise they seem to be a good tire for 4 seasons if town/highway with light dirt use.

I assume that you're using these tires to haul your boat to WH and generally bomb about the North Island during the fishing season with limited requirements for winter use in extreme conditions. I'd stay away from the snowflake and stick with the M+S rated tires for that harder rubber.
 
I’m on the Tahsis road a lot. Ran BF’s for a bit, complete garbage!
Went to Toyo CT’s, really good rubber and lasted 3 years on my diesel 2500. Just put on M55’s a few days ago.
 
Toyo tires will last. Rt or at. Depending on how much road noise you want. Just put mickey thompsom baja boss on my raptor and love them but too soft for your use
 
Hey Guy’s

I am thinking about getting new tires for my f350. My current tires are Falken wild peaks and they are pretty much done with about 30k on them. The gravel roads I drive have completely chewed them up there are cuts, rips and chunks falling of the treads.

What would you guys get for heavy off road tires?
Crazy. I have falken wild peaks and I got somewhere around 150,000 km on my first set. My cabin is 30 km of gravel road and we go up in the hills often as well where it’s rougher. I never had a flat caused by rocks, only from screws on the job site. This was on a ram 3500. I’m assuming you had the 10 ply load e version?

I’ve definitely heard good things about the m55’s but I stick to what worked for me
 
10 plys M/S from Associated Tire Campbell River. I drive the 64 km Head Bay FSR year round 6-8 times/month. Zero flats in 8 years.
 
I spent large portions of my working life off road; especially on the road to Tahsis and Zeballos / Fair Harbour.
I got a good lesson from a Zeballos local after getting two flats on one trip. He said, most of the time you get flats going uphill ; when you lose traction and your tires spin and jump getting cut in the process. ( exactly what happened to me)

he says no matter what the weather, have your truck in 4wd going up hills or steep grade.

seems kinda captain obvious, but i never had any flat issues after that.

Toyo Open Country A/T are also excellent tires

10 ply
 
I flatted an S/T Maxx on my older F350 (285/75-16) on the road to WH. I don't think that tire is a magic bullet. So far so good with BFG A/T but I'm not on the gravel much.
 
Toyo M-55 or the
I spent large portions of my working life off road; especially on the road to Tahsis and Zeballos / Fair Harbour.
I got a good lesson from a Zeballos local after getting two flats on one trip. He said, most of the time you get flats going uphill ; when you lose traction and your tires spin and jump getting cut in the process. ( exactly what happened to me)

he says no matter what the weather, have your truck in 4wd going up hills or steep grade.

seems kinda captain obvious, but i never had any flat issues after that.

Toyo Open Country A/T are also excellent tires

10 ply
The Toyo M-55 or the Nitto that is basically a knock-off of the same tire would be my recommendation based on a career in the woods.
The point about driving habits can't be stressed enough - in addition to using 4WD before you think you need it, speed is a killer, especially on newly graded roads. There are a lot of folks that think 'as fast as you can' is the appropriate speed for a gravel road but this is hard on every part of your vehicle, tires being no exception.
 
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