Decent Road tire recommendations

[04Ram2500Hemi]

The raptor is my daily driver... What's out there that has a decent Road ride but can still perform for the odd off road outing ?

What kind of off roading? Sand, dirt, mud, snow, ice, rock crawling?

 

[Gary E]

What kind of off roading? Sand, dirt, mud, snow, ice, rock crawling?

You are referring to the 3 year old post by the OP?

 

[98rangerdave]

I personally had bad luck with KO2, the photo below shows the 315/70r17 load E ko2 with only 33,000 miles on them, rotated every 4,000 miles and 95% freeway driven. I switched to grabber ATX 35” tires so we’ll see. 33,000 out of a top tier tire is laughable IMO.

 

[B E N]

High performance top tier tires are not going to last as long as cheaper tires. They are made of softer tread and lifetime is compromised in favor of grip. Buy a set of cheap highway tires, go 60k and be happy about it, if your spending most of your time on the freeway it makes no sense at all to buy performance tires.

KO2 are well known to be fairly fast wearing, especially if high speed off road is your thing, they chunk and shred and will self destruct in 5k... but they sure are fun!

 

[98rangerdave]

High performance top tier tires are not going to last as long as cheaper tires.

KO2 are well known to be fairly fast wearing, especially if high speed off road is your thing, they chunk and shred and will self destruct in 5k...

This is the worst sales pitch for KO2s I’ve ever heard. Haha

sure, let me spend $1,700 for 5 tires that’ll burn out in a few weekends of hard off roading.

 

[Gary E]

This is the worst sales pitch for KO2s I’ve ever heard. Haha

sure, let me spend $1,700 for 5 tires that’ll burn out in a few weekends of hard off roading.

Yes, especially since the title of the thread is: "Decent Road tire recommendations"

 

[98rangerdave]

Yes, especially since the title of the thread is: "Decent Road tire recommendations"

Exactly my thoughts, most people were recommending the KO2 to the OP. I wanted to share my low tread life experience with 95% road driving. The KO2 is NOT a tire if you’d like longevity.

 

[Gary E]

Exactly my thoughts, most people were recommending the KO2 to the OP. I wanted to share my low tread life experience with 95% road driving. The KO2 is NOT a tire if you’d like longevity.

Yes, 33K is not very good.

 

[GEAngulo09]

I was looking into some Falkens for daily driven truck but today i was able to get my hands on some Mickey Thompson ATZ P3, here is a night picture of the front which i like already alot how the tires are aligned with fender flares.
First ride was very smooth and quiet (i was questioning if i should get or not for its "humm"noise), but i got one hell of a deal on them, soo why not

 

[B E N]

This is the worst sales pitch for KO2s I’ve ever heard. Haha

sure, let me spend $1,700 for 5 tires that’ll burn out in a few weekends of hard off roading.

Depends on what your after I guess, they aren't great on road tires (I think that was clear when I said buy cheap highway tires). It's pretty common to burn up a set of tires in a weekend of motorsport racing of your choice if you want good performance. The KO2 are a comprimise, they work decently well off road, last ok on the highway. They aren't great at either but wont feel like marbles on loose stuff and you will get more than 5k out of them on the highway. If you think I am joking about that take a look at the pilot sport cup 2 tires on the new GT500: people are going to be lucky to get 5k out of a set of those if they drive like nuns.

More related to the raptor take a look at the T/A KR3 or kdr2, dedicated off road race tires... tough as nails right? You will be lucky to get more than a few thousand miles out of a set.

Honestly the KO2 are a very good combination of speed, grip and longevity. People just have misconceptions or perceptions of what a tire should be: they want truck tires, not tires designed for high speed off road that the raptor is meant for. I always chuckle to myself when people brag on their new load range E "truck tires" that are 3 or more speed ratings lower than the stock tires on their Raptor, are heavy, ride like logging trucks, and produce inferior traction in literally every environment. They are happy because they get the bro look and will get 50k out of the tire and probably don't have the first clue what they are giving up when they leave the pavement.

If you want something with decent tread wear you have to get out of the high performance / UHP tires. No they aren't going to work as well on the desert, or for low speed 4 wheeling, or in the snow, or rain, or dry pavement... and they probably won't have as good of speed rating, your braking and handling will suffer, all around performance takes a hit but you will get more than 33k out of them.

This is a high performance, high end truck it seems totally backwards to compromise the one thing that actually connects you to the pavement. Every aspect of a performance vehicle is going to require more maintenance, unless your willing to give up performance.