New tires

[Armando D]

Hi guys I live in NY I have a 2018 Gen 2 Raptor. I chewed through the original Bridgestone’s that can with the truck at 33k Miles. Any suggestions on new tires? Considering Nitto or General Grabbers, would love to hear suggestions.

 

[CoronaRaptor]

Welcome to the place. Congrats on your raptor!

 

[K223]

Welcome aboard! You can search through the threads hear for tires. Lots if ideas, results and opinions. I’m still on my original BFG’s. Still smooth.

 

[goblues38]

My original BFG's still have 5,000+ miles left on them @36,***.....i see no reason to change.

Plan is to make it through summer on these and put new BFG's on before winter.

(note, this is with a 5 tire rotation strategy)

 

[moog5050]

I live in NY too and my experience with the BFGs for mileage is the same as yours. I liked the Duratrac for all around performance but they did get loud at about 30k and I swapped them out at 35k. The nitro ridge grappler are wearing much better on my Rubicon - not sure how much of that is vehicle related. Not as good as duratrac in snow but still good. Better than BFg in wet. Not a bad option. So far quiet too. When my current stock tires go on my new to me 2019 raptor, I will likes go with the nitto again.

 

[Armando D]

Yes I live on Long Island and have a house in the Catskills so my miles are mostly highway and the wear pattern on the BFGs have been terrible, and they are rated for 50k mikes...I will most likely go with the NITTOs next

 

[Mountain Man]

I live in New Hampshire and got 40K out of the original BFGs. Installed Cooper StIIIs. Wearing good but gas mileage is down and they are noisy compared to the BFGs. They are also load range E as opposed to C on the BFGs. Wouldn’t get them again.

 

[RaptorRnr]

I started writing this and realize it's a bit long winded...

I'm still a rookie, but I'll share a few thoughts. Tires are really a matter of where your priorities are. On my previous F-150 I added larger wheels and tires. I wanted something quiet on the freeway but with good sidewall support and something that I liked the look of. I wasn't concerned much with off-road capabilities at the time because I wasn't going to make the investment in suspension mods. I didn't know what I was missing. My research kept directing me back to BFGs. Quiet was most important for me. A poor alignment 3x (blame myself for not following my instincts) proved that any tire can 'get' loud but it did have a significant amount of unbalanced tread wear.

There's a lot that goes in to OEM tires when Ford chooses a partner. On a Raptor, they need capability first and then they probably need gas mileage to avoid entire fleet penalty avoidance. If you watched the video about the 37s on the 2021, they explain even if you delete the stickers there's still a 37 sticker on the truck because they have to indicate it's unique because of the size of the tire. My guess is regulations and gas mileage penalty exclusions. Every little bit counts and it's probably really hard to get the right combination of rubber compound and tread pattern to meet several of these requirements. Some of Ford's choice in a tire vendor is who is willing to step up to do the research and offer something that meets the talk track of the vendor. Ford touts the capabilities of their choice with BFGs. My guess is they didn't want to settle for anything that came in second place and BFG stepped up to help with the narrative. I recall that the 2017 reveal videos shared a video specifically about the tires and the strength of the sidewalls for airing down or bajaing. Just like anything, tire technologies from one vendor or another can leapfrog one another. Nitto, for example, may have implemented something that is better than BFG. Or, perhaps they're really good at the capability most important to you and average in some of the other categories.

Here's a list of common considerations:

• Intended use: Snow, high speed off-road, highway, rock crawling, sand (I do all of these so an all-around tire is important)
• Expected tread wear goal and cost of life on the tire (cheaper tires may cost you more if you're gonna have the truck for a while and multiple replacement cycles)
• Carrying capacity (I tow occasionally and need to make sure the weight rating is good)
• Speed (2017 - 2020 Raptors are speed-limited to ~105 MPH due to the tire limits. Not that the truck is aerodynamic to be safe at much higher speeds)
• Tire db ratings, if quieter is important
• Achieve the look you're going for

I finally had a chance to put my 2020 through its paces a couple weeks ago with the stock beadlocks and stock BFGs. The park we went to, Hungry Valley (in CA off the Grapevine), had great trails, several jumps and a rock crawling 4x4 test area. When we went to head home I inspected the tires and they looked pretty beat up. I wasn't kind to them, but boy was it fun. I figured I would have some road noise as we towed 400 miles on the trek home. I was surprised that they remained very quiet.

 

[Prestonjn]

I have KO2's on my 2018 and when I change my tires I am going with Cooper AT3 XLT's. They look good and have a better rating than the KO's. Plus side they are American made on owned by an American company.

 

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I started writing this and realize it's a bit long winded...

I'm still a rookie, but I'll share a few thoughts. Tires are really a matter of where your priorities are. On my previous F-150 I added larger wheels and tires. I wanted something quiet on the freeway but with good sidewall support and something that I liked the look of. I wasn't concerned much with off-road capabilities at the time because I wasn't going to make the investment in suspension mods. I didn't know what I was missing. My research kept directing me back to BFGs. Quiet was most important for me. A poor alignment 3x (blame myself for not following my instincts) proved that any tire can 'get' loud but it did have a significant amount of unbalanced tread wear.

There's a lot that goes in to OEM tires when Ford chooses a partner. On a Raptor, they need capability first and then they probably need gas mileage to avoid entire fleet penalty avoidance. If you watched the video about the 37s on the 2021, they explain even if you delete the stickers there's still a 37 sticker on the truck because they have to indicate it's unique because of the size of the tire. My guess is regulations and gas mileage penalty exclusions. Every little bit counts and it's probably really hard to get the right combination of rubber compound and tread pattern to meet several of these requirements. Some of Ford's choice in a tire vendor is who is willing to step up to do the research and offer something that meets the talk track of the vendor. Ford touts the capabilities of their choice with BFGs. My guess is they didn't want to settle for anything that came in second place and BFG stepped up to help with the narrative. I recall that the 2017 reveal videos shared a video specifically about the tires and the strength of the sidewalls for airing down or bajaing. Just like anything, tire technologies from one vendor or another can leapfrog one another. Nitto, for example, may have implemented something that is better than BFG. Or, perhaps they're really good at the capability most important to you and average in some of the other categories.

Here's a list of common considerations:

• Intended use: Snow, high speed off-road, highway, rock crawling, sand (I do all of these so an all-around tire is important)
• Expected tread wear goal and cost of life on the tire (cheaper tires may cost you more if you're gonna have the truck for a while and multiple replacement cycles)
• Carrying capacity (I tow occasionally and need to make sure the weight rating is good)
• Speed (2017 - 2020 Raptors are speed-limited to ~105 MPH due to the tire limits. Not that the truck is aerodynamic to be safe at much higher speeds)
• Tire db ratings, if quieter is important
• Achieve the look you're going for

I finally had a chance to put my 2020 through its paces a couple weeks ago with the stock beadlocks and stock BFGs. The park we went to, Hungry Valley (in CA off the Grapevine), had great trails, several jumps and a rock crawling 4x4 test area. When we went to head home I inspected the tires and they looked pretty beat up. I wasn't kind to them, but boy was it fun. I figured I would have some road noise as we towed 400 miles on the trek home. I was surprised that they remained very quiet.

These are all good thoughts. Every person will have different needs pertaining to where they live and drive. The BFG’s that came on the Raptor have so far impressed me for my driving needs. My brother runs the same tires on his Chevy Colorado Z71, and he puts a ton of miles on that truck in many different conditions (north of 20,000 miles each year). So far the BFG’s have really impressed me on that truck as well. If I can get 35,000 miles or more out of the BFG’s on this truck, I’ll stick to the same tire come replacement time.

My brothers Colorado- this is a pretty normal activity for that truck. Tires make a huge difference.