Tires

Tress

Adventurer
Ok so im new to this forum and cant decide where the best place to post this thread would be so i guess ill just start here. Im going to be driving the Pan AMercian highway and am trying to get some advice on tires. I am pretty sure we are going to go with some All Terrain's but not sure which. For a while i was leaning toward the BF Goodrich A/T but have recently been considering the Mickey Thompson A/T, and even more recently i heard that Nito or excellent tires. I am sure there has been lots of discussions about this but i cant find any of them, so any input or opinions about what type of tire would be best for such a journey wouyld be greatly appreciated. And while we dont plan on staying one the roads at all times we dont plan on doing any serious off roading so somethin gin the A/T range. Oh and in case it matters we have a Ford E-355 4x4.
 

crawler#976

Expedition Leader
Take a look at the GoodYear Wrangler Silent Armour. The tire uses some of the technology that make MT/R's one of the toughest tires available. The tread doesn't look overly aggressive but they've performed very well for us on a '05 Tacoma. They are available in an E rated version suitable for you van.
 

Scott Brady

Founder
I like the Silent Armor idea, especially with the quantity of highway driving you will be doing. For a little more aggressive appearance, the BFG AT is always excellent too.
 

Tress

Adventurer
I have not heard good things about Goodyear's, has anyone here had any bad experiences with the brand?
 
Last edited:

kodiak1232003

Adventurer
Tress said:
I have not heard good things about Goodyear's, has anyone here had any bad experiences with the brand?

the goodyear AT/S's that came on my LJ wrangler have 45k on them and are just at the point where they are ready to be replaced.


i think that is pretty darn good for a stock tire. plus, these tires took me through the mud video that i posted as well as a trip down Coyote canyon trail, as well as about 5k on the highway in the last 5 months...I want something a bit more aggressive, but if i didn't, i'd just get 4 new ones.


:)
 

ujoint

Supporting Sponsor
I would plan for the worst and get a tire that is readily available wherever you plan to travel. There may not be a tire that meets those demands, but I would try!
 

Tress

Adventurer
Prolly a good idea, anyone know the answer LOL!, i figure BF is a pretty big name but not sure what will be available where we are going, but definitely something i will look into, thanks.
 

crawler#976

Expedition Leader
Tress said:
I have not heard good things about Goodyear's, has anyone here had any bad experiences with the brand?

In my opinion, one derived from very hard core rock crawling with a truck that was also used as a daily driver, the GoodYear MT/R is with out a doubt the finest, toughest, dry terrain traction radial tire on the market. It's the "parent" of the Silent Armour tire. I never punctured the sidewall of an MT/R. At one point I had three trucks all shod with MT/R's.

We recently switched to the Wrangler SA on the '05 since it doesn't get the abuse my Taco does. Road noise went away, fuel economy went up, and with what little snow we've had, my wife noticed better grip on ice, and she feels the truck is more stable on wet roads. I've only had it on a few local FS roads/trails, and while they did pack up quickly in mud, we still made it thru with no trouble. They balance with very little weight, and are actually round - a big improvement over the MT/R's.

The Wrangler SA uses the same Durawall technology for sidewall strength as the MT/R, and adds a layer of Kevlar to the tread for decreased road noise and puncture resistance.

Anyway, at least take a look at'm while your tire shopping, and ask the tire guys what they hear about'm. Our local Discount Tire is selling them as fast as they can get'm.

Mark
 

jeff@work

Adventurer
I had the Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armors Pro Grade on my van when i first purchased it, i then swapped the tires between my Trooper and Van so I had the Goodyear's were on the Trooper and my Mickey Thompson MTZ's were on the van. After the swap it became very noticeable that the Goodyears were significantly stiffer and rode much rougher than the MTZ's, both tires were 265/75r16 load range E. This is probably just due to the tough sidewall construction and I have no idea how the regular silent armors would compare to the pro grade. Anywho that's a limited comparison since it's just between 2 tire types but personally I wouldn't get the Goodyears again.
 
Last edited:

Tress

Adventurer
Hmmm, well it sounds like these Silent Armors are getting some good reviews aside from the last person who felt they were kinda stiff. Its a tough call we will be doing a lot of long miles on these so the stiffness doesn't sound great but i like the idea of the side wall reinforcment and the fact that they are supposedly pretty quiet. I bought the van with BF M/T's and they were pretty loud, although im used to regular old tires so the MT's were like driving a trackter down the highway. Anyone know how widely available the Silent Armor tires are, cuz while i hope there are no issues it would be pretty ugly having to replace something that is hard to find in the US from say Guatemala. In any event thanks a lot for the info and keep the opinions rolling. Oh whats the consensus on the Mickey Thompson tire? long lasting? loud? good traction? Thanks again
 

haven

Expedition Leader
wheel diameter

For a long trip outside North America, be sure to take the wheel diameter into consideration. It's quite difficult to find replacement tires for rim sizes like 17" 18" and 19.5." The more commonly used truck rim sizes are 16" and 22.5," with 15" rims on a lot of light pickups.

If you decide to run a less common size, be sure to carry two spares so you have a way to keep going while you're waiting for replacement tires to arrive from USA by air freight. There are tire shops in every small town and village that can plug a simple puncture. But they can't fix a sidewall problem or a big hole in the tread.

Chip Haven
 

Clark

Observer
I don't think that they would work because of the load rating. The highest I saw was a D and most of them where C's.
 

Tress

Adventurer
What load rating does a 1 ton van need? Can i only use E or would D work?
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,528
Messages
2,875,548
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top