Looking to put new rubber under my truck. It's a farm truck, lots of field driving, haul cattle and hay down the highway frequently also though.
Looking at 235 85 16's or 33x9.50r16's, thinking about the buckshot p78x16.... but it's only 4 ply, not sure about the weight handling. I often have a ton or more in the bed.
How bad are bias ply tires? Would these mud tires kill what little fuel efficiency my 460 has?

 

 

I'm not familiar with the buckshot P78x16s but tires are rarely rated by number of plies anymore. They're usually rated by load range. Load range B corresponds to what used to be called a 4 ply tire, but modern radials carry much higher loads with less plies than they used to need. So as long as the tire has a load range rating I'd ignore the number of plies.

However I would strongly recommend getting load range E tires for a 1 ton. Load range D might give you enough capacity with a dually, but I'd still say go with Es.

Mud tires certainly aren't good for fuel economy, but they aren't all that bad either. The tire size will get you worse than the tread pattern with most mud tires (tall and especially wide tires will hurt your mileage). If you stay with the same size you might notice a little drop (and with a 460 1 ton dually a 1 mpg drop can be more than 10%). But it's not going to cut it in half or anything. And it will only be noticeable at higher speeds.

The bigger issue with mud tires is their highway traction. They are terrible on ice or packed snow, and significantly worse on wet pavement. If you need the performance in the fields then you need to give up performance on the roads. But relatively mild mud treaded radials won't be nearly as bad on the road as aggressive treaded bias ply tires. If you're going to need highway performance I'd stick with radials.

 

Nice F350!

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Drew
'12 F-450 4WD Crew Cab, 6.7 Diesel, 4:11:1

 

that truck is a pickup,not a cab and chassis truck.pickup DRW trucks only came in 2wd form,from ford.from ford,the 2wd drw trucks came with rims with offsets not intended to run dual 235's out back but 215's instead.
if you sport the wider offset 4wd rims (i see they are aftermarket/factory aluminum though) you can safely run 235's without the sidewalls bulging out and rubbing each other in the middle of the sidewalls.run 235's on a oem 2wd pickup drw rim and they will rub when loaded.rubbing duals = heat = blow outs = blown apart fiberglass dually fenders = bad day on the farm.