B F Goodrich Rugged Trail T/A tires?
 

I have an older set of these tires on my F250, 7.3L diesel. These tires are load range E and have worn very well. I have been researching a new set online. Altho' I cannot find a load range on the new B F Goodrich Rugged Trail tires. Are these still a load range E? Thanks for the input. MTG

Yes. You can the "E". Tire Details - Discount Tire I am looking at them for next time myself. :)

I take it you guys don't get your trucks dirty? Rugged trails get stuck in wet grass..... pure street.

Not that a street tire is a bad thing.....just sayin'

I drive mostly "on road". I have a tractor and Polaris 4x4 when I need to go "offroad" on the farm. Right now, my Goodyear Duratracs are a little to aggressive for street driving and are not giving me the longevity I would like. I haven't had a tire make 50k miles on my truck yet. :( My truck gets plenty dirty on the 1-1/2 miles of ash haul road that I drive to our maintenance shop on a daily basis. It gets pretty darn sloppy when it rains and getting beat up by the haul trucks.
What tires you running, Scott?

I run Hankook Dynapro ATm's. I bought them because they were the least expensive tire I could find in a 315/70-17, but I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that not only do they have decent grip off road, but they also have good manners on road and they wear like iron.

Like you I had trouble finding tires that would last more than 40-45,000 miles. This set has been on since 3/2010 which puts them at a little over 50K now, and I would estimate that they have at least another 25K left in them.

Cool! I did look at those, too. Thanks for the testimonial.

No problem. Dave just put a set of Cooper A/T3's on the big dually. He's been quite pleased with them so far, but it'll be a couple of years before we know how they wear.

OP asked about the Rugged Trail, which I think they stopped making. The link in the second post is to the Rugged Terrain, which is different and is a completely redesigned and new tire. I recently put a set of these on our Land Cruiser. (Raised white letter OUT, of course. :) I like them, they look good, and ride pretty good. I think they are a stiffer tire than the Rugged Trail. Havent done any off-roading in it but I am pretty sure it would perform better than the rugged trail, judging from the looks of the tread pattern and what I have read about it.

I saw an Excursion with a set of these on it recently.

Don't know about the Rugged Trail series but I've seen the All-Terrain T/A KO series last a very long time on a friends '06 F250 CC 4x4, he put new ones one at 72K and a friend of his took the old ones and have put another 20K on them...

I have a set of General Grabber AT 2s with a similar tread pattern and have been pleased so far...

RUGGED TERRAIN T/A
 

G'day Fellas,

BF Goodrich (Michelin) redesigned the 'not that well accepted' Rugged Trail T/A and came up with the 'Rugged Terrain T/A'.

There isn't a great deal of feed back on how the 'so called' improved design has performed. They have been out for a while now, so I'm hoping there is enough of you fellas that may have tried them or know of how they have been performing.

I realise they are a hybrid 'H/T come A/T' and are more designed for roads as opposed to Trails/Offroad. The boasting by BFG makes me think they would be a good towing tyre on the black top and gravel/rough dirt roads as they would be a stronger design than the H/Ts around:confused:.

If they fit the bill, I would be looking at the: LT285/75R 16 'E' Load index 126 R with Single Wheel Max Load of 3,750@80psi (Part# 31608).
What I can't find is 'what is the side wall ply/strength:confused:. There are Load Range 'E' (10 ply) tyres out there but are let down by weak side walls and really should be "D" rated tyres in my opinion.

How do they handle the high torque transfered to them by our big heavy diesel trucks?

Cheers,
Reg:-drink
“Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by and illogical and irrational minority, who hold forth the proposition that it, is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end”

I share your pain. Deciphering all the tire info out there is a daunting task. :-huh

From what I've gathered so far, the Load Range indicates the tire ply rating. D rated tires are 8 ply, E rated are 10 ply, F rated are 12 ply and so on. However, I did read a tech article that "ply" is not to be a direct relation to how many cord layers were used for the tire construction. Decades ago that was true but these days tire construction has evolved so much that ply rating is intended to show the sidewall strength (even though there aren't 10 plys in the sidewall of an E series tire...)

Confused yet? I am. :-X21

I read up a bit further and discovered that LT tires come in Standard sidewall and Reinforced sidewall. Generally speaking, if it is reinforced then it will say on the sidewall. If it's standard strength, then it usually doesn't say anything.

For someone like me who tows heavy, I am concerned about the Load Index. The tire you mention has a load index of 126 which exceeds the OEM spec (3748 lbs vs 3415 lbs for singles). My F250 has 285/75R16E Bridgestone tires with a load index of 126. My F450 has 225/70R19.5F tires with the a load index of 123(when used for duals). :-X18 Funny how a tire with a 12 ply rating, used as a dual has a LOWER load index as my F250 tire!. Lucky for me, my F-450 has four tires back there instead of just two...
Both tires say Reinforced on the sidewall so I suppose that is a good thing.

I suppose if someone was concerned about sidewall strength, then go for a higher Load Range alpha character.
If someone was concerned about tire load capacity, then go for a higher Load Index number.
For someone who is concerned about both...then we'll have to watch both numbers because there is some overlap. My neighbor has a set of BF Goodrich All Terrains that are Load Range D with a Load Index of 123. He tows a pretty heavy fifth wheel and his SRW truck is pretty squeemish going down the highway. My SRW truck is fairly rock solid (by comparison) so I presume the difference is the sidewall rating of E compared to his rating of D. :confused: (comparison made when I had a set of tires with load index 123 installed...)

I am asking because I don't know....if one was intending on primarily using their truck off road, then wouldn't a more flexible sidewall be an advantage when four wheeling? :-huh If so, then a Load Range D tire would be preferred....correct?

A reasonable assumption, provided you are running the same sized tire with the same air pressure under similar loads. Typically a "D" tire will only be rated for 50psi max air pressure where the "E" has a max inflation rating around 80psi.