Good morning all,

I have a 7.3 F-350 Dually with a set of 19.5 inch wheels on it. The tires are pretty old and need of replacement. The local commercial tire shop is offering the Continental HSR 225/70/19.5. They said it is the stock tire that comes with the F-450 and F-550.

Does anyone have experience with this tire? I have never bought tires for a commercial size before and I know there are other things to consider like steer or drive tire.

The truck will mostly be used to highway tow a horse trailer occasionally and likely will not exceed 75 mph when not towing. It seems like there are better tires I can purchase online like the Yokohama 115R, but not sure if its worth the hassle.

 

Michelin sells 19.5 tires.

the HSR tires were stock on a lot of new vehicles and most folks looked for any excuse to get rid of them. they seem to shimmy across lanes and are not very good mixed use tires. might be fine for local non high way use.

I would first start with

do you need off road, mixed use, or regular highway tires?

do you need stiff side walls or side wall ply does not matter?

are you boxed in to a particular size? whats avail at that size

 

Thanks-
It will mostly be highway use towing a horse trailer. Tire size 225/70/19.5

There is a 245/70/19.5, but I want to keep them as close as possible to the stock diameter which was a 235/85/16 tire.

I guess what I need to know is if its worth it to order a more expensive tire online and have it installed? Since the 19.5 is considered commercial- there are a lot less options available locally..

 

NO.

Not for your use, application, and climate.

The HSR's are just fine. I've run the same pair of HSR's on the steer axle of my personal F-550 for the last decade. Not just the same brand and model of tire... I mean the same physical specimens of Continental HSR tires.

That being said, look carefully at the DOT date codes of the tires your local dealer has though, because a couple of years ago Continental replaced the HSR with the HSR+. Make sure your local tire shop isn't foisting new old stock tires on you, or OEM take offs... unless you are fully aware of it, accept it, and the tires are discounted accordingly.

There are better tires, but they are not better in your circumstances, weather, climate, application, purpose, etc.

And, I would not consider the Yokohama 115R tire "better" than the HSR+.

I would avoid the HDR however. I would also avoid upsizing to 245s.

 

Thank you for this- I was wondering why I could not find the regular HSR for sale anywhere else! And yes forgot to mention I was in Florida so it will never see snow.

The truck actually does have 245s on it right now- they are not too big for it- but just not needed in my opinion. I would rather keep it close to the stock size.