I've had 3 sets of tires on my Excursion since purchase.

1. Michelin LTX M/S - 265/75/16 Load - Range E
2. Nitto Terra Grappler A/T - 315/75/16 - Load Range D
3. Firestone Destination M/T - 315-75-16 - Load Range E

The Michelins were good tires. Excellent actually. Just didn't look "cool". I replaced them because they didn't compliment the lift. Stupid mistake

The Nitto's immediately annoyed me because of their spongy feel and extremely loud at all speeds. Noise got worse with wear. The X wallowed at times even with 55 psi in the tires. I learned to live with it and eventually didn't notice the effects. Nittos were also slicker than owl poo when wet. My little ol' V-10 could light them up quite easily. All that ended 2-3 days ago the drivers tire popped a steel belt.

I put the Destinations on last night. Holy crap are they a good tire. I've run them before and it highly influenced my decision. These M/T's are quiet, they track better down the road than those POS Nitto's, and they don't wallow. I had no idea how nicely my Excursion could ride. I didn't have a while lot of steering wander (you know the crap that plagues the X and F-250/350), but it's essentially gone now.


What really drove the drastic change home are the roads. Hawaii has atrocious roads. We were on one of the worse ones earlier and my wife asked if the new tires are why the truck wasn't doing it's typical "Death Wallow". Previously that section of road has been at times a real white knuckle experience.



Anyways...just a FYI that you truly get what you pay for. I settled for cheap POS Nitto tires...and I payed for that with a poor performing/riding rig for almost 1yr. And I would never have bet that a M/T would act so civilized on the road...especially better than a A/T. Makes me wonder how well my old 2006 F-250 would have driven with good E rated M/T's vice the BFG M/Ts that were D rated.

anyways...I've seen the error of my ways. Hope my experience can save someone from a similar mistake.



oh yeah, truck **** for y'all

 

I agree. My F350 came with Generals, which were not horrible but I could get stuck in wet grass. At 20,000 miles I trashed them and went with BFG load range E tires. I pull a heavy 5th Wheel and I wanted a good tire. They weren't cheap but "you get what you pay for" when it comes to tires.

 

Tires are one area i refuse to skimp on, i replace way before other would because that last 25% the traction is pretty low. snow tires i'm even worse about...but someone gets a good deal on CL with my "used up" ones lol

truck looks GREAT btw!!

 

Thanks for the info.. on the tires... I went with BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A on my other truck and you do get what you pay for on Tires I'm Glad your Excursion rides better... It Should... Looks Really Nice with the Lift and the new Tires

 

Good tires tend to solve lots of problems.

 

Great looking truck! The tires really compliment it.

I will be ready for new tires on my F-250 in a few months and I think
I will get these same tires on mine.

 

I have had good luck with my Nitto Trail Grapplers. They have worn a little quicker than I'd like. For this I am considering a different set. I will look into the Firestones. Im also going to look at the Cooper STT. Thanks for the pics the X looks way better with the newer meats.

 

How long have you owned the X now?

 

Not to defend the Nitto's but they were a LR D and the new tires are E's, I have Nitto Load range E and have no problems with them at all.

 

Oh I know the squirmy aspect was the load range

But that is no excuse for the poor traction, of how loud they are. My M/T's are quiet

 

Sounds like you went cheap and didn't get the right load range, and you're complaining that it didn't do what it wasn't supposed to do.

Load Range E 4080# Trail Grapplers have lasted almost 45k on my truck. No issues, no spongyness, no weirdness. They're actually rocks when they're pumped up under a 15k#+ gooseneck, and even with maybe 2/32nds tread left didn't leave me stuck today at Texas Motor Speedway in the mud while pulling a half dozen other cars out. Maybe you should have just bought the correct tire?

The Terra Grappler is that same BS A/T like the Rugged Trail A/Ts that came stock, I won't try to church it up to something it isn't and say it's the end all be all of A/Ts, but you're being real anti-Nitto over something failing at what it wasn't supposed to do in the first place? I'm usually the first one to say that D-Range is ok on a Super Duty platform, but I guess you had to know what you were buying into at that point and shouldn't have been surprised at the shortcomings of that choice.

 

I gotta say I feel the complete opposite about the Terra Grapplers.

I loved mine.Quiet and solid while towing.I can't comment about longevity as I swapped them out loooong before they were due for the Toyo's I have now.

Now you wanna talk about a loud tire?Ask me about my Toyo M/T's

 

I did settle. I wanted mud tires, but found the Nittos at a great price. Thought they were good tires based on the 'Net. D rated can easily hold the weight of my rig, and I ran D rated in my old PSD F-250.

The 3 remaining Nitto tires sitting in my garage have 4/32 tread left. I'm glad you have traction...I found them to be slicks when wet. And the noise is kinda ridiculous for a A/T tire

I used to be okay with running D rated in these rigs unless towing heavy. Probably would still be if the tire was a quality tire.

At the end of the day, the Nittos did their job. Kinda crappy at times...at least they look nice

Purpose if this thread was more to point out that E rated tires are a better option for the SD platform. It's amazing how much the ride can be affected by tire rating...and quality.

 

I have to agree with TTU and say that the shortcomings in the tire were the load range. Looking in your picture at your X, the sidewall on those tires is enormous and with only a load D tire you were giving in to a whole lot of sidewall flex on a very heavy vehicle. This in my opinion is why you were not happy with the tires. "settling for a good deal" is often for a reason, the tires were dumped for cheap for a reason (this case load range D and huge sidewall which equals trouble on these types of vehicles). While you say that Nitto is not a quality tire i could argue this point but i dont want to hijack this thread. I however do have almost 60K on my Nitto Trail Grapplers and have had 3 sets of Terra grapplers nd they have all been EXCELLENT tires.

I am glad that you found a tire that you love and i too have used Firestones and still have them on a couple of work trucks and they are good tires. I just think the brand bashing is unwarranted. Load Range E is almost a Must on a heavy truck with motors on the front axle that are very heavy.

 

edit: useless to continue

enjoy your tires gentlemen