Hi everyone.

I am looking at purchasing a 2021 350 or 450, and honestly have only one concern holding me back from the 450: the wheels/tires. I live in the snow belt in northeast Ohio, and need a tire that has great offroad traction. I have been running Cooper STT Pros for a decade basically, on multiple trucks with great results. Anything less simply does not perform.

I have never owned a DRW truck, but the need has arisen due to planned upgrades with our toyhauler. I am reading a lot of threads where people are having trouble with the 19.5's wandering and pulling, and also being out of round and having balancing issues due to the nature of the commercial tire design with steel sidewall belting.

I WANT the 450 for all the obvious reasons; turning radius, brakes, towing capacity, etc. However, I NEED tires that will drive down the road with a foot of snow (I'm not exaggerating, we just got 2-1/2 feet in one day a few weeks ago). This is my daily driver, and that aspect will not change.

So I suppose the question is this: is my only option with a 450 going to be replacing the wheels and tires on it right out of the gate? I would prefer not to do this, partially from a warranty standpoint, but mostly from a cost aspect. From what I am reading, I am looking at several thousand dollars just in wheels alone, then add on the new tires and all of the sudden I've spent $5k just to make the truck road worthy where I live.

Can anyone relate to this situation? Advice?

 

My Toyo 608z have been great in the snow. No complaints or worries at all. Others have said the Toyo 920 are also great on the snow, and evaluating the tread id say they are better for the snow than the 608. Then there’s the Conti Saskatchewan. Designed as a snow tire. All 19.5”.

get them in 245 width on stock tires. Sell
the 225s on Craigslist (plenty of commercial businesses running stock tires and willing to pay)

It’s easy to latch on to a couple reports disparaging 19.5s-but once you get it you will love it!

 

I don't have a 450 so I can't speak to the tire options but, if you do end up buying new wheels and tires out of the gate, I have to imagine you could sell the originals off and recoup quite a bit of the money spent or, keep the stock set and run them in the summer months. Just a suggestion, good luck with your decision.

 

The current tires that came with mine seem fine, but we have only had 6 inches so far.

I am a fan of the coopers too. Had them on my SRW trucks.




they are continentials and I did air them down a bit.

 

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

 

I do not have one, but if I can ever get my **** figured out I'm ordering a 450... And the tires I plan on putting on once the stock Conti garbage (sorry, I have had bad experiences with Continental) have been used up are Toyo M655's on all 6.

https://www.toyotires.com/commercial...e/pattern/m655

Good tread pattern, 3 mountain snowflake for winter driving, accepts studs, stock tire size so will run perfectly fine on those sweet F450 rims. Also available in the 245/70R19.5 flavor if 33's are more your thing. Unsure if those are safe to run on the 6" factory wheels though. Others will chime in with that info.

Limited to 87mph but who cares? If you want to push 100mph+ buy a Mustang. My opinion of course.

 

Are tire chains an option for the work you are doing when the snow adds up? You're pretty much at the mercy of what is available in the market, which is rather unfortunate.

I just perused through a few sites to see what was available for 19.5s and it's pretty lack luster.

I have STT Pros on my '89 and can attest that they are, by far, the best performing "off-road" truck tire I've ever used. I'm up in WI. Several winters ago we had more than a foot and a half of wet, heavy snow dumped on us over night, every street was littered with stranded vehicles, people stuck in their own driveways, county trucks didn't go out to plow because the roads were so bad. The ol' 89 had no issues blazing its own trail.

 

My dad runs the Michelin XDS2 tires on his 450 and they are a great snow tire. You pay for the extra traction though at $400+ per tire, but they get the job done. There isn't anyone that can balance a 19.5 tire where he lives so he has to run balance beads in them. Gets a little vibration over 70mph empty, but any load on the truck and it goes away. Makes me think a good road force balance would take care of it.

https://www.michelintruck.com/tires-...info/xds2-19.5

 

Those look like fairly decent snow tires, certainly better than what comes stock. I would likely stick with the stock size since the 245s call for a 6.75" minimum rim width.

Tire chains never even crossed my mind if I am being honest. I will check local regs to see if they are even legal for me. Since I am in an area of lake effect snow, I could drive ten miles south of my house and be on dry pavement even though I have enough snow to cause road closures. Chains would not be ideal for this reason.

I have the same opinion of my STT Pros, they have gotten me through absolutely terrible snow storms many times. I can't tell you how many trucks I have pulled out of ditches while I was running these tires when the stuck trucks were on "snow" tires of some sort.

 

Chains are never a put on and leave them on situation.
As an old oilfield trucker, I put them on and removed them several times a day many times. There were even times where they were only needed for a hundred feet or so; but we had to do what was necessary to get the job done.
After a few times a person gets pretty good at it.
And BTW........enjoy the new 450 when you get it!

 

I had the 245-70-19.5 Toyo M920's on my 2019 F-450. I pulled them off the truck before I switched it out for my 2021 last weekend thinking I will put them back on the new one. Third day of ownership we got hit with a really wet, slushy snow storm, the Continental Hybrid 3 tires that come stock on the truck now have really impressed me so far. I am actually getting a quote to get the stock tire just in a 245-70-19.5. They seem to have more traction when you are starting from a dead stop or making a turn. The Toyo's are right around 60-65% tread remaining though so that could be a factor as well.

 

Fair point. This goes to show my ignorance of chains, I have never used them.

 

Interesting. Do you happen to know if those tires are standard now for the 2021 models? I'll see if I can confirm the tire model if/when I order from my dealer. I have rebates expiring Jan. 4 so I need to ***** or get off the pot lol.

 

I currently have Toyo M920 on my F-350 with roughly 60K miles on them they do great in the snow. In Colorado snow tends to turn to packed ice and they still do well. Soon as the OEM tires that comes on the 450 I ordered wear out they will be replaced with Toyo M920's

 

My above pics are the one he is talking about. I think they are standard. My window sticker makes no mention of them.