I have Bilstien HD shocks and the Michlein LTX AT2 on my 2005 SD and the tires are a great improvement over the Rugged trail tires it came with. The combination seems great to me. The shop where I purchased my tires from has a customer in construction with these tire and loves them and gets 60,000 on them also hauling heavy loads. With the start of winter where I live these tire so far seem very good to me on my truck to the OE equipment it came with. I do not think you will be dissapointed with this combination on your truck. The tires are pricey but what isn't.

 

I have AT2s on my '09 longbed CC. Excellent snow traction. I can drive my 13% grade snow covered driveway in 2wd no problem.

 

I looked up the tire ratings on Tire Rack and the Michelin AT2's were well rated. Based on the rating and my experience with Michelin tires, I bought them. I also considered the various shocks and bought the Monroe Reflex shocks but did not install them. I learned a long time ago to change one thing at a time and see how it goes. NTB checked the alignment and they said it was OK. We hooked up the 5th wheel and headed for South Padre Island in South Texas. Here are my observations.

The tires ran very well and were sufficiently quiet. They are not as quiet as a good touring tire but they are OK. They seem to be louder on concrete and they do tend to acquire small pebbles in the tread. They grip well in the wet and later did well on the beach so I am pleased overall. The truck still rode like a freight car and it appeared to require a lot of steering correction.

We arrived after 600 miles and I had the front end aligned at the local Ford dealer since we were already there to have a fuel injector replaced that blew out on the trip. They also replaced the torsion bar links.

Now the truck drove much better but there was still some wandering on the road. I then replaced the shock absorbers with the new Monroe Reflex shocks. The ride really smoothed out when the truck was unloaded. When under the truck I looked at the dinky steering damper. It seemed a little moist. I purchased a Monroe heavier duty steering damper and life improved measurebly.

The real test was the 600 mile ride home with 5th wheel in tow. It was great. The shocks provided a better ride than the OEM's and I still had good control.

Interestly, I did not notice the wandering with the old tires. I've learned over too many years that is best to change one thing at a time. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and comments.

 

Thanks for the report.

 

Hi Bob, great report. Smart move to do one thing at a time. I did the tires, rim upgrade to 18" with 12 mm offset and installed a hellwig rear sway bar all at the same time. Just getting off of the miserably handling stock 17" Contis was great enough but the truck handled like a Ferrari by comparison. Haven't noticed the wandering thing and virtually all the Ford cars and trucks I've owned had it, vagueness and wierd on center feel requiring almost constant slight correction input. Guess I'm just lucky or maybe the hellwig helps that much.