19.5's and cooper questions

Looking at upgrading the rims and tires to the vision hauler singles and cooper roadmaster rm190 245/70/19. 5.



Anyone have any experience with these tires? I love the cooper at and st I've run in the 16 inch rim but have never seen any of these tires on trucks. I need an aggresive tread and that doesn't relate well with the 19. 5 but these are the best I've found without being recaps.



Any regrets or suggestions on the swap to 19. 5's? Lot of money for me and i only want to spend it once. Plan is to get the tires road force balanced and run equal or whatever TCI runs.

Will eventually get fluid balancers.



Heres the rm190

 

From what I know about tires, and looking at the one shown, I would say you would need siping if you were going to run those in the snow. You have an aggressive tread, however those large blocks won't work as well as they could with siping. Large blocks don't give water or snow a place to go.
Call around and find a tire company that offers it. Usually less than $15/ tire

You say you need an aggressive tread, but didn't say why. Mud? Then I don't think siping will help.

 

We had 22" of snow at once last year. Not the only significant snow fall and in Missouri we only have snow plows, no blowers. Most roads took a grader with v plow and chains on all tires. Took two days for most roads to open A few of em I had already been down in the wife's truck, hers has the ST's while mine equipped with the AT's stayed parked.



I live 4 miles down secondary pavement and gravel roads. If I don't go to work I don't get paid.



Need the lugs for mud. Chains will be ordered for the snow.

 

I'm in Northern Illinois, near Lake Michigan, and we get slot of lake effect snow. Luckily, our township is able to keep up pretty well with deep snow, but our streets usually have snow/slush/ice covering them. Siping is crucial for those conditions.
Wisely, I install Blizzaks in stock size on my truck just before each winter, along with a 600 lbs steel plate for extra traction. Blizzaks are incredible in snow/ice due to all the siping, plus the spongy compound they are made from. Quite often I am called upon to remove our 15,000 trucks from ditches, customer's driveways, etc... and I can walk them out in 4 Lo.
That being said, you may be better off with chains, if getting stuck in muddy, snowy conditions isn't an option. But if your conditions were like mine, where chains aren't legal, siping would be the way to go with those tires.
Good luck either way, and keep us posted on what tire you end up with and how they work for you. We all like to learn.

 

The unsolicited Maine viewpoint on snow tires... ... .



Narrower tires work far better in snow than oversize tires.



Oversize tires tend to try to ride on the snow where a narrow tire will drop into the snow down to the road surface.



Oversize tires will scare you to death during a 60 mile commute in a blizzard, truck will not sit still.



Plowing snow the same applys, narrow tires push more snow than a big tire.



Lived here all of my 54 years and have seen many try the wide tires in the snow, then switch back to a regular size.



I realize that all snow is not created equal, also ambient air temp makes a large difference as well.

Driving on snow at 10 degrees is nowhere as dangerous as driving on it at 32 degrees.



I think you would be happier with a set of Blizzaks or for the ultimate snow tire try Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT's.



None better. Check them out.



JMHO.



Mike.

 

Mwilson, the size he is looking at is 245. He's got the width right for what he's trying to do.
I remember being shocked as a kid watching a truck with a lift kit and huge mudder tires trying to plow snow. Every time he dropped the plow, his truck stopped and just spun!! Another truck came in with skinny, mild looking tires, and pushed snow like nobody's business!! I got a closer look and noticed he had steel weights in his bed.

It's all physics, like you said, you have to get through the snow to get traction. Pizza cutter tires work better for that.

 

Sorry, at a glance they looked wicked big and wide... ... .



The old 7. 50-16 tires mounted on man-killer rims were the best for plowing.....



Pizza Cutter---I like that... :-laf





Mike.

 

I'm here all week. Remember to tip your waitress.

 

My narrow tire commute looks like this many days of the winter... ...



Can hardly wait... .

 

We don't get as much snow as many other areas but it does stick around for quite a while. I'm still happy with my switch to 19. 5" rims and the Bridgestone M729F's (245/70-19. 5) are listed as M/S and have a fairly aggressive tread (though not really a true mud tire). They are a little noisy on pavement.

 

Yah I found out in that 22" of snow how well stock tire size works. I was pushing drifts with the top of the hood in the 24 valve with the cooper ST's. Not a practice I recommend but I had nothing but time and a 14,000 pound tractor if I got hung up. Oddly the truck got around ten times better than the tractor did.



Ok enough talk about the white stuff it'll be here soon enough!



I ordered my rims today from Ron's rims that I found on eBay. I spoke with Ron briefly but he answered all my questions took the time to make sure I was getting what I needed. His website even lists his cell number for after hour calls. So far I am nothing but impressed.



Got a local quote on the rm190's for $ 260. Best I can find online is about $240 before shipping. I can't even imagine what shipping on THOSE would be.

 

Nokians

I agree with Mwilson- The Nokians are awesome winter tires, and even wear well in summer. Best around. Bruce

 

I think snow tire threads could end up going the same way as some old auto trans threads.....



I appreciate everyone's input and am taking it into consideration. That said snow driving constitutes maybe 15% of my driving. I have no problems slinging chains for the few times I will need them, 10" plus. I will see way more mud and "grease" trying to get firewood out of the wood lot and cattle and hay in. I need an aggressive tread.



Has anyone run a set of these tires and hated them? I don't want to have to buy a new radio just to "outrun" the noise of the tires.



Also I've read about harsh ride and squirminess (is that a word?) of the 19. 5's, it's just giving me some cold feet so to speak. Just don't want to drop $2k on something I will hate or won't work out. Why can't they make super swampers that last 100,000 miles?

 

i just put new tires on our f450 today, came with 19. 5's the last set we had on there were coopers, i dont remember the model, my estimate was the lasted 7 years and over 100k miles not to mention they where put on when i was 16 and i started running deliveries, i also drove like a bat out of hell. the truck is loaded pretty heavy about 50% of the time too, its our delivery truck. we dont get snow around here so i cant comment about snow, but the truck weighs 9k lbs, and is 2wd, before we put the cooper traction tires on it would get stuck on wet grass. after the coopers, it rarely got stuck at all that is untill we ground them down to look like drag slicks. they got replaced today because while picking up feed i found the left inside driver flat, and it was just getting to be time. never had any problems with them in those 7 years, should have heard the tire guys cussing and swearing about getting the rusted hub centric rims off.



i would also like to mention, since your looking at options, toyo also has what appears to be a good traction tire. m208 i think is what they are, i can look tomorrow and double check. the tire shop i went to has always treated me very well and has always given me good advice and info. that being said he was trying to sell me a set of tires, the shop said that the these paticular toyo tires are one of the best for 19. 5 rims and one of three good tires made by toyo, he said the open countries, these traction tires, and one other lt tire were some of the best tires ever built. its personal opinion so take it for what it is worth. so far i like them, i dont remember the weight rating, but its a 14 ply load range g tire.



talking to the guy today, they last tire to consider is the continential(sp?) tire. what i was told is they are going on the new fords now, and the company cant make them fast enough, they are a year behind in their orders. again supposed to be one of the best tires on the market if you can get them.



as for the squirm, the do float pretty bad in the beggining. both sets of 19. 5's i have driven would make the rear end wiggle behind you untill they broke in, thats with 4 tires on the rear. its not too bad and goes away in about 2k miles i think. as for a harsh ride i cant really say, the truck has stiff springs and bad shocks, plus it weighs a lot more than a pickup. on a 2500 i would think its a bit light and will probably always ride stiff, and squirm a little longer.

 

I'll take some pics of our Continentals from our porta potty trucks. Very aggressive, not too noisy. I'll try to get those on here tonight.

 

Mchrist how do you like those tires? Our tire guy was really talking them up, I think he was being honest but an outside opinion would be good

 

I didn't get any pictures of our tires before I left work today. Maybe tomorrow. They haven't been on long enough to give a full review, but they have plenty traction, that's for sure. If I'm not mistaken, they are also a higher load rating than what came stock. I'll check tomorrow.

 

Oh the suspense!



A rollback came in today with some hankooks on that didn't look too bad for a "medium" tread tire.

 

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Sidewall of Continental HSR





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Tread of Continental HSR



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Sidewall of Continental HDR







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Tread of Continental HDR





I'll have to check our records to see how many miles we have on these. Although the tread pattern looks similar, if you look closely,the drives have their shoulders separated more than the steers. Perhaps that's what the D and S stand for in "HSR and HDR" (Steer and Drive)?

 

And a nice homecoming this evening.