fj12ryder wrote:
Yeah, but when people were running "snow tires" nearly everyone was doing that with bias ply tires. IMO the difference between LT tires and "P" rated tires could be noticeable. I would imagine the "P" rated sidewalls would have a lot more flex than LT tires. I don't know that it would be extremely noticeable, but maybe a bit.
Just checking; We are talking about pickups, right? And more exactly, pickups pulling trailers? Not high performance vehicles expected to preform at optimum?
From what I see (and a very small percentage of my driving did I have same size/number tires on both ends of vehicle) the best handling and ride is with tires loaded near but below their weight rating. If the P rated tires likely will have plenty of capacity on the front of pickup. And even when loaded to GVWR, not much of that load is on the front tires. And if the load is on the hitch, even with WDH, the front is likely to weigh less than MT. OTOH, it would be EZ to overload the same tires on the rear, so a heavier rated tire makes sense to me.
As for ride, a stiffer tire transfers more road shock to vehicle to be absorbed by shocks an springs. Half the tires stiffer than needed will make for a rough ride.
