New tires for 09 GMC2500, need suggestions

I went through the same thing. GM and their weenie tires on a heavy duty truck, HA! I looked and looked for rims but everything was overpriced Chinese bling rims without any kind of weight rating, lug centric, so I bought 4 stock rims for a one ton through GM. My brother worked for GM so I got the employee discount and picked them up at the GM warehouse about 30 miles from where I live. I also got a used rim from a 3500 for the spare.



I put BF Goodrich Commercial TAs 265s that have a 400lb higher rating per tire over the 245s. Mechanic friend of mine calibrated the speedo (took about 3 minutes) and couldn't be happier with the tire and rim combo. I was under weight with the stock tires but right on the edge so I feel much safer now. Good luck on you search.

Mike

I just put a set of Big O ATs on my truck yesterday, 3195 lb rating.

My camper weighs close to 4000 lbs.

I seriously considered a set of Michelin tires that I was told would last 70,000+ miles.

I decided against them because I figured you be riding on tires with not alot of tread for probably 20,000 miles. I prefer to have good tread all the time. Nothing worse than driving in the winter with not much tread.

If you never drive don't spend tons on the "best" tires so they can just sit and rot.

Can you do a google image search for the wheels that are on your truck and link a matching picture here? Folks here will then know. If it is a stock 09 alloy wheel I suspect it is 17".

I don't have any idea on rim size. I'm not even sure if the wheels are 16" or 17". The truck is in storage 18 miles from my house and I can't find the numbers I copied off the tire last fall. I was hoping somebody would have the exact truck and had upgraded. Michelin had an informative web site, but claim the 3415 load won't work for my truck, although I looked at another site and Goodyear Wrangler had same size rated 3415 and it popped up when I entered the make, model, and year of truck. Totally confused. We don't have big chains like Discounts Tire I'm always reading about on this forum.

I went from 265 70 18s to 275 70 18 on my Chevy a few years back and the speedometer is very close to accurate. Had Michelin LTX M/S originally and the first set of 275s were also. Sidewall cracks eventually on both sets. Bought Discount Tires Pathfinder All Terrains last time and couldn't be more pleased so far. Same 3750 lb. rating, better winter traction, smoother ride. $250 cheaper for a set. I have about 12,000 miles on them and only time will tell, but i am happy with them so far.These are made by Kumho from my research.

Since the OP has a GMC 2500, I have to assume the tires are no more than 31-32" tall to clear the wheel openings. 33's will fit with minor modification and not throw speed or gearing off so much that it will matter.

Realter - What size rims are on your GMC?

If you're only hauling a 3klb camper, most any E tires will get you there.
I'd still want something in the 3400-3700lb cap though.
Since you've not provided any other info, like the most important, rim size, all I can say is get the black ones!

Fwiw, no need to recal your speedo for a couple mph if you go with little bigger tires.
And actually every new truck I've had in the last several years with "small" OE tires, the speedo already reads a shade fast at highway speeds, like it's calibrated for the optional larger tires.

What diameter wheel do you have? If they are 17" the choices are limited. Most from the factory of this diameter are 265/17 with a maximum capacity of 3197 pounds. I stepped up to a 285 and found Nittos that can carry 3748 each tire.

Regardless of the what the tires can do, the weaker point will still be the capacity of the wheels themselves and I have yet to find any rate stamp or documentation on factory wheels. My only assumption is that the stock factory wheels are at LEAST capable of the weight of the tires that came with the truck.

E rating tires go up to 4080 depending on tire size/rim. Do you know what your rim is rated for? What size tire are you running? You can look at the revs per mile to get the same to not change your speedometer.

Tirerack.com is a decent place to research tires. On there, it looks like OEM tires are a few different sizes and that is just for the 4WD variety. Michelins seem to go to 3750. Personally, I'd go as high as you can for your tire size.

Are you sure? LT tires for your truck factory should be 3080 Pounds load carrying capacity rated.
Go to Discount Tire, or your local large tire store and pick the brand with the highest ratings you can aford, and that match your driving style.