new to towing.... buying 4 tires...

groundhogy wrote:
I kind of read a bunch of old posts, but I am still a bit confused.

I see that I want the E rating.
I want like 100 mph continuous speed, etc.
Load like +3000 lbs..

What I am confused about is that I see some people
talking about their "stiff" sidewalls.
Does this help the ride? I guess from some side-to-side
wandering?

If so, does the E rating get you this stiffness, or is it
a specific brand and model that I want to look for
for this stable towing ride?
Generally speaking, a higher load rating typically means a stiffer tire "Relatively speaking". So for a given tire line, higher load ratings mean a stiffer side wall typically. But between different tire lines, you have different methods of construction. For example, the Firestone Transforce HT tires tend to have a very soft sidewall that actually helps in daily ride comfort, but they do balloon out and aren't as abrasion resistant as the heavier carcass commercial style tires. It really requires time to sit back and compare tire construction and your uses for a given tire.


2.. my second question is tread aggressiveness.
The more pure road tires are what I see people recommending
I think. But I am thinking what if I get in some soft
dirt and need to pull harder? IDK...
So in this regard, maybe a more mild "All-terrain" tires would be suitable to you. Something that can handle sand and shallow mud/forest roads. The tires that tend to have adverse handling characteristics are those tires you see with the large independent lugs (Like Goodyear Duratracs or BF Goodrich Krawler KX's). Many mall crawler show trucks tend to sport these tires in these parts. But if you get an all terrain tire that doesn't have large canyons/grooves between the individual tread lugs, you won't be as adversely affected. Some examples of decent all terrain tires would be like the Michelins previously suggested, or Goodyear Wrangler All-terrain adventures, or even some Bridgestone Dueler AT Revos. This is really just a guideline as I'm not brand biased. But on the all-terrain tires I've pointed out, you'll notice that they only have some large areas to help eject mud/clay/rocks, but in general all the lugs are really close to each other.

Highway tread tires are excellent for pure highway driving as they have constant contact with the road which lends itself to a much straighter ride and less wandering by the vehicle. That's why many posters on here are big fans of Highway tread tires.


help.. lol

rhagfo wrote:
If you want grip and a strong tire check out the Michelin LTX M/S2! I replaced my Toyo's with them and have gone all winter without any extra weight in the bed, and nary spun a tire.