New Tahrz For The F450

[NRALIFR]

At 5.5 years old, and 56K miles, the outside shoulders on the front tires were getting thin. I considered moving them to the rear, and moving the two best rear tires to the front, but after looking the rear tires over carefully, I found that one had a cut in the tread area that had sliced one of the lugs about halfway off. The cut wasn’t any deeper than the tread groves, but if I finished cutting the lug off I’d probably be able to hear and feel it. No telling when that happened, as the cut was almost unnoticeable. Probably from one of the gravel roads I drive on. I’d bet I had been driving on it a while.

The tires are 225/70R19.5’s, and it came with Continental HSR steer tires on the front and rear axles. I’d prefer to have drive tires on the rear, so I bought four new Continental HDR+ tires from TiresDirect.net. @ $345 ea, free shipping/no tax. Nobody local could touch that price. Discount Tire would match the price, but they couldn’t mount that size yet, and I’d have to pay sales tax.

They came in quickly, delivered by FedEx. The date codes were all first week of October. I actually emailed them before ordering to see how old the tires were, and they responded quickly saying they just got them in, and they were still hot and sticky! :W



I had them mounted yesterday. The two inner rear tires were moved to the front. They still have about 1/4” of tread left. They’ll be good for another year or so.



The new rear tires have a good 1/2” of tread.







These are the old tires. I’ll probably try to CL them.



When it’s time to replace the front tires, I’m considering putting some HDR+’s there too. On my old F350 DRW, I ran Michelin XPS traction tires on both axles, and don’t remember any problems with them.



Any thoughts?

:):)

[jimh406]

They really should get rid of the RAM decals inside the vehicle. Well, get rid of the ones in sight of the driver. Side note: I hope everyone was ok.

[NRALIFR]

I’ve got time to mull this over before replacing the front tires. The old HSR’s that I took off the front axle were showing a little uneven wear (scalloping?) on the outside shoulders as well as just being worn thin there too. Like I said, I’m leaning towards trying the HDR’s on the front.

I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?



(I bet he wishes he coulda Dodged instead-a RAM’d!) :B

:):)

[NRALIFR]

Must be, that’s what came on the front and rear axles from Ford. LOL

Like I said, the HSR’s are OK three of the four seasons, even when it’s raining, but they aren’t good winter tires at all.

:):)

[jimh406]

It’s not that it’s a F450, it’s that it has 19.5s. The carcass of a 19.5 is remarkably different than other tires are that usually found on a “pickup”. They make some 19.5s that aren’t designed to turn. Sure, they will, but you’ll get uneven wear. 19.5s are generally recommended Steer, Drive or called Steer/Drive or All Position.

[specta]

Is an F-450 even big enough to be considered of needing steer tires?

[NRALIFR]

I would actually prefer they were all the same.

But, just the fact that Continental classifies them as “drive” and “steer” tires has me questioning if anyone has run the HDR+ (Heavy Drive Regional) on the front axle, vs. the HSR (Heavy Steer Regional) I’m using today.

To me, the HDR+ tread doesn’t look any more aggressive than the Michelin XPS Traction tires (which is also an open-shoulder M+S tire) I was running on both axles of my F350. The XPS’s aren’t marketed as either drive or steer, though.

I’m leaning towards buying two more HDR+ tires for the front once I get a few more miles out of the HSR’s that are on it. Maybe in a year or so. They’ll be 6.5-7 years old by then anyway.

:):)

[specta]

NRALIFR wrote:

Any thoughts?

:):)

Why don't you want all six tire the same??

[specta]

Geo*Boy wrote:
I have to believe that those Deestone tires are going to be real loud with that tractor type tread.

Yes, I'm quite sure they will be noisy. But that's OK. :B

[NRALIFR]

Can’t do mud without doing loud :C



:):)

[Kayteg1]

Geo*Boy wrote:
I have to believe that those Deestone tires are going to be real loud with that tractor type tread.

x2, but that only proves again that you can't have it all.

[Geo_Boy]

I have to believe that those Deestone tires are going to be real loud with that tractor type tread.

[specta]

Geo*Boy wrote:

specta wrote:
Nice looking tires.



I just ordered a set of these for my 1976 F-250 4-wd I bought a few days ago, they're being shipped FedEx too.

The tires that I bought, from a different seller for my other truck also came FedEx.

I buy a lot on-line due to my rural location and seldom get anything shipped FedEx. I find it interesting that they ship soo many tires.

Are you going to use those tires for off-road use only?

Just a run round truck here where I live and that's what came on it originally.

I doubt that I will ever really go any distance in it at all. Maybe 150 miles from home at the most.




I haven't been "off-road" in a truck since I sold my 1979 F-250 4-WD.

I'm quite sure this one will venture out into the backwoods too.

[Geo_Boy]

specta wrote:
Nice looking tires.



I just ordered a set of these for my 1976 F-250 4-wd I bought a few days ago, they're being shipped FedEx too.

The tires that I bought, from a different seller for my other truck also came FedEx.

I buy a lot on-line due to my rural location and seldom get anything shipped FedEx. I find it interesting that they ship soo many tires.

Are you going to use those tires for off-road use only?

[NRALIFR]

Thanks. Those look like they’ll be some good off-road tires. Do you use that truck for plowing snow?

I just spent most of yesterday and today pulling all the tires off and putting them back on. I like to do that to see what the tire “experts” did wrong.

The lug nuts were all very tight, so I think they torqued them. Probably not in four steps like I did though. I like to wire brush the lug bolts, the pilot flange and the mating surfaces of the hub and wheel, too. They never clean those up.

The only thing they did wrong-ish was inflate them all to 110 psi instead of looking at the door sticker. I though they seemed a little squirrelly on the way home.

:):)