Wheel /Tire/which combo?

I’d go with the 18s if you want a better ride unloaded or will ever air down. I’d go with 19.5s if you want a tougher tire.

BTW, I ran 19.5s on my SRW for over 8 years.

If you are hauling the camper all the time and alot of miles, I'd do 19.5s.
If you want to have a comfortable ride when empty, want the option of great traction in the winter and don't put on ALOT of camper miles then heavy duty 18s are preferable.

If you travel where you need flotation and low tire pressures, stay with the 18" tires. If you want the best camper hauling tire, go with 19.5".

scale the truck and camper. My F350 SRW and Lance 1055 scaled out at 7500 on the rear axle. If I towed I was over 8000 on the rear...I went with Visions and 19.5s

I actually had Vision 81 wheels wrapped in Michelin XDS2 245/70r19.5 tires for two or three years.

About a year ago, I swapped them out for Method 305NV HD wheels with 295/70/18 Cooper Discoverer STT Pro tires. There was finally an 18-20" wheel on the market with something more than the 3400-3750lb capacity listed on all aftermarket wheels I was finding.

I don't have a truck camper but instead have a 15.5K gross fifth wheel with around 3200lb pin and a 51gal aux tank in the bed. I'm in DRW territory but have a Kelderman 4-link air ride and the aforementioned wheel/tire configurations to handle the load.

Moving from the stock tires on my truck to the 19.5s was a night and day difference. The increase in stability was amazing - the change to the Method wheels was less obvious for me. Sure, there is a difference, but they're 85% as good while loaded while also being 85% more versatile. Or something along those lines.

There is a certain peace of mind that came with the 19.5s, but I really don't feel all that much difference since going back to LRE tires on the Methods. I've run them for about a year now as a seasonal RVer and they have met my needs very well.

So in summary, I've run both and while there is an improvement in stability with the 19.5s over the Methods, it is fairly minimal compared to the improvement from factory tires to the Methods with the larger tires (or at least STT Pros) running at 80PSI.

All that being said, I'm currently tossing around the idea of trading for a DRW. It has nothing to do with me feeling unsafe in my current rig, but more the legality of it - we're going to full-time, and I'm leery of taking a deleted, overweight truck all over the country. I'm still very tossed about this because I am happy with the way my truck handles the load and love how versatile it is, even off-road, when unloaded. I'm somewhat concerned that moving to a DRW with traditional leaf springs will be a practical downgrade from what I am currently running, but that's a whole separate topic.

Grit dog wrote:
If you are hauling the camper all the time and alot of miles, I'd do 19.5s.
If you want to have a comfortable ride when empty, want the option of great traction in the winter and don't put on ALOT of camper miles then heavy duty 18s are preferable.

What Grit dog said ^. I’ve used both.

Great responses guys, which combo would have the lowest cost of ownership, say over 15 years? I seem to go thru 18" tires pretty quick and wondering how long the 19.5's would typically last as they are twice the price of what i normally run which are Cooper AT3's, Toyo Open Country, etc.type tires. While we are at it, what 19.5 tires do you guys recommend? I do drive on Forest service roads quite a bit and snow and ice on multiple occasions.

Cabman 850 wrote:
Great responses guys, which combo would have the lowest cost of ownership, say over 15 years? I seem to go thru 18" tires pretty quick and wondering how long the 19.5's would typically last as they are twice the price of what i normally run which are Cooper AT3's, Toyo Open Country, etc.type tires. While we are at it, what 19.5 tires do you guys recommend? I do drive on Forest service roads quite a bit and snow and ice on multiple occasions.

Well the tires really aren't that expensive if you shop. Cooper Roadmaster RM253 in the G load range are M+S nice lug design and in the 245/70R19.5 are only $279/tire at Simple tire or Walmart rated at 4600 per tire

I'm sorry but I have to post this although I got a lot of flack the first time.And I will probably get flack this time also,so be it.
I wanted to up grade to 19.5 so I got some Vision wheels and tires. Other than the tire selection on 19.5 tires ie: drive and steer,which you will get used to.There is the way Vision wheels are made.If you look at the back of the wheel you will notice that where the wheel is machined behind the lug holes there is a recess to allow for the clip on the lug stud that is to hold the drum or rotor and installed from the truck manufacturer. This clip is removed and discarded whenever you have a brake job and is only need during the manufacturing of the truck.This is where the problem arises. As there is a void between where the lug nut meets the mounting surface of the rotor/drum it does allow for a solid connection between the 2. In short,if a tire shop or other person should over tighten the lugs they will pull through the wheel thus making them useless.This happened to me when I bought my Vision wheels. It got me to thinking,what would happen if one of the wheels was damaged while I was driving and I wasn't aware of it. This did happened to me but to there credit Vision replaced the wheel. But I was not willing to take that chance while hauling my camper so I sold the tires and wheels at a loss and stayed with my stock 18" wheels and got some Toyo"s rated at 4080 lbs.
I am only posting this so as people that use aftermarket wheels are aware of the problems that can occur.