I was told I should just go ahead and post a new thread on tire size recommendations for my situation.

I go to school in North Dakota for aviation, and live back here in the Seattle area. I searched in the archives and found that a couple people recommended a 30x9.5x15 as a good compromise tire (Taking into account the underpowered 4 cyl 2.6 and other driving considerations)

Back at school the roads are iced over for a good 3 months, but I still want to be able to use the tires for light or moderate offroading here, and I also drive a fair amount of highway miles.

I am getting new wheels and tires, so stock wheel isn't an obstacle to get over.

Suggestions?

For moderate off-road and all-round, 30x9.50s are probably a good choice if you don't want to kill your torque. Here are a couple of pictures of my truck taken ~4 years ago - on 30x9.50 Michelin M+S:




Frank

Buy a set of cheap snow tires, studded if allowed. You will never regret that and it saves the wear on more expensive MTs.

I run 33's on my Raider and tow a trailer. I lived in the Sierra foothills, east of Sacramento, and drive from 25' MSL to 8000'+ MSL (occasionally) through various weather conditions. With the exception of braking, the power is ok (<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />) as long as you're not in a hurry. Without the trailer or correcting the speedo drive, the mileage regularly returns 15-18 mpg. After driving my Raider with the 33's, the little stock tire sizes just feel unmanly.



<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I would get the Pro-Comp all terrain tires. Thay are rated for extreme weather, not just the regular M+S rating. I know in California they consider those a studless snow tire.

Anyone have experience with these tires on ice?

o and rxinhed why did you take your front bunper off? just curious

I was also told the Pirelli AT Scorpions were a decent tire for snow/ice. Never did end up getting a pair though. Just not enough snow driving to justify it.

At the time my bumper were off, I was installing the 4-door front sway bar, having a tow hitches fit to both front and rear. I have put the front bumper on again, haven't yet completed the front hitch installation. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A good bit depends on what type of wheels you will be putting the tires on. If you are buying alloy wheels you can go with a 31x10.5 easy, 32x11.5 might be pushing it weight wise. If you are going with steel wheels would be better to stick to 30x9.5 probably. I bought my red truck with 235's on Steelies and swapped over 31x10.5 on alloys and performance/mileage is the same if not maybe a tiny bit better. The weight in running a steel wheel is a big factor. I know you haven't decided what tire your going with but I will use the BFG Muds as an example:

235/75 - 37lbs
30x9.5 - 40lbs
31x10.5- 43lbs

Presuming your running 235's or close to that, going up to 30x9.5 your adding 3lbs a tire and going up to 31x10.5 your adding 6lbs a tire. I have never weighed a Mitsu Steel Rim, vs the Mitsu Alloy rim but I am taking a guess and saying the alloys are at least 3lbs lighter than the steels. That would make running a 30x9.5 on steel about the same as a 31x10.5 on an alloy. This is all under the pretense that you don't want to loose any power/torque. If you can live with a little loss 32"s aren't a bad option, and 33"s aren't horrible but you may have some issues in mountian/hilly areas with power loss.

I mention this because you don't want to get bigger tire fever after buying the 30"s. Its true if you buy 31"s you will want to get 33"s (I had heard this but found out for myself its true). I can only imagine what it would be like going smaller even with a set of 30x9.5.

Yeah I'm running summer highway 235's right now on some bad condition factory steelies. I am looking at buying a set of 5 steel wheels and 30x9.5 tires. The quote les schwab gave me is $1060 for mw-351 30x9.5 tires and 15x7 black crawler rims.