maxxis buckshot

What type of tires are best for pickup trucks?

In short, there is no “right” answer. But I’m sure you expected that answer and obviously if you wanted that answer you wouldn't have bothered to ask your question. That being said, it all depends on your intended use for your truck. I have more experience with off-road type tires than I do with other types. I have ran a few different tires on my trucks so I will focus on the tires I have personal experience with for the sake of giving you accurate information rather than give you a subjective answer about different tires I know very little about. (I hope that and what follows makes sense, it is late and I intend to go to bed after writing this. I just wanted to give you some type of info since no one else has answered yet with a better answer.) So please bare with me! To start with I have a 2wd ’98 Chevy K-3500 “454” 7.4L dually with 133,000 miles, this truck actually rides quite smooth considering it is intended to pull heavy loads with heavy axle weight. I rarely drive that truck but nonetheless it does get driven occasionally. Next is my ’05 Silverado 5.3L Z71 with 229,000 miles. It has a 3″ body lift but this more or less effects the ride in no way at all. Other than the body lift and tires/wheels everything is stock. Last is my ’05 4x4 Silverado Duramax 2500HD 6.6L with 510,000 miles. It is completely stock. My 454, as long as I have owned it, has had Maxxis Mudder Buckshot’s. As I said above, these tires are quite smooth. They do make above average road noise but by no means is it an obnoxious level of noise in my opinion, part of this increased noise is due to having two extra tires in contact with the road. Although the tires were already worn well over 50% when I got the truck these tires actually make good traction out in my pasture. There is a steep stretch of trail right after you cross my creek going up the highline. It is sandy at the top but mostly red clay at the bottom with year round water seeps keeping it soft and causing a deep rut which runs diagonally across the trail about halfway up it. The Maxxis Buckshot’s go up the hill and across the 1′ deep rut with almost no wheel spin 95% of the time. They have never bogged down and gotten me stuck. They do have the advantage of being on a truck with a manual transmission, and dual rear wheels with a locking rear end. Since they were so worn when I got the truck and I drive it so little I can’t give a good review of their rate of wear but they are considered an M/T (Mud Terrain) tire which will almost always have softer rubber which will wear quicker than other tire types. Overall these tires are, in my opinion, a very good choice if you need something more aggressive than typical A/T (All Terrain) tires on your daily driver. My Z71 has had three sets of tires; Nitto Terra Grapplers, Nitto Trail Grapplers, and Falken Wildpeaks. Using the 454’s Buckshot Mudder’s as a baseline for my comparison I will start with the Terra Grapplers as they were the Z71’s first set of tires under my ownership. The Terra Grappler specs were 295/75/17, 8ply. They had a good ride quality, low road noise, and I got an average of 15mpg. I have no real complaints in regards to their off-road capability but I am no mudder, if I did any mudding or driving on very soft ground I would probably have issues. In comparison to the Buckshots the Terra Grapplers pulled up the previously mentioned hill on my property about the same when in 4wd (keep in mind that the Buckshots were on a 2wd truck). Overall when it came time to buy new tires my opinion was that they were great but I wanted a slightly more aggressive tread pattern although I knew I didn't NEED anything more aggressive. The second set of tires I put on my Z71 were the Nitto Trail Grapplers of the same size as the Terra Grapplers save for being 10 ply rather than the 8. These were the next step up in tread pattern aggressiveness in the Nitto truck tire lineup. Compared to the Terra Grapplers the Trail Grapplers had a slightly rougher ride, more road noise but not an excessive amount, lower mileage (12–13), and substantially faster treadwear. Within the first month of ownership I was able to begin seeing significant signs of wear although the rate of wear did appear to slow with time. I’m not sure if this change in the rate of wear was real or just a trick of the mind. They were better off-road than the Terra Grapplers but not leaps and bounds better by any means. That being said I never got out and “really” tested their off-road ability. Their proficiency in pulling up the hill on my property felt ever so slightly less than the Buckshots when in 2wd but in 4wd they did feel more solid. I do remember a feeling of confidence with the Trail Grapplers that I never felt with the Terra Grapplers when driving across a pasture of questionable ground solidness after a big rain (yep, ‘ground solidness’ I know, but before you say anything just know that the computer being used to write this is a high-powered precision instrument, the brain trying to use it late tonight is not). The third and most recent set of tires my Z71 has ridden on are Falken Wildpeaks. These, like the Terra Grapplers, are A/T’s (All Terrain). Unlike either of the previous sets of tires these are 285/75/17, 8 ply. Basically the Falken’s are a half inch smaller but this has made an incredible difference. I didn't mention prices above but both sets of the Nitto’s I ran cost approximately $1,400 at the time. Just by going down 1/2″ the cost for a set of tires went down to just over $750. My mileage has gone up to 16–17ish (haven't had enough tanks of gas with these tires to say for sure yet). The ride is much more smooth than I thought my truck was capable of. I assumed that my fairly rough ride quality was simply due to having Z71 off-road suspension and oversized tires. Through two sets of tires I saw very little change in ride quality so I just figured the ride I felt then was just how things always were and how it would always be unless I spent big money on a whole new suspension setup. With these Falkens my truck rides almost as smooth as my Mercedes does. That is no exaggeration. No it isn't equally as smooth but it seriously is close now. I didn't realize changing the brand of tire I was running could make as big a difference in ride quality as changing the type from A/T to M/T. When pulling up the hill on my property these tires perform a little better than the Terra Grapplers but not as good as the Trail Grapplers or Buckshots. I will have to update this when I have some info on the tires on my Duramax. Since it is just a stock work truck the tire brand wasn't as important to me so when I took it to the local tire shop last month I told them just put on some decent A/T tires. I don’t remember exactly what they ended up putting on there, all I can say about that until daylight tomorrow is they are 265/75/16 8ply. They haven't made any real difference in my mileage, they may have dropped it from 23mpg to about 21–22mpg but that is just based on what the tuner says. I haven't had time to actually calculate economy from fill up to fill up with these new tires. They ride more or less the same as the previous tires and make slightly more noise than they did at the time of replacement. I can’t say the new tires are actually more noisy because when I bought the truck from my uncle last year the tires were already worn nearly smooth so I never actually got to hear their normal road noise. These tires get significantly less traction on my hill than the A/T’s on my Z71. The amount of grip on that hill is actually low enough that even in 4wd I prefer to just avoid taking the Duramax up the hill altogether. I know it will almost certainly make it up the hill but why risk spinning out and tearing up the trial even worse when I could simply take a better equipped vehicle. So there is my personal experience/opinion of the different truck tires I have experience with. I will update this with the info on the Duramax’s tires asap. I hope this helps! Also I hope it makes sense and isn't just the incoherent late night rambling of an overworked, under-rested college student!