When washing the truck this past weekend, I noticed the tires were cracking along the side where the tread blocks met the sidewall. There were also some minor cracks between the treads (all 4 are doing this). I stopped by the local ford dealer to have them take a look and they agreed that there is a problem with the tires and they will replace all 4 tires no charge.

The point of this post is take a look at your factory tires. I am also extremely impressed with the dealer / Ford on this. My truck is 14 months old, has 30,000 KM and they are replacing them all 100% free of charge. At most, I expected the tire replacement to be prorated. (avg 7/32 tread left on them)
Maybe this has something to do with Ford's past tire issues? Who knows... I'm happy!

 

I had one of my rugged trail tire do the same thing. The truck is an 06. The tire only had about 16k at the time. My other tires were not doing it. The ford dealership replaced only the bad tire with a new one, no charge. I am watching my other ones. I now have a little over 19k.

 

Wow, that's surprising to hear. Those tires where the OEM's on my 02' and I got 70K miles out of them. I had about 4 plugs in each tire for about 30K of the 70K miles.

EDIT: Wait, mine were the Long Trails, not the rugged trails.

 

I wish I would have tried that. Mine have been cracking for a couple years now. I'm up to 40k miles though, and mine truck is an 04 so I am probably out of luck .

 

Those rugged trail t/a are the worst tires ever made by bfg. I had a set of those on my 1500 silverado and they cracked out like that as well after about 10,000 miles. BFG took them back, but only gave me the "tread value of them" so I was stuck paying in another 400$ to get nitto terra grapplers. Should have bought those in the first place, one of the best tires I've ever owned.

 

going through the same problem now guys! have 23k on mine and all 4 are cracking bad. the cracks start on the top and sides of the tread and are even cracking at the top and bottom of the sidewalls. I called bfg today and they claim this is not common. i did start a file or case number with them. bfg instructed me to take the tires to a bfg dist, and have the tires inspected to have them pro-rated. i agree these bfg tires suck! the packed very easy in the mud and snow and for as much as they cost they should not be cracking! i have never owned any tire that has cracked like these.

 

The dealer was surprised to see the Rugged Trails cracking when I took them in. He said they see alot of this with the Continentals. They were going to replace them with the same tire but it was 8-12 weeks before they could get them in so they let me upgrade to LT285/65/18 BFG All terrain T/A's by paying the difference. One thing I noticed with the AT's is they sure hurt the fuel mileage. I lost about 3-4 mpg city and highway. I expected to lose some but not that much! They do look good though

 

Are there any safety issues with these cracks? I have an 04 with 42k on it and I doubt there is anything the dealer will do for me.

 

Interesting. I just noticed last week that mine are doing the same thing. Only 13k on them. I'll be checking this out tomorrow......

For those of you having the issues, can you provide the type of BFG tire, size, how old the truck is and how many miles were on them when the problem was noticed/turned in?

Thanks.

 

I am replacing mine this weekend with some Goodyear Silent Armors. I have a couple of hunting trips coming up and I don't trust the cracking BFGs.

 

I had them on my FX4 and I didnt like them at all. I cant say I noticed any cracking but only had about 20k on them when they failed severely on the wet roads.

 

Replaced my crappy BFG's this weekend with the Silent Armor and they are 100 times better. They are good looking tire too.

 

bfgs are known for that.thats the beggining signs of dry rotting.also michelins do that too.they are owned by the same company.if the outside of your tire isnt cracking the inside is.i dont know why by they do that.it takes awhile to wear the tread down though.i have bfgs on my truck and unless you have an issue i wouldnt even worry about it too much unless you have money for better tires.

 

I am replacing these p.o.s bfg rugged trails on Thursday. Mine are weather checked and I got a flat last Friday. Nothing in the tire but a very narrow and this slit. The tire guy and I looked at it from both sides and it looks like one of the cracks split open! We patched it and I am limping until my new tires are here on Thursday. I got a sweet deal on LT275/70/18 Firestone Transforce AT. Mounted, balanced (road force), road hazard, 90 days same as cash, out the door $689.88 tax included. A guy I work with has these same tires and he has 30,000 miles on them and they measure not quite half worn. I will post pics this weekend.

 

I put about 60,000 on my rugged trail, they started cracking just this winter, have new tires now but never had any problems with them.