I have searched a little and cant find the answer. What is the difference between an LT and a P tire. I have noticed that the Tire i want has a P and an LT tire that I want. The P is about 40 to 50 dollars cheaper. Any help would be awesome.

 

the best i can say is lt is light truck and p is passenger.lt tires are comonly found on 4x4s and super dutys.and p tires are on everything else.maybe lt tires are built tougher in construction and materials?thats the best i can come up with.sorry.

 

Thanks for the reply. I finally found a couple threads on it and Most people recommend the Light truck tire b/c it is actually made for trucks. I guess Im gonna have to dish out a little extra cash. Oh Well.

 

I should ask though. Has anyone put P-metric tires on their trucks, and had any problems?

 

I'm sure there are folks who have had trouble with their P-Metric tires. And just as many who have had issues with their LT tires.

What you need to determine is what do you use your truck for. If you're working your truck, hauling, towing, offroading, etc. You may find a LT rated tire is a better choice. Do you use your truck mostly as a daily driver, rarely loaded and like the smooth/comfortable ride. You may find a P-metric tire is a better choice.

Understand that running LT's on a half ton truck is more "want" then "need".

Which tire are you considering?

 

P series tires on a half ton truck is right at it's limit for load carrying abilities. You can't go by the weight listed on the sidewall with p series used on a truck also. On a truck, the p series will only handle about 90% of what is on the tire due to CG and the fact it is always at the tires max.

An example of what I am talking about concerning load carrying ability is most p series tires seem to list about 2000-2200 lbs as max at 35. Minus 10% gets you approx 1800 to 2000lb. An 04 up F150 with a 7200GVW (basically std) has a rear axle rating of 4000lbs.

Advantages to the p series are they are speed rated. Disadvantage other than load carrying ability is the sidewall and cornering ability when used on a truck. They have a tendency to tuck under, causing much greater lean in turns.

For myself, I will not put P series tires on my trucks. My current had them as stock, and I removed them withing 1k and put load range C tires on.

 

I am planning on getting the Firestone Destination A/T tires. 285/70/17. I do mostly on road, Daily driving. I only load it up everyonce in a while. I mostly tow a 16ft flats boat that doesnt way that much, and I currently have the stock 235's on. Besides the wear They seem to work fine when towing. I also loaded 1280 pounds of ice in the back about a week ago and it was hittin the ground but drove fine. I rarely load it up too much. SOOO after the short story. I think The P-metric tires should be good. If I am making any mistakes in thinking this please let me know.

 

I have the P's on my truck. They were factory takeoffs off a Lariat. If you don't do heavy towing i'd say they are fine.

 

P rated tires are for pickup's going to Church, LT rated tires are for hauling stuff from Home Depot!

 

You know this website is wayyyyy to expensive. The more and more I research on it the more I want to lean towards the LT's. Why cant we have a Free Tire day. That would be awesome.

 

Don't you know that within the automotive world as a whole, you gotta pay to play... performance parts are never cheap, thats the reason why you don't see everyone running them.

 

haha!! I know. This will be my first big upgrade on my truck. Im just a college student with a part time job. I just gotta save the money and get the LT's.

 

Did you know that the P275/65R18 BFG Rugged Trails, installed by Ford have a load rating of 2601 and the LT275-65R18 (C Range) Goodyear Wrangler ATS also installed by Ford have a load rating of 2535.

Where does your info come from regarding the P-metric tires only being capable of 90% of their specified load? Ok, and using real numbers vs your ball park one's. The BFG's at 90% are 4680 per axle, that's 22% over the actual axle capacity. One a 7200 GVWR F150, the rear axle is 3850.

 

Direct fro BFG details on the rugged trail


From Discount Tire.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=70

 

Interesting...

But, looking at the numbers, (even with the reduced ratings), you can still safely run P-metric tires on a half ton truck.

The key point here is working your truck within the rated capacity. If you do this, you're fine. But many of us, including myself, overload from time to time. And that's part of why I run E range LT tires.

Thanks for posting the link. I hadn't heard of that before.