How Much do Truck Tires Cost?
The US car market is known for an overwhelming number of trucks which means that trucks are the preferred method of transportation for many Americans. The best-sold car in the US for decades now is the Ford F150 while the Chevrolet Silverado, the Dodge RAM, the GMC Sierra, and the Toyota Tacoma are all in the top 10.
This means that the US market is in demand for truck tires more than any other market in the world. We are going to tell you how much truck tires cost, which ones you should buy, and why.
Truck Tires Cost
According to a bunch of credible sources, a run-of-the-mill, all-season truck tire tends to cost between $50 and $350. The average price paid for a truck tire in the US is between $100 and $250, but this includes new trucks, old trucks, light trucks, and heavy-duty trucks. Some trucks are better off with premium tires which can cost $500 or more per tire.
On the other hand, if you own an older truck, one you don’t use as a daily driver, or you don’t drive it at high speeds, you can also buy a cheaper tire and save some money in the process.
Best Truck Tires
The perfect tire for your truck is one that complements the manner in which you tend to use your truck. This means that you need to decide what you value the most. This way you will always be able to buy the perfect set of tires that will give you the best possible driving experience for your truck.
Best truck tires:
- Michelin Defender LTX M/S – Best all-season tire
- Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain – Best all-terrain tire
- Continental TerrainContact A/T – Best highway tire
What Is The Best Truck All-Season Tire?
The Michelin Defender LTX M/S is a tire that needs no further introduction if you know anything about tires. The Defender LTX M/S is a tire that combines state-of-the-art technologies such as the durable EverTread compound and 3D sipes in order to give you the best possible traction levels while also being durable, quiet, and long-lasting.
The Michelin Defender LTX M/S is the best overall tire you can get for a modern-day truck because it manages to offer decent performance in virtually all segments. Snow performance is adequate which means that you will have to upgrade to a set of winter/snow tires only if you live in a really snow-dominated region.
What Is The Best Truck All-Terrain Tire?
Picking the best truck all-terrain tire is an extremely difficult thing to do because there are so many great options out there. The BF Goodrich KO2 is an all-terrain truck tire heavyweight, the Toyo Open Country A/T II offers impressive value, but the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain is our pick because it complements a truck like no other all-terrain tire.
The Goodyear Wrangler series uses Kevlar in its construction which means that the tire is extremely durable. The symmetric tread pattern tackles mud, snow, and slush really well while also providing decent comfort while on a highway. The Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain is a tire that offers tremendous all-terrain performance, but without compromising on daily driving comforts.
What Is The Best Truck Highway Tire?
Let’s face it, we love our trucks and everything they can do, but we still usually spend most of our driving time on a highway. Modern-day trucks have become so user-friendly that it is often easy to mistake them for luxury SUVs. This means that trucks are now perfect daily drivers which can offer pleasant experiences even on long-distance highway journeys.
This is where the Continental TerrainContact A/T tire comes in because it offers you a solid all-terrain basis, but it still prioritizes comfort and a silent ride. This tire also has a decently low rolling resistance for what it is which benefits your fuel efficiency. It does not perform the best in extreme off-roading or snow driving, but that is to be expected from a highway tire.
What Makes A Good Truck Tire?
In order to know which tire is perfect for a truck, we first need to discuss trucks. Trucks are large, heavy, and fuel-thirsty which means that everyone would benefit from a fuel-saving tire. Moreover, trucks tend to go in places where most cars don’t which means that all-season capability is the very minimum while your best choice is often a comfortable all-terrain tire.
Many people also love hauling and towing with their trucks which means that a good tire for that occasion needs to be able to withstand all the stresses that come with that. As such, Kevlar-reinforced tires such as the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain are a good choice. Everyone prefers tires that come with long warranty coverage, especially truck drivers who make the most out of their trucks.
Trucks come with a high ground clearance which means that they are designed for snow use as well. This also brings us back to all-season and all-terrain tires. Performance trucks are a minority at the moment which means that high-performance tires aren’t really all that popular for trucks.
As such, we can say that a good truck tire is: durable, capable of traversing challenging terrain, comfortable, benefits from various fuel-saving technologies and can tow and haul without any issues.
Why Do Truck Tires Cost More?
According to research done by Consumer Reports back in 2019, the average tire price for sedans, hatchbacks, minivans, and coupes was $137. SUV buyers were willing to spend $162 per tire while truck drivers were willing to pay $175 per tire. It’s reasonable to think that SUV and truck tires cost more than passenger car tires, but truck drivers also paid more than SUV drivers, why?
There are a few reasons why truck tires tend to be the most expensive ones. First of all, even light trucks aren’t all that particularly light while many SUVs are compact, and therefore lightweight. This means that those SUVs tend to lower the average price of an SUV tire as such tires aren’t too different from regular small passenger car tires.
An average light truck weighs around 4,000 to 4,700 pounds while compact SUVs typically weigh under 3,000 pounds. Heavy duty trucks can often weigh upwards of 7,000 pounds while large SUVs such as the Chevrolet Suburban weigh up to around 5,600 pounds.
To top it all off, many trucks use dual tires with up to four steel belts while regular SUV tires rarely exceed two steel belts per tire. Truck tires also tend to be larger, beefier, and oftentimes, simply heavier.
Which Trucks Are Best With Premium Tires?
The necessity for premium tires can be viewed from many different perspectives. First of all, if you own a modern-day truck you use as a daily driver, it makes perfect sense to go for premium tires are premium tires do offer better performance. If you tend to take your truck off-roading often, you should also invest in premium tires as they are going to keep you and your truck safe at all times.
Some trucks such as the Ford F150 Raptor or the Dodge RAM TRX are better off with performance tires as these trucks are designed for performance. All in all, it all depends on how you use your truck, but you also need to be aware that non-premium tires will never offer you the best performance you can get from your truck.
Which Trucks Don’t Need Premium Tires?
The answer to this question is really similar to the one above – it all depends on how you use your truck. Of course, your budget will always play a deciding role in buying anything, but sometimes it makes more sense to go for premium tires while at other times it makes sense to save some money and go for cheaper tires.
First of all, if you own an older truck you simply don’t drive often or at higher speeds, there is no need for you to invest in premium tires. Furthermore, if you own multiple cars for multiple purposes, you can save money on truck tires by not opting for certain tire features. For example, you don’t have to go with long-lasting tires if you aren’t driving your truck all that often.
You will have to replace your tires either after a few years or after you cross a certain amount of miles, whatever comes first.
Conclusion
At the end of our “Truck Tires Cost” article, we can easily say that truck tires, on average, cost between $100 and $250 per tire. Some people will opt to save money and go for used tires or tires that cost less than $100 from new, but that is extremely questionable as such tires do carry various compromises when it comes to safety, performance, and longevity.
Higher-end truck tires can cost $500 per tire or even more in some cases which is not the preferred choice for the majority of owners. However, some trucks are simply designed to have high-end tires as you will not be able to enjoy such trucks fully if you equip them with economy tires.
All in all, if you want to know more about wheels and tires, how to pick the right set, and what you get with each, be sure to read our Wheel and Tire Setup Guide: Everything You Should Know article.