Truck Experts Pick the Best Truck Tires for You

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If you drive a pickup, then you understand the value of the right set of tires. Big and beefy tires are great, but driving them on the pavement is noisy and inefficient. Highway tires offer the best mileage and quietest ride but can struggle on sand, mud, and all but the best-maintained dirt roads. All-terrain tires are the most popular type of truck tire because they can have decent highway driving characteristics as well as a confident grip when the pavement ends.

Which truck tires are the best for you? For insight and advice, we spoke to Chris King, director of marketing and communication at RealTruck, one of the top retailers of pickup truck and Jeep tires, parts, and accessories in the U.S. The folks at RealTruck know their trucks from tip to tailgate, and here are their picks for the best truck tires on the market.

Things to Consider Before Buying Truck Tires

There are a lot of truck tire options out there, and the right tire type and size for you is dependent on a number of factors. Here are some things to think about while shopping for truck tires.

Types of Truck Tires

One of the first things you'll have to decide on when selecting tires for your truck is whether you want Highway (HT), All-Terrain/Hybrid (AT), Mud/Max Traction (MT), or Snow tires. "Street tires are going to be similar to what comes standard on most pickup trucks, except for some off-road models," King says. "They are designed with street performance in mind and generally do not work well if you stray from reasonably well-maintained forest roads.

"All-terrain or hybrid terrain tires offer a big step up in off-road performance compared to a street tire, without sacrificing much in the way of street performance or longevity," King advises. "They may be slightly louder, and fuel mileage may suffer from increased weight and rolling resistance."

For those looking to maximize off-road performance, King recommends MT tires: "These are going to have much larger tread voids, large tread blocks, and aggressive designs that vastly improve off-road performance and grip." However, King notes that performance comes at a price: tread life, rolling resistance, fuel mileage, weight, and noise will all be compromised with a mud terrain tire. "However, if you're looking to venture the farthest, or explore muddy, rocky, or otherwise difficult terrain, a dedicated mud-terrain tire may be your best bet," King says.

Type of Truck and Style of Driving

Where and how you drive are the most important considerations when shopping for truck tires. Are you an urban trucker who commutes mostly on streets and freeways? Do you live in a rural area where dirt roads are common? Perhaps you have a tough truck for work that does its share of urban street driving but needs occasional power and traction on the job site or when the pavement runs out. Where and how you drive will be the main factors in determining the type of tire your truck requires.

Modifications are also an important consideration. "Generally, truck owners like to increase the tire diameter and width when selecting new tires," says King. "However, which tire fits your truck can be difficult to determine. Suspension lifts, wheel widths and offsets, and other aftermarket modifications like bumpers, fender flares, and trim can all impact what tire size you should select."

If you're an urban trucker who keeps their pickup clean and rarely leaves the pavement (you know who you are), then a bulky, blocky mud tire is going to be a noisy waste of rubber and money. If you live and drive mainly in the country or use your truck for job sites where tire bite and off-asphalt performance are essential, then a standard highway tire won't reliably get the job done. Most pickup owners fall somewhere in between, and that's why all-terrain or hybrid terrain tires are the most popular type of truck tire.

Ready to shop for truck tires? Check out RealTruck's picks for the best truck tires you can buy. Prices will vary by size and retailer, so shop wisely.

All-Terrain (A/T) Tires

Most truck owners use their pickups for everything from commuting to hauling to camping. All-terrain tires are both rugged and versatile, blending the on-road comfort and low noise level of a highway tire with the off-road bite of a mud tire.

A/T tires should adapt to every type of road, from pavement to dirt, and are designed to provide excellent traction in all weather conditions, including rain and light snow.

Nitto Ridge Grappler

The Ridge Grappler from Nitto provides excellent highway performance and a compound that delivers top-notch traction and tread life.

"This is perhaps our most popular tire at RealTruck," says King. "This hybrid tire combines great looks, all-terrain performance, and excellent drivability for those that value road manners and performance overall. They are smooth, quiet, and last a very long time." If your ride sees 50/50 street and dirt time, this is the A/T for you.

Toyo Open Country A/T III Tires

Meant for everyday driving and off-roading, Toyo has engineered a new tread compound and design that provides excellent off-road grip and confident wet braking and handling. The void area enhances on and off-road traction while maintaining a smooth, quiet ride. The staggered shoulder lugs increase grip with biting edges, allowing you to take your off-road cornering to the limit. Lateral grooves and multi-wave sipes give these tires traction on all surfaces, including snow. Each tire comes with a worry-free treadwear warranty of up to 70,000 miles.

"This is the next evolution of Toyo's Open Country All Terrain line bringing even better on and off-road performance to an already popular tire," King says.

Falken Wildpeak A/T3W Tires

The A/T3W combines aggressive off-road ability without compromising on-road performance. Better still, it's designed to work well in severe snow conditions, and features the Three Peak Mountain Snow Flake (3PMSF) symbol on its sidewall. Best of all, it's one of the more affordable A/T options on the market.

"I recommend these tires to friends often, especially those that live out west in the mountains, due to their winter tire rating," King says. "They are an all-terrain, so deep and sticky mud isn't their bread and butter, but they excel at nearly everything else. I can't say I've run into a single person who didn't love these tires."

BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2

All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires feature a racing-derived cut-, chip-, and tear-resistant tread compound that delivers longer life. The compound is molded into an aggressive, computer-optimized, high-void all-terrain pattern with interlocking tread blocks, innovative siping, and multiple loose object ejection features to combine off-road durability and traction with on-road handling and acceptable noise.

Highway (H/T) Tires

Street and/or highway truck tires will offer superior handling over blockier mud and all-terrain/hybrid terrain tires. In general, you'll also get a quieter ride, better gas mileage, and increased tread life.

While H/T tires aren’t made to perform flawlessly off-road, they’re ideal for an application that sees regular road use and only the occasional well-maintained trail or dirt and gravel parking lot. Most truck H/T tires should also be able to handle heavier load capacities than street tires for hauling, towing, campers, and more.

Michelin Defender LTX M/S

The Defender LTX M/S is designed to combine a smooth, quiet ride with year-round traction in dry, wet, and wintry conditions, even in light snow. Compared to the Michelin LTX M/S2 it replaced, Defender LTX M/S tires share the same highly functional tread pattern and offer improvements in wear life/longevity to better meet the high-torque demands of modern trucks.