Take a look at the Cooper Rugged Trek, since you're already looking at Coopers. I put those on last fall and love them. The road noise is pretty minimal considering the tread design, and I was able to get them in a load range F to get my truck back to stock payload capacity on the tires (305/55r20).

The tires did great in the snow, they did great with our 39' bumper pull camper behind my truck. Highly recommend.

 

Take a look at the Cooper Rugged Trek, since you're already looking at Coopers. I put those on last fall and love them. The road noise is pretty minimal considering the tread design, and I was able to get them in a load range F to get my truck back to stock payload capacity on the tires (305/55r20).

The tires did great in the snow, they did great with our 39' bumper pull camper behind my truck. Highly recommend.

I was actually just looking at those. I also noticed they come in F load rating. Did going from E to F stiffen the ride noticeably?

 

I didn't notice a difference in unloaded ride but my truck feels much more planted while pulling the camper than it did with the E rated tires.

 

That's what I was hoping to hear. It's hard to find an all terrain tire with even remotely aggressive tread that will hold up under the weight of a 3/4 or 1 ton. I had my buddy that works for DOT to weigh mine today. With a half tank of fuel it's right at 8500#.

 

I'm on my second set, last set went 7 years and still had some life in them, but went to the 255/85/16. They are the toughest tire I have used on my 2500, had toyo mt, were nice but wore out in 3yrs, and were not good in wet snow. The st maxx has the carcass construction and crawling up rocky mountain roads and in wet pavement they do shine.

 

I work for Cooper Tire and have been running the ST MAXX on my 2500 for a couple of years. So far they have held up well. I think we probably make some of the best light truck tires on the market. By the way, Cooper now belongs to Goodyear, but still running the Cooper plants.

 

I started off trying to decide between the ST Maxx or Toyo AT3s. I think I've decided to go with the Coopers but I'm a little torn between the ST Maxx or the Rugged Trek.

 

I'm not familiar with the Rugged Trek, but I'm sure it wouldn't be a bad choice. Looks like it's a little more aggressive than the maxx. My truck is mainly on the highway so the maxx has been a good choice for me.

 

I do have 2 cons with these tires vs the Yokohama Geolandars that were on this truck before them. First is I did notice a decrease in mileage. Same size tire, same wheels, so it's about as good of a comparison as I can get outside of a lab. I lost between .5mpg and 1mpg on the highway according to hand calc'd records. Not a huge deal, and I attribute a lot of it to the weight difference between these tires and the Yoko's. The Yoko's were an E rated tire and these are F, and noticeably heavier per tire. The rotational load is going to be a lot higher. I don't know how that will compare with the ST Maxx, but it's worth noting.

The second thing is turning on pavement at lower speeds (20mph ish) you will usually hear the side lugs grabbing the pavement and it honestly sounded like I had a wheel bearing going out.

Again, this is on a 2017 2500.

 

I get that noise on my Nitto Ridge grapplers. Still can't get used to it and will go less aggressive tread next time. Love the look and grip, but miss the road tires.

EDIT: I paid about the same as the above for the Nittos last summer.

 

I've got these on my 2020 AT4. Loved them at first. Great handling in all conditions. However, as stated above, there is noise at low speeds. My biggest concern is decreased fuel mileage and overall tread life. Only about 35K on the tires and they need to be replaced. I will go with another set of Coopers, just not that tire.

 

I had BFG KM3s on my last truck, which was a Ram 2500. They are more of a mud tire so the tread is aggressive and I could feel the lugs at low speed like you guys have mentioned. The KM3s are surprisingly quiet for a mud tire and the ride quality was pretty good but the tread life just wasn't there. Only had around 7,000 miles on them when I got rid of the truck and they were probably close to half worn. Even with only 7,000 miles I had already rotated them twice. I've decided to go with the Rugged Treks. I think I would be happy with either the RTs or the ST Maxx. I'll get them put on Thursday and update after I have a few miles on them.

By the way, don't know if you guys have priced tires lately but they aren't giving those things away! The price of tires, along with everything else in the country, has gone up. Cheapest I could find installed around here was $1,700.00. They are 35x12.50. I think I forgot to mention that before.

 

Mine were around that as well for installation and an alignment back in November.

 

Got the Cooper Rugged Treks put on this morning. They don't really have any miles on them yet to speak of but so far the ride is great and they look good, too.

 

What about low speed noise? Do you hear anything? They are a good looking tire. I like the fact they have a mileage guarrantee. The Maxx doesn't.

 

The mileage guarantee is the main thing that swayed me to the RTs. I hear absolutely zero road noise at low speed or up to 60 mph. Haven't had them any faster than that yet. The tread pattern is fairly aggressive for an AT but I don't feel the lugs at all when turning or at low speed and like I said, they are quiet. I'll update when I get a few miles on them but so far I am very pleased.

 

I know leveling kits catch a lot of flack on here. Rough Country in particular seems to be the red headed step child of leveling kits. But I've leveled just about every truck I've ever had and used RC most of the time and never had an issue, even when towing. I was a little hesitant this time though since all the kits for the new Chevys are the torsion key kits and I was worried about losing the factory ride. I bit the bullet and had the 2" RC kit installed and I paid the extra $90 to upgrade the front shocks to the RC N2s. I'm not joking when I say I think it actually rides better than it did before. Just throwing that out there in case anybody reading this is thinking about a RC leveling kit.

 

I just had my RC 2" kit with the N3 shocks get delivered to the house on Friday. I cant wait to get it installed, and after reading what you said and seeing your truck, I cant wait to get it done this weekend.

 

I have a 3.5" RC lift/level. Have never had an issue with mine, either.

 

I think a key lift is a key lift, no?

 

I agree 100%. I don't know how one could be much different than another in that respect. Rough Country just gets a lot of negative comments and leveling kits in general do as far as that's concerned. But I'm happy with mine and like I said I've never had any problems.

 

Just just replaced my Michelin AT2s 275/70R18 with a set of Cooper Discover AT3 295/70R18 on my 22 Chevy 3500. Great tire for traction off the road/rough climates and great for everyday city.

 

Leveling kit installed and 37" tires installed, rides amazing!!

 

Looks good!

 

Thank you

3 inch leveling lift kit on my '22 2500HD from Rough Country and a 3.5 inch on my '16 1500. No trouble with either one. I did switch to Bilstein 5100's on the HD because the N3's were a little soft. A tad bouncy at freeway speeds. My HD rides much better than stock with the factory Rancho's.

The key at installation is not to tighten control arms and shocks until under a load. No binding introduced.

I have noticed the N3s are a bit bouncy on some of the rougher country roads, which is still better than the factory shocks. Being a long time King Shock fan, I am going to see if they increase their production and get a front and rear set (hopefully in the next year or so).

 

3 inch leveling lift kit on my '22 2500HD from Rough Country and a 3.5 inch on my '16 1500. No trouble with either one. I did switch to Bilstein 5100's on the HD because the N3's were a little soft. A tad bouncy at freeway speeds. My HD rides much better than stock with the factory Rancho's.

The key at installation is not to tighten control arms and shocks until under a load. No binding introduced.