The Ultimate Tires for Your Truck, Based on Consumer Reports’ Study
A truck is not a truck without its wheels. It’d just be a storage space for your things. That’s why picking the best tires for your truck is an important job that every truck owner needs to think about. Consumer Reports has done some studies on tires, and these are the best tires for your truck, according to Consumer Reports.
How did Consumer Reports find this out?
Before talking about what Consumer Reports reported in its study, it’s important to know how that study was conducted in the first place. By doing that, it’ll reveal how accurate the findings of the study may be. Readers will be able to judge the quality of the data that Consumer Reports got from its study.
Like Consumer Reports said, the researchers took over 500 tires and put them all through their paces. These tires are tested in multiple locations and by multiple teams of researchers to ensure that Consumer Reports gets the most accurate data possible.
Consumer Reports says that the tires are tested for braking ability, ride comfort level, and handling in a track at Connecticut. The tires are then tested at an ice-rink that’s near the test track to see how the tires handle the ice. Then, the tires are tested for snow-traction ability at a track in New York. A 20,000-mile wear and tear test is also done in Texas.
Finally, Consumer Reports will hire other researchers to test the tires’ rolling resistance, which can affect a truck’s fuel economy, according to Consumer Reports. These are the three best tires for trucks, according to Consumer Reports.
All-season truck tires: Continental CrossContact LX20 EcoPlus
At $120, these Continental tires were Consumer Reports’s best all-season truck tires. These tires performed very well in the ride comfort and braking tests, however, the handling score was only mediocre, according to Consumer Reports. That said, these tires have a long life expectancy, as Consumer Reports says that they’re expected to last over 65,000 miles.
Some Michelin tires got similar scores as the Continental tires did. However, Consumer Reports gave the prize to the Continentals because they were much more affordable than the Michelin tires were.
All-terrain truck tires: Continental TerrainContact A/T
This was a tough category as all-terrain tires have to make a lot of compromises, according to Consumer Reports. However, Continental takes home the top-prize again in this category, as Consumer Reports said that these Continental tires offered a great blend of features.
Once again, these Continentals performed well in the ride comfort and braking categories. Even in the rolling resistance test, which is a category that all-terrain tires suffer in, the Continental performed decently. It didn’t perform great, but it could’ve been worse.
Like the Continental all-season truck tires, these all-terrain tires also have a long life expectancy of about 65,000 miles. They do cost a bit more though, around $159. Consumer Reports also says that Michelin’s all-terrain truck tires were as good as Continental’s, but again, the Michelins were far more expensive.
Winter truck tires: Michelin Latitude X-Ice XI 2
Michelin finally gets a win and it’s in the winter truck tires category. Like Consumer Reports mentioned, the nature of these winter tires means that they’ll have to lose out on some features, but Michelin’s were simply the best overall. It wasn’t even a close race as Consumer Reports said that Michelin was significantly better than the second-place tires were.
These $181 Michelin tires are expensive, but Consumer Reports said that they’re outstanding for dealing with wet and icy roads. That said, it does suffer in the dry braking category. Other than that, it received great scores all around.
