P vs LT sidewall protection

Does a LT rated tire have better sidewall protection than a P or is it just the load rating?

 

Local tire store guy says there is no advantage in sidewall protection between a P & LT. Is this BS?

 

I don't know much about tires but I believe most LT rated tires have a higher ply rating which I always thought was "thickness". Like I said, I could be very wrong so please feel to correct me if you know better. I had stock dunlop passenger tires and upgraded to a 10 ply LT tire which was quite a bit heavier in weight and I'd also assume thickness.

I only go off road or haul heavier loads a few times a year and am thinking about going back to a passenger tire for a smoother ride. Didn't like how stiff the LTs were or how they performed in snow and wet conditions.

 

I pretty much had made up my mind to go C-load 6 ply because I figured that will be a good compromise between P and E-Load 10 ply till the guy at the local tire store told me I will gain no sidewall puncture resistance.

Guy at work had a puncture on his P rated driving down a dirt road to his property and switched to C-load and has been good since. Luck or thicker sidewalls? I wish more members will chime in.

Thanks for you feedback on the 10-ply though

 

Found some previous threads that might help. Looks like most ply ratings are for the tire itself and are considerably lower ply rating for sidewalls. Looks like even most 10 ply tires only have 2-3 sidewall. If all this is true, I would actually lean more toward what the tech told you as it appears higher ply tires don't actually increase sidewall ply.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/309819-bf-goodrich-all-terrain-ko-ply-question.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/181643-sidewall-thickness-question.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/72400-hankook-dynapro-atm.html

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/wheels-tires/42255-tire-question-about-sidewall-toughness.html

 

That is pretty awesome of you blanksandtaco. Thanks! Another night obsessing over tires for me

On the way home I just got a pretty sweet quote for some Toyo Open Country AT2's in LT rated C-Load 6 ply. Now I'm looking at Nitto Terra Grappler G2's P-rated XL. My wife hasnt seen me for several nights now

 

Everytime I got a screw or nail in my tires they weren't in the sidewall.

 

Yep most of the time true. Its the mesquite branches and rocks out here in the desert that like to spear the sidewalls

 

Gotcha, I guess I just like the piece of mind. It would be just my luck to get a sidewall puncture if I went with something else.

 

Hey 68, what did you end up doing? I went with the AT2 in LT267/75R16 C. Have only put about 500 miles on them and I do like them but have some rubbing at full wheel lock most noticeably when I pull into my driveway. Thinking about going back to 17s in the G2 but a P metric instead of LT. Did you end up going with the G2s?

 

After lots of debating, I ended up getting Toyo Open Country AT2's 275/65 R18 load C's. With close to 2K miles now & I'm still really happy with em. I had BFG all terrain load E's before and those were really hard to balance. Tons of weights always hanging out on at least a couple wheels and horrible hwy MPG. Stock P-rated too soft for my taste. I figure load C is a good compromise. My bro runs 315 toyo mud tires on his wifes jeep and its amazing on the hwy for a mud tire. He lives where its mostly hwy driving. Really impressed with Toyo's in general.

After breaking in the tires and off winter gas, I'm still averaging about the same MPG as stock even lifted with slightly bigger tires.

Yeah they rub sometimes when cranked hard but I still have my stock flaps on. Thats where they are touching slightly.

 

I've read a few posts about Nitto and Toyo being owned/operated by the same entity. Not sure if that's true but I'm hoping the P metrics aren't too soft. I had Falken Wild Peaks in the E Load range prior to these AT2s and they were beastly heavy. Hate to give these AT2s up but I made the mistake of going from 17's to 16's for some extra rubber. Don't really off road much at all and probably should have stuck with the 17s for better on road performance/handling. Guess we'll see what happens.

 

So there is a lot of both misunderstanding and misinformation in those threads. So to be clear:

No modern radial tire has 6, 8 or 10 plies ANYWHERE on the tire. Tread, sidewall, ANYPLACE. They have 2 or 3 physical plies on the tread even if called "10-ply" tires.

The "Ply" rating is merely a description of the load rating of the tire related back to the ratings for ancient cotton bias ply tires. It is just a bizarre and confusing way of describing the load rating of the tire and has nothing at all to do with their physical construction. Both TireRack and DiscountTire have long articles on tire ratings and what the "Ply" rating really means.

So that means all the people in those threads saying "the sidewall only has 2 or 3 plies" fail to understand that the tread also only has 2 or 3 plies.

In general, LT tires have much better tread and sidewall strength than P tires. But no "ply" rating or even "load" rating is really going to directly tell you about sidewall strength. Or tread strength for that matter.

See this video comparing P and two LT tires. Both LT tires are load E range (a.k.a. 10 "ply") but note the significant difference puncture resistance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kz8mmLkeks

 

You are only assuming the AT3 is load E, they never tell you this. And, it's a Cooper commercial basically, they are going to be a little "biased". Sorry had to do that. But seriously, they don't even tell you what size the tires are to deduce the load rating. I would think typical LT tire construction is load C. They offer more load C tire sizes than they do in E. And it would be a better comparison if it were a load C tire. Basically they are trying to disguise this as a "air pressure test" when they are clearly trying to sell the ST Maxx.

Brandon

P.S.-- The last time I went wheeling, my P-rated Michelin M/S2's in 265/70-16 did fine and my brothers BFG KM1s in 33x10.50 found something to tear a sidewall on. And we took the same lines for the most part. It is more luck than anything else. Tires are consumable.

 

They do mention in the caption on the Youtube site. My bad.

 

If you are driving in a way that a sharp stick or rock has the opportunity to puncture your tire, whether through the tread patch or sidewall, chances are it is going to regardless of the "ply" rating.

Even Deuces get flats.