The Online Adventure-Planning GuideIf you're plumbed into the Internet, you have at your fingertips the perfect opportunity to employ the scads of Web sites useful in planning a truck- or SUV-based vacation. It's a big country, but using the Internet's virtual reality can help keep your adventures from becoming virtual disasters.
As always, the best place to start any Internet journey is at Motor Trend Online (http://www.motortrend.com), where you'll find links to these popular vacation planning sites.
Tire TestFinding The Best Tire Type For Your Pickup Or SuvExtremist truck and sport/utility owners mount low-profile sports-car tires around 20-inch rims at one end and monster-truck mudders at the other. Extremists have it easy; for the rest of us, finding the right tire amid the subtle variations in between is hard.
BFGoodrich supplied three sets of tires for MT's 5.4-liter V-8-powered, two-wheel-drive '97 Ford F-150: Sport Truck T/As for on-road performance; All-Terrain T/As for off-road ability; and Long Trail T/As, which, like the F-150's standard P255/70SR16 Goodyear Wrangler APs, blend the two. Neither the All-Terrain nor Sport Truck T/As represents the outer limits; they're daily-use tires with biases toward on- or off-road proficiency.
All tires were mounted on 16x8.0-inch Center Line billet wheels (an inch wider than the standard 16x7.0-inch rims), which employ the F-150's hubcentric mounting system and were inflated cold to 30 psi. Each set of tires was on the vehicle for 500 or so miles of on- and off-road use during the soggy Southern California winter. In addition to MT's on-track tests, acceleration across a soft, freshly plowed field to 20 mph and braking on a hard-pack dirt road from 30 mph were performed. Prices reflect Center Line's suggested retail for the wheels, and an average of mail-order and retail prices for the tires, excluding tax.
Bfgoodrich All-Terrain T/AThe point of off-road tires isn't speed, it's control. "The All-Terrain T/A was designed to work in loose dirt and sand, with a third carcass ply to increase puncture resistance," explained Rick Shafer, BFGoodrich's marketing manager for performance light truck tires. Even in dirt the A-Ts weren't the swiftest, but they had the best directional stability. This ineffable quality is apparent in mud, where the square-shoulder A-Ts bite their interlocking tread down to firm ground while street tires just float atop the muck. For slowly, confidently picking through loose terrain, the All-Terrain is awesome.
Of course, the A-T's off-road nature compromises on-road performance, but the tires approach their limits predictably and safely. And those limits are high enough for any possible everyday or emergency on-pavement situation.
At a 60-mph cruise, however, the A-Ts are a full five decibels louder than the other tires, and that drone can irritate. Unless the A-T's off-road ability, looks, or ruggedness is critical, quieter tires are likely better for everyday, mostly on-road use.
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