He said he drives the van on the road (lots of commuting), no offroad, and never hauls more than 700-800 lb. I wouldn't advocate Ps for big hauling or offroad, but there are too many advantages not to use them for general street driving.
P rated tires in the size he is looking at will have ~2500 lb rating at 35 psi, and LTs ~3200 lb at 80 psi. He'll be way under the weight rating with Ps, probably no more than 2/3s of it. LTs have burly sidewalls and need to be pumped higher to avoid overheating, even if you aren't carrying a load.
I just want him to have all the info before he chooses, and some of us have the same van and have made the switch he is asking about. While you're math is right, in the real world the steering and handling is a huge leap for the better. The van is heavy and tall so at 70 mph on a congested freeway with dips and bumps in a corner squishy tires don't feel great. The van has rack and pinion steering and torsion bars so with stronger sidewalls it handles great, and many people with the exact same van here have felt the need to say just that, not just me, check the search.
For the record good P tires have a Max pressure of 44 psi that the carcass can withstand before failure. LT tires are rated for a weight at a certain PSI with a published number at a published PSI it is not their max PSI it is the minimum PSI for that load. They dont have to be ran at that PSI unless you have that load, so running them at a lower pressure reduces their load rating possibly to the lower weight you are putting on them, it does not hurt them unless you are carrying to much weight for the PSI you are using, some brands allow even more than 80PSI if you need more capacity.
My load range E Michelin LTX on my pickup have a very thin and flexible sidewall when felt by my hand unmounted, without 80PSI they dont handle great and I wont buy them again. LT tires are not a big scary hulk of rubber like the old heat prone bias plys of the past, really just a higher quality tire.
You are not wrong, but in the real world the P tires make his van feel well like a big old van, when the speeds on the average freeway were slower and people were more careful when running in a pack like Talledega we accepted poor handling. My van is rock solid on the average aggressive high speed commute, I think Accrete used the word it handles like its on rails with my new E rated tires, so offroad is not the only place sidewall strength is noticed. Again you are not wrong but have you driven a heavy AWD Van with both tires?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
