While projects come and go at the Howell household, our GMC Yukon XL Family Truckster soldiers on, delivering yeoman service daily by hauling the family, getting groceries, and going on family trips. We had a problem, though. It had P-Metric P265/70R17 tires on it that were woefully inadequate for the weight of the Yukon XL. Remember, P-Metric tires are equal to 4-ply rated tires (!). Since they had a maximum load rating of 2600 pounds at 35 psi, I thought they'd be O.K. as long as I kept them inflated to maximum. They weren't. The tires were too flexy and were obviously overloaded.
Safety is an issue that has to be addressed when choosing tires. Just because a tire fits doesn't mean it's strong enough or safe enough to work in your application. Frankly, I think we dodged a bullet by running the weak P-Metric tires on our Yukon XL.
Enter Mickey Thompson. I like MT tires as they're always tough and true, seldom requiring much weight to balance and having a compound that's near the perfect combination of grip and longevity. I decided to go for a set 265/70R17LT Baja ATZ Radial tires for our Yukon XL. The load range E tires have a maximum load rating of 3,195 at 80 psi, more than enough to handle what we call on the Yukon XL to do. The ATZ Radial has an interesting all-terrain tread design, with tread blocks that have kerfs (grooves) for better traction.
I went to Beard's American Car Care Center in Hurricane, Utah, for their professional help in mounting and balancing. The Yukon XL has the ridiculous Tire Pressure Monitoring System, so the person dismounting and mounting tires has to be careful not to bust the sending unit. It's a pain and the techs at American car Care are used to dealing with TPMS.
The P-Metric tires were removed and the MT Baja ATZ radials were mounted on the stock GM rims. As usual, the Mickey Thompson tires took very little weight to balance. An added plus was they had almost no runout at all! This means we can look forward to a smooth ride.
I can already feel the difference with the heavy-duty load range E, MT Baja ATZ Radials as the Yukon XL no longer wallows in corners and I can actually feel the road. That's not saying they ride rough, but the ATZ radials transmit enough road feel to not feel mushy and uncontrolled like the P-Metric tires did.
Remember to check the load rating of tires before purchasing them for your rig. Don't do what I did and compromise your safety by thinking a tire is "good enough" for the job, when it really isn't. I heartily recommend Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ radial load range E tires as tough, smooth all-terrains that will do whatever job you need them to do. I'll keep you updated on how they work for us in the long haul.
Beard's Hurricane American Car Care - 435 635-4100