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I have a 99 Chevy 3500 cubevan that needs new tires. I was quoted $1200 for 6 Cooper tires and an alignment from a truck tire dealer, and around $650 for 6 LT tires without an alignment from another company. Obviously, I can have an alignment done elsewhere.

My question is... Is it okay to have six LT tires on a cube van or will I need the XLT tires? I'm thinking the LT tires will be fine considering how I drive, and I'd rather save a good $500 on the LTs and maybe get my brakes done too if necessary.

Anyone have experience with this? I think the coopers are XLTs

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Your van came with LT245/75R16 120/116S E  correct, that should be a 10 ply tire.

 

It all depends how much weight on van. I see no reason for not putting the same ply back on it.

 

 

My two cents.

 

cajun

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The most I ever haul is about 40 cases of bottles and maybe 40 cases of cans at a time so that's what.... 800 lbs of cans and 1400 lbs of bottles.  Snacks and and things probably only push that inventory up to around 2500 pounds total.  It only gets that heavy one day every other week.  On average, the truck probably has no more than 2000 pounds in it.

 

I think the GVW on the truck is around 9,000 lbs. so I guess I can say that I never exceed the GVWR of 12,000 lbs.  Oh, and the tires I was quoted were both 225/75/R16.

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As long as you have what's called 10 ply tires but is now load range E tires you'll be fine. Michelins are the best but there are good store brand tires at Discount Tire, if you have them there, or what they may call themselves as Americas Best in the east. Cooper makes good tires and for 6 that is in line with what Michelins will cost so at that price I'd get Michelins. I'd run away fast from the $650 guys. Do you need the alignment or do you feel you should get one? If you didn't have abnormal wear on the fronts then I wouldn't do an alignment.

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I definitely need an alignment. There's no doubting that at all. I mean the wear is blatantly obvious that I have an alignment problem.

Would it be so bad to put Michelin's in front and cheap brands in the rear?

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They were never rotated. I'm not sure if I can rotate the fronts to the rear though so I don't see the point in worrying about that. Every company I've seen might switch the fronts but they simply replace the tires in pairs (fronts OR rears).

My tires are messed up for a few reasons. The previous owner only bought two tires at a time. The outter duals are bald, but the inner duals aren't bald. However, the inner duals have uneven wear so I'm guessing the fronts were moved to the inner rears.

The fronts look to be about 50% on the outside of the tires but 0% on the inside of the tires, suggesting an alignment problem. None of the tires are worth keeping so I plan on getting 6 new tires.

I certainly don't want to have to buy 6 but what else can I do? Lol.

Thanks for the replies.

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That does sound like an alignment problem. The wheels are the same on all 6 tires so they can all be rotated around. Develop an order for rotation and keep it in the truck so that on every other oil change you can dictate how you want the tires rotated. If you leave it up to the shop you have no way to know how they'll do it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

They were never rotated. I'm not sure if I can rotate the fronts to the rear though so I don't see the point in worrying about that. Every company I've seen might switch the fronts but they simply replace the tires in pairs (fronts OR rears).

My tires are messed up for a few reasons. The previous owner only bought two tires at a time. The outter duals are bald, but the inner duals aren't bald. However, the inner duals have uneven wear so I'm guessing the fronts were moved to the inner rears.

The fronts look to be about 50% on the outside of the tires but 0% on the inside of the tires, suggesting an alignment problem. None of the tires are worth keeping so I plan on getting 6 new tires.

I certainly don't want to have to buy 6 but what else can I do? Lol.

Thanks for the replies.

One thing to keep in mind with duallies is that the tire pressure on the inner tires is critical, if the air pressure is incorrect it can cause problems that seem like misalignment.

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