Terrible wet weather traction: tires or truck?

[Eddo Rogue]

None of the rangers I have owned were ever good in wet weather....Maybe not heavy enough lol

My current ranger is terrible in wet weather on roads. The rear tires easily brake loose, and I tend to hydroplane quite easily too.

Is it just rangers in general or do my tires suck for wet weather on road?

I am running Falken Wildpeak LT's in size of metric equivalent to 31"x10.50's

I run em at 50psi on street and 35psi off road as my not aired down psi.

 

[Roert42]

Could be a little of column A little of column B. Depends what you are comparing it too as well.

I wouldn’t say my rangers have been any worse than other trucks I’ve driven in the wet/ snow.
Mostly single cab short bed 2wd.

In my experience highway/street tires are much better for wet traction than AT/MT tires.

also, 50psi is pretty high unless you are running fully loaded w E tires all the time. How is your tire wear? I keep mine around 34/35 psi for street driving. The door tag recommends 32, but the tires wear real fast on the outside.

 

[CrabGuy]

My AT tires absolutely suck in the rain. I think my issue is the age of the tires (5/13) and our hot Summers have caused them to harden. I can barely turn right from a stop at corners without it getting butt happy or pull away at a light too fast without spinning the tires. Lots of tread and siping left. They seem to stop fine though. I don't think it's a weight issue since I've tried sandbags between the wheel wells and it still happens just as much.

 

[2011Supercab]

I agree, the 50psi is way to much air.

Use this air pressure calculator to find what you should be running.

assuming your original tire size is a "215/75R15 " and 35psi is what's on the door sticker for that size.

A "31X10.50R15 " should be 30psi on your truck

Tire Pressure Calculator

Easy to use tire pressure calculator. Use our tire pressure calculator to calculate the new tire pressure needed when changing tire sizes.

tiresize.com

 

[sgtsandman]

I’ve never had an issue but I also have a fiberglass bed cap and some stuff that normally stays in the bed of the truck.

The tire pressure is an issue. Too much pressure makes the tire harder and the contact patch smaller. To address that issue, get the max load rating at max psi for the original tire. Divide the load by that psi number to get the number of pounds 1 psi will support. Then multiply that number by the recommended psi on the door jamb sticker. That gets you the load you need the tire to support.

Now do the same with the new tire. Load divided by max psi.. Then play with the psi numbers to get where the tire pressure will meet or just exceed the load number the OEM tires supported.

Normally, the psi is pretty close to the original. My 31X15s need 36 psi. The original 235/74R15 tires needed 35. Now if I’m really loading down the truck, I’ll bump the rear tires up to 40 psi. But they don’t stay there.

As far as the tires themselves, they could suck or could not. Some tires are horrible on wet roads. Some get horrible as they gets some years under their belt. My guess is that the psi you are setting the tires at is more of a problem. A secondary being that a Ranger with an empty bed and no cap is pretty darn light and tends to break traction easier.

 

[Bgunner]

Most of the issue will lay in the 50 psi you are running your tires at. As mentioned the contact patch across the tires is smaller making them ride on the middle of the tire instead of across the whole tire. I'm sure if you check your tread depth across the tires you will find the center being less than the outer edges due to them riding on the centers. Just because a tire says max pressure is 50psi does not mean that is what they are to be set at. It is a vehicle specific thing as to what the pressure should be set at. On all my trucks that I have run larger tires on I have set the pressure to what the door said and have gotten even ware across them.

I bet your truck rides a bit rough, suspension wise, due to the tires being way over inflated.

 

[RonD]

Wider tires will hydroplane much easier than skinny tires, just physics
Try snow skis for water skiing....................wider ski is required to hydroplane(water ski)
Rangers usually came with 7" to 8" wide tires for street use

Also off-road tread is DESIGNED to grip loose surfaces, i.e. dirt, mud, gravel
This means it will not let water on the road just pass thru it, it holds it which lifts the tire up, hydroplane
Street tires will allow water to pass thru in channels in the tread, designed just to prevent hydroplaning as much as possible

Not sure lowering the pressure would help with hydroplaning, bigger footprint, which is why you do that when off-road
But it may allow the treads to squirt more water out of the sides to delay hydroplaning

FYI, off-road tread often makes tires noisier, that noise is because AIR is being trapped and released in the treads in contact with pavement, so it does the same thing with water on pavement


Pickup trucks will always have a loose rear end and limited traction with no weight in the bed, again just physics
You can preload the bed over the axle with weight, some like sand bags since you can also use the sand to get you unstuck in ice/snow
300lbs to 400lbs, but put a board between sand bags and front of bed so they can't fly forward in a sudden stop, or accident

Don't put extra weight at the back of the bed, it will cause rear end to slide out in slipper conditions

 

[racsan]

as tires age they lose “grippyness”. New winter tires are awesome in wet weather grip, but I have a set of blizzacks that were awesome when new but now 10 years later, even with good tread left just spin like crazy on wet pavement. My 235/75/15 goodyear wranglers that only get ran in the summer are now about 4 years old. Depite being a all-terrain tire they seem to do really well on wet pavement. I run them at 28-30 psi unless Im carrying a heavy load, then I air up to 35-40. Among better grip at 28-30, the ride is much better too. In the winter I always have a fiberglass cap on. Sometimes in the summer its off but since Ive gotten a better trailer I doubt it come off again any time soon. Seems to get more heavy every time I move it. Winter traction has rarely been a issue. I credit the 2.3 lima for that, low horsepower & tourque = less wheelspin. It’s possible, but not as easily as a 4.0

 

[cbxer55]

I've been running Cooper Cobra GT 255/60-15's for years, a 25 psi. Still horrible on wet roads. Breaks traction if there is the slightest uphill component. Have to pussy-foot it to get it rolling. People behind me beeping their horns cause I am driving too slow. Give it a little more gas, rear end starts going away.

I do believe it is lack of weight on the rear end. I have a floppy bed cover. Maybe I'll look for a fiberglass part.

Recently out on some ancient Cragar Mag Master slotted mags. Rears are now only 245's, but they are wider than the old 255's I used to run because they are on 8.5 inch rims. Layed them side-by-side, and the 245's are nearly an inch wider than the old 255's. Will have to experiment with tire pressures now. The place that put the tires on the rims put in too much air, I can tell. Rides like a buckboard. Gonna go out and reduce the pressure down to 30 psi to start, take it for a spin around Lake Stanley Draper, my personal race track.

 

[Curious Hound]

Let some air out of those tires and keep your speed subsonic.

50psi is way too much. 32-35 should be fine. If running heavier load rated tires, you could go lower still.

on my ‘93, with 35” BFG mud terrains, I run about 28 on pavement, rarely over 30psi

 

[Blmpkn]

Never once have I ever had an empty truck break even one tire loose on anything other than snow if it wasn't intended.

As fun as it is to just sidestep the clutch pedal it IS entirely possible to eeaasseee off it

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

My F150's have had a very temperamental clutch. It took awhile to be able to "ease" off the clutch...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yikes…

Tires play a big part. My F-150 had cheap generic tires when I got it that sucked. The first winter I couldn’t find a tire I liked and ended up buying Nexen Roadian AT tires and they were worthless. No real grip in any conditions. Replaced them when they wore out (in 12k) with Mastercraft Courser CT tires and it was night and day difference. My green Ranger had Hankook AT tires and they weren’t much better than the Nexen tires. Absolute junk. Ranger got Mastercraft CXT tires and the problem went away. I’ve had other tires that worked well too, but most of them are no longer available.

Pressure can be a huge thing. I burn the center out of the tires on my F-150 running them at 45 psi all the time, but because I haul with the truck, I’ve accepted that. I know I run them hard and I’d get better wear with less pressure, but it’s not always convenient right now to air up and down all the time. I think my green Ranger I was running at 25 psi, that got the tread reasonably flat with the road. Both of those trucks have 31x10.50-15. The 35’s on my choptop, when I first put them on, I had them at 35 psi. I felt every pebble on the road. I did the old trick of drawing a chalk line across the tread and took it down the street. I was wearing less than an inch wide in the middle of the tread. At 10-15 psi I was wearing flat across the tread and the ride was hugely improved. Tires don’t look at all like they are low and even with stock front brakes and tiny 9” drums it can still lock up all 4, which if you do it tries to instantly throw you through the windshield because those big tires grab a whole lot of road.

 

[rubydist]

50 psi in the rear tire of an unloaded truck makes the tire about as grippy as a wet rock. For the Ranger, somewhere around 35-40 in the front tires, and around 28-32 in the rear tires should be close for the truck unloaded. As described above, as you add weight to the bed you increase the pressure in the rear tires. At some point you get to the maximum rated pressure for the tires, which is less than 50 psi for every passenger vehicle tire I have ever seen. You should never have more pressure in the tire than its maximum rating, just like you should never carry more load than its maximum rating. If you put appropriate pressure in the tires, your traction issues will be significantly reduced.

 

[Josh B]

Not sure what brand mine came with, but they were 265/75R/15, and I always went by the door label of 32psi front and 35 psi rear. When it came time to change them I put the walmart Goodyear Wrangler 235/75R/15 and kept the same tire pressure. Both worked just fine and I've never had any tire spin or slide issues. It may help having the tool box always on it, adding maybe 250 ib appx dead center