do I really need 10 ply tires?

[MSC]

Hi, I have a 93 F350 dually, flatbed. I bought it to tow a 30' 5th. wheel RV, tounge weight about #1000 when I bought this truck it had 10 ply tires all around I had a blowout on the front & put 2 new 10 ply's on it now it is time for 4 new tires on the back. I have been looking & find that the 10 ply are hard to find & a little expensive compared to 8 ply tires. I found a dealer that offered 4 kelly 215/85/16 8 ply tires mounted & balanced on the truck for less than $400. Do ya,ll think that it would be safe to have these tires on the back considering the light load that i will be carrying?

[owtcast]

You could probably get by with them. You will be sacrificing some things though. Like tread life, load capability and such. I have a set of "D" rated tires on my truck now and they are rated high enough for the weight I carry but, they didn't last half the life of my "E" rated tires.

[powerstrokes only]

I have found that it never pays to go cheap on tires. I always end up blowing them out! Stay with the 10ply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The 8 plys will run hot, and when they get hot they blow. They may also rub each if they are too big, I would stick with 235-85-16's, they are easy to find in load range E and have great load capacity! I pull a 40' flatbed with single rear tire trucks some times grossing wieghts in excess of 40,000 pounds and seldom have tire trouble on my trucks with good load range E tires. I prefer Toyo or Maxiss tires(these have 3ply sidewalls), I have some really good Good Year tires on my '94 that can actually be re-grooved. Good tires = good results with little trouble in my experience!

[alabamafrog]

I have noticed that the plys and the D or E ratings don’t seem to always be standard as they relate to the weight rating on the tires. I always look at the weight ratings and the max psi rating and how heavy my load/truck is going to be before buying tires. My f-250 currently has 3,300# tires on it and are the lightest I would consider. Also the rating for single and dual mounts are different. I hear you got to be careful on duallies because the tires can bulge out and rub on each other causing a blowout.

[MSC]

It's done, had 4 - 8 ply tires mounted on my truck this morning. I am planning a trip ( pulling the rv ) from mobile, al. to newport news, va. this spring, we'll see what happens. thanks for your input