Best Tires for Ford F-150 in 2024

The Ford F-150 is one of the most popular trucks on the market today. This dependable pick-up can last over 200K miles if you take care of it properly. And that means replacing the tires when it comes time. When Ford built your F-150, they chose a tire model that is a good balance between fuel economy, and low noise. Your priorities when shopping for tires may be different, so you’ll want to understand what’s available to you on the market.

Car Talk's Top Tire Picks for the Ford F-150

• Best Overall All-Season Touring Tire: Michelin Defender LTX M/S 2 »

• Best Budget Tire: BF Goodrich Trail Terrain T/A »

• Best 4-Season General Use Tire: Michelin Agilis CrossClimate »

• Best 4-Season Tire For Some Off-Pavement Capability: Falken WildPeak H/T02 »

• Best All-Terrain Tire: Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar and BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 »

• Best Winter Tire: Michelin X-Ice and Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 »

• Best ECO-Focused Tires For the F-150 Lighting: Continental CrossContact LX20 With EcoPlus Technology »

The F-150 can be a tricky beast to buy tires for, because there are several different trims, wheel sizes, and tire types for each. The 20sim20 model year F-150 alone can be ordered in seven different trims, and each one can have its own tire size. Let’s take a look at some of the best choices for the Ford F-150 based on your lifestyle and driving style. Before you purchase your tires, double-check with your retailer that your preference will fit your truck and has the right specs.

Have an older Ford F-150? See tire sizes for previous years.

Best Tires for the Ford F-150

Best Budget Tires: BF Goodrich Trail Terrain T/A

If you are looking for a tire that has a low price point but offers a lot of capability, check out the BF Goodrich Trail Terrain T/A. This tire has the severe snow duty symbol, is built to resist treadblock cracking and chipping when used on gravel or dirt roads, and is built to last. This tire was about 30% less expensive than many similar tires we researched.

Best All-Season Highway Touring Tires: Michelin Defender LTX M/S 2

The Michelin Defender LTX M/S 2 is a well-rounded tire. Get it? Rounded? We crack ourselves up sometimes. It is a good choice for F-150 owners who don't venture off pavement often or at all. If you commute in your F-150, this is a great all-season choice. The Defender LTX M/S2 has a 50K-mile treadwear warranty. If you use your F-150 off-pavement or commute in harsh winter weather, we have some other choices you will like better.

Best 4-Season General Use Tires For Areas With Severe Winters : Michelin Agilis CrossClimate

If you plan to hit the road regardless of the weather, you need a tire that goes a bit beyond what an all-season tire can offer. We call tires like those 4-season tires. Michelin’s Agilis CrossClimate tire boasts the severe snow duty symbol, meaning it was tested and can handle the white stuff. This is a tire that our Boston-based mobile tire service provider, Jay Condrick, uses on his Boston Mobile Tire Ford Transit van. He says it saves him time and money by not having to swap over to dedicated winter tires.

Best 4-Season General Use Tires For Highway Plus Some Off-Pavement Capability : Falken WildPeak H/T02

Trucks are all about versatility. If you rely on your truck to handle many different types of adventures, plus be comfortable on a commute, consider the Falken WildPeak H/TO2. This tire has sidewall protection so that it can handle a bit of jobsite duty or off-roading.

Best All-Terrain Tire (It's a Tie)

Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar

Aside from the BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A, the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar is probably the best-known all-terrain tire, and it’s for a reason. They’re more highway-focused than off-road-focused, but they still do really well off the beaten track.

BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02

The BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 is the king of all-terrain tires for a reason. It’s been tested not only in the lab but over thousands of miles of competition. There are tires that do certain things better, but there aren’t many that offer this all-around performance at this price.

Best Winter Tire (It's a Tie)

Winter tires are for those who head out when it is not just snowy, but full-on blizzard or icy conditions. You will need to swap these tires off in spring to keep from going crazy from the noise and wearing them down prematurely. Winter tires do work. We found the Michelin X-Ice and Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 were the best in our testing.

Best ECO-Focused Tires For the F-150 Lighting Battery-Electric Truck : Continental CrossContact LX20 With EcoPlus Technology

The Ford F-150 Lightning is different from its siblings in many ways, but still a truck. Ford has no less than five OEM tire fitments for the F-150 Lightning. If you plan to do a lot of off-roading or need a tire that is great in harsh winters, by all means, choose one from our list above. Just be sure the load rating is right for your Lightning. Ask your retailer to check that the load rating is correct.

Given that the Lightning is a battery-electric vehicle, we felt that an eco-focused choice should be listed here. The Continental CrossContact LX20 with EcoPlus Technology fits the bill. This affordable tire was designed for improved range and efficiency.

Original Equipment F-150 Tires

What tires are on my Ford F-150? The F-150 has been sold in multiple trims with a long list of tire sizes. Below, we’ve listed some recent tires that come as original equipment on popular trims of the Ford F-150. It’s worth noting that the F-150 can be ordered with several optional wheels, so the sizes you see below may not all apply to the specific model, and may apply to one of the available custom wheel sizes that match the standard wheel size:

• The XL and XLT trims come with 17-inch wheels. The original equipment tires are Goodyear Wrangler Fortitude HT tires, sized 265/70R17 115T.
• The Lariat and King Ranch trims come with 18-inch wheels. The original equipment tires are one of three models: Pirelli Scorpion ATR, Michelin Primacy XC, or the Goodyear Wrangler Fortitude HT. All tires are sided 275/65R18 116T.
• The Platinum trim comes with 20-inch wheels. The original equipment tires are one of four models: Michelin LTX M/S2, Hankook Dynapro AT2, Hankook Dynapro AT-M, or the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar. All tires are sized 275/55R20 113T.
• The Limited trim comes with 22-inch wheels. The original equipment tires are one of two models: Pirelli Scorpion Zero Asimmetrico or the Pirelli Scorpion Zero All Season. Both tires are sized 275/45R22 112V XL.

When should you replace tires?

There are two regular milestones that will suggest that it’s time to replace the tires, not only on your F-150, but any vehicle in your driveway: Time and mileage.

Considering most drivers cover between 12,000 and 15,000 miles per year, the vast majority of F-150 owners are going to be past the mileage that their original equipment tires were intended to cover before they’ll go past the tire’s usable age.

The life of your tire can be somewhat predicted by its UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grade) rating. Tire manufacturers apply their own grades to tires for treadwear, traction and temperature. When you’re researching tires online, a UTQG will come up next to the tire name in three digits and a number (ex. 500 A A).

You can glean a bit of info from the tires by reading this rating:

• 500 - The durability rating of a tire, compared to a control tire with a tread life of 100. To obtain a grade, tires run on a 640 kilometer course for 11,520 km. Every 1,280 km, the tread depth is measured, to provide a projected tread life. The higher the number, the longer the predicted treadlife.
• A - This is the Traction rating of a tire, which indicates how well a tire stops in wet conditions. The highest letter grade is AA, followed by A, B and C.
• A - The second letter in the UTQG is the Temperature rating, which indicates how well a tire holds up to extreme heat. A is the highest, followed by B and C.

Original equipment Bridgestone Ecopia tires on the F-150 earn a solid 700 AA UTGQ rating. Unless they are damaged, these tires could last as long as 70,000 miles before you need to replace them.

The other consideration is time. Each tire has a raised date code on the sidewall. The number begins with the letters “DOT” followed by 12 digits in three four-digit groups. The date code is the third group of four digits. To decipher the date of your tires, the first two digits represent the WEEK the tire was produced, and the second two digits represent the YEAR.

For example, if your tire’s date code is 3217, that indicates the tire was manufactured in the 37th week of 2017, or some time between September 11 and 17th that year.

Once tires go beyond five years old, it’s time to consider replacing them. Tires are made up not just of rubber and steel or kevlar belts, but chemicals that help the tires resist UV rays, temperature changes and a lot of other environmental hazards. Those chemicals start to break down after five years or so, and the tires aren’t doing the job that they need to do.

Why not replace with original equipment tires?

There’s no harm in replacing your tires with the shoes it came with from the factory. However, depending on what kind of driver you are, there are significant reasons to purchase something different. Many drivers don't like the tires that come standard on their vehicles.

You only need to purchase ONE set of tires for your car every four years or so, depending on how much you drive. When an auto manufacturer purchases tires, they buy them by the hundreds of thousands. For the manufacturer, the decision to choose a supplier one brand or another comes down to a price point.

For you, your consideration may be completely different. If you could get a tire that stopped 20 feet shorter for an additional $10 per tire over the original equipment, you’d probably do it. Similarly, if there was a tire that made less road noise for a minimal investment over stock, you’d probably decide on the slightly more expensive tire (that is, unless you’re trying to drown out the conversation of your back-seat-driving spouse.)

Changing Ford F-150 tire sizes

Depending on the year and model, you may be shopping tires to fit anything between 15-inch for older models to 18-inch wheels with various widths and sidewall sizes along the way. It is possible to change the wheel and tire sizes, but a general rule of thumb is to keep the total diameter of wheel and tire the same. So, that means that downsizing an 18-inch wheel to a 17-inch wheel would include a proportionate upsizing of the tire sidewall to compensate.

Downsizing wheels has its advantages. Benefits include:

• Better ride quality – More rubber means more cushion for poor road conditions.
• Cost reduction – Big tires are expensive, so moving to a smaller wheel size will mean less costly tire purchases.
• Seasonal changes – Winter and snow tires are available for a larger selection of smaller wheel sizes and the narrower footprint will provide better traction.
• Off-road – Many people choose to downsize wheels for off-road use to increase the vehicle’s shock absorption capabilities and bump traction on loose surfaces.

On the other side of the coin, going up in wheel size has its benefits:

• Better handling – Slimmer profile tires makes for less rubber to move around.
• Better looks – This one’s subjective, but many people feel that larger wheels look better than smaller wheels with more rubber.
• Better braking – Larger, wider wheels provide a bigger patch of rubber on the ground to slow the vehicle, reducing braking distance.

How to read tire sizes

When reading tire sizes, it’s important to understand what the numbers mean. The Ford F-150’s 17-inch wheels come with 235/65R17 103H all-season tires:

• 235 - indicates the width of the tire from one sidewall to the other in millimeters. This tire is 235 millimeters wide.
• 65 - indicates the aspect ratio, or sidewall height, as a percentage of the tire’s width. In this case, it’s 50 percent or of the tire’s width.
• R - means radial tires. Radials are the most common type of automotive tire and have fabric woven in at various angles with tread that is strengthened with additional layers of rubber.
• 17 - indicates the wheel diameter.
• 103 - is the tire’s load rating.
• H - is the tire’s speed rating. H-rated tires have a maximum top speed of 130 mph.

You may have noticed that the Ford F-150’s two tire sizes have different diameters and also different aspect ratios. Generally, automakers choose tires that have the same outer diameter. This allows them to have only one speedometer setting.

Now that you know what comes on the new F-150 and how to read the size numbers, let’s look at the different types of tires available to you. Depending on the type of driving you’re doing, where you live, and the weather, you have a variety of choices for tire types:

• Touring and All-season tires - provide a smooth ride, good wet and dry traction, decent winter traction, and longer tread life. These tires are acceptable for winter use but can’t be expected to provide the traction and stopping power that a dedicated winter tire can.
• Performance tires - are focused on providing confident handling, better wet and dry traction, and a sporty feel. Their higher grip and speed ratings come with a tradeoff of shortened tread life and reduced ride quality.
• All-terrain tires - are built to maximize off-road traction and provide good durability overall. Their construction means more noise and less comfort on the road, but winter traction and tread wear is acceptable.
• Winter and snow tires - are made with special rubber compounds that maintain grip and pliability when temperatures drop. They are also built with special tread patterns to maximize the vehicle’s ability to start and stop on very slippery roads.

Car Talk Community's favorite tires

Car Talk's very active online Community has many interesting and thoughtful perspectives on the best tire brands in the industry, based on real life user experience and knowledge.

Read more on the Best Tires in the industry according to the Car Talk Community here.

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