Went to Discount Tire today to find some new wheels and tires and the salesman said that you get more tread life out of a higher load rated tire. Trying to decide between 285/65/18 and 285/60/18, he was pretty confident that the 285/65 would last longer than the 285/60. Anyone hear of this? 285/65 are E rated 285/60 are D rated.

The tread compound is supposed to be harder...but I do not know anything about increased life...I have to run 'E's'.

i run E's.... get about 50k out of the last set....

what it is is that with the D load range tires, dependant on the manufacturer, will wear on the edges as they wil roll under in turns under heavy loads. The E rated tires will not roll under as much as they are a stiffer tire. Out of both ranges, dependant upon use, you can get 70K -80K miles out of the Bridgestone Revos and Cooper Discoveries. This I knnow for sure. The trick is tire rotations and minimal towing. If you go with E rated tires, Bridgestone Revos would be a 265 size.

The 60's also go around faster as the sit lower to the ground which wares them out. But the ride on some 60's is much better as the are spredding the load out over a wider area than 65's. They will plow snow however and give less traction in winter.

The 285/65 are listed as 32.54" and the 285/60 are 31.49 iirc. The 285/60 are about the same height as my old 265/75/16 were. Just curious if the E rated would last longer with the higher rating. If not I will probobly get the 60's.

Your'e going to drop your miles per gallon by going from 75's to 60's and because they are much wider the traction will be much less in snow. The wear rating is on the sidewalls.

Just to make sure you understand the difference in the "60 vs. 65" on the two tires. That is just sidewall height. If you already knew that then good. The load rating (i.e. D, E) is not as important to look at as the load index. The letter just denotes how many plies are in the tire, I think an E tire is 10 ply and a D tire is 8. That is why an E tire has more stiff sidewalls. I could be off on the number of plies but you get the meaning. The load index tells you how much weight a tire can handle. For instance, a lot of guys switch to "285/75/16" and get them in a D rated tire because it can still carry a bigger load than the stock, E rated, 245/75/16s.

From experience, I know that most 285/60/18 tires come with around a 113 load index and you can get the 285/65/18s in a 121 or 123 load index. Now, while the load rating may also denote a harder compound (I"m not sure) a lot of E rated tires don't have siping. Siping is when the manufacturer cuts small slits in the tread blocks the let them flex and grip better. This also increases tread life because the blocks can adapt better to rough terrain. Most E rated tires don't have this because they need to be more sturdy but the tread blocks will wear faster. This may be evened out by the harder compound.

The most important thing is to get a tire that is rated over 3000 lbs. Usually, I think treadlife has more to do with the manufacturer than the load rating. I'm sure someone here can find all kinds of holes in my logic so maybe we will both learn a little.

I hope this helps!