Best Tires for Work Trucks: All-Terrain or Highway?

Choosing the best tires for your vehicle is extremely important, but it can be an overwhelming decision. Tire specifications, capabilities and prices vary widely, and narrowing your options requires careful consideration of your budget and your demands. Drivers of work trucks are particularly keen to select tires that will help them get the job done while meeting the budget constraints and longevity requirements of the business. The best tires for work trucks depends on where that truck spends the most time. 

Highway Tires

Highway tires typically deliver better fuel economy and greater longevity – at least on pavement – compared to all-terrain (A/T) tires. Highway tires are usually fairly quiet with a standard tread pattern design like you would find on most passenger cars. 

All-Terrain Tires

Where the pavement ends, the benefits of an A/T tire become clear: better off-road traction and greater toughness. Those advantages are a huge plus for construction pros that traverse rugged work sites, or oil and gas workers that travel far off of the beaten path. When you’re miles from civilization with a job to do, the last thing you need is a gouge in your tire’s sidewall, not to mention the downtime that results from having to fit a spare or wait for help. Better to start with A/T tires built to handle harsh environments.

Double Duty

Because many work trucks are used for personal purposes, you may want to consider your truck’s “weekend” duties, too. Does your truck take you deep into the woods to go hunting? Do you use it on the farm or drive it onto soft-sand beaches? Do you simply appreciate the look of big, knobby tires? If so, an A/T tire may be the best choice.

Before you pull the trigger on a new set of tires for your work truck, consider how and where you drive, and what you expect in terms of capability, toughness and longevity. If time is money, the right tires could yield you a net gain by keeping you moving and eliminating downtime resulting from damaged tires. 

Check out all the tires and wheel accessories available on NAPA Online or trust one of our 17,000 NAPA AutoCare locations for routine maintenance and repairs. For more information on choosing the best tires for work trucks, chat with a knowledgeable expert at your local NAPA AUTO PARTS store.