Wide VS Narrow Tires (Pizza Cutters to Wide)

[trailhunger]

Some whack advice being tossed around here. Pizza cutters in a monsoon is a huge mistake:

1. Smaller Contact Patch = Higher Contact Pressure
Narrow tires put the truck’s weight over a smaller footprint. While this helps “cut down” into snow or soft terrain, in heavy rain the smaller footprint can’t channel away as much water per rotation, making it easier for the tire to lose grip and ride on top of the water.
2. Less Water Evacuation Capacity
Most hydroplaning resistance comes from tread pattern + channel volume.
A 255-wide tire simply has less tread width to evacuate water than a 275/285-wide tire running the same pattern. At highway speeds, water can build up faster than the narrow tire can push it aside.
3. Higher Ground Pressure = Earlier Lift-Off in Standing Water
Think of it like a water ski: higher pressure means it will “plane” sooner if the tread is overwhelmed. This is why very narrow, high-pressure tires (think compact spare tires) are especially risky in wet conditions.

The OE specs win, moderate, C rated. Although I do agree all you lead foots slow the fck down. Esp at a school zone. I live right by one, trucks agro as f during commute hour

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[GDTRFB]

This is exactly why I wish a 265/75r17 tire existed

 

[Goriders]

I went wider than OEM AT tires for summer and narrower winter tires for winter. Both worked awesome for what I wanted. I just matched the diameter and bought a full spare.

 

[izzy]

Think of it like a water ski: higher pressure means it will “plane” sooner if the tread is overwhelmed. This is why very narrow, high-pressure tires (think compact spare tires) are especially risky in wet conditions.

I just want to drop a little bit of data in

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/test...N1u6DtQAXgIvFQ2dyLtTrfy9UJbBq4z2aD5Ff64Sswn7M

Wider tires have a harder job to do than skinny tires because they have to move more water out of the way of their wider contact patch. They also have to move that water further from the center of the tire to the edge. How efficiently the tire moves water is dependent on it's tread pattern though so there's plenty of tires that are just inherently bad in the wet, irregardless of their size.

You can hydroplane on any tire in the rain if you're going fast enough. We're talking about 1" difference in treadwidth here between 275/70/17 and a 255/75/17 too so it's kind of a moot point. But ultimate Tire Rack says "In the wet, a narrower tire is generally faster than a wide one"

Tl;dr

Don't speed in the rain and replace your tires at 4/32.

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