The most important consumable items for a truck, SUV, or van are the tires. From the moment a tire begins to rotate on the Earth's surface-whether contacting sand, dirt, gravel, asphalt, or concrete-it begins to wear. A tire's revolutionary speed of the contact patch to the road's surface causes friction that creates heat, which is the major contributor to tire wear. The vehicle's weight, suspension, shocks, springs, and alignment are also part of the tire wear equation. Externally contributing wear factors are air pressure, tread temperature, surface temperature, surface texture, and types of terrain.
Basically any surface type is abrasive. Wear is also contributed to high speed, sidewall deflection, lateral G-loads, slippage, and braking. To help decelerate the wear process, tires should be rotated every 6,000 miles. Radial tires should only be rotated front to back or back to front on the same side. Do not cross the radial tire rotation. When rolling on a set of worn tires, it puts you and others at risk. Depending on the vehicle, driving conditions, and driving style will dictate the tire's life expectancy. Even with normal driving conditions, tires will wear out and have to be replaced.
Jim Kwolek of Top Line Performance In Huntington Beach, California, used a 1/2-inch pneumatic drive gun with a 9/16-inch socket to remove the lug nuts from the Mickey Thompson Classic II Lock aluminum wheels. | 
A new set of Nitto Terra Grappler A/T, 305/70R17, tires have a less-aggressive tread design than the previous Mickey Thompson Baja Claw M/T tires. |
Jim used a Coats 7060 DAX Rim Clamp tire-mounting machine to slip on the Nitto Terra Grappler A/T tires. | |