New 3500 DRW Factory Order. Should I upgrade the wheels and tires?

[Gary2920]

This week I plan to pull the trigger on my order. Likely with Koons in DC market. Some questions:

Other than appearance, is there any benefit to the Aluminum wheel upgrade? I'm hauling a Truck Camper. I'm guessing a slight weight benefit to the aluminum but can't be more than 100#'s total?

Should I upgrade to the On/Off road tires? any appreciable noise difference? I've had some AT tires and man, they were noisy. We are boon dock camping, think wooded lots, desert sites, not snow or sand.

Thanks for your helpful comments!

 

[jeffn]

The factory Nexen tires, if that is what your truck ships with, are good highway tires. They don't offer much traction on anything other than pavement. I swapped them out for General Grabber AT/X tires and have been very happy. 14k miles on them and the noise level is very acceptable to me, and fwiw I'm pretty sensitive to tire noise. I put 30k miles on the Nexen tires because I was concerned about increasing noise but traction won out and it turns out I didn't have a pay a noise penalty.

The aluminum wheels look good. I can't imagine the weight difference is significant, I certainly don't feel much of a difference between the steel spare and the aluminum wheels.

 

[BubbaWilkins]

If you don't care about the aesthetics, skip the Aluminum wheels. Even with the option, the inner two on the back are going to remain the black steel. I can't detect any noise with the Nexens on my truck. I would think most AT's would still be relatively quiet until you start getting into the more aggressive tread patterns.

 

[Firebird]

My Nexen's rode well, but zero traction. Running Nitto Ridge Grapplers on aftermarket Ion alloy wheels now

 

[jenninr]

We have a 2018 and a 2022 Ram 3500. Both came with the Nexens. The trucks spend 90% of their time with a trailer attached. The 2018 had 2 of the Nexens break belts under 12,000 miles and the other 4 were worn out by 18,000 miles. The 2022 is brand new but I expect to have to put tires on it way sooner than I should have to.

 

[mwalsh9152]

Does anyone know what the two tire upgrade options are for them?

 

[baker01]

Steel wheels make rotating the tires much easier. The aluminum rims require dismounting the tires to move from rear to front $$$.

 

[CdnHO]

This week I plan to pull the trigger on my order. Likely with Koons in DC market. Some questions:

Other than appearance, is there any benefit to the Aluminum wheel upgrade? I'm hauling a Truck Camper. I'm guessing a slight weight benefit to the aluminum but can't be more than 100#'s total?

Should I upgrade to the On/Off road tires? any appreciable noise difference? I've had some AT tires and man, they were noisy. We are boon dock camping, think wooded lots, desert sites, not snow or sand.

Thanks for your helpful comments!

I don’t see any advantage to the aluminum wheels, especially since the inner dual is steel anyway. And if you are in an area with road salt in winter, steel is much easier to refinish In the event of corrosion.

 

[jeffn]

Steel wheels make rotating the tires much easier. The aluminum rims require dismounting the tires to move from rear to front $$$.

On a dually you will have to do the same because the TPMS sensors on the rear wheels are different in order to identify the inner and outer wheels.

 

[GBB]

Changed out the Nexans to Falkens right after getting truck. I’ve put over 20,000 miles on them so far driven thru snow, ice and dry pavement. Very pleased with these tires. And I would not get the aluminum rims next time.