Which Wildpeak AT4 Tires for My Use Case?

[time2playandy]

I’ve narrowed my future upgrade to 2 options for Wildpeaks. A deep dive into specs and YT videos has me a bit confused.

Here’s my use case:
Southwest Utah
85% road/15% gravel/ forest service/mildly rocky offroad
Frequent on and off-road hauling of e-bikes and camping gear (probably 150-250 lb. loads)
Occasional towing of 5 x 8 cargo trailer (not heavily loaded) both on and off-road

2 WP4 tire candidates:
A. LT265/70/17 E rated 10 ply HD side wall
B. LT275/70/17 C rated 6 ply standard side wall

Despite the thicker side walls and insignificant size reduction, tire A is 5# lighter. My concern is the E rating and HD sidewall will give a much firmer road ride. I’d be ok with that if the added off-road and towing strength was a worthwhile trade-off.
But if load range C was good enough, I’d lean that way.
Thoughts?

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[nubbins_]

I’ve narrowed my future upgrade to 2 options for Wildpeaks. A deep dive into specs and YT videos has me a bit confused.

Here’s my use case:
Southwest Utah
85% road/15% gravel/ forest service/mildly rocky offroad
Frequent on and off-road hauling of e-bikes and camping gear (probably 150-250 lb. loads)
Occasional towing of 5 x 8 cargo trailer (not heavily loaded) both on and off-road

2 WP4 tire candidates:
A. LT265/70/17 E rated 10 ply HD side wall
B. LT275/70/17 C rated 6 ply standard side wall

Despite the thicker side walls and insignificant size reduction, tire A is 5# lighter. My concern is the E rating and HD sidewall will give a much firmer road ride. I’d be ok with that if the added off-road and towing strength was a worthwhile trade-off.
But if load range C was good enough, I’d lean that way.
Thoughts?

I just replied to another thread a few days ago that expressed a similar idea about LT sizes.

- I don't think the numerical ply "rating" has been literal for a long time. Going up in load range does confer some level of load capacity, likely thickness of material, and therefore durability, but it does not indicate that you have a literal 4/6/8/10 layer tire.

- Going up in load rating may make the tread area stronger, but it has no necessary correlation as to sidewall thickness.

If the smaller tire is still lighter that sounds better. The move from P to LT is the significant ride quality penalty, C to E less so - at least when running reasonable everyday unladen pressures on a vehicle that didn't originally necessitate LT capacities.

edit: I see what you mean about the AT4W in particular, but their spec list doesn't list the 265/70R17E as being their new 3-ply "Duraspec" sidewall. So honestly I'm skeptical of a significant difference between the other two "Standard" and "HD" sidewalls - 3-ply sidewall is what most people are looking for in a tougher AT tire, so how HD can 2-ply "HD" be is anyone's guess.

 

[CO/ZA]

Bridgestone also recently released their new Dueler Ascent A/T if you’d like another option.

Reviews are extremely positive so far on TireRack and Tophers channel with the best snow grip out of 9 tires tested.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=337

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