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Trucks are more than just a vehicle that gets you back and forth to work. They are a rolling billboard that represents who the driver is, what kind of person they are. The biggest thing that makes a trucks stand out are the wheels and tires.
The tire usually represents the task that’s given to the truck. Whether it be towing a trailer, go through muddy terrain, street drive, or even drag racing each truck and tire are set up for a unique purpose. Cruising through the Ultimate Callout Challenge [2] this year we notice a few different wheel and tire trends.
[3]Nitto 420S tires are becoming the most popular tire set up giving that street look, but also offering a nice footprint for the guys who want to hit the drag strip on Friday nights.
The wheel is the owners chance to create as much of a “wow” factor as they want. Big, small, wide, or skinny wheels are available in any option you can think of. If color matching is your thing or a 12-inch lip with a mirror finish, anything can be accomplished.
There are two major different kinds of people when it comes to wheels and tires. The mud tire with average size wheels and the street tire with a big negative offset wheel with a massive wheel lip, but we took a look even closer.
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Shown on the left is a negative offset chrome Fuel Off-Road Hostage wheel wrapped in Nitto 420S tires. The Nitto Terra Grappler G2 tires (right) are becoming a popular choice as well.
The Rancher
[6]More aggressive tire tread were seen on some trucks which can be used off-road with plenty of traction.
These kinds of wheel and tire combinations are for your weekend warriors that aren’t afraid to get dirty. They use these trucks for work and on the weekend it becomes a toy or even a tow rig.
The Mall Crawler
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As you can see American Force wheels with the multi-colored options are a hot item as well as the mirror image chrome wheels that Fuel Off-Road offers.
This type of combination is a bigger and flashier wheel with a tire that has a very thin side wall. These are usually seen in a show ‘n shine events or on some sort of show-only application. These aren’t exactly your “performance” set of wheels and tires.
Drag Trucks
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One of the biggest keys to drag racing is traction. Hoosier [10], Mickey Thompson [11], and MH [12] Drag radials or full slicks are the most common tire brands for the serious drag racers. In drag racing, getting the power to the ground is the name of the game.
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Hoosier DR2 Drag Radials are often a popular option for your serious drag racing guys, but there are plenty of choices out there.
Be on the lookout for wheel and tire trends at events coming up. What’s next for the industry? What kind of wheel and tire combo’s do you have? Let us know in the comments below!
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