Ok guys,
I've been researching tires since I bought my truck last fall and I have been back and forth on which route I'm going to go. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with a 17" or 18" wheel due to tire cost. I've been seriously considering getting a set of 295/70R17 (33.5") Nitto Trail Grappler's for the size and love the look of the Nitto's but I started looking at the weight of the tire itself and it kind of shocked me - 70.6 lbs.

I was originally looking at Kelly Safari TSR 315/70R17 (34.4") because it is kind of the middle of the road A/T & M/T and have great reviews and prices. I kind of put them on the back burner because they are bigger which typically equals more weight, strain on tranny, MPG etc. But then I decided to look up the weight of the tire and found out that the Kelly's weighs nearly 9 lbs lighter than the Nittos, only 61.98 lbs.

My question is does the difference in weight between the two tires (71 lbs Nitto vs. 62 lbs Kelly) balance out because the lighter Kelly's are a larger diameter tire and vice versa (as far as strain on the truck)? I was planning on sticking with the Nitto's because of size but this has really got my thinking now...

 

i have installed the exact tires even sizes you are talking about and the shop i work at. the nittos are 10 ply and the kelly's are 8 ply, the kelly's are louder than the nittos

and once you have them mounted and on the truck the nittos will measure around 33" and the kellys around 34"