It’s no secret that the off-road and overland scene has exponentially gained in popularity over the past decade. What once was the realm of Jeep Wranglers and Toyota Tacomas has blossomed to include all varieties of four-wheel-drive vehicles. In the eternal quest for additional space to haul gear (hey, collecting gear is half of the overland hobby) we’ve seen a shift away from the smaller SUVs and midsize trucks to larger fullsize pickups.

We’ve experienced this shift firsthand. Instead of building a smaller, nimbler overland vehicle, we opted instead to start with a Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD. With a Duramax diesel V8 under the hood, a full 52-gallon tank of fuel, and a bed of gear loaded for a long weekend, our heavy-duty off-roader tips the scales at more than 9,000 pounds. Seriously.

Despite its heft, the truck still has capacity for more than 2,000 additional pounds of payload and nearly 16,000 pounds of towing ability. Needless to say, finding a rugged 37-inch off-road tire able to support not only the truck but maintain its capability as well has been a challenge… until now.

A Heavy-Duty Off-Road Tire For Heavy-Duty Trucks

In the pursuit of tire perfection, we first ran through a set of 37×12.5R18 Nitto Ridge Grapplers. We bounced from the Ridge Grapplers to a set of Hankook’s Dynapro XT tires mounted to 17-inch wheels. While we enjoyed the ride quality of these tire, they carried only a load-range D rating and were far underrated for the size of our truck.

Without much fanfare, BFGoodrich introduced its newest off-road tire, the HD Terrain T/A KT, in early 2023. Realizing there was a gap in the market, BFGoodrich engineered these tires to meet the demands of heavy-duty trucks. The HD Terrain slots between the company’s KO2 (and now KO3) all-terrain and KM3 mud-terrain tires. The tread compound is all-new and designed to resist chipping and tearing under the highest torque loads. And an open tread pattern is complemented by “mud-phobic” bars that help with debris ejection.

For our overland-built Chevy Silverado 2500HD we opted to go with the company’s 37×12.5R20 HD Terrain tires. These tires stand 36.5 inches tall and are 12.5 inches wide on a 10-inch wheel. They have a chunky 18/32nds of tread depth and tip the scales at just over 77 pounds. Best of all, in this size the tires feature a load-range “F” rating.

BFGoodrich HD Terrain On- And Off-Road Ride And Handling

First impressions are everything and right off the bat we noticed that despite being a large, heavy, tire the HD Terrains took very little weight to balance. Once mounted on the truck we noticed an immediate improvement over the old set of tires. Most notable was the rigidness of the HD Terrain tires, in a good way. Where the old tires would squirm and wander, even at full pressure, we found the HD Terrain tires to be to stout and rigid. Our truck tracks noticeably straighter with less wander.

Being an “F” load-range, the tires carry a max load rating at 80 psi. For day-to-day driving we’ve found the best combination of ride quality and handling to come at about 50 psi. Being a heavy-duty truck, we never expected a luxury-car-like ride on the highway. However, the HD Terrain tires are deceptively good.

As you would expect from a BFGoodrich tire, off-road traction is outstanding. Leaning closer to a mud-terrain tire in tread design, the HD Terrain tires offer great traction when the road gets sloppy. The tread does a great job of self-cleaning, with the “mud-phobic” bars working to eject stuck debris. Strong sidewalls protect against rock rash while the improved tread compound resists chips even on the sharpest rocks. These BFGoodrich HD Terrain tires offer an impressive amount of resilience, despite the truck’s great mass.

Despite its aggressive appearance, BFGoodrich describes the HD Terrain as a “hybrid” tread tire, which fits perfectly with the tire’s good all-around off-road ability. Sand, gravel, mud, dirt, rocks… nothing seems to be a match for these tires.

There are a few notable downsides that are worth talking about, the first being that at speeds above 50 mph these tires have an audible hum, even when new. We suspect the noise will only increase as the tires wear, meaning regular rotation is going to be key to keeping the sound under control. The tires are also not 3-Peak Mountain Snow Flake (3PMSF) rated, it’s just not possible with such large tread blocks. They do carry a standard M+S mud and snow rating. The extra heft has also had a slightly negative effect on fuel economy, which was never a strong suit of our HD truck anyway. That all said, none of this was unexpected.

The Right Wheel Choice

Picking the right wheel for any project is always a difficult undertaking. The need to balance strength, weight, offset, and style all seemingly find themselves at odds. Thankfully, KMC Wheels has mastered the art of building attractive wheels that are functional. We opted to use the company’s 20×9-inch KM544 Mesa wheel. These wheels offer an 18mm offset with 5.71 inches of backspacing. Each wheel weighs 42 pounds and is rated to support 3,640 pounds-per-corner.

Sourcing the wheels was another challenge. Searching for the best combination of price and availability led us to the automotive accessory powerhouse RealTruck. We’ve been fans of RealTruck for a long time, due in large part to the company’s second-to-none customer service. RealTruck not only had the wheels in stock at the best price but also offered free shipping. We had the wheels delivered to our door ready to be mounted in just a couple days.

The company is committed to relentless improvement, as well, and recently launched a new RealTruck Builder, which is a state-of-the-art 3D visualization tool designed for the automotive aftermarket accessory industry. This allows truck owners to customize their vehicle with prospective parts in true-to-scale 3D, including bed covers, steps, bumpers, racks, and more. The system isn’t quite ready for wheels just yet, but RealTruck says it’s coming.

BFGoodrich HD Terrain Size Options

The BFGoodrich HD Terrain T/A KT is available in 32 sizes for 16 to 22-inch wheels ranging from 32 to 40 inches in diameter. And every tire in the lineup carries either a load-range E or F rating. There’s no denying, too, that the HD Terrain T/A KT is a premium off-road tire, ranging in price from about $280 to nearly $800 per tire. BFGoodrich offers a 60-day satisfaction guarantee on these tires, along with a 6-year warranty.