Tires: tire load range, tire placard, tirerack com

Question
what is the difference between load range E and T

Answer
Bill,

I'm going to guess you are confusing Load Range with Speed rating, so let's start with the basics:

Tire Rack did as good a job as I could explaining some basic stuff and here are 2 of the articles that would apply:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=35

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=55

But there is a starting point that will make this easy:

On every vehicle sold in the US, there is a sticker – commonly called the tire placard - that lists the original tire size and the proper pressure for that size.  The placard is usually located on a doorpost or in the glove box – but sometimes it is located in the trunk or on the fuel filler door.

BTW, it doesn't matter who makes the tire or what pressure is listed on the tire's sidewall, if the tire size is the same as the placard, then the pressure listed on placard is also appropriate.

One word of caution:  Some trucks use tires with the letters "LT" in front of the tire size - and some trucks use tires with the letter "P" in front of the tire size - and some trucks use tires with the letter "C" after the tire size.  You should not use "P"'s in place of "LT"'s and vice versa.

You should be sure the pressure on the sidewall equals or exceeds that pressure on the placard.  If you do this the issue about the letter "C" in the sidewall will take care of itself (which is not true with "LT"'s vs "P"'s.)

A Second Word of Caution:  It is common for many online tire sites to catalog the tires without the letters - which not only is technically incorrect, but creates confusion.  But if you'll notice, ALL LT tires will have a double entry in the service description for Load Index.  P type tires have a single entry.

So what does your vehicle's tire placard say?  Be sure to include the numbers and letters after the size.   Post a followup with that information and I can help you sort this out.