Tires: P verse LT tires, heavy duty truck tires, light truck tires

Question
I have a 2000 Chevy s10 4 cylinder flex fuel and I was wondering why it uses p(passenger) and not LT(light truck) tires.  Why would auto companies have this for trucks?

Answer
Steve,

There are a couple of reasons.

1)  Load carrying capacity:  LT tires are like smaller versions of heavy duty truck tires - like 18 wheelers.  They have many of the same chartacterisitcs - and one is the ability to carry a large load with a minimal amount of material and cost.  

2)  Ride quality:  The down side is that they don't have good ride qualities.  Because P materic tires use lower pressures, they ride much better and this is a major selling point.