Tires for Gravel Driving?

[PriusPhotog]

I just rolled over 30,000 miles on my 2005 Prius and simultaneously rolled over something big and sharp on a gravel road (not quite sure what). It left a large hole in one of the tires and I'm am using this opportunity to buy four brand new tires. I've read a lot online and there are a thousand different opinions. I see a lot of mention of handling, performance on rain and snow, etc. but I can't find anyone talking much about the types of road.

I am very often out on gravel roads and need a tire that can take that punishment. I would love to improve paved road handling a bit as well, but I honestly have not been terribly disappointed with the Goodyear Integrity tires (yes I have noticed that I have to be careful with my speed on tight curves and such, but its manageable). Thanks for any advice on what types of tire handle rough roads the best.

[tagnew]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusPhotog @ Nov 8 2006, 02:09 PM) [snapback]345618[/snapback]</div>

I just rolled over 30,000 miles on my 2005 Prius and simultaneously rolled over something big and sharp on a gravel road (not quite sure what). It left a large hole in one of the tires and I'm am using this opportunity to buy four brand new tires. I've read a lot online and there are a thousand different opinions. I see a lot of mention of handling, performance on rain and snow, etc. but I can't find anyone talking much about the types of road.

I am very often out on gravel roads and need a tire that can take that punishment. I would love to improve paved road handling a bit as well, but I honestly have not been terribly disappointed with the Goodyear Integrity tires (yes I have noticed that I have to be careful with my speed on tight curves and such, but its manageable). Thanks for any advice on what types of tire handle rough roads the best.
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I'm glad there is some one else with gravel road concerns. I just got my 07 touring three weeks ago and have put 1300 miles on it- 10 miles of bad gravel ( actually shale ) before I get to pavement. These Bridgestones are a better tire than the Integrity on the standard model, but not designed for the rigors of bad Montana roads, so I hope to get away with it by keeping my speed down. Am planning on getting winter snows and steel wheels, but Tire Rack hasn't measured the wheels yet, so that is a ways off. I think the trade off with getting a tire that can handle poor roads is that it is of necessity a heavier tire, and that will impact mileage. But life is full of trade offs, just have to determine priorities. Love the car, biggest complaint so far is the parking brake placement- it crowds my leg when resting on the dead pedal. Tanks so far averaging between 42 and 50 mpg.

[tumbleweed]

I spent a lot of time on gravel roads with my Prius last winter. I found that the OEM Integritys were fine on gravel. I have found that whatever type of tire you use on gravel the rocks are going to tear the tread up in a hurry, so contrary to everything else I believe about tires I would not buy expensive ones for use on gravel roads. When most of my driving is on pavement, as it is now, I buy premium all season touring tires.

There is some controversy about the best tire pressures for gravel and dirt roads also. The conventional school of thought, which I adhere to, seems to be that you should lower the pressure so sharp rocks won't penetrate the tread as easily. Others say it's better to keep the pressure up because less of the sidewall will contact the road. I think they may both be right, I've had sharp rocks go through the tread of load range E tires on pickups and I've had them go through the sidewall down near the tread as well. On my Prius I use 44 or 42 psi on pavement but when most of my driving was on dirt and gravel I lowered that about 10 psi.

As spiro said keeping the speed down seems to help more than anything.