If you're shopping with a working pickup truck in mind, you should of course purchase truck tires, as they are typically made with a heavier body with multiple plies, or layers (sometimes steel plies), stronger sidewalls for resistance to impact breaks, and deeper tread with a heavier rubber compound. Usually the tread design on truck tires is aggressive and gives great traction in mud and snow. On the down side, a tire of this type is usually quite noisy and provides a stiff, hard ride.

Let's say you drive your car only in good weather; or perhaps it is a collector car. In this situation, a highway tread is your best choice. The tread design is ribbed, and straight grooves are cut into the rubber evenly around the circumference of the tire. If you were trying to pull through snow with these tires it would be like trying to climb a mountain in high heels -- impossible! But on clear roads they deliver a smooth, quiet ride.