Everyone's got their opinion but if you want the best, go Michelin with a good all-season tread and good tread depth. Michelin consistently rates at the top and a guy I know who used to work in the tire business says their quality control is unmatched and that's part of the reason they're leaders. I used to be an on-the-road sales guy and bought all kinds and brands of tires over the yrs. Michelins really run smooooth and I've always gotten a ton of miles out of them. Even though they are the most expensive usually, they pay back in lifespan. Bridgestones are also quite good in my experience and run 'true' even after many miles. I kind of settled with Bridgestones after a while because I found them to be a better price/lifespan value and the ones I've had run true all the way to the bitter end. I've also run some Uniroyals a long time that ran great.
10 ply tires are going to give you the longest life and great handling, but you don't necessarily need them unless you have good loads. But you'll get probably double the life out of 10-ply tires. At the end of the day, they'll probably save you the most money seeing how it costs so much for mounting and balancing. The fewer times you have to do that, the more you save.
I honestly wouldn't recommend Coopers. They make a lot of the no-name tires out there, so make sure you check out who the parent company is. Generally they'll work ok, but I've never gotten a lot of life out of their product and lived with out-of-roundness and belt issue bouncing with their tires for thousands of miles once they got up in age that didn't seem to occur with the other tire brands I mentioned. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw on which tires you get ..if they were made well or at the outer edge of the acceptable spec range, that's where quality control comes in. I usually try to tell the guy doing my tires, if they require a lot of weight to balance, please dismount it and try another one. Most guys will do that for ya, some guys won't. A tire that takes a crapload of weights is going to be a problem from day one.
Also, if you want to be REALLY finicky, consider paying for Road-Force balancing. Road Force is probably the TOP tire balancer out there which can take into account differences in tire roundness that most balancers don't. Most big shops have at least one Road Force balancer to help troubleshoot tires for warranty purposes (before the mfgr will warranty the tire). It costs more to balance this way because it takes more tech time. But if you want a tire that runs as smooth as you can get it, it's something to ask for.
Hey, I know a buddy who hydroplaned on nearly bald tires, hit a tree and totaled his truck. It was amazing he walked away. That was more than 20 years ago and I know my buddy has never since screwed with crappy low-buck tires. I'm glad you're getting some new ones too. I should look at mine, they're getting to that point. Thanks for the reminder!!
[Update:] Glad you got your tires!!
