I worked in a tire shop for 15 years and that is just totally unacceptable. Especially for a dealer. Tech was just being lazy, a tire should never take that much weight.
I have worked in a tire shop for the last 16 years and have had a lot of success and good feedback selling the Continental Terrain Contact A/T. It's a good looking tire with minimal road noise and low rolling resistance. I ran the A/T's on my Bronco and the H/T's on my F-150, they also ride...
Factory tires and wheels from Ranger are 255/65/17, I use them in the summer. I traded the Bronco in and the dealer didn't want the stock wheels so I tried them on the ranger and they went on with no issues at all. And they don't look all that bad.