Tires

REMINGTON700

REMINGTON700

Well-Known Member
Car/truck/suv tires… what are your favorites? Currently running Firestone Destination LE and from the looks of it, won't even sniff... the treadwear claims. Though respectable perfomance wise.

Ever get close to mileage advertised?

Disappointments....underperforming?

Any experience with cheapos? I had a set of budget dealer tires 15 yrs ago that pleasantly surprised me with wear & general performance….tire store had to decipher the sidewall to find out they were made by....drumroll... Kelly.
 
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I don't know, I switch a lot.
I did buy some trailer tires the other day at Discount auto.
There was a guy there with a tire split straight across the tread. (side to side) looked very new.
It was a Firestone.
The guy said it was the second one to do that.
Kinda let the air out of my faith in Firestone.
 
Truck is wearing Generals right now. Towncar has Cooper CS-4. Previous set on the car was Bridgestone of a model I don't recall, no complaints about either. The Continental is running a fairly inexpensive set of Sumitomo tires. Not enough miles since the alignment was fixed to properly judge them on wear but the tires are fine. I had a set of really cheap tires on the truck a while ago. Treadwear was fantastic, but I may as well have been driving on bowling balls for all the grip they had. After 6 years of almost dying every time it rained I finally ditched them with more than half tread in favor of something that actually gripped.
 
When I had to have a work truck, I had great luck with Transforce A/Ts but read mostly good things about the Destination LEs. After quite a bit of reading, I actually suggested a set for the guy from whom we rented our business garage for his CRV. Not sure how many miles he got out of them, but he was much happier with them in terms of wet performance vs the stock Michelins.

I've had great luck with the General Altimax RT43s on my previous Accord and current Fox body Mustang.

My daily driver wears very sticky but three season Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s except in winter. LOVE these tires!

And my other Subaru had Cooper Discoverers which were very decent. I probably buy them again as they were more expensive than the Generals which I prefer..

Having said all that, I've always leaned heavily towards grip and performance vs how long they last and very often, those are opposite strengths.
 
I've used Goodyear wranglers on my trucks for decades now ,when I was still working & commuting 30,000 to 60,000 miles a year I always got 20 to 25% more miles than the ratings ,it's not till I retired & do mainly city driving that I now only get 80% of the tires ratings ,if you rotate & keep proper inflation once a week along with keeping up with suspension & greasing front end you can get at least 80% useage .
 
Just put a set of Coopers on my 2015 Ram. So far so good at half the price of a similar tire from Firestone.
 
I usually buy whatever decent brand I can that's on sale. Here's what my beasts are wearing now:

2005 Mazda Tribute 3.0 auto: Cooper Discoverer A/TW. Soft compound for snow and offroad, supposed to be good for 50K. Got about 35K on 'em now and with regular rotations they're looking pretty good. Great performance on wet or dry pavement, pretty good in the rough (if you deflate them down to about 30 PSI). Ironically, they're largely untested in snow, as the winters have been fairly mild since I got them.

2002 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab 4.7 auto: General Grabber A/T2. These things wear like iron. Over 50K on them now and still presentable, although I'll be replacing them before next winter. Decent dry performance given the knobby tread, good enough in the wet and absolutely the tits in snow.

1969 Olds 4-4-2 Convertible 400/auto: What else? Goodrich Radial T/As, pretty much the only tire that is available in a variety of sizes for a 14" wheel. The car only sees about 7-800 miles a year, so they'll be replaced due to age, not wear. In about seven years. Performance is great, much better than the factory originals(!). Never tried them in rain, let alone snow.

2000 Jaguar XK-8 Convertible 4.0/auto: My wife's toy. Continental ContiSport, due for replacement. They've only got about 15K on them, but again, they're being replaced due to age before I put the car on the road this season. No complaints, very sticky on dry pavement. Very limited use in wet and my bet is, virtually useless in snow.
 
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The Mustang has a set of Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires but I'm not all that impressed with them. While they do wear evenly, there is a lot of road noise and the compound is pretty hard for a semi-performance tire. They don't hook up very well on dry pavement.

In the past, I've had very good luck with Michelin, General and Cooper. I had a set of Yokohama tires and hated them - the wet traction was terrible.
 
I'm about to need tires on my truck, bought General Grabber AT2 last time after asking opinions here. 60k out of these, they rode well and are quiet. I'm buying another set.
 
My tire usage is going to be an outlier here. I run 17 inch Goodyear RS-A's on my Crown Vic. This is the cop tire. For some reason, my size is almost double the cost of other sizes in the same line. A new set is over $1,000 so I buy used. They are easy to find as departments retire cars with even the slightest service issue. I sometimes get RS-A's at the self serve yards. Average cost is about $40 for 75% tread which is good for about 25,000 miles. Because they are so cheap, I do not baby them.
 
CougarXR7 said:
The Mustang has a set of Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires but I'm not all that impressed with them. While they do wear evenly, there is a lot of road noise and the compound is pretty hard for a semi-performance tire. They don't hook up very well on dry pavement.

In the past, I've had very good luck with Michelin, General and Cooper. I had a set of Yokohama tires and hated them - the wet traction was terrible.
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Pirelli P-Zero Neros are crap. Came on my last Stang, took them off before half the tread was gone. As you stated, terrible off the line performance, they tramline like a bitch, don't hold in the wet, a very dangerous tire.

Replaced them with a set of Nitto NT555 tires and the performance difference was like night and day. Sure they wore down quicker, but the only life span I'm concerned with when buying tires is mine lol.

My newest Stang also has the Pirellis, will soon be heading to the nearest recycling plant. My conscience won't let me sell these dangerous tires used, yes they're that bad.

I'm also a huge fan of General performance tires, great grip. I've also had great luck with Toyo performance tires, had a set of Z rated 50's on the little lady's Toyota Previa mini van back in the day lol.

All of my vehicles get performance tires other than my Jeep, Goodyear Wrangled Radials are one of the only off road tires that actually have a tread life guarantee and plenty of grip for anything other than serious off road mudding etc.
 
For sport car applications, I like the Goodyear Potenzas myself. Used to run them on my Toyota Celicas, the performance was great and they didn't wear out quickly.
 
SoCal Sam said:
My tire usage is going to be an outlier here. I run 17 inch Goodyear RS-A's on my Crown Vic. This is the cop tire. For some reason, my size is almost double the cost of other sizes in the same line. A new set is over $1,000 so I buy used. They are easy to find as departments retire cars with even the slightest service issue. I sometimes get RS-A's at the self serve yards. Average cost is about $40 for 75% tread which is good for about 25,000 miles. Because they are so cheap, I do not baby them.
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Not the greatest idea buying used tires, unless you know they've been rotated on a regular basis, or are uni-directional. If a radial tire is run in one direction for an extended length of time, then reversed they have a tendency to split the underlying woven layers creating a bubble in the tire eventually ending in a blowout.

If the tire was marked for rotation when removed then re-installed running in the same direction then all is good, otherwise it's a crap shoot.

As an example, a number of yrs ago I purchased a new set of tires, well over a $1000, my neighbor thought I was nuts. We were talking and he was bragging how he purchased 4 used tires for his station wagon for $100. A few weeks later he and his family headed north to visit family up in N.Y.. Upon their return his wife was speaking to my little lady, she wasn't very happy with her husband, they had 3 blowouts along the way. Saved a ton of money with those used tires lol.
 
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I bought some new surplus stock of Eagle RS-A in the size my Mark VII uses. They are absolutely the worst tire I've ever had. If there are 3 flakes of snow on the ground, I can't even move the car. It slides in the rain, and its not much on dry road. I honestly think they are part of why I wrecked that thing, it just wouldn't stick to the road. They were slated for replacement immediately after the alignment but I wrecked the car on the way to get that done.

To add insult to injury, they've got at best 20k on them and the tread is way down. I could forgive the bad traction if they had good treadwear. Not an alignment issue either, the alignment was to take care of a rack swap, it had been properly aligned but the rack seals failed.
 
gadget73 said:
I bought some new surplus stock of Eagle RS-A in the size my Mark VII uses. They are absolutely the worst tire I've ever had. If there are 3 flakes of snow on the ground, I can't even move the car. It slides in the rain, and its not much on dry road. I honestly think they are part of why I wrecked that thing, it just wouldn't stick to the road. They were slated for replacement immediately after the alignment but I wrecked the car on the way to get that done.

To add insult to injury, they've got at best 20k on them and the tread is way down. I could forgive the bad traction if they had good treadwear. Not an alignment issue either, the alignment was to take care of a rack swap, it had been properly aligned but the rack seals failed.
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I had tires like that on an S-10 pickup, if the pavement wasn't dry, the ABS was always growling.

Those hard compound tires will last forever, but they have little to no grip.
 
Grenadeslio said:
Not the greatest idea buying used tires, unless you know they've been rotated on a regular basis, or are uni-directional. If a radial tire is run in one direction for an extended length of time, then reversed they have a tendency to split the underlying woven layers creating a bubble in the tire eventually ending in a blowout.

If the tire was marked for rotation when removed then re-installed running in the same direction then all is good, otherwise it's a crap shoot.

As an example, a number of yrs ago I purchased a new set of tires, well over a $1000, my neighbor thought I was nuts. We were talking and he was bragging how he purchased 4 used tires for his station wagon for $100. A few weeks later he and his family headed north to visit family up in N.Y.. Upon their return his wife was speaking to my little lady, she wasn't very happy with her husband, they had 3 blowouts along the way. Saved a ton of money with those used tires lol.
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As I said, my usage is an outlier and unless you know what you are doing, new is always better. However, I know how to read date codes. I also inspect the insides for hidden damage. A tire driven flat will destroy the sidewalls but the tire will hold air and drive normally until it blows out. At the junk yard, I buy tires that are mounted and inflated. I stay away from flats because sidewall pin holes are hard to spot and cannot be repaired. And yes, RS-A's are uni-directional, which is something I look for. In all the years I have been doing this, I have not been stranded.
 
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gadget73 said:
I bought some new surplus stock of Eagle RS-A in the size my Mark VII uses. They are absolutely the worst tire I've ever had. If there are 3 flakes of snow on the ground, I can't even move the car. It slides in the rain, and its not much on dry road. I honestly think they are part of why I wrecked that thing, it just wouldn't stick to the road. They were slated for replacement immediately after the alignment but I wrecked the car on the way to get that done.

To add insult to injury, they've got at best 20k on them and the tread is way down. I could forgive the bad traction if they had good treadwear. Not an alignment issue either, the alignment was to take care of a rack swap, it had been properly aligned but the rack seals failed.
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True, RS-A's are not great performers in anything but fine weather and yet, they are standard equipment for many service vehicles. And Goodyear charges double for cop sizes than other sizes in the line. Sure looks like the taxpayer is getting fleeced. Goodyear F-1 is about $100 less per tire than the RS-A!
 
SoCal Sam said:
As I said, my usage is an outlier and unless you know what you are doing, new is always better. However, I know how to read date codes. I also inspect the insides for hidden damage. A tire driven flat will destroy the sideways but the tire will hold air and drive normally until it blows out. At the junk yard, I buy tires that are mounted and inflated. I stay away from flats because sidewall pin holes are hard to spot and cannot be repaired. And yes, RS-A's are uni-directional, which is something I look for. In all the years I have been doing this, I have not been stranded.
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As I said, if unidirectional and the morons at the tire place didn't mount them backwards when new (this happens more than you think) then all is good lol.

Happened on my wife's Mercedes lol. Went to Tire Kingdom, purchased the tires, set up an appointment for the little lady, she had them installed. Called me to let me know she was home, asked her if the tires were mounted correctly. She didn't know so my 9yr old son went out to look, came back to tell me they were all backwards, this even though there was a huge arrow on the sidewall showing the proper rotation direction lol. Had to go back and have the tires crossed to the other side, what a bunch of morons. I see cars on the road all the time with the unidirectional tread running backwards, hydroplane much lol.
 
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Grenadeslio said:
As I said, if unidirectional and the morons at the tire place didn't mount them backwards when new (this happens more than you think) then all is good lol.
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One more rule for buying used. Never buy a tire with dressing. Dressing softens the rubber and causes premature cracking.

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