Another tire question

[foresterdj]

I have a set on my subaru Forester, the toughest looking tire I could find that fit that car. Two years old and ~ 26k miles and they are getting well worn. Should make it another winter, perhaps to 30k, but will then need replacement. This is probably 85% pavement, 15% gravel roads.

Also have them on my work truck. Cannot recall right now the miles, but not many. Had a rock blowout last fall comming back from a forest fire and had to get a new one, was shocked at how worn the other 3 already were. These tires get lots of back road driving. Traction is fair to good on dirt and greasy mud. I cannot say for sure how they are in deeper snow, since I usually throw on chains as soon as I leave the pavement.

 

[snicklas]

Eric,

I understand that..... I think that Dad spent almost $950 on his set. Mine was put on by the dealer when I bought it.... so I think it just got rolled into the price.... but the tires that were on there were bald, and I was not going to put my family in a vehicle with bad tires.... so I told them, it get tires or I will not buy it......

 

[equium]

I just put 2 geolanders on my rear axle and moved my Federals to the front. I've got about 1000 miles on them and so far so good. Don't forget that you'll need 500 to 1000 miles to break them in. Mine took almost a good 1000 miles before all the squimy-ness was gone. No one told me about tire break-in years ago when I bought my Federals and I thought I got ripped off. Once broken in, my Federals and Geolanders are fine.

 

[nyteshades]

Well, $1k later and she has new shoes. I put the Yokohama Geolanders on and I like them. Quiet on the road....and the truck feels more stable. Not to mention, they look better than stock tires. I don't understand why Ford sent these out with tall, skinny tires. It's a truck, not a wagon.

The other thing I noticed right off was the gearing change. Coming up from 245/75's, the taller tire puts the truck in the right spot for gearing I think. Granted I'm not going to win any races off the line, but I don't feel like I'm running out of gear.

Once again, thanks for the help guys.

 

[RLDSL]

Well, $1k later and she has new shoes. I put the Yokohama Geolanders on and I like them. Quiet on the road....and the truck feels more stable. Not to mention, they look better than stock tires. I don't understand why Ford sent these out with tall, skinny tires. It's a truck, not a wagon.

The other thing I noticed right off was the gearing change. Coming up from 245/75's, the taller tire puts the truck in the right spot for gearing I think. Granted I'm not going to win any races off the line, but I don't feel like I'm running out of gear.

Once again, thanks for the help guys.

They put tall skinny tires on them BECAUSE it's a truck and that is what works best in most situations for the average person, and they didn't want to throw the fleet average fuel milage figures into the toilet. Besides going to wider rubber only benefits a limited market and they figure the aftermarket can take up the slack for those who just cant stand to have stock sized tires and wheels. The tall narrow rubber is going to give you better traction in everything but bottomless mud and loose dune type sand and that's not exactly *normal* driving conditions for anyone, and if it is, they set up for it.

As far as Yokohamas, I don't know about the geolanders, but I had a set of Yokos on a Mercury wagon. Blamed things were on teh car 7 years when I got rid of teh car and still holding, tread still in good shape., Tread was always scary as heck whenever it rained and I wouldn't think of taking it out on snow it was so squirrily on those tires, but the things wore like iron. Aparantly they use very hard rubber compounds. They seem to out do michilin in teh wear and the sliding into phone pole deepartment

 

[nyteshades]

Well the tall and skinny tires worked half as well in the snow than my Durango with 31's on it. There wasn't enough contact patch to bite anything, not to mention all that weight just caused the tires to sink in the snow. Apparently Ford re-thought that as well, as my Dad's 99 7.3 has the same tires.

I will agree the Michilin's suck