I'm consider replacing my wife's tires for her Accent with General Tire RT43s. I don't normally put much stock in speed ratings, but the RT43 seem like they may have differences between between the T-speed and H/V-speed versions.
One Tire Rack test suggested the H/V-speed version had a somewhat harsh ride. Ride quality is very important for my wife. CR rated the "handling" of the T-speed version a 3/5 and the H-speed version 4/5.
Any thoughts?
Generally the higher speed rated version will have a stiffer carcass. So it'll probably be more responsive and less mushy feeling at the expense of riding a little stiffer.
Seems like I asked this very question about nine months ago.
Bought mine from my Ford dealer, all they had in stock were the "T" rated. Since my Fiesta came with H rate tires , I felt it was prudent to replace with the same rating. Besides, I prefer handling to a soft ride.
I have the softer ones and loathe them. I ordered the higher rated ones, they didn't have them in shipped the incorrect ones and allowed me to keep them free of charge once I stated they were incorrect and that they had not been mounted and they they could schedule a return or email a ups return label.
iceracer wrote: Seems like I asked this very question about nine months ago. Bought mine from my Ford dealer, all they had in stock were the "T" rated. Since my Fiesta came with H rate tires , I felt it was prudent to replace with the same rating. Besides, I prefer handling to a soft ride.
I thought I remembered someone asking this question, but I couldn't find it. Just to clarify, you have the H version? What's your impression?
captdownshift wrote: I have the softer ones and loathe them...
What do you dislike about them (handling)?
Typically, when you run a lower rated tire on a car that specifies a higher rating, you'll get a vague, wandering feeling on the road at speed. If you up the load rating it can help negate the lower speed rating as long as you're not planning on tapping into the higher speeds. But go lower speed AND load ratings and expect the car to feel like butt and run the chance of overheating and delaminating.
The Accent takes a T rating tire from the factory. The car currently feels a bit unstable >70MPH on the freeway. I'm trying to solve that problem, but it needs to ride at least as well as the factory Hankook H724s.
Run the H. They will be fine. 185/65/14? hard to make those ride rough. Very easy to make them handle like poo
Snrub wrote:iceracer wrote: Seems like I asked this very question about nine months ago. Bought mine from my Ford dealer, all they had in stock were the "T" rated. Since my Fiesta came with H rate tires , I felt it was prudent to replace with the same rating. Besides, I prefer handling to a soft ride.I thought I remembered someone asking this question, but I couldn't find it. Just to clarify, you have the H version? What's your impression?captdownshift wrote: I have the softer ones and loathe them...What do you dislike about them (handling)?
Never having driven on T rate tires, I can't really make a comparison. Since Ford seemed fit to install H rated tires originally , going with new H tires seemed to be the prudent thing. I like the performance I get on a non-performance car.
In reply to Snrub:
Why not use the OE tires? Are they crazy expensive?
^ I'm trying to solve the issue mentioned above, so I don't want OEM tires. OEM size is 175/70/14, I am hoping 185/65/14 will improve stability and it's not available in the Hankooks. The RT43s seem to test well, so I suspect there will be a most performance improvement as well.
H generally indicates an extra ply in the tread, get the H rated ones, they'll ride fine and handle better. The tirerack surveys show the H rated RT43 as riding better than the H724, along with every other category.
About halfway down the page.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Hankook&tireModel=Optimo+H724
Update: We went with the T-speed RT43s 185/65/14. They feel more stable at highway speeds than the OEM 175/70/14 Hankook 724s. They are better in wet conditions and they handle nicely in the dry for the type of tire they are. It's difficult to rate their ride quality compared to the Hankooks as there wasn't a back to back comparison. They definite ride better than Michelin X-Ice 3s.
Overall, we're happy and I would recommend these tires.
In reply to Snrub:
Thanks for following up on this. I see they score well in Tire Rack testing, so I'm going to pick up a set for my E60.
I had a set of RT43s on my Civic Hybrid, and they were easily the best "normal car" tires I've ever owned.
Corrected above, I intended to write that we picked up the T-speed version.
Best bang for the buck.
You'll need to log in to post.
