irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:
Keith Tanner said:
I don't think anyones advocating against the correct tires for a given use. If you drive your truck offroad frequently, then offroad tires make perfect sense. That's why the XJ wears proper chunky tires, as does the old Land Rover. They're not doing the school run. If you only drive offroad for 6 hours a year, then you have to decide if the compromise for the remaining 364.75 days is worth it.
Also, sometimes you go pick up a project car and find the guy has it stashed at the bottom of a muddy hill. Happy I had A/Ts on my rig that day (as I watched an F250 get pulled up the same hill by a bulldozer since he couldn't make it WITHOUT a trailer, on "street" tires).
There was a bulldozer handy, you could have had him drag the project car to the top of the hill for you :)
Keith Tanner said:
irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:
Keith Tanner said:
I don't think anyones advocating against the correct tires for a given use. If you drive your truck offroad frequently, then offroad tires make perfect sense. That's why the XJ wears proper chunky tires, as does the old Land Rover. They're not doing the school run. If you only drive offroad for 6 hours a year, then you have to decide if the compromise for the remaining 364.75 days is worth it.
Also, sometimes you go pick up a project car and find the guy has it stashed at the bottom of a muddy hill. Happy I had A/Ts on my rig that day (as I watched an F250 get pulled up the same hill by a bulldozer since he couldn't make it WITHOUT a trailer, on "street" tires).
There was a bulldozer handy, you could have had him drag the project car to the top of the hill for you :)
It wasn't a full car. So dragging it a thousand feet through mud would have just meant me having to remove 500 lb of mud from The bottom of it once I got home lol.
CyberEric said:
In reply to APEowner :
That's exactly why I bought the Conti TerrainContact A/T. I don't see any draw backs to it over a highway tire. Silent, handles dirt, rain, and dry wonderfully. It might be a bit heavier than an e load range HT, but not sure. It looks rugged, though not as cool as the K02s, which is probably why no one buys the Conti, except Curtis, who turned me onto them.
They appear to be wearing really well too. I haven't rotated them yet, and wear is even after 10k miles.
We liked the Conti A/T too, I was really hoping to get another year out of them, but they were getting shredded by rocks and then finally the sidewall got cut on one. I couldn't find them anymore, in stock size there was only Maxxis AT771, which we'd tried previously and had a structural failure, so we ended up going up one size and using an LT tire, Maxxis 811 A/Ts, certainly look cooler, time will tell if I regret it.
Keith Tanner said:
The fact that my diesel Dodge 2500 was equipped with LTX tires from the factory was a legit selling point for me. It said "we could have saved some money here but it's worth putting on the good stuff even if you may not notice. This truck is for working."
In general, more expensive or higher end vehicles are more likely to come with decent tires, rather than something that's just round and black. They know the buyers of those vehicles are more likely to care than an average Camry buyer.
It goes right along with my personal rule of thumb on buying a used car: I don't care if you just put new tires and brake pads on it, that's worth exactly $0 extra to me compared to bald tires and shot brakes, as there's a very high chance you put on tires or brakes that I don't want and will replace early in their lives.
In reply to CyberEric :
I ordered Conti's at Discount Tire yesterday. They won't be in for a week or so, but they are ordered. I also had the daily at the Chevy dealer for an oil change and they agreed the tires are due. I said don't even bother to rotate them this time. I like having receipts for the Chevy maintenance since I bought it new. If I ever sell it, the next owner will be relieved to see them. 32k did in the stock Goodyears which are 50k mile tires. The Contis are 60k mile tires. I didn't want the warranty, but the tech offered me 50% off on it, and I figured these tires aren't going to last 60k. I'm looking forward to getting half my money back towards the next set in another 3 years. This truck is my favorite daily driver of all time, and I plan to drive it a whole lot more. I got the Z71 so I could still go places, but my Jeep taught me I don't really need the ZR2. I can tow cars when needed, move the family, do all the home improvement and gardening chores, and it still pulls down over 20mpg on the highway at 75.
If they put the 4.8 into the Colorado.... that would be my dream truck.
rslifkin said:
Keith Tanner said:
The fact that my diesel Dodge 2500 was equipped with LTX tires from the factory was a legit selling point for me. It said "we could have saved some money here but it's worth putting on the good stuff even if you may not notice. This truck is for working."
In general, more expensive or higher end vehicles are more likely to come with decent tires, rather than something that's just round and black. They know the buyers of those vehicles are more likely to care than an average Camry buyer.
Honestly, most vehicles come with decent tires. Camrys come with decent Camry tires. There are some weird OE choices occasionally (looking at you FRS/BRZ). My Veloster which was not high end nor expensive came with PS4S on it which I though were an excellent match.
I agree that in the used market seeing "new tires" in the ad is often of no value as knowing they are getting rid of the car, the owner went to a tire store and chose whatever got them out the door at the lowest price.
The first gen Tundras came with very poorly specified tires and pressures. I think they were trying to make it more car-like and ended up with a squishy setup with very fast wear. My boss bought one new and it was a different beast than my older one on LTXs. Mine was stable with great tire life and surprisingly responsive steering, his felt like a really tall Camry and the tires wore out in about 20k miles.
Our 1991 Passat wagon came with some sort of ridiculous V rated summer only tire. Trying to emphasize the German Sports Wagen cred, I think, but they were very much not the right choice for a Canadian car that was going to see serious snow in the first 9 months of ownership. Only car I've ever had to chain up to obtain forward motion on a paved road.
Miatas have always come with okay tires. Nothing spectacular, just black and round. They don't completely embarrass themselves but I have melted them while doing suspension testing.
So in my experience, seeing that Dodge had chosen the same tires I'd specify for that use was a real plus.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Eh, I dunno about Camrys coming with decent Camry tires. I see a lot of cars of that caliber come with tires that even for non-performance use, I'd consider to be basically cheap junk.
Rumor is that the Costco Michelin X LT is the same as the LTX? I found the Costco tire to be quiet, wear like iron, decent in the rain, but seriously lack in any kind of snow. We don't get much in VA but the whole reason we have a 2+ ton V8 4runner is to get out and about when it does.
Ended up replacing them after about 20k miles, with lots of tread left, in favor of Yokohama G015 Geolandars. My cheapskate wallet cried, there's more road noise, but my wife can get to work 100% of the times she has to.
paddygarcia said:
My cheapskate wallet cried, there's more road noise, but my wife can get to work 100% of the times she has to.
I get that, and it's why is run such aggressive tires.
Since I live in the country there are times that I absolutely have to get to where I'm going no matter what. What I run are just slightly less than chains then and I have considered carrying chains too
