Tire Questions

[Ryan Schaecher]

After searching through messages I see opinions on a few tires. I also see people using different sizes... So I now have a few questions:



1) Using factiry rims I can use the following sizes, correct?

235 70 R16

245 70 R16

255 70 R16

265 70 R16



2) Given those, is there any issues that would need to be resolved using anything but the 255 70 R16's that I currently have?



3) Anyone have suggestions on where to go to find tires under $100 ea? So far I have quotes from:

-Walmart

-Sears

-Firestone Dealer (local)

-Sam's Club

-Gateway Tire (local)



I also have a local Goodyear dealer, Plaza Tire, local Cooper tire dealer



5) Has anyone purchased tires online, had them shipped to you and mounted by a local shop? How'd that go and did you save any money? Do you recommend a particular site/distributor?



4) If given the choice between the following, which would you choose:

-Wrangler RT/S angry

-Michelin (Walmart Special)

-Uniroyal Laredo AWP

-Continental Sport

-Uniroyal Laredo AWT

-Goodyear Tracker

-Goodyear Eagle LS

-Goodyear Integrity

-Firestone Firehawk Indy 500

-Firestone Destination LE

-Firestone Wilderness HT

-Continental ContiTrac

-BFG Long Trail T/A

-Dunlop Rover RV XT

-Dunlop Rover A/T



I've got a limited budget. Looking mainly for a 40-60K mile tire



Thanks y'all

 

[Dreman]

I like Michelin. I still have the factory Michelin 235s on my Trac at 83,000 miles, although they are getting close to the end of their life. I replaced the garbage General tires on my GMC with WalMart Michelins at 57,000 miles, and drove them almost 90,000 miles. Even though they weren't yet down to the wear bars, I replaced them with WalMart Continental Sport LT/SUVs because they were cheaper and had an 80,000 mile warranty. I'm currently at about 50,000 on them, and it looks like they might just make it, although I've had a couple of flats with them.



My observations:

General - relatively short life, bad (I mean really bad) traction, just plain crap

Michelins - excellent road traction wet or dry, very long life, although a bit pricey (about $550 drive out for 4 255s)

Continentals - good traction, long life, decent price (about $440 drive out for four 255s at WalMart)

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I would go with the BFG Long Trail A/Ts or the Michelins (Wal-Mart special) All the others on your list are pretty much junk.



I'm curious why dreman replaced his Wal-Mart Michelins after only 32K miles. If they don't last longer than that, I would definitely go with the BFGs.



One thing to remember -- tires are one of the most important safety feature on a vehicle. I rolled a vehicle a few years back, because I was trying to stretch my budget and delayed replacing them until too late.

 

[Dreman]

I meant I drove almost 90,000 more miles. The total mileage on the truck when I replaced the tires was somewhere around 145,000-146,000. The GMC currently has about 192,000 on it.

 

[Gavin Allan]

BFG Long Trail T/A



These are GREAT tires!



The others are crap.



Good luck.

 

[EddieS'04]

Yokohama geolanders GO51.

Check them out on tire rack. they got very good review.

Then maybe Iam partial. I have ran various yoks for years on other cars with great success and performance..

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

My next set of tires are going to be Pirelli's STR-A (because I've owned them before, but on a different vehicle they were the P77's), and they are rated up there with the Geolander's.

 

[Ben Poche]

the taller the tire the more sidewall flex you will get it will swaywith a tall sidewall

 

[NCDarryl]

I just replaced the Goodyears with Michelin Cross Terrains ..



Very smooth ride and quiet tires....although very pricey....

 

[Shane Dinsmore]

I just got the BFG Land Terrain 265/75/16 at walmart on Sunday for 460.00 out the door. That is 96.00 a tire plus mounting & balancing, road hazard, and free lifetime rotation. They are 50k mile tires too. I did the torsion twist (which is free) so there wouldnt be any rubbing.

 

[Vishaan Lutchman]

I've had my Trac for 38,000 miles, put that on in about 18 months. Today i had a blow out on a exit ramp going about 70 mph. I knew it started to happen when the truck started to shake. i have the Wrangler RT/S that came with the vechicle and have come to the conclusion these might be the worst tire for the TRAC ever. I've driven a ton of race cars and tires are a huge part of handling and I can tell when they start to affect it. At 16,000 they started affected the handling which to me is horrible....why am I sharing all of this worthless information. For this one reason, Goodyear makes a wonderful tire but don't ever put the Wrangler's RT/S on a TRAC, IMO. I would suggest the Bridgestone Dueler, it's what I have on my second TRAC and it seems handle a lot better at 24,000 miles than my Wrangler's at 12,000.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I agree V. The Dueler Revos are awesome! I :wub: mine.

 

[Johnny O]

As far as the sizes go, smaller than stock will make your speedo read faster than you're really going and larger ones will make it read slower than you're really going.

 

[Ryan Schaecher]

Thanks, I saw on one of the pages I was looking at yesterday about the 3.2% speed difference at 60mph between 255 and 235 tires.





I have a very limited budget so the Yok's and the Duelers are beyond what I can spend (I know, safety first....). We don't drive the Trac too much lately with the gas prices, I drive the wifey's 96 Taurus just about everyday to work now since she has a Ceramics and Domestic Goddess Engineering degree (yes, she truely is a degreed engineer, but a stay-at-home mom).



We have dramatically cut back on miles on the Trac from averaging 1500 per month to less than 500 average over the past 5 months. At this rate a 40K tire will last about 7 years. It is our long-distance driver still. It's just that at $2.30/gallon, it costs me nearly $5/day to drive back and forth to work in the Trac and about $3/day in the Taurus.