I have a 2007 Jeep Patriot. It will need new tires soon. I currently have 3/32 of tread. It has Goodyear Eagle LS-2 tires on it size: 205 70 16. After researching tires for this vehicle. I found out that the Goodyear Eagle LS-2 is the only tire made that fits this vehicle. I was hoping to find something with better tread life, handling and possibly better gas mileage.
Has anyone ever heard of an auto manufacturer that locks you into one specific tire for the life of the vehicle?
A local tire retailer I spoke with confirmed this is the only tire that fits the vehicle because of the 16" rim. It is considered an odd size. He actually called the tire a “dog” that they do not stock but could order. Is there another size tire that would fit this vehicle so I may have more options than this Goodyear? Also,what’s up with Jeep that only one specific brand can be placed on the Patriot?
You should be able to downsize slightly to 205/65-16, for which there are many more choices. Check out www.tirerack.com.
I found it hard to believe there was only one tire in this size, but other than a Dunlop snow tire the Eagle LS is the only tire in this size on the Tire Rack site, www.tirerack.com
If there is enough room, there are 44 tires in the 215/70R16 size. This size is about 1/2" taller (27.8" vs 27.3") and about 2% larger in circumference. The speedometer would read about 2% low.
The 215/65R17 tire option for the Patriot has a 28" overall diameter, so a 215/70R16 tire should fit. I would check with an independent tire shop or a Patriot specific forum, if this is a viable alternative.
Good luck,
Ed B.
You may need to buy new rims. This is a common issue on cars. You get a nice set of rims with the car only to see that no one makes the tire for that size.
215/65/16 tires should be very close in diameter to the tires you have now and are widely available.
For safety’s sake, the last thing you want to do in an SUV is downsize the tire! That increases the risk of tire failure - and we’ve all seen what happens when an SUV has a tire failure.
That does tend to happen when you or the car manufacturer choose an odd size, usually for looks not function. Note this statement is not just for tyres, but for a number of things like headlamps (Remember when the only choice was 5" or 7" headlamps and they cost less than $5.00 and all you needed was a screwdriver to install them.) The call that progress! Yea.The speedometer would read about 2% low. Likely it would read more accurate as most speedometers are calibrated to read a little high to help avoid tickets and prevent issues if it would read a little low.
How many miles on this vehicle? The Jeep was probably built in '06 and since this is '11 those tires are likely around 4.5 years old. That’s not shabby age-wise.
Why not a 215/70 (as below) or the 65 series as mentioned. I’ve used these tire sizes in the past during interchanges with never a problem.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?width=215%2F&ratio=70&diameter=16&x=48&y=15
Thanks for the feedback. The Patriot will have 39,000 miles on it within days.
Why complicate things? If you have no complaints with the Goodyears, then the most economical thing to do is order a new set.
Sorry, did not know that. Advice retracted…
But why does a slightly lower profile tire have higher risk of failure? The difference between 205/70 and 205/65 is less than 1/2" in profile height.
At 4.5 years and almost 40k miles I don’t see a problem with those Goodyears.
However, if you decide to go a different route a 215 is so close as to be irrelevant in regards to the size difference.
It has to do with load carrying capacity. In addition to a smaller diameter, the load carrying capacity would go down about 90# per tire. More reserve = less risk of failure.
Others have answered the more important tire question. I’ll answer the “Has anyone ever heard of an auto manufacturer that locks you into one specific tire for the life of the vehicle?” question.
Yes, I have. Bugatti. Only specially designed Michelins will fit Veyron wheels…at a cost of $42,000 a set.
Here is a handy tire size calculator a found http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp?submit=yes&vehicle=yes