I think that played into the Firestone tire mess with Ford. The tires were not perfect but the fact Ford specified such a low pressure brought out the defects which would have never been an issue at proper inflation. The more you look into this, the more you think Ford deserved the same blame as the tire maker.
I do the same thing with keeping my tires at or above the suggested pressure by a tad. You get better mileage and less tire wear than running them near the low end of the scale.
The PSI Ford specified was on the low side, especially when equipped with 235/75 tires-26 PSI. The problem arose when owners allowed tires to fall below the specified PSI.
My truck specifies 35 PSI, I had minor feathering of the L front tire that was not cured by alignment, increasing PSI to 38 lbs eliminated the feathering. Those tires were Wranglers, just switched to Michelins, only a few hundred miles on them running at 35PSI, if feathering occurs will increase to 38 pounds.
Firstone took a hit with the Ford mess… but they make good tires. The OE tire on my truck was Firestone Destination LE. At 50K, I replaced them with another set. At 100K a third set. I changed brands at 145K. The Kuhmos I put on ride OK but they are noisier and get worse fuel mileage. I wish I’d bought another set of LEs.
True, in 2001 purchase a new Ranger, it came with Firestones, they were fine.
Yeah, the Explorer tire problem was more wrong specifications than poor quality.
re: “the Firestone problem” of years ago.
Wasn’t it due to this?
Wifey was driving equinox with kumho tires. <50% tread. She said it was fine in snow. She is now driving torrent with +75% tread GY assurance tires and hates it. Says it’s too loose. I disagree. Both were/are awd.
That’s a great tire. I put a set of Coopers on my SUV because I got a good price. They are fine tires, but if I still have the car when I need tires again I will go back to the Desty LE.
Just to be clear, there have been 2 Firestone problems. One in 1978 involving the Firestone 500, and the other in 2000, involving the Ford Explorer. In both cases, Firestone’s management didn’t handle things well - sort of a textbook example of what not to do.
IIRC, there have been 3 Firestone fiascos.
When the 500s were recalled, they were replaced with the newer-design 721.
The 721 developed a history of tread separations, but–luckily–they weren’t quite as dangerous as the flawed 500s.
Hankook do make great tires, they also make some terrible ones.
The K125 is a superb passenger car tire - check the reviews.
I used to run the RA08 8-ply tyre on a van which were absolutely superb. However when they “upgraded” the design that tire would wear out fast, was noisy after a year and harsh riding. I changed to a Chinese tire brand (Neuton) than had come on a BMW I bought which drove extremely well. Those were a 275 wide sports tire but thought I’d try their commercial LT tire. Those turned out to be far, far better overall, especially grip in the wet, than the supposedly premium (their words) Hankooks.
There are definitely cheap tires out there that are very good but unfortunately it either takes personal trial and error, trusted recommendations or large-dataset-reviews to find out what they are.
[Whoops not sure why this posted. Deleted.]
Just as I was getting ready to reply, damnit
You sure they are from china? YHI is based in Singapore.
Why didn’t you upgrade him to Linux, it would still be working today.
Indeed. But not manufactured in Singapore. My use of “Chinese tires” was the generic as the broad colloquial. I think they’re made in Thailand and Indonesia by existing manufacturers in factories by the very same large “name brand” manufacturers.
The tires that came on the car I bought were the NT8000. As well as the van tires I actually put a set of NT512 on my old BMW E46. They are as good as the Bridgestones that were on it previously.
Hard to argue against price when the performance matches up too.
Try touch screens with damaged AND arthritic hands/fingers. Out of the line of vision and impossible to manage. Designed by young techies for young techies.
I ran $8 670x15’s on my 50 chevy for many years. Nowadays tire dealers won’t even sell you one tire as a replacement. Sue- ers have taken over the world
Bull. They do it all the time. The ones that won’t are the just giving you some line of bull to force you to buy 2 tires instead of one.