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Tire Talk

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TR6BILL

Luke Skywalker
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Recently replaced the Dunlop (OE) tires on my Tacoma (I put a <span style="text-decoration: underline">lot</span> on miles on it) with Yokohamas. NOT happy with them, had the two front tires bubble on the sidewalls after 20K miles. Replaced all four with new tried-and-true Michelins, very satisfied. The Yokohamas on the wife's Accord are showing extreme wear, need to replace after 25K miles. Yokohama tires have been a great disappointment to me. Even the Hancook tires on my son's old S10 (cheap tires) have worn like iron, comparing to Yokohamas. Hard to argue with Michelin tires.

A little aside, around here there are three Carbon Black plants that manufacture most of the carbon black for tires, inks, etc. for the US economy. A very big business and employer for out area. Many friends have worked in the labs at all three plants, and to a man (or woman) they all agree that Michelin is by far the most picky and demanding of the quality of carbon black they buy. (Carbon black the the black soot that makes tires black and bonds the rubber together, in a nutshell)
 
Can't go wrong with Michelins. They are a little pricier than some other brands, but you get what you pay for.
 
What model tire are you having problems with? I have the Yokohama AVID ENVigor tires on my 2007 Honda Fit and have had no problem with them. In snow and ice I went over the mountain, large hill for you west coast folks, near Front Royal, VA with no slipping and past a full size pick up truck that was on it's roof. With the tires that were on it previously, I could barely get out of the driveway.
 
A lot of tires are made specifically for certain purposes, and if used under circumstances for which they were not designed, they will not work properly. A good all-season tire is a compromise at best, but sometimes the proper tire to use if you drive the car in all kinds of weather. My Miata had all-season tires on it when I bought it (I forgot what they were), and they did perform rather well in all situations, including up to four inches of snow. When they wore out, I replaced them with a set of Toyo TR-1s, which are a summer only tire. The dry and wet performance was much better then the tires I took off, but like you said, when the slightest bit of snow fell, they were useless. Of course, I knew this when I bought the tires, but by then, I had a winter beater car. My son ran into the same situation with a set of summer Bridgestone Portenzas he put on his VW GTi. In the winter, he had to change to all-seasons.

The idea scenario if you live in an area where snow and ice are prevalent, is to just have two sets of tires. The performance set for the summer, and something like Bridgestone Blizzaks for the winter.
 
Toyo Open Country's last FOREVER. Heavy tire but good. You'll never go back to the stay-puff guy again.
 
I think your question would be better placed at a truck forum.

Truck tires and car tires are two different ballgames. For example, my mom just put on a pair of Yokohama S Drives on her Fiat, and both of us agree that their the best tires we have experienced. I have Pirelli P4s on my Jag, and they were such an improvement over the Toyos that it isn't funny.

I know Pirelli makes a pretty truck tire, I've seen them, but I don't know if they would be good offroaders.

Also, truck tires have two very different purposes. You have offroading tires that do NOT last over 20k miles of road driving, and you also have truck tires that are for road use.

I would suggest Pirellis or Nokians. Nokian makes a great snow tire, could be worth a try to get the "summer" tires for a truck. I know they make truck sizes.
 
Once I swore off Goodyear, because they wore out like crazy, I tried Mastercraft. My 93 Voyager ran Mastercraft sensus(sic)01 all seasons when I delivered newspapers during the 03-04 winter. That was a pretty bad winter for snow as we got a lot of it. One morning the snow was deep enough that the van was wading through it up to the top of the front bumper and was still plowing it's way forward into the night. Ended up shorting out the electrical system that night and that was the only reason I had to stop. I now run Mastercraft Avengers on my Impala PPV and the fiance's Buick Century and those seem to wear very well. The Buick keeps it's Avengers all year round with no trouble on the shorter drives she takes but the Impala gets studded Mastercraft Glacier Grip II's as soon as the snow flies. Only got the Impala stuck once... in a 5' snow drift.
 
Where th' heck is Semperit?!?!? :devilgrin:
 
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