Storm chasing Tires

[J Kinkaid]

It's time for some new tires and I was wondering what you would recomend and the reason why. Wet weather traction is the most important factor to me and that's why my last set was a set of Bridgestone Dueler Revos that I got 55k miles out of . Should I make the switch to some goodyears or go with something else ?

[Jerry Prsha]

It's time for some new tires and I was wondering what you would recomend and the reason why. Wet weather traction is the most important factor to me and that's why my last set was a set of Bridgestone Dueler Revos that I got 55k miles out of . Should I make the switch to some goodyears or go with something else ?

I swore myself off Goodyears from now on. I had them on my Jeep, on my Stealth and they were noisy, wouldn't balance and wore out quickly. I'd recommend you look at a Cooper Tire this time around. They balance really well and I've gotten great life out of them. (And they're cheaper!)

[Adam Bennett]

As strange as this sounds, the best set of tires I've ever put on my truck came from Wal-Mart. <Commercial> I can't say enough about the Uniroyal Liberator A/T's. They're made by Michelin, and I got a little over 55,000 miles out of the tire (they're guaranteed to 50,000) and they provide superb traction in the widest variety of conditions I've ever gotten out of a tire. The do well on dry pavement (less noisy than a lot of other tires I've had like my Wranglers or my BFGs), but excel on Wet / Sand / Mud (considering the type of tire it is). Wet traction is great, Light Sand is adequate (at full PSI), and in Mud worked better than anything I've had besides my BFGs. They did very well at cleaning out for the type of tire they are. They're obviously not M/T tires, but for being A/T tires, wow. Another great part of it is the road hazard warranty. There are Wal-Marts everywhere, and they fix any flat for free, in addition to lifetime balancing / rotation and pro-rated replacement in case of defect / damage. </Commercial> Really though, I'm dead serious about these things, the are great. I highly recommend them, and I promise I don't work for Wal-Mart. :)

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/08/66/99/01/0008669901293_500X500.jpg

[Jay McCoy]

I have tried a number of brands and have found Michilan to be the best in all conditions from rain/snow to dirt or paved. They are quiet and have great traction and long life and really are not that expensive. I get mine at Discount tire for less than I can buy goodyears.

[Cris Schroeder]

Just to put in a plug for Goodyear, I'm on my second set of Goodyear Assurance Triple-Tred's. They are a little pricey but I put nearly 60k on my first set. They are very quiet, ride great, and I've never had an issue with hydroplaning on water. Besides, they look really cool too. These are by far the best tires I've ever used and would install them on my other car in a heartbeat if they made them in the right size.

[J Kinkaid]

My second set of tires were GoodYear wrangler aquatreds and I got very poor mileage out of those tires and it kind of made me want to stay away from Good Year but the Froterra tire has received very good reviews on Tirerack and is still in the running for my next possible set of tires .

Anyone have LTX or Crossterrain tires?

[Greg Campbell]

Whatever you run, be sure to keep them fully inflated.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=3

I suspect a few extra PSI will help wet weather grip, and will increase your gas mileage a hair to boot. OTOH, you'll sink into the mud that much quicker if you wind up on a dirt road...

[David Schuttler]

I'm trying Firestone Destination this year after my last two sets of A/T Duelers.
Not much experiance with them yet but they ride great and grab the wet roads so far.

[CraigFisher]

Will agree with Adam. I have the same tires on my Jeep Cherokee, 31"ers. They worked well in the winter with the snow and ice, this spring they have done well with muddy roads. No road noise is also a plus!

[Dustin Wilcox]

To each his own, but from my personal experience STAY AWAY from Uniroyal's from Wal-Mart, I went through a set in 7,000 Miles granite I was 17 in a V8 RWD car, but the front ones were even gone, I got them replaced at a a pro-rated price, but unfortunately had to again go with Uniroyal's and the same story, that time the country roads literally chewed the tires up in under 5K miles. I will never buy Uniroyal's again period, the rubber just seem chalky/flaky and they are extremely prone to wear. I then went with Douglas tires, and got maybe 20K before they needed replaced (side walls were crap), finally I have purchased a sound set of Goodyear Viva Tires, and must say they are worth every dollar more.

[Jason Boggs]

Well, today was the time to buy myself some tires. I was going to go with some Goodyear Silent Armor AT's but the price after tax was a bit over $800 for 4 tires. I settled with 4 Pathfinder SUV SPORT tires that were a little over $500. Now, I guess I will wait and see how they perform.

[D. Hayes]

It's time for some new tires and I was wondering what you would recomend and the reason why. Wet weather traction is the most important factor to me and that's why my last set was a set of Bridgestone Dueler Revos that I got 55k miles out of . Should I make the switch to some goodyears or go with something else ?


stick with the Revo's they are some awesome tires. I just put another set on my wifes ford Escape and they still impress me. The first set I had on that truck was over in merry ol' England. They have some of the nasty, slick, and wettest roads I've ever seen and they handled great. Much better than the BFG it came with.

[J Kinkaid]

I am going to stick with the Revo's cause next week my dealer said there will be a $100 rebate on them

[Michael Stanga]

I have BF goodrich touring from Costco. simply put I was amazed. the michelin's were loud and noisy. traction was equal between the both so I went quieter.

[Jay Barnes]

I have a set of Goodyear Silent Armor AT's I had put on last year and they were great in the wet and mud...I think my mileage *might* have gone down just a tiny bit but the traction was really good and for such an agressive tread they are extremely quiet. The downside is that they are pricey. I've also had a set of the Bridgestone Dueler AT's and they were very good tires as well.

[Blake Michaleski]

The Revo's are an excellent choice in a LT tire.


The Destination M/Ts may be hooking up well on the pavement now, but wait until they are about half worn, you will need to replace them. As the tread blocks wear, they typically get into a harder compound of rubber, this reduces the grip of the tire, especially on wet roads.

And definitely stay away from the Goodyear MT/R (standard equipment on Jeep Rubicons)

I have a set of these on my cherokee (take offs from my friend's Rubicon) and they have absolutely horrible wet weather traction. The front of my Jeep is messed up to prove it.:rolleyes:

[J Kinkaid]

Thanks for the advice everybody! I was about to pull the trigger and get the Destination tires from Walmart but after reading some reviews of bad traction after 20k miles I will stick with the Revo's . Sorry to hear about your wreck Blake and too bad you were not streaming at the time of the accident . See you on the roads this afternoon :)

[Nick Parker]

BFG Knockout All-Terrians on my 07 4x4 3/4 ton Chevy Duramax and love em. Had em on my older pickup and they perform very nicely in mud/snow yet, they get excellent mileage on the road (Last set had over 55,000 on em and still lots of tread left.) They also ride pretty good too.

[J Kinkaid]

Do any of ya'll use Nitrogen in your tires ?

[Ryan McGinnis]

Do any of ya'll use Nitrogen in your tires ?

Air is 78% nitrogen, so I suppose most everyone does. :)

[Mikey Gribble]

I used to buy BF Goodrich mud terrains for my Jeep, but I got tired of them wearing down so quickly (and the price tag on them). They worked awesome on muddy roads though. I have the tires that came on my Xterra now, but as soon as I replace them I plan on going with all terrain tires. Not sure which ones yet, but the duelers you mentioned were definitely one of my options. I probably won't get BF Goodrich just because I think they are over priced for what you get out of them.

[David Schuttler]

Air is 78% nitrogen, so I suppose most everyone does. :)

Supposedly it's helpfull (http://www.robertson-tire.com/nitrogen/nitrogen.html) to get rid of the other 22% that's not nitrogen....

[Greg Campbell]

I have BF goodrich touring from Costco. simply put I was amazed. the michelin's were loud and noisy. traction was equal between the both so I went quieter.

Although I don't have much experience with other tires on my car, I'll second the thumbs-up for Costco's BF Goodrich Touring T/A rubber. They are quiet, ride fairly well (even running 5 PSI over Honda's suggested inflation pressure) and are holding up nicely after nearly 40K miles. They seem to work well enough in the wet - it takes a lot of water and/or speed to make them float. Costco's price includes installation, balancing, and 'lifetime everything.'

[Ryan McGinnis]

Supposedly it's helpfull (http://www.robertson-tire.com/nitrogen/nitrogen.html) to get rid of the other 22% that's not nitrogen....

I don't think it'd hurt anything, but I just don't know how it'd make any kind of difference, at least on my car. I mean, I check my tire pressure every so often, and I find that the only time I need to add a couple PSI is at the peak of winter when the temperature drops the pressure a bit. I usually have to let it out again at the beginning of summer when it gets hot again. (Nitrogen would react the same way.) So I have to tinker with the pressure twice a year, no matter what. If I had to add air to my tires more often than that, I wouldn't get nitrogen, I'd have them checked for leaks.

On the page you linked to, it mentioned the people who use nitrogen -- airlines and NASCAR. For these groups, an inert gas probably makes sense, since it won't oxidize. I imagine NASCAR tires and plane tires get really, really hot from the extreme stresses that get put on them. Actually, come to think of it, the way I drive... maybe I should get nitrogen! ;)

[Gerard Jebaily]

ive jus put on a new set of tires on my 4-runner. the first set were pretty good but didnt do diddly in dirt and mud. so i put these on ... so far, I LOVE EM! lots of good tread, tested in mud, dirt, wet roads with 6 inch ponding.. They are the Cooper STT

http://www.coopertires.com.au/images/Cooper%20STT.jpg

[Jerry Prsha]

ive jus put on a new set of tires on my 4-runner. the first set were pretty good but didnt do diddly in dirt and mud. so i put these on ... so far, I LOVE EM! lots of good tread, tested in mud, dirt, wet roads with 6 inch ponding.. They are the Cooper STT

http://www.coopertires.com.au/images/Cooper%20STT.jpg

Dittoes! I had these put on last October and they've been wonderful. I'm shocked at the wet traction that I get stopping on these things... Nevermind snow and mud which they're pretty incredible at...

[Bill Tabor]

Supposedly it's helpfull (http://www.robertson-tire.com/nitrogen/nitrogen.html) to get rid of the other 22% that's not nitrogen....

Actually I've heard it's helpful to have helium in your tires because the reduction in weight due to lift improves gas mileage. The tradeoff is you don't get quite as good traction and control. ;)

[Bill Tabor]

Yeah, those Cooper's look pretty nice. What kind of highway performance, ride, gas mileage do you get?

Your tire choice probably depends on what you want to do with it. Are you strictly a pavement chaser, or will you also take dirt (likely to be mud) roads. Oklahoma is known for it's mud, claylike roads and bad traction. Kansas doesn't seem a whole lot better from my experience. Well, maybe some.

I used to try and target both, but all the A/T type tires I got I was shocked at the poor performance in slightly muddy roads? If you are going to take back roads with possible mud, you might at least want to switch out and have some mud tires on the back.

I used to have some Goodyear Wranglers AT and they did fairly well on wet pavement, but they didn't wear that long, and I started getting cupping. I had a terrible time with them once in some west Tx mud near Stamford Lake with tornadoes around. Gene used to have a set of Michelin AT. He had them on his Yukon for like 80K to 90K miles and they still had legal tread! So I bought a set of those. They have been ok, but the down side is with age even though they wear slow the rubber seems to get harder and so traction on wet pavement doesn't seem as good. I still have them on, but each time I almost bought the BF Goodrich AT's each time. http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/images/ts-dl/tires/large/all-terrain-t-a-ko.jpg These look to have decent off road / mud performance judging by the lugs on the sides. Pavement performance may be reasonable. BF Goodrich also has a nice looking mud terrain tire: http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/images/ts-dl/tires/large/mud-terrain-t-a-km2.jpg (http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/overview/mud-terrain-t-a-km2/3930.html)

[Derrick Herndon]

I drive a Subaru Forester fitted with Continental ContiExtreme Contacts in 2006 and 2007 here in Nebraska. I got the tire because of it's excellent snow performance but that translated into good mud performance as well for the county roads. I averaged 22-24 mpg with this tire. Unfortunately the tire does not come with a treadlife warranty and after 35k miles they are done. I will likely buy these again but use them only in the winter. So today I am looking for an A/S for the warmer months with a focus on wet traction.

[Gerard Jebaily]

Yeah, those Cooper's look pretty nice. What kind of highway performance, ride, gas mileage do you get?

Your tire choice probably depends on what you want to do with it. Are you strictly a pavement chaser, or will you also take dirt (likely to be mud) roads. Oklahoma is known for it's mud, claylike roads and bad traction. Kansas doesn't seem a whole lot better from my experience. Well, maybe some.

I used to try and target both, but all the A/T type tires I got I was shocked at the poor performance in slightly muddy roads? If you are going to take back roads with possible mud, you might at least want to switch out and have some mud tires on the back.

I used to have some Goodyear Wranglers AT and they did fairly well on wet pavement, but they didn't wear that long, and I started getting cupping. I had a terrible time with them once in some west Tx mud near Stamford Lake with tornadoes around. Gene used to have a set of Michelin AT. He had them on his Yukon for like 80K to 90K miles and they still had legal tread! So I bought a set of those. They have been ok, but the down side is with age even though they wear slow the rubber seems to get harder and so traction on wet pavement doesn't seem as good. I still have them on, but each time I almost bought the BF Goodrich AT's each time. http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/images/ts-dl/tires/large/all-terrain-t-a-ko.jpg These look to have decent off road / mud performance judging by the lugs on the sides. Pavement performance may be reasonable. BF Goodrich also has a nice looking mud terrain tire: http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/images/ts-dl/tires/large/mud-terrain-t-a-km2.jpg

I haven't been able to test out my highway mileage yet. But I will soon with my 1500 mile journey out to Norman here in about 2 weeks :). So far, given the spacing between the treads, the tires are VERY quiet. The only time I notice any noise on them is when I'm crawling at 3 mph or less. So unless I'm stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, I cant tell the difference between these and my old tires. This tire subject has me thinking about creating another thread on how to improve gas mileage for chasing. I read that the USA would save something like 5 billion barrels of oil if everyone on the road just had proper tire pressure. Since gas is at record highs, I'm sure all of us are going to be very conscious about how much chasing we do and how far we go. Look for the thread as I'm looking to do everything to get my gas mileage at its best.

[Dennis Sherrod]

Tire Pressure versus Gas Mileage.
Trying to remember some of what I read not too terribly long ago...

I believe the figures were like 3% better gas mileage with proper tire inflation.

Less than proper tire pressure in all 4 tires was 0.4% drop in gas mileage for every 1 psi under inflation.

These numbers really add up to a substantial amount based on several hundred miles and the mpg you get now on various vehicles.
Even at only 15 mpg, a 4% loss amounts to almost 0.6 mpg. Every 25 gallons saves 1 gallon of gas. Average $3.35 gallon. Higher MPG vehicles makes a bigger mpg drop when under inflated.

I definitely keep mine checked.

[Greg Campbell]

Tire Pressure versus Gas Mileage.
Trying to remember some of what I read not too terribly long ago...

I believe the figures were like 3% better gas mileage with proper tire inflation.

Less than proper tire pressure in all 4 tires was 0.4% drop in gas mileage for every 1 psi under inflation.

These numbers really add up to a substantial amount based on several hundred miles and the mpg you get now on various vehicles.
Even at only 15 mpg, a 4% loss amounts to almost 0.6 mpg. Every 25 gallons saves 1 gallon of gas. Average $3.35 gallon. Higher MPG vehicles makes a bigger mpg drop when under inflated.

I definitely keep mine checked.

You might try over-inflating the tires a few PSI. You probably won't gain a huge amount - as you pass through the zone of proper inflation, the rolling resistance curve starts to flatten out; it penalizes under-inflated tires more strongly than it rewards over-inflation. Still, you can likely squeeze a few % mileage increase out of the car.

My own car actually wears the tires unevenly if I try to maintain Honda's suggested 33 PSI. I've been at 38 for a year and the tires wear is perfectly balanced.

One thing: Make SURE the tires are stone cold when measuring pressures. Even a short trip to the corner gas station will elevate the pressure by several PSI, resulting in underinflation.

-Greg

[Jerry Prsha]

You might try over-inflating the tires a few PSI. You probably won't gain a huge amount - as you pass through the zone of proper inflation, the rolling resistance curve starts to flatten out; it penalizes under-inflated tires more strongly than it rewards over-inflation. Still, you can likely squeeze a few % mileage increase out of the car.
-Greg

Not a good idea. You'll be making your tires round on the bottom causing less surface contact in wet conditions and also will wear out the main part of the tread in the center of the tire much more quickly.

[Greg Campbell]

Not a good idea. You'll be making your tires round on the bottom causing less surface contact in wet conditions and also will wear out the main part of the tread in the center of the tire much more quickly.

Nope. You want a smaller footprint in wet conditions. This gives you higher pressure in the contact zone between road and tire, forcing water out and allowing the tread to contact the road.

[Jerry Prsha]

Nope. You want a smaller footprint in wet conditions. This gives you higher pressure in the contact zone between road and tire, forcing water out and allowing the tread to contact the road.

Sorry I disagree. If that were the case, we'd all be driving on bicycle tires. The more friction you have the more they hold. Aquatreds and such have channels to direct the water away from under the tire so that more contact is made with he surface of the road, By limiting your contact, you're floating which is dangerous.. Like hydroplaning. You lose that needed contact in turns.

Look at a boat hull's shape. The water is directed to the sides which raises the hull higher. You don't want your car lifted on a wet road.

[Jason Boggs]

Here is a good little read on hydroplaning from Wikipedia. From what it says here, Greg is right on with what he is saying. Actually, I thought that the more contact the tire has with the road, the better it was against hydroplaning.

HYDROPLANING (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroplaning_%28road_vehicle%29)

[Jerry Prsha]

Here is a good little read on hydroplaning from Wikipedia. From what it says here, Greg is right on with what he is saying. Actually, I thought that the more contact the tire has with the road, the better it was against hydroplaning.

HYDROPLANING (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroplaning_%28road_vehicle%29)

The article says to over-inflate your tires? I don't think so.

All articles I've read say to inflate to maximum but it all depends on the amount of tread on your tires to raise you above the water and direct it away from under the tire.

If you have slick tires already, go ahead and over-inflate them. You're screwed anyway.. hehehe

[Jay McCoy]

Its not always about directing water away from your tire. Think of your tire as a wing and the water as air. You want a smaller surface to cut through the air. A wide flat tire will actually ride on top of the water like a wing on air. Thats what causes hydroplaning. You want a heavier small surface to "cut" through the water to the surface. Same effects as mud or sand but in reverse. You lower your pressure to widen your surface area so you can float on top of the mud instead of cutting deep into it and getting stuck.

If you take a wide corvette tire and a skinny tire off a yugo the yugo tire will outperform the vette in a hydroplaning test.

[Patrick Martin]

I'll throw a vote for the Bridgestone Dueller A/T Revo. The first set on my wife's SUV lasted 55k miles. It was a no brainer to replace them with another set. Fantastic all around A/T tire!

I go 1lb over the reccomended pressure on my Accord in winter, but stick with the reccomended pressure in warm weather. I'm at 50k miles and still on the original Michellin MXV4 tires that came on it. Even though the wear is great, I personally hate these tires. Wear is completely even and at the end of the summer will replace with something else. I don't reccomend going way over on pressures. Remember that you also build pressure in a tire as you drive on it and having a tire significantly over inflated will compromise ride and handling.

My wife's SUV has reccomended pressures of 28psi, and it once came home from the dealer with 40psi after they "set" the pressures. It was like driving with bricks for tires. Needless to say my instruction to them any time it's in for service is to not touch the air pressures. I set my own cold pressures at home every other week.

[Jerry Prsha]

I stopped in and spoke with my tire dealer and presented this issue to them. They laughed and said, "WHy would you over inflate your tires?" ..Thinking that I was the one wanting to do this. They said not only would you wear out your tires by cupping the bottom, it was a very dangerous situation where you'd lose contact and possibly slide off the road because there was less traction.

Hmmm.. Where have I heard that before? heheh

Seriously.. I'm concerned that by posting this, you're going to put someone's life in danger. Running them low just wastes gasoline...

I'm done posting on this.. Beating the dead horse and all...

[Greg Campbell]

As if ANYONE on this forum is gonna listen to me? :) :rolleyes:

More rubber on the road will increase raw grip when driving on a dry, clean, grippy surface. In these conditions, the tire slides due to physical tearing of the rubber. More rubber can resist more force before tearing.

On a wet road, at least with regard to hydroplaning, keeping the tire from floating it all that matters. Higher road pressure is everything.

Just for argument's sake, I don't consider my tires 'overinflated.' Car manufacturers' suggested inflation pressures are an ugly compromise between tire longevity, gas mileage, ride quality, and who-knows-what other factors. IMO, Honda blew it. Running the suggested 33psi gives a notably softer ride... and generates notably uneven tread wear! I started regularly measuring my tire tread when I got a new set, about a years ago. After running a few months at 35psi, the tires were wearing slightly more at the edges. I suspect that 36~37 is neutral. I'm at 38~39 to equalize the residual tread thickness irregularity, and because I'm chasing that last 0.02 MPG. ;)

The tires are not cupping, and I have yet to kill myself. I think I can feel a little less grip on those rare occasions when I do mildly illegal things on curvy backroads. On the other hand, the increased pressure definitely improves overall handling. The tires seem more predictable, they break loose more gradually and slide in a controlled fashion. Steering is more precise, and driving is more fun. :cool:

[Gerard Jebaily]

Its not always about directing water away from your tire. Think of your tire as a wing and the water as air. You want a smaller surface to cut through the air. A wide flat tire will actually ride on top of the water like a wing on air. Thats what causes hydroplaning. You want a heavier small surface to "cut" through the water to the surface. Same effects as mud or sand but in reverse. You lower your pressure to widen your surface area so you can float on top of the mud instead of cutting deep into it and getting stuck.

If you take a wide corvette tire and a skinny tire off a yugo the yugo tire will outperform the vette in a hydroplaning test.

This makes sense, but ive been more worried about loosing traction on just a wet road when having to slam on brakes for (insert reason here). Last thing i wanna do is need to stop quickly and have my brakes lock up and tires skid. It seems logical to have more tread on the road for something like that. So while over inflating your tires can help with hydroplaning, proper inflation has been the name of the game for me to prevent skidding.

[JF Massicotte]

If I remember my physic courses right, a larger surface on the road will NOT improve friction. Friction is a function of material and weight. A small surface will offer same friction if the material and weight is the same.


I think the only reason we use larger tires is that larger tires can handle a heavier charge and will offer better resistance when they have to hold axial forces.


Maybe I am wrong maybe I am right, anyone can confirm?



Back to tires, I am probably going into Michelin for my 2001 Ford Escape. Any better option?