Daily Driver Tires
 

It's time to replace the tires on my 06 GMC Sierra and I was curious as to what everyone here uses on their DDs. I have been using Michelins for as long as I can remember but have read some good reviews on Hankook and Toyo tires.
The Michelins on my truck now are 5 years old but they only have about 30,000 miles on them. They are coming apart in pieces! I took them back to the dealer and was told that they are only warranted for 3 years.
Since I only put about 6,000 miles a year on them I can't justify the expense of the MIchelins. They would run about $1,100.00 for a set. That is 265/70 R17s
Hankooks would be $800 and Toyo would be $780.
.................................................. ..............Warranty........................UTOG G....Load..........Speed
Michelin Defender LTX M/S..70,000 miles..................800AA.......115............ .......T
Hankook Dynapro HT..............70,000 miles..................700AB........113........... ........T
Toyo Open Country HT...........60,000 miles..................640AB........108........... ......S

Got 220,000 mi on my '07 Silverado 2500 and have been through a lot of tires - some only lasted a year or so. One of the best riding, best wearing and least expensive sets I've had are the Conti's that are on now. In the $700 - 800 range but outperforming some $1000 - $1200 sets. I'll post the specific model in the morning if you want to check pricing.

Toyos are horrible and known for chopping. You will get a year or so out of them before they sound like tractor tires going down the road. Toyos are cheap tires for cheap people. Hankooks are not bad, many manufacturers are using them as OEM tires. Michelin will always be king but will dry rot before they go bald. I have used Michelins on all my trucks but like you, I only use my truck for towing or plowing and put 5000 or so miles a year on the truck. The Michelins on my truck now have almost all its tread but the sidewalls are all cracked. There are now 4 new Continentals in the bed waiting for me to put them on.

I love my Michelins but hate getting rid of tires that look like new. I hope I'm not going to regret it.

Our truck & tires are smaller. But we've always run the Firestone Destination LE tires on our '06 Tacoma. Doesn't have 90k miles on it yet. We're still on our 2nd set, with plenty of tread left. Never any problems with the tires.

I once bought 6 Michelins for a Milk truck, that had come off a motorhome. The tread looked almost new. Put one on the rear--dual wheel truck. It blew out the 1st day. Other tire didn't have much tread left, but held up just fine, to the our next stop, where my Dad brought us a spare. Thought maybe it was just 1 bad tire. So, I put another one on & it blew out too. So I threw the other 4 away. Glad the motorhome owner did not take a trip with those tires.

Most all other brands of tires we ever ran on our milk trucks would run just fine, down til lots of cord was showing. And that's just what my Dad would do. He believed in getting all he possibly could out of a tire. Probably saved him many hundreds , if not thousands of dollars over the many years he ran trucks. He would also patch a tube, many times, rather than buying a new tube. Was a common thing to see 4 or more patches on a truck tube. We did all our own tire changing & tube repair/replace, back when we ran tube type tires. I did many dozens. He did many hundreds. It was HD manual labor, with a sledge hammer, tire wedge, & tire irons.

You might take a look at the BFG Long Trail T/A series. We have have been very pleased with running those on 2 of our 3 SUV's. In 17 years I've tried numerous pricey brands. One set of B.F.G.s is going on 6 years of use. Of the several brands I've bought in those 17 years, I would rate the Michelins second only because of the stiffer sidewalls and harsh ride.

There are no stores in driving distance of me that sells Continental tires. They do look like a nice tire though.

I might add that 90% of my driving is on paved roads but I do take my truck into farm fields on a regular basis.

I’ve had excellent service out of BFG & Cooper , both 1/2 to. truck and passanger car . I seldom tow and never off-road . Cooper/ Mastercract are USA made still .

I have had a lot of tire problems thru the years including dry rotting, won't or cant balance, and half-tread hydroplaning. Down to Hankooks and Coopers only. On my '03 Yukon I run the Hankook Dynapro HT 265/70R17 on stock '04 rims for 9 months a year. For the winter months I run Cooper Discoverer RTX 265/75R16 on the stock rims. Been happy with both. The Hankooks ride real nice cause they are highway tread and 17". The Coopers are LT with more agressive tread for the winter and they ride ok and are just a tad noisy. I drive 35 miles a day 6-7 days a week. I got the Hankooks on a black Friday sale at Sears out the door with road hazard for $700. The Coopers were $100 off at NTB out the door for $500 no road hazard. I did drive about 70 miles round trip to get them. I just put a set of Hankook Optimos 225/60R16 on my wifes car for $320 out the door. They were not a stock item at Walmart but I ordered them online and had them delivered to and installed at the local store. You can look on the internet for the best deals and can usually save at least $100 on 4 SUV or LT tires. Jim

I have the Hankooks on my Tundra and really like them. Lots of snow here this winter and they seam to get good traction. My truck is 4 wheel drive though.

That is a shame you are having problems with your LTX-MS tires!

Being a transporter & not liking tire problems on the road, I have always used them on both my transport trucks (2500HD GMC & 3500 Chevy) Since I run 120-155k per year between the two trucks, I have never had them on long enough to see that kind of issue. I will say that I just last week I changed the 4 across the back of the dually. They are 235/85/16 Defender LTX-MS. Since I am anal about my maintenance & record keeping I can tell you they had exactly 121,200 miles on them & were just touching the tread wear indicators. That is 100% of the time pulling the enclosed trailer. The other truck 2500HD has aftermarket aluminum 18 inch wheels & the same tire on it. That truck gets 90-95k miles on them with about 85 % pulling the open trailer. I won't use anything else on these trucks.

I just recently put a set of 15 inch Coopers on my 97 Sierra 1/2 ton beat around town truck. I had always run Yokahama Geolander HT/S on it but they stopped making them in RWL, They get about 85k miles tread life. I changed to the Cooper after reading great reviews about them. They have a bit more of an aggressive pattern than the Geolanders.

I also want to add that I use Centra-matics on the dually & Counter-Act balance beads in everything else, which may contribute to how many miles my tires last. Tire balance changes during the life of the tire & old style "weigh balancing" does not compensate for it.

In the end, it is all about weighing cost versus quality. Just like choosing someone in my business!

God bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

The original Bridgestone tires on my Serra started hydroplaning badly at 33,000 miles. I put Goodyear Advantage TA Tracker tires on the truck. They rode and drove great. I did take them off in late November and put the snow tires on for the winter. Those are Goodyear Wranglers. An aggressive tread that does well on my country roads in the winter. The Wranglers drop my gas mileage by 3MPG, but I do not get stuck in the snow.

My '14 1500 Silverado came with Goodyear Wranglers and I got 100k miles out of them. I would consider that phenomenal for a truck tire, 40k miles into my 2nd set now. I don't haul much anymore like back when I was a contractor, which helps a lot. I've had good luck w BFG Longtrails on past trucks also.

Tirerack delivers. You can have your local auto shop install them.

Most repair shops that sell tires can access almost any brand of tire made. You just need to ask for them. They may feature "Brand X" tire - but they can get all the other brands.

Firestone stuff on 95 Lincoln & 2013 Chryin 200 : seems quite fine (made in S Korea or Vietnam?)

GTO has BFGs and will need a rear pair soon.......

My 15 2500 GMC,I have 37k on Firestone Trans ports. Just broke a belt on one. I will need new tires come summer,barely pass inspection in May.Mostly highway some dirt,stone roads.Haul trailer couple times a year

I was a Michelin man. Always very long run time. Last set I put on my f 150, 20" wheels, was sumitomo (or something like that). I got them from tire rack. I think they were around $150 ea. I had them shipped directly to the installer and paid -0- shipping cost. Mobile installer put them on in my driveway for something like $20 a wheel. He was there within minutes of the scheduled time and finished rather quickly. Tires have held up great for the last year. Since that experience I purchased 2 more sets from Tirerack, and will continue to do so in the future.

I find my tires on either craigslist or off of Amazon. Great deals to be had on either....IF, you plan ahead.

None of my vehicles have regular tires on them, so I always get them from Amazon or Summit Racing.

This
 

I have Firestones on both my 95 Jeep and 01 Marquis. USA made. The China made tires look great and are reasonably priced but 6 months later ride like rocks and are noisy. No thanks.

General Grabber XTS. I’m on my second set on my Silverado(60,000+ out of the last set). Good handling in dry or wet conditions along with low road noise. What’s even better is Walmart handles them, which means you have coast to coast warranty coverage.

My 2011 F150 came with BFG's from the factory. I changed them last year, at about 80,000 miles. Still had decent tread, but sidewalls were starting to crack. Got a set of Generals, so far, so good.

I've had good luck with Goodyear, Cooper, Dayton, and Hankook. I would never buy Michelin....have seen too many crumble into dust in a very short time. The Dayton truck tires amazed me....I had them on a 4x4 and off roaded a lot on sharp rocky trails, but they remained cup-free and crack free and ran almost 80,000 miles. Pretty good for 'cheap' truck tires.

I sell a fair amount of tires and have my own computer balancer and tire changer. For the majority of my customers, If they are willing to pay the extra, I recommend Michelin tires for most applications. They make my life easier because they are by far the most round tire by a wide margin. Not sure how they do it, they are just very round. They also require less weight to balance within a size grouping than the other brands. For more cost conscience customers, I have had pretty good luck with Cooper and Firestone Destination LE as well. By far the worst name brand tires out there in my experience are anything made by Goodyear for passenger cars and light trucks and trailers. Terribly out of round, belt separation, requiring 3-4 times as much weight within a size catagory. About 20% just can't be used at all and have to be sent back for replacement. Their ultra high performance and race tires are OK. As usual, tires are a" you get what you are willing to pay for" item.

Yes and no. There are a lot tires I've paid "premium" prices for only to be unsatisfied with the performance or life span. My last truck needed tires but I wasn't planning on keeping it for long. I put on a set of Kuhmo Road Venture AT51. They were the cheapest LT rated tires on Tirerack but also had very good customer ratings. I've got to say they are the best damn truck tires I've had! Traction, handling, smoother ride and wear are all fantastic. I put about 15k miles on them before I traded my truck in. The new truck had Firestone TransForce Has on it and they were awful! Rode hard and were downright dangerous in the rain. I replaced them in the first week with another set of Kumhos- got them from Amazon for $130 each for LT285/70/17 with free shipping.

99% of the people don't know there is a difference and don't realize how much of a difference that makes and is one of the many reasons why I like Michelins. I just wish their sidewalls would at least last as long as their tread.

It is rare, almost unheard of, for me to put 2oz. of weight on my 275/65/18 Load Range E truck tires. Try and do that with any other brand.

BFG Long trail have on all three of my 3/4 service vans and 2 different Dodges

Never any problems and a lot of miles in a short period of time, also a softer ride compared to most HD tires

You’re gonna laugh at me for saying this but the no name brand Futura from Pep Boys are good tires. They are made by cooper and last forever. I buy them for my Yukon on amazon for 85 dollars a piece with free shipping. They come the next day then I go to my local tire shop and have them put on. I replaced the tires on my wife’s charger with firestone firehawks and they are awful. As soon as they wear out it will be getting a set of Futuras

The last time I checked out a Futura its sidewall felt about as thick as an inner tube. I also find it disturbing that they are made by Cooper. Not for me.

I have Continentals on my GTO, have tried Hankook, BFG T/A. No matter what tires I put on the GTO the rears always wear out prematurely...........:)

Wife's car we took off Firestones and have tried Cooper and Pirelli. Pirelli really didn't impress me other than they did last quite a few miles, grip wasn't impressive. Coopers have lasted, but as the tread gets down now they're thumping with flat spots. All have come from Discount Tire locally.

Today I'm ordering 4 new tires for my 99 GP (225/60R/16) from Simple Tire. Continental touring for $349.19 delivered to my door, I've been impressed with the Continentals on the GTO so I'm going to go with another set. I considered Douglas tires from Wally world (Kelly/Springfield/Goodyear), but the negative reviews sent me to the Continentals. Goodyear tires have never impressed me clear back before they had a radial tire and they had redline polyglas. Seen tons of the Goodyears with belt separations, blowouts. Firestone has not impressed me, but since Bridgestone took them over I've not tried their tires.

I currently have Coopers on my dually, and they are fairly low miles with no problems.

Good experiences with the Continentals so far, so my next set will be Continentals.

^^^^^ THIS

Michelin by far has been the best tire I've ever had on my electronic spin balancer. Fantastic tire bar none. I run a set on my duramax and my father runs a set on his truck as well. Only tire I trust to do a lot of towing with.

I just wish they made more sizes. If they made various 15's I'd be running them on all the cars here.

My daily drivers, the Formula and the Z are running BFG's, mainly because it's one of the few brands that even make the sizes I need. No problems with those tires.
I run MT's on the Chevelle and the GTO, another car with Uniroyal, Kuhmo on another, Nexen on another.

I wish they made Trailer tires on their low rolling resistance Defender LTX-MS platform, I would have them on both my trailers in a heartbeat!

I have no problem running Michelin LTX's on my trailer.

I looked into that, unfortunately they don't offer a 225/75/15 in the LTXs' & the 215s' had a pretty low weight rating on them.. They would have worked for the open trailer, but not the enclosed trailer because of the weight difference. I like having both trailers with the same wheels & tires, in case an issue comes up when getting ready for a trip.

I just put the Maxxis 8008s on it yesterday for the first time, E rated with good reviews so we will see what happens!

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

Someone mentioned Tire Rack earlier and I feel compelled to mention that I buy almost all of my tires from them.

They partner with tire shops so you can have the tires shipped directly to the shop and installed there. I've done this a couple times. The shop calls me when the tires come in and I go in and get them put on. That way I get exactly the tires I want and it's cheaper than buying them at local retail shops.

If there is not a partner shop near you then just have the tires delivered to your residence and take them to whatever shop you normally use.

I can't help much with tire brands for trucks. I've always run BFG All-terrains on my trucks and been very happy with them.

We put a set of Futura's by Pep Boys on a Jeep we had in our fleet....they were excellent and wore like iron. Very pleasant surprise!!

I can get the Michelins locally for the same price at Sam's club. The price I quoted in my original post was from a shop.

I ordered 3 or 4 sets of tires last year, all through Walmart.com with no shipping fees. Besides lower pricing, I can take my wheels there and get free mounting with a balance costing $12. I stopped using Tirerack when the shipping got ridiculous, then I had to pay $20 per tire for mounting and balance at a shop much further than W.Mart.

I agree. I looked all over but no dice. I'd have them on all my trailers if they made them.

I don't know if any of you guys that are hauling heavy trailers are aware of the conversion wheels that make you able to use Lo Pro 19.5 tires on your trailers.

Link:http://www.boarwheel.com/

Typical load range for 16 inch trailer tires is 3060#. Using load range G 19.5 tires your gaining roughly 1/2 ton of carrying capacity to 3970# at 110 PSI. With the lower aspect ratio your sidewall goes from 5-6 inches to 3.5 inches. Tires are 60% stiffer sidewalls and 14 ply tires with less rolling resistance than a 235/85-16 trailer tire. It's not a cheap conversion, probably close to $2000 for new wheels and tires, but it will make your tire problems non existent.

I'm lucky, Tire Rack is about 5 minutes away if I don't get stopped by a train. And have a few relatives employed there.

I've got 2 local tire shops that I work with and they both have been able to competitively match or slightly beat Tirerack on pricing and once shipping is factored in, it's cheaper to just take the car\wheels to those guys. I'm also one of those weirdos who would rather pay a few bucks more and support a locally owned mom & pop store rather than give the business to Wal-mart or Discount Tire - I started going to the one non-chain quick lube place in town exclusively once Jiffy Lube opened up last year to keep them open too. It helps that the places I go do good work too...

For my money and personal experience, it's hard to beat Hankook for 14" & 15" tires in pricing and longevity. I've got 2 sets of 15" tires from them on my wagon and Lemans and both are doing great after 3-4 years of regular use on the wagon. I liked Michelin tires when they were more available on my older stuff, but they always cost a lot more. I must admit I haven't bought 14" tires in a few years so I'm not sure what is made still...

I have my own touchless pneumatic tire changer and electronic spin balancer so I'm always shopping around online for tires.

There are a lot of times I end up at Tire Rack, but sometimes I find a better deal at a handful of other online retailers. It depends, some days Tire Rack is cheaper, while others may have a cheaper price initially, some of them tack on a hefty shipping charge making them not such a great deal anymore. So it just depends on who has the better deal that week for me.

I've tried local stores near me but I've never found any of them that can beat the online prices I've found. Especially when they try to dictate the sizes be all the same or some other odd loop hole for the sales they have. For instance, Big O is having a sale right now, buy 2 and get 2 free, but.....they all have to be the same size, and it's only for certain brand tires, and you have to pay them to mount, balance etc...you can't just take them out the door.
None of that works for me so I move on.

Walmart and Sams Club are the only places that have beat some online prices for me (but not always), and they let me take the tires out the door.

What is a "touchless" tire machine?

Doesn't touch the rim, so nice painted wheels or aluminum wheels don't get scratched.

I used to have the old school style pneumatic changer from about the 1960 era, worked good, but was a little rough on nice wheels, even when being careful.

Then how does it hold the wheel when the tire is being mounted?

I also have a Snap On "touchless machine" that name is a bit of a misnomer though as it does touch the rim during dismounting & mounting (not while unseating the bead though). It clamps one of two ways :

#1 is 4 little arms nuematically spread outward pushing against the inside of the rim.

#2 you can start in the outward position with those arms, hit the button & they come in to grip the rim just inside the bead area.

I have done everything from the most expensive aluminum wheel to dually wheels with never a scratch. I just took the old tires off my 64 GP 8 lug wheels so I could paint them yesterday with no problem.

I don't have a computer balancer. I have Centra-Matics on the dually & use counter-act balance beads for most everything else. I do still have an old bubble balancer left from our gas station in 1982!

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...closed.614419/

I haven't heard my changer called "touchless" but it is almost. It's a rim grip style. A Coats 50-60E. It grips the bottom of the wheel from the inside or outside with plastic slip-over covers on the 4 clamps. So it does protect the aluminum pretty well. Every now and then with an extremely low profile tire and stiff sidewall, the plastic jaws will slip off the rim. It's a PIA when that happens, but doesn't hurt the wheel. On the top side, the "duck" as it's called, the part on the vertical column that you pry off to remove the tire and push under to mount is made of nylon. They are soft and protect the wheel but don't last very long. I have to replace mine at least once a year. Then the pry bars have plastic slip over covers that protect the wheels too. You just have to be careful. Every now and then, I will scratch a wheel. The most difficult as a class of wheels are the plastic clad chrome wheels used allot by Chrysler and Jeep. You have to be very careful because the plastic outer part is brittle and can gouge, crack or break off entirely if your not really careful. Plus they are not repairable and quite expensive. How do I know!!

Tire machine
 

I have a Coats 10-10 and a bubble balancer. It's crude but works well on steel rims especially dually wheels. It's quite the work out! :D Got it for free so I can't really complain. It is an air hog though, anything less than an 80 Gallon 2 stage and 120 psi...good luck!

Yeah, people in the industry call them "rim clamp" machines. There is no doubt that they "touch" the rim. I thought there was some new fangled tire machine on the market that I have not heard about.

I have a Hoffman tire machine and a Snap-On spin balancer.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...7&d=1551656324