New Tires Before A Road Trip - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

New Tires Before A Road Trip - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test

Although it wasn't part of our How To Do a Burnout video, our long-term 2014 Ram 1500 still needs some new tires.

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kirkhilles1

Was this a researched decision? Tirerack shows an average review of only 3 out of 5 based on 37 million miles logged with an average of "Probably Not" to buy again and ranked 25th out of 36. Pretty low scores across the board. I bet you could've chosen better ones.

s197gt

any OE tires gets hate. unless it is michelin. people just despise the tires that come on their new cars.

for example, i just randomly went on tirerack.com and chose the 2012 camry 4cy LE. OE tire is Firestone Affinity Touring.

rated 2.5 out of 5.

try it.

carguyg35

OE tires do perform worse than aftermarket counterparts. They usually cost more too. I sold cars for a living and it's common knowledge for people in the business. A lot of people will just buy the same tires over again because people listen to salesmen and also don't do research. FYI a good salesman pushes the highest profit margin product if he wants to feed his family.

s197gt

i would like to edit my prior statement. i think most vehicle enthusiasts hate the OEM tire selection.

as to performance, I think that depends. are we talking ultimate grip, wet performance, ride quality, fuel efficiency, snow traction???

tirerack.com sums up the issue well in this article:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=22

It's not a fast read so their main point is this:

"Each vehicle manufacturer prioritizes the areas that they feel are of greatest benefit to help their vehicles satisfy their drivers. For example, a vehicle manufacturer that offers a line of fuel-efficient vehicles may be able to place more emphasis on traction and less emphasis on lowering rolling resistance than a vehicle manufacturer that builds a line of larger, less fuel-efficient cars."

i actually do think that the quiet (vast) majority are happy with the tires; probably because they put so little thought into them. they will either replace them with the same or like those in my family go with the cheapest, longest lasting.

in doing my research for replacement tires i have often found that higher rated (on tirerack) tires cost less money. e.g. the continental extreme contact dws that we use on my wife's e90 is relatively inexpensive. their newest version that came out this year is even less expensive.

carguyg35 said:

OE tires do perform worse than aftermarket counterparts. They usually cost more too. I sold cars for a living and it's common knowledge for people in the business. A lot of people will just buy the same tires over again because people listen to salesmen and also don't do research.

btw, i would be really disappointed to have the tires on my truck be more or less shot at 36k miles. if they were all terrain tires i could understand but these are highway tires; and not considered high performance by any measure.

aspade

35K for truck tires on pavement is just plain awful. The 11/32 tread depth on that tire is a big part of why.

Real LT tires with another quarter inch of tread have about twice as much material to wear away.

agentorange

aspade said:

35K for truck tires on pavement is just plain awful. The 11/32 tread depth on that tire is a big part of why.

Real LT tires with another quarter inch of tread have about twice as much material to wear away.

Real LT tyres also have way more tread to squirm, making the handling vague. They also require higher inflation pressures wrecking the ride. As a general rule, LT tyres are total overkill for any truck or SUV that isn't a HD model or is visiting a building site everyday.

aspade

Handling vague? It's a 6000 lb 4X4 with 6.5" sidewalls that'd be 7.5" if Edmunds had the sense to leave off the dubs.

You only need to run 60-80 PSI and beat your kidneys out if you're loading to the 3200-3500 pound tire maximum. Follow the inflation tables for the reduced load in a light duty application and you'll typically run in the 40-45 PSI range where they ride just fine.

bassracerx

kirkhilles1 said:

Was this a researched decision? Tirerack shows an average review of only 3 out of 5 based on 37 million miles logged with an average of "Probably Not" to buy again and ranked 25th out of 36. Pretty low scores across the board. I bet you could've chosen better ones.

These tires are actually good for what they are. quiet on the highway and they grip well if you keep your foot out of it. wet weather is nothing to be afraid of and if you HAD to go down a dry, dirt road then you can without worrying. Price wise they are at the bottom of name brand tires if you want to go cheaper you have to get a set of Hankooks or coopers or similar. The tires are really nothing to complain about and they wear VERY well in my experience 50k+ miles