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Now I find out I had it wrong. So, what tires and wheels are currently in vogue ?
"I always bought tires for performance. I have had sports cars that had 4 wheel disks brakes and alloy wheels. I thought lighter wheels makes for less unsprung weight and ultimately better handling.
Now I find out I had it wrong. So, what tires and wheels are currently in vogue ? "
I think it is mostly an EYE CANDY thing and for me at least a catch 22.
If you go and check out folks who do performance racing you will be surprised to find that most performance tires are 15 in/16 in. The 17/18 in size are marginally performance related. When you get into the 19/20/21 range you are talking mainly show and oh by the way it does go.
This is not to say that unsprung weight , ergo leads to better performance and handling, but the truth is that it is so marginal as to be idiotic. You can check this thus: given the same style and materials does a 15 inch wheel and tire combo weigh less or more than a 16/17/18 in wheel and tire combo? And which handles better?
There is not a thing wrong with EYE CANDY, but trying to justify the performance bang for the buck is really a fruitless exercise
Just remember that you cannot directly compare UTQG's from brand to brand. You can only compare UTQG's within a specific brand."
Perhaps I misunderstand the utility of a standard then? The whole idea of a UTOG is so you can directly measure or extrapolate tread life agains an objective measure (baseline). If I understand what you are saying: is that if the Michelins have a utog of say 400 and the Bridgestones have a utog of 380, that you can not reasonably extrapolate that all things being equal the michelins probably last a tad bit longer?
(given all the what ifs and wherefores and recalls ad nauseum?)
The utog ratings were conceived and continue to be refined strictly so that this can be done by the average consumer.
Yes, exactly. Unfortunately.
According to Tirerack:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/general/utqg.htm
each manufacturer tests its tires "following government guidelines". According, UTOG numbers are good only as "guidelines" when comparing tires by different manufacturers. However, inside the same brand the benchmark is much more precise.
I hear what you are saying and for that reason it is no wonder that Michelin has beaten almost everyone to the baseline almost in every tire category. I know for example that I can get on a Michelin utog rating of 400 in excess of 75-90 k on a set of LTX's and far less than that with Bridgestones. I think as a tire manufacturer if you chose the low road, at some point it shows. Firestone has done that and it is also threatening to bring down Bridgestone. (the parent co)
take one look at the Formula 1 / Grand prix cars.
They have such big sidewalls and they do 200mph or more with more than 1.5g.
NOT!
Anyone have comparative tire dimensions? It might turn out that the sidewall to tread width ratio is not so different. Certainly the carcass design is very different (for racing) and therefore they don't need to resort to mounting rubber bands on rims.
These loads have to be supported by the tires. And the air volume at a pressure is what supports these loads. Remember tires are just balloons. Hence the basic size of F1 tires are huge for the 1700 lb (?) weight of the vehicle. So the need to have a certain volume of pressuized air to handle the dynamic loads may limit how short they can go with the tire sidewalls.
I just went to a nearby dealer and had a peek, and both the auto and the manual had R rated tires, which bummed me out, I did not see the H or the V. so Nissan is playing a switcheroo. Is there anything I can do if/when my car arrives w/ the R's, do I have any recourse? I saw the Nissan website states that it can change any specs without notice, so I'm guessing not.
Whaddaya think?
Whaddaya think? <<<<
I think u need a pair of new glasses;) just kidding.
The R stands for Radial Tires.
To find out whether it is H or V rated, read the tire sidewall more carefully.... u will find it..
Grand High Poobah
The Fraternal Order of Procrastinators
Also mfr's tend to make slight changes as supplies warrant. Maybe Bridgestone is offering a lower price to Nissan on H rated tires this month or Nissan ran out of V rated tires and subbed the H rated for a few thousand units. If the speed rating is critical to you (and it should be) then the dealer should be willing to swap tires from another Altima to make a deal.
Thanks!
--RobynK
For example if you have a 3,000 lb car and 30 lbs of pressure per square inch. each inch supports 30 lbs so you have 100 sq inches of rubber hittng the ground, or 25 sq inches per tire.
Any recommendations?
They look great! Round and black, just like all tires.
Steve
Host
SUVs, Vans and Aftermarket & Accessories Message Boards
Kelly Safari
Yokohama Geolander HT
Bridgestone Dueler H/T
(I've found CR ratings on the Dueler A/T and H/L but not H/T -- is that an inferior tire to the H/L?)
Any preferences among those?
Thanks in advance!
--RobynK
Although both are different tires, I think either will work well. Tire Rack has some commentary on them and don't forget to check out the Bridgestone website. Make sure the tires you're shopping for are available in the size you want. Again, since the H/L is sorta the aftermarket tire, I think it comes in a wider size selection compared to the H/T, which usually comes in OE sizes per application.
4 - Duelers for 255-70-16 - $640
4 - Michelin Cross Terrain SUV 255-70-16 - $600
Good Luck!
I believe that one of the tires you were looking was the Bridgestone Dueler HL. Yesterday I posted this:
*********
I, too, have been looking at tires and have it down to Dueler HL or the Michelin Cross-Terrain SUV. Right now I’m leaning toward the Michelins because I can get them about $40 less (installed, hazard warranty and tax) for a set of four than the Dueler HL tires. Tire Rack rates the Michelins a bit higher than the Dueler HL.
4 - Duelers for 255-70-16 - $640
4 - Michelin Cross Terrain SUV 255-70-16 - $600
*********
I don't know if your price sensitive but I saw an advertisement today that Firestone/Bridgestone has a promotion on (4/12 to 4/14) that you buy 3 tires and get 4. I just re-priced the Dueler HL and the installed, hazard warranty and tax is now $510 vs. the $640 I posted yesterday. So now I’m leaning toward the Dueler HL tires rather than the Michelins.
Good Luck!
The SUV also has a sidewall that doesn't turn brown between washings. Check the Michelin site for more information on them. I've had the SUVs for a year (18,000 miles) and like them. I traded in the Dueler HTs that came on my Highlander. I might've kept the OEM tires if they had been the HLs.
However, I've never been a Firestone fan and Bridgestone owns Firestone. My Dad had the Firestone 500's (mid-70's) and I owned a '00 Explorer with the Firestone exploder tires.
The closest thing an average person can get to unbiased testing is Consumer Reports. IIRC, CR ranked the Dueler H/L at or near the top of their latest SUV tire test. Once I find that issue I'll post more info.
If you have links or additional info that TH members can access to expand their knowledge, please post them and let us do our own research. I am building a database of tire info and would like to have access to those tests you mention.
And as for browning, while Michelin has made some improvements to the carbon black used in some of their tires, it can be avoided by cleaning the tires each time you wash your vehicle. I use Eagle One Tire Cleaner and a nylon brush every single time I wash. I follow up with a water-based protectant that has UV inhibitors to protect the sidewall and keep it looking good. I've been a detailer for over 20 years and virtually all "brown" tires I've seen have been caused by owners not cleaning tires and using too much protectant; usually the bad kind that has silicone oil in it.
In addition to surveys, both Tirerack and Consumer Report are testing tires, but only selected models. The tirerack surveys cover, probably, 5 times more models.
As well as I remember, the both Tirerack and CR are testing only new tires. However, some tires deteriorate substantially when worn out 50% or so, while other hold better. User surveys are reflecting the wear.
I believe, that the best would be to use all information available - tests, user surveys, the manufacturer description and specs, etc.
In the next few months I am going to have to replace the tires on my 2000 Honda CR-V.
Has anyone tried the Yokohama Aegis passenger tires? Consumer reports and tirerack.com both rate them highly for handling and traction (wet and snow) as well as low noise. Are they as good as CR suggests? I am looking more for highway / commuting tires and not off-road tires.
Thanks
I cannot really comment about mounting backwards, but it seems unlikely that 50 miles can do any damage.
What do you think of these tires?
And the Bridgestone Duelers: MY OEM tires were down to the wear marks at 25K. My Duelers were unsafe on snow, ice, slush, cold rain WHEN NEW.
Anecdotal yes. Real yes.Ask the buyers.
I am curious - does CR have any safeguards against the "competition" stuffing the ballot boxes?
tidester
Host
SUVs, Aftermarkets & Accessories
Can anyone translate "gibberish" for me? Thanks.
Consumer Reports mails out a survey once per year to all who subscribe to the magazine. It asks about ones car maintenance history that is used in the annual "Auto" issue plus other topics such as TV's, appliances, etc. I do not recall any questions on tires in the past 10 years or so. The tire reviews I have seen have been based on their own testing.
I believe that Consumer Reports is totally unbiased and does a great job. I don't see how anyone would be able to "stuff" the ballot box.
CR may be unbiased but it occurs to me that an unscrupulous group of people or company could "mass subscribe" with the intention of responding to those questionaires either in favor of or against a partcular product. But then, maybe I've been watching too much politics on C-SPAN! ;-)
tidester
Host
SUVs
As a bonus of being a day late, I got to try them in the rain ... an unusual event here in southern California :-) On the freeway, doing 65 in the rain, I felt quite comfortable and confident in the ability of the tires to hold the road. In fact, it felt no different than driving when dry, a good bit of road-feel, though not over-powering. Toyota kept someone around late to re-mount the tire. Very nice of them, even though it took a direct call to the service manager to accomplish that, it took no heavy handed tactics though. He owed up to it being their error after a short explanation of what transpired.
I read about this "mount this side in" just now at 5 in the morning, so I haven't checked the tires themselves to see if they're on properly. My question is, doesn't the design of the sidewall have a distinct inside and outside? Is the serrated sidewall design on both sides of the tire?
It's a pretty sure bet that I will get these, likely from Discount Tire. Has anyone here dealt with them? Firestone totally pissed me off last week when they told me that to qualify for the tread wear warranty, I would have to have a wheel alignment done twice per year!
On the outside, the SP Sport A2 molds an innovative dual-phase tread compound into a mildly asymmetric tread design that features outside shoulder blocks with minimal siping to enhance steering response and cornering stability while the inside shoulder blocks feature more sipes to provide the additional biting edges to aid traction in foul weather.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/dunlop/du_sp_a2.jsp
The "mount this side in" mark is there for a reason. Probably not as crucial as ultra high performance asymmetric tires, but I would imagine it makes a difference.
Ken
The question that now comes to mind, is do you rotate the SP Sports front to back, or in the X pattern?
PS: Are you a cast member?
Truth be told about Disney; they aren't the best company to be working for. I am in Engineering with ABC, and since Disney came along and bought the shop, it hasn't been the magic kingdom everyone was expecting. Fortunately we raised a stink when they wanted us to wear "mouse ears" around the studios.