quote:

Originally posted by Perception:

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
I'll be replacing the tires on the truck this summer. 2012 4 door 4x4 Tacoma. I don't do any off roading. What do you guys recommend for a good general purpose tire?

ETA: I don't care about road noise if that matters

Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs are my favorite all terrain tires, and I've tried most of them.

Duratracs are really aggresive for someone who never goes off-road. They look cool though if that's what you are going for. I haven't drive in winter in years, so I have no recommendation.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
I'll be replacing the tires on the truck this summer. 2012 4 door 4x4 Tacoma. I don't do any off roading. What do you guys recommend for a good general purpose tire?

ETA: I don't care about road noise if that matters

I have had good luck with Firestone Destination LE's on my Frontier. They ride smooth and are quiet, but still look like they belong on a truck.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

These wear bars are visible when the tire is brand new, how "visible" are they supposed to be when the tire is worn out?

"More prominent" might be a better choice of words. The previous picture showed a new tire, but this one, with the tread very nearly flush with the wear bars, is done.



You will see those about the time your penny is getting close to the top of Lincoln's head.

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
I'll be replacing the tires on the truck this summer. 2012 4 door 4x4 Tacoma. I don't do any off roading. What do you guys recommend for a good general purpose tire?

ETA: I don't care about road noise if that matters

Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs are my favorite all terrain tires, and I've tried most of them.

That's what I put on my Tacoma 4X4 last fall and they were great winter tires. They have been fine so far this spring as well. If I lived in a warmer clime and did not ever off road, I may have gone with something else.

Duratracs look great. They say Truck

Duratracs are loud. They are pretty good in snow, not quite as good on ice.

The saving grace about the noise is that they start off relatively noisy but don't seem to get any louder after about 50mph.

If I was not planning on off road driving or lots of snow in winter there is no way I would live with Duratracs.

quote:

Originally posted by guardianangel762:
My wife shook her head when I bought performance tires for my focus. Then she drove it (it had shitty tires before that) and could not believe the difference especially in stopping. Out of all the mods people do to cars tires will give you the most change in performance.

Does your wife race? How often does she lose traction while braking?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

These wear bars are visible when the tire is brand new, how "visible" are they supposed to be when the tire is worn out?

"More prominent" might be a better choice of words. The previous picture showed a new tire, but this one, with the tread very nearly flush with the wear bars, is done.



You will see those about the time your penny is getting close to the top of Lincoln's head.

When the tread is flush with the wear bars, you will be at 2/32" remaining tread. In states where inspections are still performed, you will fail the inspection. If you are stopped with your tire's in this condition you can be cited for driving with unsafe tire's.

I can definitely hear the Duratracs as I drive, but the noise doesn't seem excessive to me. I can certainly live with Duratracs year round.

I did get light truck tires (LT) so I expected some noise. One thing about LTs, there is no mileage warranty on them as there is on passenger (P) tires.

Mileage warranties are really just an indicator of how long a tire could last, not how long it will. In 17 years of running a retail tire location I adjusted one tire for mileage. The consumer needs to provide documentation to verify maintenance, rotation etc.

Back in NJ I put Hankook tires on my Ford Escort, tires cost me $21.00 ea. I sold the car with 75K miles on the tires, my neighbor drove it for 15K more and sold it to his mechanic with the tires still on it! Tires are even better today!

quote:

One thing about LTs, there is no mileage warranty on them as there is on passenger (P) tires.

There are many LT, light truck, tires that have a mileage warranty. They don't tend to be aggressive all terrain, mud, or off road tires. There are also plenty of P, passenger, tires that don't have a mileage warranty.

I need to get some new tires on my Toyota 4Runner.

Any opinions on Michelin-Defender LTX M/S tires? Costco has a decent price on them with some rebates.

Vehicle is driven on paved roads, but being in Oregon they would have to handle lots of rain.

Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

One thing about LTs, there is no mileage warranty on them as there is on passenger (P) tires.

There are many LT, light truck, tires that have a mileage warranty. They don't tend to be aggressive all terrain, mud, or off road tires. There are also plenty of P, passenger, tires that don't have a mileage warranty.

I was speaking specifically about DuraTracs, not tires in general. I thought that if the OP is considering DuraTracs, this might interest him.

I got the Warranty / No Warranty information from Goodyear's website.

Mid 90s, I was selling a car soon, and it needed some cheap tires, so I bought cheap ass Goodyear specials at Grand Auto. Think it was a little over a hundred something installed - lol. These low-end POS Goodyears came with factory installed bubbles on the sidewalls.

Eventually got them all replaced with non-bubbled ones about a week later after a flat, and some threats to report them to various automotive bureaus. The mechanic wanted to put an inner tube inside. Never heard of that before.

For my own car, I buy premium rubber, not the most expensive, just slightly under.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I'll need Camry, and pickup tires, in a few months. Are the less expensive Michelin Defenders good? I've heard mixed results.

quote:

Originally posted by silverspyder1996:
I need to get some new tires on my Toyota 4Runner.

Any opinions on Michelin-Defender LTX M/S tires? Costco has a decent price on them with some rebates.

Vehicle is driven on paved roads, but being in Oregon they would have to handle lots of rain.

Thanks

After doing a bunch of research I put Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires on my Pilot today. Tire Rack doesn't rate them as high as other sites including Consumer Reports. There are also different versions of the Michelin Defenders. Some rate higher than others and the light truck versions rate high Here .

So far they are a lot quieter than the previous tires (Michelin AT2).

Also FWIW, I shopped online and found the best price (TireCrawler.com) and then called my local Discount Tire for their best price. They came down a lot to beat the online price plus mount and balance. I saved almost $100 doing it that way.

quote:

Originally posted by silverspyder1996:
I need to get some new tires on my Toyota 4Runner.

Any opinions on Michelin-Defender LTX M/S tires? Costco has a decent price on them with some rebates.

Vehicle is driven on paved roads, but being in Oregon they would have to handle lots of rain.

Thanks

Michelins reputation is not always deserved. My 2006 4-Runner started out with Dunlops. Unlike some, I never had a problem. Then I went to BF Goodrich, they were great. Third time out, I decided to spring for Michelins LTX since everyone said how great they were. Within 3000 miles, I replaced two of the four and later had to replace a third . All were replaced for a vibration that would not go away with balancing and alignment. After all that, I will say that they got excellent mileage . My wife just changed from Toyo to Michelin on her Mazda CX-5 and says that although they are smoother and the ride is better, she has dropped about 2 mpg. The Toyos were a story in and of themselves. Mazda must have gotten a bad batch as they were the source of a lot of CX-5 vibration problems.All four of hers were replaced early on under warranty. As for Tire Rack, I find their reviews laughable. Take any tire and half the reviewers say they are terrific and the other half say they are a POS .

quote:

Originally posted by Nismo:

quote:

Originally posted by guardianangel762:
My wife shook her head when I bought performance tires for my focus. Then she drove it (it had shitty tires before that) and could not believe the difference especially in stopping. Out of all the mods people do to cars tires will give you the most change in performance.

Does your wife race? How often does she lose traction while braking?

What exactly is this supposed to imply? That only folks driving at the very limit can benefit from good tires? Or if you've never lost traction in the wet on your shitty tire by all means keep driving on them until after the first time you do?