After 3 years, the strained relationship with my Goodyear Wranglers has ended. It started with me sliding off the road, and ended with me pounding the tires until the tread wore out. Basically, I drove like mad in the dry, and like a grandma in the wet. When the wear indicators started showing, I started shopping. Of coarse, like other things with me, new tires didn't come easy.

I looked over TireRack.com and decided on a set of Yokohama Geolandars. The reviews looked good, and the price was very fair. I had run Yokos on my old Eclipse, and they were always a decent tire. A local performance shop put them on, and I was on my way... well not exactly. The tires rode well, but the truck developed an annoying vibration. I returned to the shop the next week, and they checked all 4 tires. Turns out, one of the tires wasn't perfectly round and needed to be replaced. A week later, I returned to the shop; but the supplier had sent the wrong tire. A week after, I got the right tire; and off I went. The truck rode better, but it still didn't feel right. At about 45 you started to feel a bumping, and by 60 it was a butt massage.

Just for advice, I called Yokohama and asked if there was anything they could do. They suggested going to my local Tire Kingdom (a Yoko dealer) and asking them to take a look. The guys at my local TK have done work for me before, so they were happy to check them out. The tires turned out fine, and according to the TK guys my truck drove "like a Ranger on Yokohama tires"; in other words it vibrates. So I asked if Yokohama made truck tires that wouldn't feel like a set of oval rocks. They said no, but reccommended the Michelin LTX M/S tires.

Turns out Yokohama was nice enough to fully refund the price of their tires, so I had the Michelins installed. The TK guys were right, the truck now rides great. Haven't had the chance to try them in the rain, but they rate high in wet traction, so I should be good.



I also updated the main page of my site (finally)

http://silvertank.batcave.net/index.html

and since the truck was clean....

 

Those are the tires that came on my truck, they are great, I put 20000 on em and then put them on my moms nissan they have about 60000 miles now and still ride good and tread is only halfway worn.

 

Sucks about the Yoko's George.

Those michelin's are awesome though, they are what I have on my F-150, I love them.

 

I am a Pro Micheling man! They are the only thng I will ever put on a car. I like the LTX's but I off road and they really don't work well off the pavement so I always went with BFG's. I really wish they would make an equivelant Off road tire, but I guess they Feel it isn't worht the development to compete in a market that BFG has locked.

Great Choice of tires! Michelin>Yokohamas

~HJ

 

another good choice and good price tire would be the BFG's....either the all-terrains or the Rugged Trail's....they are both really really good road tires...and the all-terrains are good in snow and mud.......i got about 40K out of a set, sold them with about 15K left in them and got another set.....

 

The funny thing is that michelin owns BFG, so in a sense they do kinda have it "locked".

 

I had those Michelins on my truck when I got it, I liked them but they were low on tread and I needed to be replaced, I would have bought the same tire, but I couldn't afford them.

 

no problems with the firstone destination LE's on my 98 f150.

 

Thanks for the positive responses ya'll. Looks like the Michelins are the way to go, based on all the good reviews. I chose the Yokos because they were much cheaper, and had better reviews. Turns out, you need a heavy truck to make the Yokos ride good.

 

Huh, See I knew there was a reason to get out of bed this morning! I learned something new! Now can I go back to sleep?

~HJ

 

Looks great George still my fav style stock wheel, truck looks good!

 

You will be very happy with the Michelins.I have had 2 sets on mine and won't buy anything else.They last a long time also.I have about 50,000 miles on my current ones and should get another 30,000 or so out of them.They are expensive but worth every penny.