How to shop for tires?

My recommendation is to go to an independent tire dealer and see what they have. They're the cheap end fo the spectrum, and that'll give you an idea how much extra you're paying for a name-brand tire. I think $64 for a tire in that size is pretty cheap. That may be about the cheapest around.

Under no circumstances would I pay a lot more in order to feel like I got a better quality tire if there's no evidence other than the price. The ratings are right there on the tire - I just read 'em. tirerack.com has a lot of good tech info on them, and sometimes consumer reports will compare them head-to-head.

For trailering, you want a stiff sidewall, and you can help yourself some by running at the max inflation (also on the tire).

These are the specs on the $64 one from Wal-Mart:

Make: Uniroyal Liberator A/T Type: Light Truck/SUV-On-Off Road Sidewall Cosmetics: ORWL Temperature Rating: B Traction: A Speed Rating: S (112 mph) Load Index: 108 (2205 lbs.) Weather: All Season M+S: Y Load Range: XL Description: All-Terrain Price: $63.66

That seems fairly good unless I'm mistaken. Here are the specs on a more expensive one also available from Wal-mart:

Make: Uniroyal Laredo AWT Type: Light Truck-Standard Sidewall Cosmetics: RAISED WHITE LETTERS Temperature Rating: B Traction: B Speed Rating: S (112 mph) Load Index: 108 (2205 lbs.) Weather: All-Season M+S: Y Load Range: XL Description: THIS HIGH-QUALITY, ALL-TERRAIN TIRE HELPS CONQUER OFF-ROAD CHALLENGES AND TAME HIGHWAYS. SO TAKE YOUR PICK. Price: $86.64

The more expensive one actually has a LOWER traction rating than the cheaper one. States high quality, where as the other doesn't say any "quality". Hence my confusion in tire shopping.

Here is another, but it's getting up there in price a bit...

Make: BF Goodrich Radial Long Trail T/A Type: Light Truck-Standard Sidewall Cosmetics: RAISED WHITE LETTERS Temperature Rating: B Traction: A Speed Rating: T (118 mph) Load Index: 108 (2205 lbs.) Weather: All-Season M+S: Y Load Range: XL Description: Long on performance. Long on mileage. What it is: Our highest mileage, best-riding all-season light truck tire. Original equipment on many leading pickups and SUVs. Who it's for: Pickup, jeep and SUV owners looking for an excellent replacement for their original equipment all-season tires, with an emphasis on long tread life. Price: $92.22

Doesn't seem much better than the $63.66 Unioryal above, unless the long tread life is true. I've read reviews on DiscountTire.com of ones they sell and the opinions on tread life of a single tire can vary greatly by each consumer. Some say a certain tire lasts barely 30k miles when it's a 60k mile tire while others say they're good past

60k... so it's very confusing.

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:58:55 -0800, cubey2600 rearranged some electrons to form:

Tire construction can vary greatly among 'equivalent' sidewall letter grades. The ride quality of a $60 tire is probably not going to be as good as an $80 tire. You also didn't post the treadwear grades for each of your selections... although not an absolute indicator of quality, it is a guideline to look at.

The condition of vehicle the tire is mounted on will also have a big impact on tire life... if the wheels are not aligned or the shocks or suspension components are worn out, it will make quick work of a new set of tires.

Websites tend to not give every single detail, unfortunately.

Yes, I know those are factors. I had to have a non-adjustable (OEM) shim replaced with an adjustable one in order to get an alignment when I bought it. The mechanic said that it have have come out of the factory out of alignment, because it has a very tough front end that's hard to tear up/knock out of alignment. I recently had the mechanic drive the van because I was noticing a possible wandering/loose steering wheel problem. He said it was handling fine and the steering was fine. It was just my imagination. I asked him how the shocks/suspension felt and he said it was pretty good. To quote him about how it handles, he said "for what it is, it's pretty good" meaning for being such a large vehicle, being 10 years old with over

100k miles, it handles well.

The only thing he commented on was the slightly slow shift (and noticable shake) of the transmission when accelerating after a stop light. It seems to not do that so much if I turn off overdrive, which is what you're supposed to do for towing, but I tried out driving with overdrive off without towing, driving a usual in-town route I take and it seemed to shift better. Unless it's just my imagionation again.

Ahem, sorry, getting off topic. Anyway, he said the suspension was good, it didn't bounce excessively after bumps. I had the alignment done earlier this year so it should be good for a long time. Brakes will probably be the next thing I have done after 2 new tires here in the next week or two. The rotors need resurfacing (there is noticable shaking when the brakes are applied) and the pads of course will need replacing as well. When I had it on the shop back in April for the alignment/shim replacement, they said the pads were about 50% still good, so it's not a big rush to get them done yet since I'm not doing any towing yet and I'm not an agressive driver so I don't apply my brakes accessively, I let the engine do at least 40% of the braking when coming up to a stop or a turn by taking my foot off the gas a while before I get to it which helps extend the life of the brakes.

Gah, got off topic again. *lol*

Back to tires... there is one at Sam's Club that sounds good. It's a BF Goodrich "commercial" tire for $83.53 each that seems to have good reviews on E-series vans:

I may go back and look at what Sam's Club has in stock.I like to physically inspect something expensive I'm buying as opposed to seeing a photo of it on a website. They don't have much in the way of

235/75/15 in stock though.

My two cents worth. You are making a judgement on the low end tires you bought after less than 6 months on the truck. As far as I am concerned, SL or XL makes next to nothing difference when on a truck, they are still P metric, key here being the P with stands for passenger car, as opposed to LT which stands for Light Truck. People gravatate to them because P rated advertise higher mileage warranty, and lower price, and because they have softer sidewalls (which is why they dont handle the heat) they ride better. Once the P metric starts being stressed with weight and heat they fail faster than an LT because they were not designed to handle loads 24X7. Comparing ratings of P metric to LT tires is comparing apples to oranges. And Goodyear will tell you as will Michlin if you ask them that a P metrics load rating in pounds is 20% less whaen used on an LT vehicle carrying loads regularly. I've never liked this fact, I feel the rating should be that of the lesser amount. I've known people with station wagons that loaded and them and used them like a truck, with the subsquent tire issues from the weight and heat. I also know that warranty can be voided if the manufacturer believes the tires have been abused, and over loading the design is considered abuse. As to Wally World, I would ganer a bet that there are more Goodyear, or Firestone or what have you tire dealerships than wally world shops. also consider the level of expertise you are dealing with at a Wally world,, and what they pay. People who truly know what they are doing are not going to work for wally's wages.

Whitelightning

I decided to go with BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A's (LT, not P):

Reviews & ratings on TireRack for that line of tires: Sam's also has P-rated ones in-stock locally for about $10 less each but obviously LT are a better choice for heavy duty application. The tires will be delivered to the local Sam's Club (shipping included in price) in about 5-10 days so I'll just have $18 total installation plus tax added on. Not a bad deal all for these tires. It was more than I wanted to pay but they should last a good long time with proper maintaince and give me excllent safety and performance.

The ratings on tires deal with several issues, but SPEED is perhaps the most important. You have two issues, speed and load. since you are driving a van, you can get tires rated to withstand lower speeds, but need to find tires that have a higher load rating. I have a BMW, so I look for high speeds and low load ratings.

Take a look at

and These are two competing companies that deal in tires, both have very good explanations of what the tire ratings are, and you can decide for yourself which ratings are important to your driving requiremnts. Once you understand the ratings, you can shop price.

Speed is completely unimportant if you're not going to drive over about 120 mph. Most folks don't do much trailering or hauling things at those kinds of speeds. When I am shopping for truck tires, I ignore it completely.

If you had read all of my post you would see that I would ignore this as well in this particular application. Unless the OP buy tires rated at 87mph, or other low number, he will be in good shape. I would buy speed rated tires that fall in the range of about 112mph for a van. sure, the van will never get to 112, but it may reasonably maintain the next lower max rating for miles on end.

Just because a vehicle will not attain the highest speed rating doesn not negate that notion that speed is among the most important qualities that are rated. One needs to buy a speed rating that they will never attain, not the one they will cruise down the highway at the rated speed. After one selects the speed rating that suits their need, then they must look next at the load rating. The trick here is to buy the load rating that exceeds by a small margin the max load of the vehicle itself.

On the great LT v/s P rating, the P tires give a softer ride and do not bounce so much. Yet another reason why they are so popular.

Safety wise, it is good to put the LT tires on a truck or van. The ride is another reminder that you are not driving a Ferrari so you should adjust your driving behaviour accordingly. Also, if you ever do decide to use the van for hauling something, the tires will not let you down.

Just my $0.02.

HR. ================ > My two cents worth.