Need new tires for 2002 Grand Cherokee Laredo

Have you actually looked at the spare. On our '99 I believe it is a temp, yet full sized tire. BTW, we put Nokian Vativva (sp?) on after the Wrangler POS tires. They were put on at about 30k, still on the vehicle, but need to be replaced before the snow flies, at 110,000 miles.

Cheers, Howard

Mike,

You may well save money by buying 4 better tires than buying 3 additional overpriced poor quality tires.

That being said you can probably pick up 3 additional brand new spare Wrangler STs at the junkyard for a good price.

I thought they recalled the '99s to add a real spare...

As long as your load rating is at least 104 you are fine, just shouldn't be less....

Yes, the spare is a full size tire.

So, the consensus is that the Wrangler ST is a poor quality tire? Costco has BF Goodrich for $135.99. NTB has the Wrangler ST for about the same price.

Thanks, Mike

billy ray wrote:

Pretty much any tire you can find will be superior to the Wrangler ST. It is Goodyear's low bid factory tire.

While I am not a big fan of NTB they do offer lesser known brands. Are you a 'brand name only' person?

Are you limited to the locations where you can purchase tires?

Anything 'Goodyear' is junk in my opinion. The guys who did my tires at Costco affirm this. While you're over there, check out Michelin LTX series instead - best tire I've ever put on a mostly-street-driven 4X4.

Never got notified of this......hmmm...will check it out. Pretty sure we have a temp tire for the spare on our '99 Thx,hdd

Outatime proclaimed:

The Michelin LTX M+S is a reasonably good compromise for good highway manners with light duty offroad where you don't need to worry about sidewall damage. Impossible to hurt them thru the tread steel plies.

I believe the Michelins are pretty expensive? I'm trying to find a good quality tire but at an affordable price. I was referred to a tire shop who will allow me to drop ship tires to him and he will only charge me $10 per tire to mount and balance them.

I think I'm now deciding between the BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A and Firestone Destination LE. Tirerack.com has them for $87 and $81, respectively. I can get the BFGoodrich at the local shop for $106 installed and the Firestone for $86. Depending on which tire I go with, factoring in shipping one of them would end up cheaper buying locally.

The Firestone seems to have good reviews and slightly better ratings. What is the general consensus?

Thanks, Mike

Outatime wrote:

Ya get what ya pay for. I lothe cheap tires. I'll spend a couple hundred extra for the best tires I can find every time, and I've never been disappointed with that decision.

I did get a deal on the Michelins through Costco though. I always wait until they're on sale and use the $100-off coupon. I dumped those awful Goodyear things with only 113 miles on them when I bought the TJL. Best decision I've ever made.

We bought two twin Jeep Grand Cherokees. They came with Goodyear tires which lasted 20K miles. I asked the Jeep dealer and he whispered Michelin LTX. I bought some for mine, spent the next few years commuting from Dallas to Sacramento (desert heat, mountains, Tehachapi pass, Kingsford Grade, Echo Summit, every different way you can map, went through the Rocky Mountains National Park 13K feet, Saltan Sea -100 feet, whatever) They were rated for

80K miles and still had good tread at over 90K miles. We retired to the Sierra Nevada, 4WD Low, getting out of the canyon - no prob. I got new ones just to be on the safe side, though I 'm sure they would have been good for 100K miles. I know that the only thing holding the car to the road is the tires, and I never skimp on the tires. Six years later and the wife's Jeep is just now just getting to 80K miles. I check them monthly, keep the pressure to 40PSI (that's just my thing) and they look as good as halfway new. I have never seen such performance, and I'm 68 and have owned a few cars. I checked four places and the cheapest (same tires) was at Wal-Mart. They do not seem to issue a paper warranty however, hmmmm, but I already know the tires will last.

Consumer Reports didn't think too much about the BFGs in their last test, the Firestones were about halfway down the ratings page.

I have a set of Kumho Venture AT-825s that have served me well through 2 Ohio summers and 1 winter with absolutely no problems.. They did okay in Canadian mud on two camping trips.....

Does Costco have more than they show on their website? When I search for tire for my car only the BFG Longtrail comes up. I'll have to stop by in person and see what they've got.

The LTX also don't show up when I do a search on tirerack.com. Is it because I am sticking to the original equipment size? I have been figuring I should be sticking to the standard 225/75-16 size. The optional size is 245/70-16.

Thanks, Mike

Answered my own question by changing the search parameters. :)

If I get a larger size tire does it mean I have to also buy a new spare? Or is it safe to have a 225/75-16 size spare since it won't be used very often?

It is generally true that, regardless of how good the mail order prices look, by the time you add in shipping and the $10 to $15 per tire mounting and balancing, and then consider the value of lifetime balancing and rotating from a shop when you buy the tires from them (which you won't get from mail order), you're clearly money ahead to buy locally. The one exception might be if you order the wheels with tires pre-mounted and balanced shipped to your door. Other than that - forget it.

Also, try getting an adjustment from a mail order source if there are problems with the tires - all you get is finger-pointing among the seller, the manufacturer, and aligment shop - back and forth - back and forth all three knowing that you can't prove nothin' (BTDT).

When you buy from a local shop that does the balancing *and* your alignments, if something goes wrong, there is no one they can point fingers at - you will be taken care of if problems develop, and the manufacturer will stand behind the product (unless the tire is in the so-called "hi-performance" category - then all bets are off no matter what you do short of spontaneous explosion of the tire shortly after installation).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Assuming the outer tread diameter is within a couple of percent, which it probably is, you should be OK for temporary and non-agressive driving use.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

225-75x16 and 245-70x16 tires are the same height (within 0.7%) so there should be no problem

If you use Tire Rack be advised they only list tire brands they carry.... in the SIZES they carry.

For example you can find my Kumho Venture AT-825 via manufacturer search or by tire type (On-Off Road All Terrain) but if you enter 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo they will have no Kumho matches because earlier this year they stopped carrying the standard size. They do carry the 245 in the KL-78 model but not the -825.

If you go to the Kumho website you see that both sizes are made in the -825 model

Interesting enough... this tire used to be on the 'Best Sellers' list

For some reason, I didn't find the LTX on tirerack.com either. They do appear on Costco's site, but you have to dig deep to find it. I bought the M/S's, as I spend a lot of time on pavement, and they work extremely well.

It's your call on the size difference. I also replaced the spare, even though both were the same size. I figure that the spare should be of at least the same quality as the rest in case I need to drive a long way on it. I justified the extra cost by doing 5-wheel rotations, which makes everything last longer. When I replace next time, I'll leave one worn (yet servicible) tire on as the spare.

It's your call on the odd-sized spare dilemma. I wouldn't do it. You can't use PT 4WD with odd-sized tires or you will destroy the transfer case. It will cause the axle clutch packs on limited-slip axles to overheat and wear quickly. The vehicle will handle badly. There are no positives to keeping an odd-sized spare other than money, and that's not good enough in my book. Justify the extra cost by doing 5-wheel tire rotations.

5-wheel tire rotations, as in rotating the spare in every rotation? Interesting...