I'm going for a trip: 1,500-2,000 miles altogether. There will be no driving on snow or ice (during the trip): Southern California and Las Vegas. Car: 2001 Forester. Tires (I drove 45K miles on them): Firestone Affinity LH30. 6 months ago these tires had ~7/32 thread left...also one tire had a nail in it- was repaired. Should I get new tires right now (before the trip)?
Thanks for any advice.
The tires are in excess of the 5 year max that some recommend. I would carefully check the sidewalls for cracking or splits. If I found no sidewall problems and the tread depth was 5/32 or more I would not change them. JMO Ed
It depends. If you get a flat you may have to end up with whatever garbage a tire shop on your way happens to have in stock. On the other hand if you get decent sticky tires you don't want to waste lots of thread on 2000miles of highway droning. If you have another set of tires you can pack them as an ultimate spare solution, but your mileage would drop not to mention the cargo capacity shrinking in half. Since you're going to gamble anyway why not gamble that you won't get a flat? It's an environmentally friendly choice :-)
Remember also, If one tire goes bad at this time, you will need to replace all 4
You might be able to get just one shaved for about $30. If the other ones have enough tread left (I think 6/32" would be plenty) it might not be such a good idea to dump the rest unless you really want a different tire.
Are there any bricks-and-mortar chains that will shave tires competently? I looked around a bit and couldn't find any obvious ones.
-- Mark
Don't know about chains. The Tire Rack does enough volume to justify it, and it's seems to be primarily for the race tires they sell. They could probably do that for anyone near one of their retail locations. I guess it depends on where you live. You'd need to find a tire shop and ask around.
I know Tire Rack has a location in Sparks, Nevada. Don't know if they have tire shaving equipment.
Whatever you do don't replace with Firestone. I recommend Michelin.
Firestones suck.
Michelin or BF Goodrich all the way.
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Got Firestones on all my rigs; excepting the Camry and I'm waiting for the Goodyear's to wear out. Never had a single problem with the tires and the last count was 10 rigs; Form fifth wheels to motorcycles. Specific tires I won't put on due to wear habits, but after 4.5 years mounting tires Firestone and Bridgestone were equal to or better then the competition.
Steve
Thanks to everybody who responded. I just returned from my trip. One day before the trip I put GY ComforTread (I asked for TripleTread, but local tire shop: America's Tire - didn't have them in stock). I like my new tires...they are very quiet and seem to handle well...but didn't have chance to really test performance, because it didn't rain much diring the trip (and of course, there wasn't any snow or ice).
Boris
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