Seeking Tires for 01 OBW LTD

Take those Wilderness tires in and get them replaced under the recall.

Goodyear tires are OK if you get the top-of-the-line tires, but lesser Goodyear tires are junk.

Best bet: BF Goodrich Radial Long Trail T/A or Michelin Cross-Terrain tires.

There was a recall for thise Firestone Wilderness tires??

As one poster on mitsubishi ng once put it: unless you specify what you are looking for in a tire you are going to get crap answers (and non model specific brand bashing, but I repeat myself), You asked this here before, haven't you? And there was something like what, 20-30 replies to your post? I don't mind you asking over and over again. I just mind the lack of a new twist on the conversation that's all. I think I remember recommending ContiExtremeContacts. I could probably add RE960A/S and Wintersports M3 to that recommendation. Just to be random enough. I'm not sure what Oscar meant by "crap tires" since he did not expound on that notion. To me crap tires are tires that don't grip AND don't last at the same time while carrying an exorbitant price tag. Case to the point is RE92. Sooo, what are crap/good tires to you?

The Wilderness truck tires had a recall iirc. The ones on the outback were passenger car tires however, and were not (to the best of my knowledge) affected by that recall.

I replaced my original Wildness tires pretty quickly since I rather hated them.

The Kumho Ecsta HP4 716 tires in 225/60HR16 have been very good performers for me. The Dunlop Sport A2's they replaced were comparatively very noisy and went out of round very quickly. The Kumho's are doing quite well and they were quite inexpensive.

Get a quote on them from tirerack.com and see how close a local dealer is willing to match on price with installation. I bought mine from tirerack, but won't do it again because if you factor in the cost of rotation and balancing services through the life of the tire in, you end up on the short end of the stick buying from tirerack and paying only for installation. If you buy the tires from an actual tire dealer, however, it's easy to get lifetime rotation/balance.

Someone on this group though found a place that'd install tirerack tires and offer lifetime balance/rotation... But the place that installed mine said "should've ordered the tires from us--we'd have matched the price if you asked, they'd have arrived quicker with cheaper shipping, and we'd be happy to balance and rotate them for life."

Best Regards,

-- Todd H.

Sounds like my garage, to which I've been faithful for 16 years and 5 cars and 6 or 7 complete sets of tires. Their prices are about the same as Tirerack, and I'm supporting my honest, competent local mechanic.

See

Michelin makes the Hydroedge in 225/60 TR 16:

I don't know the difference between R (original equip.) and TR.

That's the sort of thing I recall having read a wile back. It wasn't at that site, but looks like that wording got distributed far and wide. Thanks John for a citation to support my recollection!

I checked out the HydroEdges and they are pretty close in being a very suitable alternative. However when speaking with numerous shops, they said they can not and will not install tires with a T or TR rating on a car designed for an H or HR rating. I was told that the H rating is for speeds of like 130mph and the T rating is for speeds of like 112mph, or something similiar. Not only that but the sidewall strength is a bit weaker in the slower rated tires. How true that is or wheather they are pressuring for higher sales, I'm not sure.

But Sears did tell me they could... but it's a very dark gray area that normally they say no too.

Some places will some won't. If you want 'em, don't worry about it, just use a shop that will.

The BF Goodrich Traction TA is a good, not too expensive tire, and it has an outstanding AA traction rating (wet braking). Very few other tires do better than the A rating of the Hydroedge.

When I bought a set a couple of years ago, it was top-rated on tirerack. Isn't class leader anymore, but their customer ratings are vague anyway: How accurately can you rate your old tires with 30000 miles on them? Or even your new tires, if you don't test other new tires side by side.

Interesting. When I replace the original Geolanders on my Forester 18 months or so ago, I bought Hydroedges from Tirerack and had my dealer install them. Never heard a peep about T vs H rating. Oh, well...

George Bame Norfolk, VA

My biggest thing is that I'd prefer a tire with a jointless band nylon (I think Michelin calls it "banded at zero) cap. They're sometimes identified as a "polyamide belt" They serve to help dissapate heat and hold together a tire that's suffered a blowout. I don't believe the HydroEdge has a nylon cap, and that's probably reflected in the speed and B temperature rating.

I drive a WRX, so my taste in tires runs towards a higher performance model with moderately high treadlife. I'm currently running the Bridgestone RE960AS, but have yet to try it out in the snow. I did try it out in the rain, and it was pretty good when nearly new.

Typically tire installers will have no problem with installer lower than OEM speed rated tires if they're dedicated winter tires. I've heard of some installers asking that a waiver be signed noting that you realize you're getting a lower speed rating than OEM.