Anyone have any experienc with Hercules tires in general, and Hercules Ultra Plus IV tires specifically? I had not heard of the brand. They were presented to me as a quaility tire that are reasonably priced. Are they an off-brand made by a major tire maker?
Hercules has been around a long time. They are a private label brand tire. The garage I used to work in 15 years ago had a tire shop within and carried Hercules tires. We sold a lot of that brand and had a lot of satisfied customers. I used to use Hercules Polar Trax tires in the winter and never had problems getting around. I'm not familiar with the tires you are specifically looking for.
Private label, used to be mostly Cooper made. Couple of local shops sell them. Seem to be an OK tire.
Just check to make sure that they are not made in China.
I believe they are still made in Ohio in the "Good Ole USA".
They are a distributor of brands like signet, etc. They are not a manufacturer. The website does not indicate which companies manufacture Hercules tire brands.
If it were me I would buy tires from a recognized manufacturer. Twenty years ago I would not have thought much about the origin of products like tires. However given the recent problems with some products including tires from China I have become increasingly sensitive to the country of origin.
Thanks for the advice on checking the country of origin. The tire I was shown has "Made in the USA" molded on the sidewall.
I found a web page to decipher DOT codes, and the code on the Hercules tire translated to: manufactured in the 23rd week of 2007 by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Albany, Georgia.
The site is
On a tire, the first two letters/numbers after the "DOT" marking on the sidewall is the plant code. You just get those two characters and then visit the above link selecting "Tires" in the "Search In" column and entering the two characters in the "DOT ID" field
We had a set of Hercules 'Terra Trac' tires on our Jeep Cherokee and they were an excellent performing tire on and off road.
Quite frankly we were 'very' disappointed when we 'upgraded' to BFG AT's. They 'were' one size bigger, a P235 vs a P225 but the loss of traction from the Hercules was 'very' noticeable. We are talking at least a 5 mph lower 'float level' where the steering starts to drift on the highway in snow.
They also offered a good road hazard warranty on one that had a belt let go from, well, who knows just 'what' rock caused that eh?
We would buy them again.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile... Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.