Wolfgang wrote: " Everyone benefits from performance tires." which was quoted from the autoexpert article, which also said: "Performance tires made the car ride stiffer and harder. They cost a lot more and they wore out very quickly." The WalMart link demonstrates that load ratings and speed ratings are distinct. Load rating will be something like "92". Speed rating is a letter like "S" or "T" or "Z". I definitely agree that the required load rating should be maintained. I think I mentioned previously, overloaded or underinflated tires can be dangerous. Imho, keeping the tires at the correct pressure is one of the simplest and most effective performance enhancements available. I check mine each weekend and usually adjust slightly primarily due to temperature variations. (weather a bit colder or warmer first thing Saturday morning.) Use a brass dial type gauge with an air bleed valve and an inexpensive pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter. The pencil type gauges are generally so inaccurate that they don't really accomplish a great deal. Haven't found the digital gauges to necessarily offer improved accuracy either.
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used to spend $125 per tire and tried Michelin, and Pirelli amongothers. Here's another quote from someone named "Brother One" at a different newsgroup some time back: (again not my words, but I agree with the sentiment) "As a former manager of a performance auto service center, [snip part about alignment and rotation] A good bit of the problem we had with radial and other tire faults were the brand of tires themselves. Of the major tire brands, we had many problems with Firestones, Pirellis, and Goodyear - they just always seemed to have problems with them, no matter what price tire we had. I inherited a 78 Caddy with Goodyear
tires, and two tires blew out on me because of radial belts flaws which
caused the outer rubber to separate from the belts and go out-of-round.
We never had any problems with customers who came in with tires (sold and/or installed by us or not) by Michelin, BF Goodrich, Dunlop, Yokohama, secondary brands like Hankooks and the former Western Auto store-brand tires and Sears store-brands (which, except for the Sears tires made by
Goodyear I have run on various personal family cars) which I've heard of no problems with any of those brands. However, I would not recommend the NTB stores for any work even though they are owned by Sears, because of a bad experience with them. They screwed-up and missed two items on
my car, causing potential safety problems and a great loss of time. (end quote)