Good replacement for General Grabber AW 225/75-15 Tires?

I had Firestone Destination LE on mine (after trashing the original POS Continentals), and they were very good. After they wore out, I traded them for Cooper Discoverer LSX, which are smoother and quieter, but have maybe a bit less wet traction. I like both, and would recommend them for anyone not looking for an off-road tire.

-- SC Tom

What do you think about Goodyear Wranglers SRA?

I've never owned any, but these most of these people weren't too happy with them:

-- SC Tom

Thanks for your help!

Not a problem! Good luck with whatever you choose.

-- SC Tom

I think I'm going with the Coopers. I've always wanted to try that brand so we'll see. The tire guy told me that's what he puts on his wife's truck too.

Oh and he told me now the put the new tires on the back. I never heard of that before. I guess it's been a while since I bought tires but in Cali they always put them on the front. I'm on the east coast now. He said studies have shown it's better and more secure to have your best tires on the back.

Is that common?

I haven't bought only two tires in a very long time, but I would think that on a front wheel drive vehicle, the new tires would go in the front, assuming the other two tires are still road-worthy. Of course, that's just me; whether the pros agree with that or not is up to them. If the tire guy had any data to back up that statement, I'd like to read it, and the reasoning behind it. Not saying he's wrong, just that I've never heard that before.

-- SC Tom

There was a big argument about that on one of these lists a month or

2 back.

I agree on a RWD, if the front tires are still good. You don't want bald tires anywhere - but the driving tires do need traction.

On FRONT drive vehicles, you definitely want the good ones on the front. I was odd man out in that argument - the "experts" said put them on the back because the light rear end might hydroplane, putting you out of control.

My arguement was if the front end came loose you could not accellerate, stop, or turn effectively , but if the rear end came loose and the front end was still well stuck, you could pull the car back into control with the powered front wheels.

I'm not sure what to do. I've asked a few people and they all put tires on the front. I priced them at another place and they put them on the front too. This other tire place is larger and they're always busy, they have good customer reviews, etc. The way the guy described it was there was some tests done about how the front is heavy enough whereas the back is more vulnerable so the better tires should go there to avoid swaying. He said the shop all had to take classes on it and so on. I have FWD and they told me the new ones should still go in the back.

The same place told me I could just get one tire instead of two as well. Yet I've always heard you have to buy in pairs of two. I only have one tire that's messed up from bad alignment. The others are okay.

I'm not sure if I should just go to another place and get 2 tires on the front like I always do.

I did a search - it seems like a lot of people are advising it now.

Institute for Automotive Service Excellence ASE Certified Service Consultant Motorist Assurance Program (MAP) Uniform Inspection Guidelines Rubber Manufacturing Association (RMA) Guidelines

This poster GJC explains it the way the tire guy did to me.

I'm starting to think maybe it's better to replace all 4. I've actually never done that before but it's probably a good habit to get into.

Just put the bad ones on the back and let the guy selling you the tires do what he wants to do, then go home and move the good ones basck to the front.

On a Front driver the front tires wear fastest. They also do ALL the driving, ALL the steering, and about 80% of the stopping. The ONLY time the rear tires benefit from being better than the front is if you get into high speed hydro-planing on roadways with standing water - and even then I prefer to be able to power and steer IF I get in over my head (which doesn't happen very often - I can usually think well enough to know that if it's raining, or melting, there might be water on the road, and perhaps I should slow down just a wee bit.).

I've driven front drive in competition and found that driving out of trouble is preferable to braking into trouble.

In the last 30+ years I've never replaced less than 4 tires at a time (except on my motorcycle or bicycle)

If you rotate your tires as per the suggested cycle, and the suspension is in good shape, your tires should wear out evenly, so when it's time to replace, it will be all four that need replacing. Of course, if there is an unknown event (such as a piece of angle iron in the road you didn't see :-( ), then you would only replace the one. If only the one tire is bad, like from your misalignment, and the other tire is still good, as long as the new tire is the same size, load rating, etc., as the tire on the opposite side of the vehicle, you shouldn't have any trouble at all replacing just the one. Be sure to have a 4 wheel alignment to make sure all is good.

-- SC Tom

Well, as far as manufactures recomending tires, thast not going to happen. Tires that they put on are usually not that great to start with.

Put on a good name brand tire...

if you go in the woods hunting or fishing, or want something good that is stamped as a snow tire but good for running year round, I recomend BF Goodrich All Terrains, or Goodyear Duratrac's. I get 80,000kms on these on a pickup, on an escape you should get more since it is lighter.

If you're an around town kind of person and don't hit the gravel, and want a good all season (summer) tire, any good quality goodyear tire or bf goodrich, or michelin.is going to do the job, stay away from cheap tires. you get what you pay for in this department.

a good stand alone snow tire is a good year ultragrip, or even those goodyear nordic's at canadian tire are quite good, and wear very nice.

How bout the argument that you want good tires front and back, and no bald or near bald tires anywhere??

Which is why I virtually ALWAYS replace tires in a set of 4. But, if I had 2 decent tires and 2 bad tires, on a front drive car the NEW tires would go on the front - absolutely no questions asked. And as stated before, that comes from many years of driving front drive (first one was a '61 Mini) and years of experience driving front drive cars competively (Regional rallye series)

I also always use snow tires on all 4 wheels for winter driving on my front wheel drive vehicles.

Change that to "you ONLY get what you pay for (if you are lucky) in this department"

I've been using Dunlop Graspics for years - very satisfied. They are not quite a Nokia Hakepelita or a Metzler, but they are nowhere near the price either.

I got the Cooper Disc. HT that matched my current terrain. I only got

2 since they said my tires were okay except for the 1. They put them on the front. I understand the reasoning with the back placement but I guess I just went to my normal way of doing things for now.

There's a noticable difference in the drive. Very quiet and they feel more secure.