mefferso

First off, I have (still am) been going through past threads on this.

Good news is I have 18" rims, so lots of choices. I live in Louisiana, thus I have no need for good snow performance. Also don't care about how fast they wear. What I do want is a smooth and quiet tire.

What top ones would you recommend?

eric_in_sd

Tire Rack. Lots of apparently independent tests. Don't place too much weight on the user reviews; they're a mixed bag regardless of the tire.

I'm going to get tons of static for saying this, but: I get the cheapest tires in the Summer category on Tire Rack. My current set is Kumho Ecsta; I'm on track to get about 35k miles out of them, they're good rain tires and have decent dry pavement behavior. They were LOUD when new, but quieted down quickly.

By the way, monitor your tread depth carefully. Get a cheap micrometer and use the depth gauge on it. Doing this, I figured out that the recommended pressures are nonsense. On the Ecstas, I've run 38 front, 43 rear and they're still underinflated. I've got about 5k miles left and the tires are showing signs of underinflation, so I set the pressure to 40F / 45R. Rotated the tires front-rear at halfway thru the life. Rear wears significantly faster. By doing this diligently, I've gotten tires almost perfectly evenly worn at the end of life.

mefferso

I'd for sure go through Tirerack if they didn't have a distribute location in Louisiana. Since they do, I have to pay taxes. That negates a good portion of their discount. But cheaper is cheaper. Haven't tried Kumho before, but don't want anything loud like that. I was thinking more along the lines of Bridgestone, Michelin, or Continental.

Anyone try the Bridgestone Dueler h/l alenza plus?

a2j

I run Continental CrossContact Eco plus for about 25k miles now. No complaints. Noise and wear levels are very good.

eric_in_sd

The point is:
1. Tire Rack has lots of reviews. You don't have to buy there.
2. Don't go by any one person's opinion. For example, guys were *****ing about the Ecsta noise, but no one pointed out that after a thousand miles or so they quieted down a lot.
3. You don't have to pay a ton of money to get good tires. There is bad out there, but by and large mainstream tires are pretty much ok.

Quiet tires tend to have tighter tread channels (also, channels that run around the tire instead of across the tread), and to a lesser extent, softer compound. Typically they're worse in the rain. Often they have softer sidewalls and thus handle worse. Long-lived tires have harder tread compound. I always would get the softest tires I could find, but now I'm going off-road more and so it's harder, noisier tires. It's all about compromises, and there's no one perfect tire.

If you really don't want to put a lot of thought into it, just pick a cheaper tire out of the Tire Rack Crossover / SUV Touring category. Also, search by tire size, not vehicle; more options come up because you may not need a 130 mph tire. Then find that tire at some out of state shipper.

For what it's worth, Conti came up dead last in TR's survey summary:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...8&cameFrom=TSR

Often, OEM tires fare poorly with customers. Dunno why that is.

Looks like Sumitomo picked up the Dunlop SP Sport 5000 tire molds. I ran with those for a long time; they're fine.

a2j

There are two Continental tires on that list. Both of them are in top 4 for miles reported. One of them seems to be a terrible choice.

dieseldoc

Get Conti or Michelins, stay away from from Bridgestone and Good Year. Noisy and Don't stay balanced.

eric_in_sd

Right. The Conti Eco seems like it's well received. The lousy one is the OEM.

mefferso

Appreciate all the input. I first had Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza Plus put on. Compared to worn out Continental 4x4 Contacts, the Bridgestones were noisier and road rougher on small bumps. They balanced very well (road for balanced) and were quite smooth on the interstate. My wife complained too much about the noise and bumpiness on crappy roads. So I had the shop swap them out for Continentals free of charge. It was a noticeable improvement. I guess the combo of deeper treads and harder compound (gives them the 80,000 mileage rating) resulted in a louder and bumpier tire. Happy wife, happy life

eric_in_sd

Yup - I can't understand saving money on tires by having them last a long time. If a set costs $1,000 and lasts 50k miles, that's $0.02 per mile. A 100k mile tire set drops that cost to $0.01 per mile. You get louder tires that don't stick well and your wife complains, but you saved a penny a mile. I get 30k mile tires and never had a problem.

In certain applications, you need an open tread and strong, hard compound. My trail tires are louder, but hold up on rocks and grip loose material well.

Pretty impressed that you got the tires swapped for free.

mefferso

I agree. The long mileage rating is pointless for us too since she'll put maybe 3k-4k miles per year on the 450. The tires will dry rot before wearing down anyways.

Can't take full credit for the tire swap, but it was a calculated choice. I found out that Bridgestone has a "30 day buy and try guarantee" (http://www.bridgestonetire.com/custo...es/buy-and-try) So figured why not try the Alenza plus.

eric_in_sd

Good for you. I had no idea Bridgestone had that program.

Funny comment about the dry rot. Interesting image: The tires crumble out from underneath the car. Kinda hard to see that happening unless the car is parked outside all the time, but who knows.

lkchris

Just remember that tires aren't suitable for your GL unless they are at least ...

speed range H

load range 110

eric_in_sd

The spec is 110/H. But most people can pull back from these specs and never have an issue.

H is 130 mph, meaning it will run forever at 130 without flying apart. I dunno where you live, but I have only ever gone 110 in my GL, and then only briefly. So for my driving, R is more than enough.

Load rating? 07 GL is 6400 lbs, or 3200 per axle. It's butt-heavy, so call it 3500 lbs, 1750 lbs per tire. That's a load rating of 100. Put 600 lbs on the hitch, and you need 2050 lbs load rating, or 105, per tire.

110 load rating gives 2337 lbs per tire. But this gives substantial reserve for when you want to transport gold bullion in the back compartment.

My R-rated trail tires wouldn't show up in a search for GL, but did based on tire size. So I suggest search on size and if you see an attractive tire, check the load and speed specs and determine for yourself if they'll work.

Here's a link on what the spec ratings mean: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=35