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i personally like any of the hankcook ventus comfort tire series.
Truth is, there are tons of Korean tires and even some Chinese tires that are very good. I've used Hankook and thought they were fine. My current are Kumho, and they're fine too. I consistently buy near the cheapest available on reputable sites like Tire Rack and have never had a problem. Tires just aren't that complicated, and the big companies spend more on marketing than anything else.
Sumitomo appears to have bought or licensed the Dunlop SP Sport 5000. I've owned three sets and they're fine.
Originally Posted by alx
the pirellies are pure garbage btw... pretty much any pirelli tire is garbage...
I wouldn't go that far, but no big name tire is worth the price premium. Get soft highway tires and you'll be fine. Anything will be a noise improvement over the Scorpions, which are all terrain tires.
The only reason I wouldn't get Chinese tires, at least not yet, is the Chinese have an annoying tendency to cut corners - like mixing recycled rubber in. Tire manufacturers that have outsourced to China have gotten burned. No idea whether this is still a problem; just noting it's been a problem in the past.
Then again, good ol' American Firestone 500's turned into hula hoops at 71 mph.
given proper pricing i gladly run chinese tires. with one exception- low profile tires. the reason is i have yet to see stiff sidewall on a chinese budget tire. so the money you save on said tires are more than spent on fixing bent rims.
I've run Goodyear Fortera SL's with great success. Get around 60k miles a set before they get noisy but that's from the suspension angles vs the tires. They are also highly resistant to nails and other sharp road debris. The Continental's seemed to get nails/screws that caused pressure loss every 10k miles.
I wouldn't go that far, but no big name tire is worth the price premium. Get soft highway tires and you'll be fine. Anything will be a noise improvement over the Scorpions, which are all terrain tires.
Except Michelin which is well worth the price premium. The performance comfort and quietness is unmatched.
Toyo Versado CUV, quietest, smoothest tires I've had, excellent in snow as well. I have over 50,000 miles on the current set and am amazed at the amount of traed still left. I can't say enough good about them.
They aren't popular tires and most of the tire shops said to me "are you sure that's what you want? We have other really good tires".
I'm on my second set. Long treadlife, quiet, WAY better than the michelins that came on the truck when I bought it (installed by an MB dealer, I believe it was the OE tire model but not sure)
Totally agree with what amthatiam said. Best tire I've ever bought for any car.. and amazing they last that long on a GL which is really a heavy truck and should be going through tires fast!
I'm generally a big fan of Michelin's and was planning on putting the Premier's on. I have no doubt I would have been just as happy with those as other Michelin's, in the past. But it was quite a big jump to go with them and I kinda wanted to try something different. I went with the Versado CUV and have been pleasantly surprised at how nice of a ride they offer. I only have about 10,000 miles on them, but they are wearing evenly and don't show much tread wear.
You would have been very unhappy with the Michelins by now then
I drove at least 80% highway for a year (I drive a lot) and had about 30,000km (18,000 miles) on the set of Michelins. By the end of the one year, they were almost down to the wear bars.
No alignment problems on the truck, and tires wore evenly. They just wore out fast!
I would have to look at my records, but I think I got about 60,000km (from memory, but I'm sure I'm not off by more than 5000km either way) on the first set of Toyos. I'm now on my second set of Toyo's. Basically they lasted twice as long.
With mostly (2/3 or more) highway driving I'm sure you'll get 35,000 miles out of these tires.. or somewhere around there.
BHA, did you have the Premier's? Or a different model? Just curious as I've had excellent experiences with Michelin's in terms of mileage in the past, and the review I saw for the Premier's all touted long mileage, too. Maybe your Michelin model wasn't a "long life" type tire and meant more for other purposes.
Either way, that's good to hear you've been happy with the CUV's!
Can't remember which tire model it was exactly. When I bought the truck it had brand new tires on it. The dealership sold the truck originally, then took it back in trade. They put new tires on (amongst other things) and sold it to me.
So it was whatever tire they were carrying in 19" at the time. I believe it was the same one that came on the truck when new, but can't be 100% sure. It was a good quality Michelin (I do remember it wasn't the lower end models, like something Costco or a discount tire shop would sell).
Okay, so I stomped around saying "Tire Rack is awesome" and "I like my Kumhos just fine!"
I'm man enough to admit that things change.
Got a rather nasty bit of steering wheel shake. Appeared suddenly, and got steadily worse over just a few miles. This is a tire coming apart. I lifted up the front tires and found one has radial runout, clearly visible. Maybe 1/8 inch. This after the tires performed unremarkably for 28k miles.
As luck would have it, I have a spare set of wheels and tires, as I had decided to transition to off roading this truck. So stopping driving on the tire is not a life-changing event. Change out the tires.
Here's the scary part. The tires all displayed some sort of weird camber wear. When I pulled the front tires off, at first I said, aw, my bad, alignment no good. However:
1. The previous tires I was able to wear down almost perfectly uniformly - at worst, very slight camber wear.
2. The GL camber is not adjustable.
3. I just had the alignment checked and micro-adjusted (was in spec) by my indy shop.
The camber wear is one thing, but I'm definitely not happy about the fact it seems to have led to tread separation: That worn point is what?!? Plus, a gap opening shouldn't lead to the tread separating from the belts.
The tires are almost shot anyway, but still - this is not good tire behavior. Like I said, two previous sets and I had minimal issues with camber wear. I pushed the wear a bit far with one prior set, and got through to belts, and they didn't delaminate.
I had a Datsun 510 with massive positive rear camber. Wore my Yokohama A008's on the inside. It was what I expected, not like this.
So these tires are doing something weird - and frankly dangerous.
Here's where it gets massively irritating: I wrote it up and contacted Tire Rack. I said, I'm not looking for $, just want to let people know these Kumho tires are doing something dangerous. I got a reply back offering 10% off, and saying a bunch of reasons I might have caused this. Thanks, I said, but I didn't ask for cash, and I didn't cause this. More ways I could have caused this. Could you help me get through to Kumho, then?
Now, in the past I've had a great relationship with Tire Rack. I first got into them for racing tires. Sales guys I've talked to there have been super knowledgeable. This time, though, it just descended into braindead nonsense, and ended with them giving me the main phone number for Kumho.
I had already emailed Kumho with the story, and got no response, so I called. There was one irritable girl answering the warranty desk phone, and she hung up on me.
I since found out Kumho has had recalls and complaints and lawsuits about tread separation. They recalled racing tires - that's telling you something.
tl;dr The Tire Rack I knew and loved is gone, and Kumho is not a tire I'd buy again.
Last edited by eric_in_sd; 02-08-2017 at 09:11 PM.
For the W164/X164, W166/X166, W251 there is only Front “Toe” adjustment. No Camber (or Caster) to change tire contact angle.
Also front lower arm inner rear bushings are the first to fail.
We saw the need therefore to not only design and develop replacements for these 4 front main suspension bushings but also resolve at the same time lack of Camber and Caster adjustment!
The unique patented design allows precise single wrench adjustment for the front bushings (Camber) for the first time and adjustment of the rear front bush mount for Caster (and resolving the early failure of these rear bushings).
Rear suspension there is OEM Camber and Toe adjustment. The K-MAC kit doubles the existing adjustment range – is also single wrench adjustable accurately under load direct on alignment rack and also replaces the 4 highest wearing rear bushes at the same time.
Kits come with bush extraction tools and instructions.
W164/X164, W166/X166, W251 Front Camber and Caster #504016M $595 Rear Camber and Toe #504026K $480
Delivery $40 one kit or $50 front and rear kits. We accept PayPal, Visa or MasterCard.
01-31-2017, 04:13 PM
