TIRES THAT WILL LAST?

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DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE BEST TIRE FOR THE MONEY WITH OUR EXTRA DIESEL WEIGHT? I BOUGHT A SET OF COOPER TIRES AND WITH 20K THEY ARE ALMOST WORN OUT. ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED. WHICH SIZE HAS EVERYONE HAD THE BEST LUCK WITH ALSO?

 

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Do yourself a favor and check out Toyo's!
They offer a variety of tread patterns, Load E... . they are quiet, good in the wet, and live a long while!

 

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100,000 + on Michelins!

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'93 LE W250 5spd 3. 54 White Reg Cab
190,000 Miles 07/31/00

 

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I pull GVW at 36,000lbs. I have 60,000 miles an Firestone Steeltex and still better than 1/2 tread life left. Only tires that I have no worn slap out. Just my $ . 02 Mike

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92 Std cab. LE. 215 P-pump reman cummins motor. 5-speed, 3. 54, 105 gal Aux tank in bed. Borgeson shaft, Banks Power pack. 12cm Hot end housing w/wastegate. 4" Exh, Pyro & boost guage, oil temp guage. E-brake. Galaxy DX99V, Used as a Hotshot/express Reg. at 36,000 lbs in 48 states. http://hometown. aol.com/hotshothauler/myhomepage/business.html

 

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I have 154,000 miles on my Michelin LTX M/S 215/85 16 load range E. Those miles have been put on since May 10, 1999.

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1997 3500 club cab, 10' flatbed, auto, 3:54,dual Firestone air bags, 236,000 miles+

 

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Michelin LTX 245/75R 16 E Loads are what I have and they are the best. I've got over 30K on them now and they still look brand new. The stock Goodyears wore out in 38K, then I bought Cooper Discover E Load and just about got 25K out of them (they were horrible ... weak side walls). A few mechanics I know say " you want the best ... get Michelins ... period".

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1997 2500 ST 4x4, 5-speed, 4. 10 axle, TST 60lb boost @ EGT gauges

 

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The more I think about it, you will do just fine with ANYTHING thats not Goodyear or Cooper!

 

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I agree with these guys. I have 68K on my Michelin 245-75-16 "E" LTX/MS and I usually gross out between 30 - 32K lbs. They hold up VERY well and I can still run them the rest of the summer, but when the first snow comes I'm headed to my local tire shop. My next set will be the same everything except the 265's instead of the 245's. I think they will look better and I will gain approx. 400 lbs. more max load range on each tire. They cost a lot, but WELL worth it. Anyone know of a cheaper place to buy tires than Tire Rack? I use their prices to help persuade my local shop to drop their price! Thanks, Jeff

 

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Hey guys,
What you have to remeber for longer tread wear is proper maintenance of your tires. Ratoation at regular intervals, proper alignment, etc. That is the best ways to squeeze a few extra Kmiles out of them.

 

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hey,everybody! Wade's back--where you been??
at the not-even-near"stock" end of the spectrum, some Rickson 19. 5's (can be ordered w/powdercoat to match truck paint) with the Goodyear Unisteels (industrial; steel belts extend up both sidewalls from bead to bead--not your typical off-the-shelf Goodyear tire that we have all disliked in the past) I don't use my truck to its full potential, but after 30K+ the tread depth is nearly like new and once they're bald, they're regroovable--I was expecting 100K-regroove-50-60K and discard---I suspect they'll go 125 before groovetime---BIG initial $$, but may be cheaper in the "long run"---rich

 

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Does the 19. 5's effect the ABS? I was considering these tires, but when I asked a local shop about 235/85's (bigger diameter) they said they wouldn't do it because of the ABS :confused .
I really would love the 19. 5's, but geez the money...

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98 Quad cab 4X4 2500 12 valve,5 speed,3. 54 rears, 8' bed. Boost and egt gauges but basicly stock. 55,000 Mi as of 8/21/00.
NRA life member. High power/IDPA.

 

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I don't know if you have a 4wd or not. On my 2wd I installed Cooper SRM II's (Super Road Master). I here all you guys saying how bad coopers are, I have a feeling you are talking about the Off Road tires. I already put 10k on these and they still look brand new. There MS and come in 235/85 or 245/75 (and many other sizes). I used the factory 245 size.

They are the only load range E tire I could find that had a 60k mile tread wear warrantee (you have to ask about the warrantee, they don't seem to tell you up front) and they cost $35. 00 each less then the michelins.

Another choice is the Goodyear G-159's But they have a steel sidewall, and I here you need to give your passangers a "barf bag" because they ride so rough.

Originally posted by SHANETROTTER:
DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE BEST TIRE FOR THE MONEY WITH OUR EXTRA DIESEL WEIGHT? I BOUGHT A SET OF COOPER TIRES AND WITH 20K THEY ARE ALMOST WORN OUT. ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED. WHICH SIZE HAS EVERYONE HAD THE BEST LUCK WITH ALSO?

[This message has been edited by TowPro (edited 08-25-2000). ]

 

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Rich M:
I want to politely ask you a question: How does one justify the $2500 cost of Ricksons when Michelins run 100,000+ miles on stock rims? I can't, for the life of me, understand the reason for spending all that money. But, then again, I've purchased items for my truck that are a little difficult to "justify" from a cost savings standpoint, too. This is a harmless question, Rich, so don't take offense.

 

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Tire life is use and truck specfic. I think Michelins are good tires. We have some 99 TD that have the LTX factories worn smooth in 28K. I got 31K on the factory Goodyears, 34K out of Donlups and 60K out of Toyos. Have over 40K on my second set of Toyos and lots of tread left.

If your eating all 16" rubber (including Michelin XPS) in under 40K and driving 150K a year you can justify 19. 5's.

The harder and heavier you pull especially with BOMBed power, the more you will eat rubber and need to go to more of a commercial tires.

Compared to all the big block gas, trucks we have run over the last 10 years, none have been harder on rear tires then our newer Dodge Diesels!

jjw
ND

jjw

 

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I need some input on tire pressure. When I bought my used 97', the dealer threw on a set of 235-85-16 Generals. I run 70lbs front and 60lbs rear. The front have a slightly rounded profile which I would expect from a rim made for 215's and appear to be at about 1/2 life. The back tires profile flat and show alot of center wear. The rear traction is starting to get "hairy" on a wet road. I won't make numerous excuses but have never rotated the tires. Which direction should I go with my rear air pressure for more even wear when I put on new skins?

Most of my miles are either empty or pulling a trailer to share the load. I don't want to take the time to vary the air pressure per my useage especially with the dually.

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97'3500 SLT CC,4x4,5 spd,4. 10,86K,EBY aluminum flatbed,Dee Zee running boards,Dee Zee Platinum drop boxes,Mag-Hytec,BD Brake,Pyscotty,Jardine 4",Geno's monster tip,TST plate,Bilstein,Isspro,PIAA Superwhites,Tekonsha Sentinel

 

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I've got 55K on the factory Michelins, I really can't complain because I drive it like it's a Viper!!! #ad
#ad
#ad

I'd like to do the 19. 5 thing, but can any of the resident experts tell me if this will fudge up my ABS ??
The tires will not make it until the winter.

 

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I have 93,000 miles on the factory stock goodyears that came on the truck new in 1995. I have rotated them every 10,000 miles without fail. A tire dealer once told me to stand the tires up in other words keep the pressure up close to the sidewall max. I am confident that I will see 100,000 miles out of these tires. FYI I tow a 24 ft trvl trl. and have done a little Bombing (230/605 tst plate, k&n filter, & primelok.

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greyghost

 

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... A tire dealer once told me to stand the tires up in other words keep the pressure up close to the sidewall max. ... [/B]

Depends on your usual load. If you normally have 2000 lbs. on the rear axle, you can probably get away with keeping the tires near the max pressure.

The problem with doing that when normally unladen is that the rear tire tread will bulge too much; the outside edges of the tread will not contact the pavement. Whilst gentle readers are free to pressurize their tires any way they want, I will personally keep my tires pressured so I get good tread contact with the road. #ad


As to the 19. 5s interfering wth the ABS, this may not be a problem after all. When I installed my 19. 5s, the Abbott box almost immediately caused the ABS to engage whenever I was braking under 5-10 MPH. I recently re-terminated the connections and the problem vanished.

Technically, the problem appears to be that the Abbott box 'conditions' the RWAL sensor signal to about 400mV. Unfortunately, the signal is near, or lower than, 400mV at 3 MPH or so. It doesn't take much connector resistance to drop the signal below the Abbott box's threshold of detection. When this happens, the Abbott box reports 0 MPH; the CAB, suddenly seeing 0 MPH where it had just been seeing 6 MPH, engages the ABS. With good solid connectors and connections, the Abbott box will read down to 3MPH or a tad lower; under 3MPH (actually 3-5 MPH according to the service manual), the CAB does not engage the ABS at all.

Dan at Rickson said that only about 1% of all his Abbott customers had problems; no sense or order could be made of the trucks with the problem. Hot or cold, big or small, heavy or light, light or dark, RWAL or 4WAL; nothing correlated. After bench testing a box, and subsequently 'correcting' the problem on my original box, 1% is in the right ball park for connector-related electrical problems.

If you install the Abbott box yourself, *solder* the signal (input and output) connectors, even if you use crimp-style connectors; the current is low enough to warrant the solder.

4WAL systems will be a bit trickier. Using a single Abbott box, the rear wheels will appear, to the CAB, to be turning slower than the fronts. However, since most folks only put tires 10%-12% larger than stock, the CAB will ignore this difference UNDER NORMAL BRAKING; it *only* engages the ABS when it sees a 20%-30% speed difference between any two sensors.

HOWEVER, if you are braking hard enough to cause the rear tires to slip, the ABS *will* kick on sooner with the Abbott box than without. Remember the 20%-30% slippage? With 10% larger tires, you are *already* halfway there.

[Note: a tire 20% larger than stock is about 36"; one 30% larger is about 39". ]

Planning to install a *big* lift kit and 45" tires and you have 4WAL? Don't use a single Abbott box; your ABS will engage *every* time you step on the brake!

Do you have 4WAL and want to be *certain* about proper ABS operation? Use three Abbott boxes and correct each of the three sensor signals.

In my bench tests of the Abbott box, I determined that it can adequately correct a pure sinewave signal from the RWAL sensor from about 3MPH (where the input voltage get just high enough) to well over 200 MPH; this is good for using a 50% correction factor so your speedo is 1/2 off. I also found that the Abbot box will correct a square wave input (such as that from the CAB to the PCM) from about 2MPH to well over 4000 MPH. #ad


I still haven't finished investigating the Abbott box. I believe I can adjust the output so that it can drive the PCM directly. This will take a little more time. If/when I figure this out, the Abbott box can be installed between the CAB and the PCM; this will eliminate *all* ABS problems related to correcting the speedo/odo.

In the meantime, I believe y'all can use the Abbott box on your RWAL Rams with no problems; just solder the connectors to the wires, even if you crimp them first. If you have 4WAL, you have to decide if you can live with the ABS engaging sooner than normally expected under very hard braking, but *not* engaging unexpecctedly under normal-to-moderate braking. Of course, when I mentioned this to my dealer's service manager, he seemed to think that Dodge's diagnostic system now *can* program the CAB for any size tire. Next time I'm down there and he has time, I will ask for verification (along with software release numbers!)

As to why one would spend $2000 on tires and wheels, I did it to get 'guaranteed' high-mileage tires; I hate having to buy tires every year or two. A side benefit is they stick like glue in hard corners; they also have much stiffer sidewalls, which translates into better steering response and handling. Dave Fritz, who *used* to go through a new set of tires on each of his trips to Alaska, recently completed his annual trek on a new set of Toyo 19. 5's. He might have worn off 1/4 of the tread; the tires should be good to go again next year.

This leads me to the question of why some folks get *great* tire mileage and some get poor mileage. Can the difference be correlated to a 'paved roads - good mileage' vs. 'gravel roads - poor mileage'? As I understand, gravel roads eat tires for breakfast, dinner and supper, and snack on them between meals.
The commercial tires will generally last longer on gravel; at least the Toyos do!

There *is* a drawback to the 19. 5s, as I found out. To get decent tread contact, I have to keep the rears at about 60 PSI, the fronts at about 70 PSI. Unfortunately, the commercial tires do not have a bead that snaps into place upon pressurization. "So?" you ask. Well, if you are BOMBed and like hard launches, don't be surprised to find the wheel (and weights) no longer matching the tire they were supposed to balance! At least for my Yokos, 60 PSI is not quite enough to keep the wheel from spinning inside the tire. And once the tire and wheel become mismatched, be prepared for some *hefty* vibrations; a simple balance job won't correct the vibes; the tires and wheels will need to be rematched. (This time, I marked the wheels and tires with nail polish; if needed in the future, I'll be able to re-match them myself!)

I would imagine that a good, hard braking on a rough road might cause the tires to slip on the wheel as well. Of course, if you screw the tire to the wheel, you aren't likely to have this problem! Also, if you always run near rated capacity and have the tires pumped up accordingly, you shouldn't have a problem either.

All in all, I like my 19. 5s and am glad I spent the money on them. Unfortunately, some little hoodla, (the correct plural of 'hoodlum'?) either in my neighborhood or at the motocross I went to Saturday, stole all four of the nice chrome or stainless valve stem caps. When I replace them, I'll be certain to apply a lock nut behind them!

Enough of this techo-babble and raving!

Fest3er

 

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Originally posted by EZ94:
Rich M:
I want to politely ask you a question: How does one justify the $2500 cost of Ricksons when Michelins run 100,000+ miles on stock rims? I can't, for the life of me, understand the reason for spending all that money. But, then again, I've purchased items for my truck that are a little difficult to "justify" from a cost savings standpoint, too. This is a harmless question, Rich, so don't take offense.

Howdy--I generally don't take offense, nearly as often as I accidentally give it---I suspect the major portion of the admittedly large tag (set of 5, BTW) was the rims themselves--(one-time purchase)--- these wheel/tires were originally owned by a fellow Ram pilot who had that cartoon black cloud over his head all the time... you know the one. bad luck always raining on him. #ad
He had a blowout of a "normal" tire on I-15 that majorly smacked the crap out of everything from the fuel filler neck to the taillight, and he swore to himself "never again", so he ordered the Ricksons... not long after, (and decently BOMBed) his wife made him sell the truck... I bought the very not much used set from him... 3+ birds w/1 stone
a. he recouped a cost that would have just gone into the resale
b. I filled up the wheelwells better
c. I've still got the Michelins stacked up in the rear garage as temps while these get a regroove (eventually)
d. since I don't weigh anything that goes in the truck (not even myself) I've got oodles of safety factor...
e. even with the steel sidewalls, they don't ride nearly as much like a round brick as I originally expected---(see other driver's G-159 comment above)
and with the mild (10. 3%) increase in effective radius, I get a little fuel econ. bonus---can be electronically corrected with that Abbot box, but 10% is easy to figure in head, even while driving---(edit----didn't see silent 3's (fest3er pron. "fester") giant reply about the Abbot's goofy behavior/quirks---seems might be more trouble than worth, when only a little dia. difference)

they actually handle better than the OEM Michelins, IMHO----rich


[This message has been edited by rich m (edited 08-29-2000). ]

 

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WOOOOOSH... ... An SR-71 just flew over my head!!!:rolleyes

Thank you for the detailed reply, Fest3er. I am not familiar with the abbott box. Not being a mechanic by trade, much of what you wrote went over my head. I get the idea though.
I have a 4x4 ans it does have the 4 wheel ABS. These problems don't sound as if they happen often,(rich m) so I may go for the 19. 5's.

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98 Quad cab 4X4 2500 12 valve,5 speed,3. 54 rears, 8' bed. Boost and egt gauges but basicly stock. 55,000 Mi as of 8/21/00.
NRA life member. High power/IDPA.