Tires, this is B.S

[Bird]

The radials will not roll under and pop the bead off unless (1) they're under inflated, or (2) they're grossly overloaded. The usual reason people give for using bias ply tires is that they're cheaper. Yes, they're cheaper to buy, but in reality the radials are considerably cheaper because they last longer and hold up better.

I went to radials on my fifth-wheel travel trailer (full time home at the time) in 1990. A brother who also lived full time in a fifth-wheel and was in the tire business still preferred the bias ply trailer tires for about another year before he realized he was wasting money and went to radials.

 

[orangebluegreen]

I have serious concerns about the quality of rubber in the tires. I have a 30 year old motorhome that gets used for the races, it had the original 20+ year old tires on the rear that had cracks so deep I was amazed they didn't leak. Never once had a problem with the OLD bias tires. I replaced all of them with radials, nice smooth soft ride (bilstein shocks also), but this happened about 1.5 years ago (note rusted cords, hasn't been driven since due to fuel prices). This rear tire had less than 1000 miles on it. I never did take it back and ask Bridgestone about it. I never felt any flatspotting which is what I suspected, but I am also wondering if the trailer wash caused the water to lay where the tires sit and caused rubber damage. I noticed new windshield wipers had totally disintegrated on the MH and another vehicle not long after using an aluminum shine type wash. BUT, I don't see any rubber problems around the area and no signs of weathering. I had never had a problem with these products before. I hate the thought that the other 5 tires could suffer as well. The front tires are a wider regular type of tread compared to these rears. When it blew it was like a bomb had gone off and I was at 65 MPH or so.

 

[magyarbacsi]

Mnany years ago, I bought a set of expensive tires for my 68 Vette. In a shor time, I picked up a roofing nail in the side wall that Good Year decided not to warranty because it was not on the surface that contacts the road. I will skip the hot exchange of words and come to the point. I waited till there were many customers and began to argue about how useless a warranty is when it is voided when needed and how such an expensive tire can be defeated by a small nail. (Initially I was told it could not be patched and that they would pro rate the warranty) I walked out with a new tire replacement and did not cost me a dime. A tactic I learned from another digruntled customer.

 

[Bird]

A tactic I learned from another digruntled customer

You say it was not a defective tire; that you ran over a roofing nail that punctured the sidewall. And you think you did the right thing? If you got a "road hazard" warranty when you bought the tires, I'd agree, but otherwise . . . . well, some customers are just unreasonable and some businesses will give in, while others run such customers off the premises, and should.

 

[joes_427_vette]

I had 2 Goodyear Eagle ply seperations, 60 series tires on my car. When I went to sears they say Goodyear will prorate it for you. Called Goodyear, they said the tire was made to sears specs. so they are not goodyear eagles like the sidewall says but aftermarket sears tires.
Long story short, I WILL NEVER buy another goodyear tire in this lifetime. Friends have had similar experiences. They work well on racing shows for all of fifteen minutes. I think Tony Stewart gave them some of his thoughts at one point.

 

[Bird]

I had 2 Goodyear Eagle ply seperations, 60 series tires on my car. When I went to sears they say Goodyear will prorate it for you. Called Goodyear, they said the tire was made to sears specs. so they are not goodyear eagles like the sidewall says but aftermarket sears tires.
Long story short, I WILL NEVER buy another goodyear tire in this lifetime. Friends have had similar experiences. They work well on racing shows for all of fifteen minutes. I think Tony Stewart gave them some of his thoughts at one point.

Unfortunately, that same situation applies to many, many products. I learned years ago that you cannot get warranty work done by DeVilbiss on Craftsman air-compressors even though a data plate shows it to be made by DeVilbiss and all parts are the same; not just made to Sears specs, but the same. However, Sears buys in quantity and gets a discount to agree to handle any warranty issues themselves. And when I had a question and wanted a manual for the FEL valve on my Kubota tractor, I called the valve manufacturer and they wouldn't even tell me anything at all; said it was "proprietary" with Kubota and any information had to come from Kubota.

 

[john_bud]

I had 2 Goodyear Eagle ply seperations, 60 series tires on my car. When I went to sears they say Goodyear will prorate it for you. Called Goodyear, they said the tire was made to sears specs. so they are not goodyear eagles like the sidewall says but aftermarket sears tires.
Long story short, I WILL NEVER buy another goodyear tire in this lifetime. Friends have had similar experiences. They work well on racing shows for all of fifteen minutes. I think Tony Stewart gave them some of his thoughts at one point.

I had a similar issue with badyear tires. One got a radial pull so hard it was unreal. Badyear told me to that there was only a few 32nds left above the minimum and the prorate was like 10 bucks. That was on a tire that was 6-8 months old at that point and had 15k miles. The tires were down to 2 / 32nds after 22k miles and 12 months. Junk.

Goodyear warranty = telling customers to pound sand.

I'll only buy goodyear again after joe gets them (twice).

jb

 

[SnowRidge]

You say it was not a defective tire; that you ran over a roofing nail that punctured the sidewall. And you think you did the right thing? If you got a "road hazard" warranty when you bought the tires, I'd agree, but otherwise . . . . well, some customers are just unreasonable and some businesses will give in, while others run such customers off the premises, and should.

Bird, I have had the same thing happen to me. I once bought tires with an "all road hazard" warranty, which was denied because I had run over something that cut the sidewall. I went gently that time. I won't do it again.

 

[horse7]

Years ago I had a full sized Blazer. When the cheap OE Uniroyals wore out, I went to a Goodyear dealer and they sold me light truck tires, nylon bias.

Well, like nylon tires everywhere (I found out after buying them) they flatspot and in my case resonate at 40mph with the suspension-- and I had to drive the first 5 miles or so in a 40mph zone

After about 50K of this, the Muncie 4sp transmission broke (GM design defect, they save a nickel, waste my time nothing to do with the tires) and the vehicle was on blocks for 6 months while I fixed the transmission, replaced the springs (yep, those notorious 1/2 ton rear GM springs... 3rd set was 3/4ton springs, boing boing but lasted longer), and fixed a few other items.

After the repairs were complete, the vehicle wandered all over the road. I checked (and mechanics checked) dimensions, this that and the other thing, but still wandered. Some roads, I'd do 35 in a 55 since it was too dangerous to go faster, tires would lock onto a crack in the road and pull the Blazer off to the side (and sometimes the "side" was the other lane!). Finally after hunting the problem for months and getting cussed at a lot by people unhappily stuck behind me, I replaced the tires with BFG Radial All Terrains. Problem gone. And the ride was a heck of lot nicer too!

Still don't know what the problem was. Never going to buy nylons again that is for sure, I like BFG and wish they made a better E range tire in the pattern and size I want (using Bridgestone Revos now (F350, not Blazer), relatively short tire lifespan but the Revos stick to the road really well, slightly better rep for heavy trailers than BFG KOs).

 

[Bird]

I once bought tires with an "all road hazard" warranty, which was denied

Way back, many years ago, many, if not most, tire manufacturers included a "road hazard" warranty. For no more than we had to give warranty on, I think the manufacturers made a mistake when they quit doing that. I don't know whether any tire manufacturer still provides a road hazard warranty, but some dealers do; some charge extra for it and some just include it.

Before the days of radial tires, I liked nylon tires because they usually held together and lasted longer. However, when bias ply nylon tires were cold, they did have a flat spot on the bottom that would make for rough riding until they warmed up. The worst I had personally was my 1973 Winnebago Brave motorhome. I never had to replace or rebalance a tire on that motorhome, but every time we started out with the tires cold, we had the thump, thump, thump and dishes rattling in the cabinets for the first few miles.

I don't know how often tires of different brands cause a vehicle to pull one direction or the other, but it sure does happen. The first time I saw it was in 1991 in Anchorage when a customer brought in a new small, compact Pontiac for a front end alignment and the alignment checked out perfect to begin with. Sure enough it pulled hard to one side, we swapped the front tires and it pulled hard the other direction. We moved the front tires to the rear and rear to the front and cured the problem, even though we couldn't find a thing wrong with any of the tires.

Then I bought my current 2001 Ford Ranger in December, 2004. It had what appeared to be almost new radial tires, but a brand I'd never heard of and couldn't find anything, even on the Internet, about them. But it pulled to the right. I had a front alignment done that didn't change a thing, but a tire rotation fixed it. I've since replaced those tires with BFGoodrich Long Trail Radials.

In fact, I've been using BFGoodrich tires with good luck for several years, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the fact that my brothers used to be Goodrich dealers.