Tires for stock wheels?

[Ziginox]

Does anyone have a reccomendation for a good 185/70R13 tire? I need to replace the old winter tires on my GL Coupe, but I'm not sure which. Right now I have it narrowed down to Epic Tour A/T or Aspen Touring A/S from Big-O, but I don't like the sound of either one. I'd also like to stay below $400 for mount+balance+alignment, so around $75 per tire max. I will be keeping at least two of the winter tires to put on the front when it gets bad here again.

 

On a side note, what did these come with from the factory?

[l75eya]

Bridge stones.

[TheWanderer]

I'm in the same boat currently, looking at 175/60-13.  Not a lot of choices available, and I've got it currently narrowed down to Falken Sinceras.  Ebay shows them for $116 a pair, and Discount Tire Direct has them available for $112 a pair with free shipping.  Its a 50k mile rated all season and from all the reviews I've seen they are decent tires.  Not much else that isn't chinese made in our sizes it seems

 

The other option I've found is the General Altimax RT, roughly $208 for a set of 4 from tirerack.com.  Or if you are looking for dirt cheap, just to get you by for now, check a firestone/bridgestone/tires plus garage and look into their Primewell line of tires.  Usually can get a set of 4 for around $100, and for store brand/budget tires they are pretty decent.  If I could get them locally without having to drive to Lincoln (3 hours away) I would go with them.  $38 a tire with free mount and balance, and when they run their buy 3 get 1 free deal on them, all the better

Edited April 30, 2014 by TheWanderer

[suprjohn]

i got these General Altimax Arctic's from TireRack.com for $50 a piece to my door. i'm in a bit of a unique position, as i have a friend with a tire machine, and an old bubble balancer.

 

they are made in Germany, and took very little weight to balance. they are pretty aggressive, with a ton of siping. i've not been running them very long, but so far they are quiet and cleared up some shakes and shimmies from the old mismatched tires that came with my '89 DL wagon. 

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=Altimax+Arctic

 

i might get an additional set of Kumho Solus all seasons to run in the summer, as i've been told that aggressive winter tires often have a soft rubber compound and wear out faster. I've run the Solus' before with good results on my old Sonoma pickup.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Kumho&tireModel=Solus+KR21

 

john

[Ziginox]

I think I've ended up deciding on the Aspen Touring. I was mainly iffy because I couldn't find any reviews, but turns out the Doral SDL 65A is the same thing, and it has pretty good reviews. As for the Falken Sinceras, I've read bad things about them. The Epic Tours are Primewells, which is one of the reasons I really didn't like them.

[TheWanderer]

I think I've ended up deciding on the Aspen Touring. I was mainly iffy because I couldn't find any reviews, but turns out the Doral SDL 65A is the same thing, and it has pretty good reviews. As for the Falken Sinceras, I've read bad things about them. The Epic Tours are Primewells, which is one of the reasons I really didn't like them.

 

 

Bad reviews? 8.4 out of 10 average rating....(with other sites giving them 4 out of 5 stars).  There's always going to be a few that are nitpicky about the little things, don't let that fool ya   Its impossible to please some people.  And even out of all the reviews I've read on these tires, the few that are bad are complaining about tread wear.  Fact is, tires wear and need replaced.  Some faster than others due to how one drives their vehicle Dollars to donuts, the ones complaining about the fast wear beat the tar out of their vehicles and are the type of people that check their oil once every 3 years and change it once every 10 years

 

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/directReviews/ReadReviews?rbqs.rd=13&rbqs.cs=175&rbqs.ra=tires%2Ffalken%2Fhome.do&rbqs.pc=18000&drb.brand=Falken&drb.productCode=18000&rbqs.ar=70

 

Personally I'd rather have a well known tire from a manufacturer I've heard of...Not familiar with Doral/Aspen Touring, but I suspect its yet another low budget chinese made tire.  Primewells get a bad rap, but for the price they are quite a decent tire in my experience (plenty of them I've seen have lasted much longer than their treadwear warranty of 40k miles). They are very similar to Firestone FR380s, which cost about double, and last just as long.  Granted, I'm talking more about the primewell 830/850 line, so I can't really speak to the epic tours.

 

YMMV of course, best of luck

Edited April 30, 2014 by TheWanderer

[Ziginox]

Hrm, I know one of the tires I was looking at was a proper brand but had bad reviews. Maybe it was something from Toyo

[suprjohn]

I don't think Kumho's get a lot of respect, but we sold a lot of them when I worked at the tire shop and never had many issues with them. I've run them on several vehicles and always had good luck with them. The only complaint I remember was a guy saying their super aggressive mud tires didn't track we'll on gravel roads. 

 

John

[TheWanderer]

I've honestly never had any luck with Kuhmo's...every time I've had them they wore super fast and didn't last compared to their mileage warranty.  Best I've ever gotten from them has been 15k miles on a brand new set of Ecstas.  Could just have been me, who knows.  Falken's I've had much better luck with, especially the Ziex 912's (excellent tire).  The Kuhmo's also seemed a bit soft and the ride wasn't always the best.  But again, could just be me

[Subaruist]

In the past I found that finding good tires for 13" rims was difficult at best. - What one mechanic told me was to check out good quality Trailer tires.

He said they can cost less in some cases, and can be found with other features hard to find for 13" automobile tires.

I never did get around to checking that out - maybe it's worth a gander for the heck of it? Never know what you might find....

[TheWanderer]

Just a little update on my part.  I just picked up 2 of those Falken Sincera SN828's to my door from Discount Tire Direct for $99.50 (instead of the normal $112 shipped).  Since they price match, and I found that Tires-easy.com was selling each tire for $40.40 instead of $56 each (as listed at discount tire), I contacted DTD and they gave me the cheaper price, plus shipped it from a closer warehouse and got them in the mail today

 

I've always heard good things about DTD, and now I'm sold.  They will be getting more of my business, and if these tires are as good as the reviews I've read and they will honor this price again, I'll be getting a pair for the front in 2 weeks

 

Give Wyatt a call at DTD, tell him Brian from North Platte sent ya due to his excellent assistance.  His contact info:

 

Wyatt Trottier

Retail Sales Agent

Discount Tire Direct

800-589-6789 ext 51871

[Subaruist]

Just a little update on my part.  I just picked up 2 of those Falken Sincera SN828's to my door from Discount Tire Direct for $99.50 (instead of the normal $112 shipped).  Since they price match, and I found that Tires-easy.com was selling each tire for $40.40 instead of $56 each (as listed at discount tire), I contacted DTD and they gave me the cheaper price, plus shipped it from a closer warehouse and got them in the mail today

 

I've always heard good things about DTD, and now I'm sold.  They will be getting more of my business, and if these tires are as good as the reviews I've read and they will honor this price again, I'll be getting a pair for the front in 2 weeks

 

Give Wyatt a call at DTD, tell him Brian from North Platte sent ya due to his excellent assistance.  His contact info:

 

Wyatt Trottier

 

Retail Sales Agent

 

Discount Tire Direct

 

800-589-6789 ext 51871

 

 - A guy from North Platte, named Wyatt? - sounds kinda dangerous if you ask me, lol....