AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
The 2014 RAV4 has 51K miles and the OEM Conti CrossContacts were at 4/32s and with my recently new commute of 75 miles/day from 5000 feet elevation to 3200 feet with the possibility of bad roads it was time for new tires. The OEM Contis have stayed perfectly in balance with 10K rotations and have worn evenly but have a road tread pattern of ribs and I wanted a bit more bite and they have always been a bit noisy and the RAV doesn't have the best sound damping. I considered the BITOG darlings Cooper and General but discovered on Tire Rack that this newer generation LX20 model has great reviews and decided to give Conti another go. Went in to Discount Tire on Black Friday and ordered up a set in 225/65-17 and went in this past Thursday morning at 8am to get them installed. 36 minutes later they were pulling the car out ready to go. 3 guys made the change over. They were all uniformly 4 lbs over the placard 33 psi as usual. When the service writer first came out to the RAV to get the odo reading and gauge the tires I had him look at all the wheels and confirm there were only a couple of small chips with no other scratches or damage and told him I'd taken photos and explained I had a problem with the DT where I previously lived and was just being cautious. I think he put the word out to be careful with this job but I did notice that they roll the tires around the floor then lift them up and stand them on the wheel and rotate them around as they dress them... with the possibility of grinding any grit around on the face of the wheel. I looked very closely and didn't find any scratches but it's a poor practice.
Anyway, I'm happy with first impressions of this tire. First thing I noticed was they have a rim protector molded in that must be 3/8" wide, awesome! Second thing is the tread is more agressive that I expected from the photos online. Some nice edges instead of smooth ribs and grooves on the OEMs. They're noticeably quieter on the same commute, to be expected going from worn tires to new, and they'e softer riding and well balanced. I'll get a nice heat cycle on them this week when we take a trip to Phoenix. The Black Friday discount plus a Conti rebate got the cost under $500. A couple of pics of the rim protector and tread.
Anyway, I'm happy with first impressions of this tire. First thing I noticed was they have a rim protector molded in that must be 3/8" wide, awesome! Second thing is the tread is more agressive that I expected from the photos online. Some nice edges instead of smooth ribs and grooves on the OEMs. They're noticeably quieter on the same commute, to be expected going from worn tires to new, and they'e softer riding and well balanced. I'll get a nice heat cycle on them this week when we take a trip to Phoenix. The Black Friday discount plus a Conti rebate got the cost under $500. A couple of pics of the rim protector and tread.