Goodyear Wrangler "OWL"?

[Jimmy9190]

Anyone heard of this tire? I am still shopping for tires for my Dakota. I called a tire store here where I live and they quoted me $383.00 out the door for a set of 4 Goodyear "OWL" tires. The store manager said this is a replacement/equivalent tire for the Goodyear RT-S, but Goodyear only makes the "OWL" in one size, which just happens to be the 235/75R15 I need for my truck.

I have searched here, Tire Rack and on Google for info on it, but the "OWL" makes it bring up every outlined white lettered tire in existence. The "OWL" is not listed on the Goodyear website either.

Like everyone else, I want to get the best tire I can get for the least amount of money. I don't go off-road and I don't do any towing. I just need a good highway all-season tire for my Dakota. If anyone here has info on this tire, or the Goodyear RT-S I would be very appreciative. Thanks.

 

[Danh]

I suspect the "OWL" simply means "Outlined White Letters". He should be able to give you the model of the tire that has the outlined white letters over the phone so you can do some research.

 

[Scum_Frog]

Originally Posted By: Danh
I suspect the "OWL" simply means "Outlined White Letters". He should be able to give you the model of the tire that has the outlined white letters over the phone so you can do some research.


+1

 

[Jimmy9190]

It's a Wrangler. The guy said that is the only model designation for the tire. It's called a Wrangler OWL and he said they had stopped making the RT-S a year ago, but they came out recently with the Wrangler OWL and it is a similar tire to the RT-S, but they only make it in that one size, 235/75R15.

 

[kkreit01]

Sounds like some generic GY with "Outlined White Letters". They are probably similar to the Tracker that WalMart sells. I doubt they (nor the RTS) will be very good. That's a very common size. A quick check listed General Grabber HTS at $99/ea. They would be well worth the upgrade vs. the Goodyears mentioned above.

 

[CapriRacer]

Jimmy,

You need to use a different tire store. These guys don't know what they are talking about.

OWL has been the designation for Outline White Letters for decades!

Goodyear produces a whole series of Wranglers - but they ALL have letters and such afterwards to distinguish the different kinds - ST, TD, MT/R - and believe it or not - Tire Rack lists a Wrangler RT/S!

And Tire Rack says they have them "In Stock"

 

[K20FA5]

My advice, stay far away from anything compared to a Wranger RTS! Read reviews on Tire Rack and they will confirm this too!

 

[greystone]

It's most likely the Goodyear Wrangler Radial. Very common in that size. Came on most SUVs of the 90's.

http://www.goodyeartires.com/tire/wrangler-radial-p/

 

[40Deluxe]

You can get those at walmart,i had them on a 2002 ford explorer,they were noisy on highway i replaced them with general's was very happy with nthose,just check out discount tire website.OWL is out lined white letter

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the replies. I called the store back and got more info. It's this tire right here:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/jcwhitney/sku/images/large/I_660721_CL_1.jpg

Looks like the old school radial they put on some Jeeps and SUV's back in the 1990's. So is the general BITOG consensus is it's not a very good tire and I should keep looking? The price is what has me interested in this tire. I don't know a lot about any Goodyear tires.

Thanks for the help here guys. I do appreciate it.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Sorry Greystone. I did not see your post where you put up the link to that tire.

 

[Brian Barnhart]

A set of the Wrangler Radials were original equipment on my 1996 Jeep Cherokee. They lasted at least 50K on that vehicle. At the time, I thought they were a reasonbly good tire. Very resistant to hydroplaneing, reasonable traction in the snow. Don't know how they do in the mud. They did become rather noisy after about 30-35K miles of wear.

If you want the very best all terrain tire, this isn't it. But if the tire hasn't changed, I'd still say it represents a good value at the out-the-door price you were quoted.

 

[Sal69]

Most likly there the same as the wrangler A/T that Wal-mart sells(only one size, 235/75-15). There ok tires but there are better ones out there. Wall-mart sells them for 50 something a piece in my area.

I ran them on a 89 f150 with the TTB front and they would be replaced every year but that was the tire eating ford, not the tires fault.

I run Tracker 2s on my current F150 (2000) and I have nothing but bad stuff to say about those. But the stock Good year wrangler AT-S lasted nearly 80K which was the reason I bought the Trackers, which lasted 23k and need replacing.
For another cheap tire I would say the Road-Runner ATR (or APR) There a genaric Cooper tire and I ran them on a off-road truck and they where the best A/T style tire I've ever ran. They only lasted 20k but I would run them at 45psi over rocks and stuff(my fault, I didnt deflat them to 25)

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the info. I saw a set on a Durango here at work. Not a bad looking tore but the tread pattern does not look much like a good highway tire. Doesn't look good for MPG either.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I found some reviews on these Wrangler Radials online. They got a few bad marks here and there but most people gave pretty good reviews and some poeple seem to really like this tire. I might just try a set myself. For the money the do seem like a great value, and the quoted price is less than what Walmart sells them for, and is even less than what the tire store's regular price. The salesman quoted it too low, but the manager said he will honor the quoted price anyway. This tells me the tire store is probably a good place to do business.

The problem is, my truck has 141,200 miles on it now. I just don't want to shuck out $500.00 or $600.00 or even more on a new set of big-name tires and then have expensive engine or transmision problems or some other big issue. I take exceptionally good care of my truck (I am not on BITOG for nothing) and I hope it lasts me for another 140K but you just don't know what can happen.

I have a quote for a set of Firestone Destination LE's, $508.00 out the door with lifetime road hazard, rotation and balance policies. The $125.00 difference is a lot of money, and I am trying to save every penny I can.

I'm still shopping and reading tire reviews. I appreciate the help and any other info you guys have. Thanks.

 

[daves87rs]

For what you are using them for I'd think they would be okay.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I didn't buy the Goodyears. I thought about it for a long time, those tires might be OK but they are cheap for a reason. Plus I read they can be hard to balance. And there has to be some reason Goodyear doesn't even list them on their website. It was hard even finding reviews on them online.

I called Tire Kingdom this morning and they quoted me $513.00 out the door on a set of 235/75R15 BFG Long Trail T/A Tours. Then I told the guy I had a coupon for $40.00 off a set of 4 tires that I got off their website. They honored that coupon too so I got a new set of Long Trails for $475.04 out the door. There is no road hazard or rotation/balance policy on them but to be honest about it I hardly ever used those policies when I had it on other tires. I never used the road hazard policy before and only once or twice used a lifetime balance policy. I do my rotations here at home.

I went on a good test drive, and the BFG's are 1000 times better than what I had. They are whisper quiet even at 50-60 MPH and the ride quality is phenomenal. Very comfortable smooth and firm ride. I know they are brand new but they handle bumps and cracks in the road very well. I will have to wait and see how they do in the rain. I hope I can get the same or better MPG on these Long Trails. I know I would have gotten less MPG with the Wrangler Radials.

I know I made the right decsion to squeeze out an extra $91.00 for these BFG's. It was really worrying me whether those Goodyear Wranglers were worth it, would they hold up and be a safe tire. I didn't want to take that kind of a chance. The store manager at Tire Kingdiom said he had a Jeep once that had those Wrangler Radials on it from the factory and they only lasted 16K. Thanks everybody for all the help here.

 

[Ramblin Fever]

EDITED TO ADD: just read your last post where you bought the BFG long-trails....those are a fantastic dry tire, I had them in Vegas, NV, they are great in the rain up til around 25k miles. After that their wet capability greatly diminished for me anyways.

They're not a snow tire at all, but you don't get snow.

They were a fantastic riding tire though.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I was going to get new LE's, that is true. But, these Long Trails cost less and should last longer. I only got 43K out of my old LE's, but that was partly my own fault because I ran too much psi in them trying to get better MPG. MPG went up a bit on 44 psi, but it whacked out the center treads. The outer treads were just about on top of the wear bars, the inner treads were on the wear bars and the LE's were extremely loud. Seemed like they got louder every day. They were especially loud in the morning when it was cold here last week. We had a few morning lows in the 30's and my truck sounded like a tank going down the street until I drove a few miles and heated the tires up.

I have never bought any Goodyear tires. My first Dakota had a set of Goodyears from the factory, I don't remember the model or name of those tires. They lasted about 50K I guess. For all the tire reviews I read in the last month or so, there really were not that many people with good things to say about Goodyear, and I myself am not exactly a Goodyear fan either. The one and only reason I considered the Wrangler Radials was the price.

Destination LE is a great tire, I don't know how long they would have lasted even if I had not run too much psi in mine. I doubt they would have made their rated 60K. I read a fair amount of reviews on them where people liked the tire and it did well enough but they were worn out at 40 or 45K, some even sooner than that. Maybe those people had suspension or other problems causing early tire wear. I don't know.

I do know I will keep only 35 psi in these BFG's and I will use a cross pattern when I rotate them so hopefully I won't have any problems and will get 50 or 60K out of them. I did keep one of my LE's, Tire Kingdom put the one that was in the best condition on my spare for me. They balanced it too, and didn't charge me any extra for it either. They are good guys there.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
........And there has to be some reason Goodyear doesn't even list them on their website.......


If you don't mind, I'd like to pursue this line of thinking a little further.

First, what tire shop quoted you those Wranglers?

Did they tell you the tire's name included the word "OWL"? Or was that just a misunderstanding on your part?

Why do I want to know? Because I am under the impression that tire manufacturers will recycle old names (as do car manufactuirers), but if they have an existing line where there is a suffix after the name, then I think they tend to stay away from using the name by itself.

It's always a confusion for the consumer when there are lots of suffix's - and they are totally different tires. The Wrangler line is a good example. They have used ST, AT/R, MT/R, RT/S, SR-A ,etc. Personally, I dislike the suffixes, but Marketing departments seem to love them.