No more Tire Rack purchases for me

[CapriRacer]

quote:

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Originally posted by bretfraz:
......Of those 10, six of them have had tread separation issues........

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Bret,

Knowing what I know about tire failure rates (and the fact that you got what seems to be a minimal adjustment), I think you may have something in your operation that could be improved and would result in less failures (and the ability to use a less expensive product!) I agree that not only would the personal service had been better from someone locally (rather than over the internet), but they might have been able to point out what it is the might be prompting these failures.

Perhaps it is something as simple as your tire repair guy using plug type repairs, or something like insuffient load carrying capacity. Nevertheless, I think you ought to take a quick look at your situation - might save you from a bigger problem.

Thoughts?

 

[ebaker]

You can get tires from Tire Rack warrantied at a local tire dealer. Discount tire will almost always match Tire Rack's prices. In my experience, on tires that won't balance, the wheel or tire is out of round. Low profile stiff sidewall tires are more sensitive to a slightly out of round wheel. BTW Discount Tire scratched the wheels on my car 3 of 3 times I've been there. I now go to a local race tire dealer to get my tires mounted.

 

[Colt]

quote:

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Originally posted by ebaker:
You can get tires from Tire Rack warrantied at a local tire dealer.

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True.
A local Firestone honored the warranty my Bridgestone Alenza tires I bought from Tire Rack.
Four new tires without a hassle.

 

[jsharp]

quote:

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Originally posted by Colt:

quote:

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Originally posted by ebaker:
You can get tires from Tire Rack warrantied at a local tire dealer.

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True.
A local Firestone honored the warranty my Bridgestone Alenza tires I bought from Tire Rack.
Four new tires without a hassle.

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Good luck on that. It might depend on brand. I had a set of Dunlops from Tirerack that no one could balance to be vibration free. None of the local Goodyear/Dunlop dealers would even look at them, even after being called directly by a Dunlop factory guy.

I took care of the problem. I sent them back and got a different brand. I'll buy from Tirerack again but it will take lots of convincing to get me to ever buy another set of Goodyear or Dunlop tires...

 

[Colt]

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:

quote:

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Originally posted by Colt:

quote:

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Originally posted by ebaker:
You can get tires from Tire Rack warrantied at a local tire dealer.

---

True.
A local Firestone honored the warranty my Bridgestone Alenza tires I bought from Tire Rack.
Four new tires without a hassle.

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Good luck on that. It might depend on brand. I had a set of Dunlops from Tirerack that no one could balance to be vibration free. None of the local Goodyear/Dunlop dealers would even look at them, even after being called directly by a Dunlop factory guy.

I took care of the problem. I sent them back and got a different brand. I'll buy from Tirerack again but it will take lots of convincing to get me to ever buy another set of Goodyear or Dunlop tires...

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If I buy from Tire Rack again again it will only be a Firestone/Bridgestone tire.
Like I said earlier,Firestaone backed the Tire Rack purchase without any hassle.

 

[bretfraz]

quote:

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Originally posted by CapriRacer:

quote:

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Originally posted by bretfraz:
......Of those 10, six of them have had tread separation issues........

---

Bret,

Knowing what I know about tire failure rates (and the fact that you got what seems to be a minimal adjustment), I think you may have something in your operation that could be improved and would result in less failures (and the ability to use a less expensive product!) I agree that not only would the personal service had been better from someone locally (rather than over the internet), but they might have been able to point out what it is the might be prompting these failures.

Perhaps it is something as simple as your tire repair guy using plug type repairs, or something like insuffient load carrying capacity. Nevertheless, I think you ought to take a quick look at your situation - might save you from a bigger problem.

Thoughts?

---

Hi Capri,

Just noticed your reply, thank you.

I bought the 10 Kumho Venture H/T's for our two largest service vehicles. One is a dually F350 with a service body and the other is a SRW F350 with a service body. It's the dually that's had all the problem tires.

All the tires I bought were LT235/85-16 LR-E. They're all run at max pressure (80 psi IIRC) or very near it. Tire rotations are rare to non-existent. None of the tires were flat repaired.

The dually weights right at 13,000 lbs with driver. It occassionally tows a 1,000 trailer. The SRW truck weighs about 10,000 lbs with driver and tows the same trailer more often.

Of the 10 Venture H/T's I bought for both trucks, only two have been "good", meaning I've got normal tread life out of them. The SRW truck still has the two Kumho's on the rear. I'll pull the service file this AM but I'm guessing I've got 30,000 miles out of them which is pretty normal for commerical tires on our trucks.

The dually situation baffles me. It came with General Ameritrac tires as OE and we got 45K out of them. Replaced them all with the Kumho's. After having the tread separation issues I replaced them all with Cooper Discoverer H/T which have about 15K on them now. Driving conditions and maintenance procedures have not changed. Load changes a bit depending on how much steel we're carrying (it's a welding truck) but the overall weight rarely goes beyond 13,000 lbs.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Uhh... I think I just lost my confidence in Tire Rack and their recommended installers. I ordered a set of 4 tires. They sent me a set alright, except that one of the tires was different size (195/65/15 instead of 195/60/15). The tires were shipped directly to the installer, so I haven't seen it. And the installer balanced and put them on and let me out the door without noticing it either. I had a vibration in the steering wheel at higher speeds and thought it was just poor balancing on their part, until I closely examined the tires this morning.

 

[Mr Nice]

Pete,

What type of car do you have ?

 

[Quattro Pete]

'03 Sentra - it's a company car.

 

[Mr. Boston]

quote:

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Originally posted by FowVay:
Geez, if you guys think it's strange to own your own tire balancer then I certainly won't mention some of my other tools that I have in my garage.

I am very thankful that I'm in a position to own such equipment. I guess you'd think I was nuts for balancing my own crankshafts too?

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I'd LOVE to have a balancer in my shop!

 

[Racerjk]

I would too!

Geez! I wish I had a balancer too!

I have a tire shop down the street that will mount and balance tires for 4 bucks a piece. It's not a state of the art joint either, but they do the best balancing of anywhere I've ever been.I also got two Michelin Symmetry tires for my Dad with a least half tread-life for 56 bucks mounted and balanced.

 

[chas3]

bought 2 dunlop SP5000's from tirerack last week. arrived the next day via ups ground. my installer did put the tires on the rims backwards (there is a preferred 'side out' that is clearly labelled). tires seem just fine. this is my 4th pair of SP5000's from tirerack.

everyone says "i could order those tires" but when i try to take them up on it, they mysteriously can't find the size i want or tell me that dont make the tire in the size i need/want.

 

[bretfraz]

My Kumho experience is officially over as of today. And we got two surprises, one good and one bad.

The last two Kumho's were replaced today. Both were pretty much worn out (at the wear bars) so they were due. I figure we got a little over 30K out of them but I need to dig up the records to be sure. About par for the course on our service trucks.

The bad surprise came this morning when the guy who drives the truck with the two Kumho's was putting air in one of the tires as it was down a little. Got the tire to about 70psi and BOOM!.... it blew out the inside sidewall. Lemme tell ya, that was loud!!! Removed the wheel and tire and saw a 3" patch of sidewall blown out. No driving that truck today. I took the blown tire to Discount Tire and bought a Pathfinder Trail A/P (I think it's Discount's house brand, the tire is made by Kelly-Springfield according to the DOT code). Drove the truck back to Discount to have the other Kumho replaced. Now have 4 of the Trail A/P's on the truck so we'll see how they do.

The good surprise was an email from Tire Rack stating I was getting an additional refund of my purchase. The total equalled the cost of the two tires whose tread peeled off (see my previous posts in this thread for the back story). The refund will put a nice dent in the $$ spent today on the new tires, so Thank You Tire Rack!! I sincerely appreciate the follow up.

This ends my experimental phase with Kumho tires and online purchases for business vehicles. My experience with Discount Tire has been very good so far and I imagine I'll stick with them. I wish all y'all good luck with your TR purchases and with Kumho's in particular.

 

[Quattro Pete]

quote:

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the guy who drives the truck with the two Kumho's was putting air in one of the tires as it was down a little. Got the tire to about 70psi and BOOM!....

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Darwin award right there.

 

[bretfraz]

quote:

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Originally posted by Quattro Pete:

quote:

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the guy who drives the truck with the two Kumho's was putting air in one of the tires as it was down a little. Got the tire to about 70psi and BOOM!....

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Darwin award right there.

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Max pressure for the tire is 80psi. Due to the weight of the truck we run them right at max press or close.

The tire should not have blown out at 70psi when its been inflated at 75-80 since the day it was installed.

 

[wantin150]

Sorry, the 70 psi reminded me of something my mother did. She had a cheapy pencil gauge and put air in one of her tires. I used to check them so I kind of followed up when she said something didn't feel right.

I put my gauge on it and it went to the stop. I let air out and it hit the stop again. The third time stopped it around 50. She must have put in 70 psi in a 44 max tire with a spec around 32. It is a wonder it didn't blow up in her face!

Come to find out, the gauge she used was one given to her by Consumer Reports and then later re-called due to defect. Go figure.

 

[PRND3L]

quote:

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Originally posted by wantin150:
Come to find out, the gauge she used was one given to her by Consumer Reports and then later re-called due to defect. Go figure.

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Priceless.

 

[PandaBear]

quote:

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I don't think you can blame Tire Rack much for tire problems...they don't make them...they just sell them. Of course you can blame them for how they handle the problems.

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Yes you can, a large distributor has a lot of influence on their supplier in terms of price and/or quality. If they are like Walmart who beat the heck out of price and don't care about quality, then they get the non-prime (or blem) tires.

 

[My442]

No more Tire Rack for me either.

I had bought a number of tires from them over the years. No problems until the last purchase. I bought 4 winter tires mounted on rims for my wifes' Lexus RX300. When the tires arrived, I noticed that the rims did not come with center caps. I called the customer service number, and the most arrogant and obnoxious woman came on the phone and basically called me a jerk and dumbell......

I asked for her manager, and he must have trained her....

The manager send to send them back, at my expense.

I got off the phone and sent the Tire Rack a letter describing my bad experience. They sent me a gift certificate for $25 as an apology.

I mailed the certificate back, and told them that I will whittle down tree stumps for tires before i buy from them again.

The moral of the story is to see how a company reacts when something goes wrong. The Tire Rack failed miserably for me.

 

[tenderloin]

I have bought from them over the years ..all with great success. They sell the same tire other dealers carry. They even in many instances sell the exact automakers spec 'd tire that came off your car (which can be different even though it is listed as the same make and style as the "retail "tire). The talk from the brick and mortar guys about inferior tires is just #@$%!.

Lately I have been buying new car take offs with just a few miles on them through eBay. I. get "new" tires at a low price. So far so good!

There are also companies that modify cars that often sell new car take off OEM tires and or wheels at greatly reduced prices.