Yokohama - Oh mama

[stogiedude]

By the way, the tires I bought are the AS430. I don't see them on the Tirerack.com site, maybe they are a unique model for Tire Kingdom?

I drove the car in rain recently and they seem to perform fine, no problems. In general the car seems to float, the ride is so smooth and quiet. My other Catera has some Fulda Z rated tires and there is a big difference in the ride IMO. I just got a quote on some 16" Yokohama Touring Radials from another local tire shop for another car I have, $414, on the rim and out the door. Seems like a good deal, but I have to pay $16 for every rotation. Some other places-chain stores-include free balancing and rotation in the price. You pay more up front, but regular rotation and balancing will make the tires last longer I would imagine.

 

[bottgers]

I replaced the OEM dunlops on my wife's minivan last year with a set of Yok avid toruing. What a huge diference! These tires are infinitely smoother, quieter, and better handling. I can't give enough praise to these tires!

 

[Gurkha]

From slip slidey Bridgestone DD's H/T to Yokohama Geolander was like heaven sent, DDs would slide at hint of rain, had poor ride and were pathetic off road, Yokohama Geolander just the oppsite, fantastic ride, and good off road and wet traction combined with smooth, quiet ride on road with excellent grip to boot.

 

[Brikhead]

The Yoko Avid Tourings on my Volvo are 3yrs old and have about 60k miles on them. I haven't measured tread depth recently, but it appears that they'll last another 20k easily. These certainly aren't performance tires, but they are extremely smooth & quiet.

 

[bottgers]

quote:

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Originally posted by Brikhead:
The Yoko Avid Tourings on my Volvo are 3yrs old and have about 60k miles on them. I haven't measured tread depth recently, but it appears that they'll last another 20k easily. These certainly aren't performance tires, but they are extremely smooth & quiet.

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You're right, as their name implies, they're a touring tire. As a touring tire, they're tough to beat. The only tires I can think of that would be comparable are the Kumho A/S 795 and the Bridgestone LS-T.

 

[Blake Sobiloff]

Take the Tire Kingdom guy's advice and get your tires rotated every 5,000 - 7,500 miles. Many of the newer tread designs will wear unevenly unless frequently rotated, leading to lots of road noise. Once a tire starts making noise it's very rare that it'll stop, even after rotation. I read lots of complaints on Tire Rack's website about tire noise, but most of those folks don't regularly rotate their tires, thus causing their own problems.

 

[Auto-Union]

I rotate for seasons, not miles, saving good tires in rear to put UP FRONT for winter. Rotating accelerates wear too. When a tire is placed in a position it wears-in and is in it's lowest wear mode, change the position and it must re-bed, accelerating wear. Ideal plan is new tires for winter and leave them alone until next winter then rotate F>R simply to put the better tires up front.

Anyway, I have Yoko TRZs on my CRV in 215/70-15. awesome in wet and great wear rating. I have some V4S on RSX and they squeal like a pig. I like the TRZ better and with the miles I'm driving, the wear makes sense...I don't care about speed rating, sorry....it just is the tire's ability to radiate heat, nothing to do with handling. TRZ, yeah...going on my RSX next purchase.

 

[sxg6]

When you say better tires up front, do you mean the ones with more tread? Because i understand that on acceleration that would give you more traction, but what about resistance to fishtailing and such? If those rear tires go out when making a turn you're gonna be in much worse shape than if the front tires don't get good traction when accelerating.

 

[Nebraskan]

I recently bought a 1996 Buick Park Avenue that is in great shape. Only the tires have some issues with cupping. Seems the previous owner didn't rotate the tires. I went to Wal-Mart (before I found this section of BITOG, and had some Goodyear Viva2 put on the front. Nice handling tires. Now I am thinking of next pay day buying the Yokohama P205 70R 15 tires from online and getting them installed on the front. I've read a lot of good things about Yokohama tires.

BTW, mechanic checked out the suspension on the PA....tie rods, ball joints and shocks. All seems well. He has been a great mechanic for me and replaces what and only things that are really bad after discussing with me what it is. Charged me 40.00 per tire to put on new tie rod ends on my wifes car recently. I thought that was pretty decent price. He too, thought the lack of rotation were main contributing problems. I have also seen on other forums where certain tires or tread design were more notorious for causing heel-toe wear or cupping.

 

[Nebraskan]

BTW, from my earlier law enforcement year, the less wear tires are more costly, obviously, but are really better tires for safety. There is one way to make long lasting tires, and that is make them harder. Softer tires wear easier, but stop a lot quicker and have all around better traction about them.

 

[CapriRacer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Nebraskan:
BTW, from my earlier law enforcement year, the less wear tires are more costly, obviously, but are really better tires for safety.....

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I won't disagree about the safety part, but I think you missed a key element as why tires used in law eforcement are more expensive than regular tires - speed rating.

Because of the peculiar nature of law enforcement vehicles, the average 4 door sedan - which would normally come with S or T rated tires and be good for 40,000+ miles - gets transformed into a high speed machine - with appropriate tires, H or V rated. It's the speed rating that is making the tires more expensive and it's also the speed rating that drives the grip (and hence the more rapid wear). In fact some tire manufacturers produce a "Pursuit" version with improved wear (sacrificing the grip) for police fleets.

Hope this helps.

 

[bottgers]

quote:

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Originally posted by Nebraskan:
I recently bought a 1996 Buick Park Avenue that is in great shape. Only the tires have some issues with cupping. Seems the previous owner didn't rotate the tires. I went to Wal-Mart (before I found this section of BITOG, and had some Goodyear Viva2 put on the front. Nice handling tires. Now I am thinking of next pay day buying the Yokohama P205 70R 15 tires from online and getting them installed on the front. I've read a lot of good things about Yokohama tires.

BTW, mechanic checked out the suspension on the PA....tie rods, ball joints and shocks. All seems well. He has been a great mechanic for me and replaces what and only things that are really bad after discussing with me what it is. Charged me 40.00 per tire to put on new tie rod ends on my wifes car recently. I thought that was pretty decent price. He too, thought the lack of rotation were main contributing problems. I have also seen on other forums where certain tires or tread design were more notorious for causing heel-toe wear or cupping.

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Sounds like you've had better luck with Goodyear tires than I have. Of every set I've had, one of the tires has developed a mild "thumping" sound. It's happened on different vehicles with different types of Goodyear tires. I can't really explain what is happeneing other than Goodyears tires suck. I'll just avoid them and stick with either Yokohamas or Kumhos.

 

[Nebraskan]

Goodyear Eagles 16" are on my 1993 Buick Park Avenue that I'm selling. My wife has Douglas all around and they seem to work fine on her '93 Chevy Lumina. I bought the car with BF Goodrich on all 4 and now have just the BF Goodrich on just the rear, with the newer Viva 2 Goodyears on the front. I will say the number of little lugs on the Goodyear are really somethings.

 

[Gurkha]

Goodyear Wrangler RT/S lasted a measly 15000 miles till they started showing wear, on the same vehicle, Bridgestone DD HT/S lasted 30,000 miles and still had more wear left, they were replaced by the Yokohama which after 25000 miles shows superb wear pattern and will last for another 30,000 miles more with ease.