Chinese Tires.....again!

My wife has been driving a box truck for the last few months...steer tires (22.5's) are Chinese, made by "Gladiator". She says they seem to track pretty well.

Over the years for my cars I've found that I like the performance of Michelin, GoodYear, Yokohama, and Pirelli tires. I've been less than happy with Goodrich, General, and the Sears house brand. (Those three have been much further off from meeting the tread life estimates, although the Goodrich tires are pretty good for fuel efficiency.)

On my car, I don't buy based on price - I buy based on performance, fuel efficiency, and expected tread life. For my trailer I buy based on date of manufacture and price - with the only caveat being that I prefer radials.

Yes, Michelin is a French company. I have been running their tires on all my vehicles since the mid '70s and they have never let me down. And when the OEM tires on my F350 wear out they will get replaced with Michelins.

They are not cheap but as a general rule, they end up at the top of the heap in most every comparison tests.

Tim

When the decision is primarily based on price what do you all expect?
How many posts do you read where three tires are compared and only quality is discussed?
NONE!, because price trumps all in our culture.

Read an article that talks about the origin of Michelin tires. It apperas that although they have a few manufacturing companies in United States, Michelin is a French own company.

Bamaman...and now you can tell all how many times the Union City workers went on strike. Didn't spend a great deal on the Purchase Pkwy, but several times over the years I saw the strike singe on the fences. Kind of adds to the cost of doing business here in the states...also think that was their commercial and light truck plant.

atreis wrote:
I have GoodYears on my minivan - 2 new ones, 2 older ones. The 2 older ones were made in MX, the 2 new ones in China. Thus far (1 year) I've noticed no difference.

I use cheap Chinese tires on the trailer (one failure, very obviously caused by the piece of metal embedded in the tire), but not my vehicles.

You are indeed a gambling man. I've tried to use Goodyears twice on my Lexus, and their ultra high performance tires were good for 15K miles and quickly deteriorated.

I'm sorry, but I just don't choose to do business with a company closing major factories in Union City, TN and Gadsden, AL in order to send jobs to Chinese factories putting out poor quality tires. The Goodyear Marathon tires are no better than any other Chinese tires on RV's. No thank you.

My new fifth wheel's tires have been replaced with Bridgestone Duravis R250's for a reason.

Drove in the snow in the mountains of WV from 1966 till about 1989 when I left....Gotten pretty good at it, but back in the late 60's and early 70's, family didn't have a 4 wheel drive, had a Buick Electra and a Pontiac Catalina...both rear wheel drives, GY snow tires....6" of snow isn't much, it was normally back in the 60's and 70's, 12 to 15" or more..you either went or you didn't..most times we did, when we couldn't we put on chains....My dad alway's bought GY tires, never an issue...Had rear wheel and front wheel drive cars in WV and VA and alway's got to where we needed to go, no big deal..it's what you get use to....again, I don't know about Chinese manufactured tires on MH's, Class C's, little trailers that tow "some stuff...what I know is 5th wheel and TT's with 6,000# and 7,000# axles, (using D, E or G rated tires, depending on weigh rating of the axles....lighter TTs and 5er's....probably not a problem, but move up in weight and last tire I would use would be a Chinese manufactured ST tire,....one exception , the Sailun S637, the company is ISO and TS certified, TS16969 accredited...They build quality into their manufacturing process, most of the others have no clue what quality is.....

Normally I'm not fan of CR. I have seen too many reviews where they just flat got it wrong, for example, Picking the Atari Super Turkey over the Amiga from Commodore because the ST was a few dollars cheaper.... but they did not buy everything they needed for the ST which means it was actually more expensive.

Or comparing two cars where the only difference is the paint job (Ford Escort/Mercury Tracer) panning the less expensive Ford while praising the More expensive Tracer, THEY ARE THE SAME CAR with a differen paint job is all.

There was also a review that I truly believe has killed people.. But that's a much longer story.

Page 2: In this case though I think they got it right.

They talked about the low-cost Chinese tires compared to a more expensive tire say Mitchlin.. Noted that in many cases the more expensive tire had a better tread pattern that meant it did a better job of keeping your can under control on other than perfect roads, Also tire life was up to 3 times the China Road Bombs (As another poster named them) so even if you paid more for a quality tire up front,,, You saved long term....

Page 3:
Story of my coworkers, One making fun of another who had just bought a Ford "Splash" pick up truck and equipped it with extra wide rear wheels.. Fords are light in the rear to start with and with those extra wide roller skate wheels, Forget traction in snow.

We got to work, parked at the bottom of the hill, roads looked like AZ in August,, While we worked it SNOWED!!, end of shift roads looked like Upper MI in Feburary. (About six to eight inches)

I got to admit the braggart was right, it was fun watching the kit make his way up the hill with that truck.. What was more fun......

Watching McBrag go up the hill exactly as "The Kid" had done but with his big Lincoln mark whatever land yatch.

What was no fun: Two young ladies, One from GA one from Texas front wheel drive, straight up the hill

Last out the lot,, Me, Chrysler compact station wagon,, Straight up the hill (Rear wheel drive)

McBrag said it was all those heavy boxes I had in the car (3 or 4 empty corrugated paper boxes, perhaps one pound total)

What did the trick for me: Kelly Navigator 800's.. that was what my car had on for snow boots, Kelly Navigator 800's. These are very very aggressive tires.