New Cooper tires behavior
I just installed 6 new Cooper tires on my Sterling 4500. These are the 19.5s. I was replacing my old Dynatracs. The Dynatracs only had about 12K miles, but were 8 years old. I only use the truck f...
Forum Discussion
joeshmoe wrote:
Not 19.5's but I bought some Cooper Evolution 295/70/18 M/T's tires last summer. Load cap: 4080lbs. I bought them due to the higher weight and to put me at ease. LoL
Put about 1K miles on them from SoCal to Lake Powell. White knuckled ride the entire time, to and from. They felt as if they were walking around. Couldn't drive any faster than 60ish mph. 65+ and they became very mushy-feeling is how I would describe it. They wandered and pushed around a lot when correcting the wheel. If I over-corrected, they would get squirrelly and wander almost into the next lane. Never stable, nor comfortable unless driving well under 60mph. I didn't feel in control. Not sure if it was because they were new or because the aggressive tread lugs or the taller sidewall. My wife observed me the whole time saying when we got back home that she never saw me hold so tightly to the wheel as did with these new tires.
Did I not give them enough time to break-in? Replaced them with Cooper ATP's when we returned home. I really wanted to like them as they were great in sand, just not on the hwy, loaded. Unloaded, with the camper
off, they were fine.
I'm very much not an expert, but I've read and been told that those big blocky tires are for their intended purpose and generally are not suited for regular driving conditions.
I see many trucks with mud style tires but think they are often purchased more for their appearance, which is fine too. Everyone has a 'look' they like.
How are the new ones?
