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I thought I was the only person who checked out people’s tyres in car parks!
I have Uniroyal RainSport 3s. Not sure if you get them in the US but the RS3 is a soft compound tyre with a soft side wall and its awesome in the wet and decent in the dry.
Seeing as its always raining in the UK the RS3s make a good choice, and they made my car feel more comfortable because of the soft sidewall. We don’t really get a summer and winter so most people run the same tyres all year round.
I find myself judging people for using budget or mismatched tyres… its pretty bad.
The other tyre problem we have here in the UK is that a lot of quick change oil/tyre places will convince unsuspecting people that their car needs new tyres. Its normally people who have bought a new car and now the car is 3-4 years old and still on the factory Michelins/Continentals (whatever decent factory tyre it came with) and the places convince them that the tyres are worn out and they end up replacing two of the part worn “good” tyres for budget brands. I’ve seen this happen to a few relatives (mostly women unfortunately) and I’ve tried my best to educate them in judging when they need new tyres or get a second opinion (from me). I believe that a used “good” tyre is better than a new budget tyre.
Luckily we have yearly inspections for all cars and tyres are included. Tread less than 1.6mm, bulges in the sidewall or cracked rubber are an instant fail so most people have roadworthy tyres on their cars, even if they are budget brands.
I worked at a place that had a fleet of light vans that I would regularly drive, they’d use the cheapest tyres with odd names like Triangle, Pace, and Linglong which I found to be funny name for a tyre. During that time my dad owned the same model of van we had at work, only he had Michelins on it and whenever I drove my dads van it felt like a completely different model.
You might be able to tell I am also a tyre junkie… sorry for the long post about something that most people wouldn’t even care about but I love tyres, especially the look and smell of a new set!
I too am a tire junky. Tires are the most over looked and under appreciated safety / equipment item on just about every car that comes into the shop. What good is a high powered engine if it can’t connect with the road to get going? What good are suspension modifications going to do if the tires can’t hold the corner? When you have only 4 square feet to work with for traction you want the best you can get for performance and safety.
I own several sets for all of my vehicles because an all in one tire is just a compromise. In the winter I run the softest most aggressive winter tire I can find on my Subaru. In the summer I put on a low profile performance tire that sticks to the corners like glue. My wife is also the beneficiary of my tire love. She never has to worry if her vehicle is safe although she does not share my joy when it comes to paying for them.
I’m a tire junky.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one checking out other people’s tires in parking lots and while I’m on the road. :side:
The tires on my Jeep are in horrible shape.
The two rear tires are bald Uniroyals from 2009, the left front is a half worn Nexen, the right front is a brand new Cooper.
Can’t quite afford a new set yet. I’m wanting to buy the best thing my money can afford. I’ve been all over tire rack and other websites reading reviews for tires. I was originally planning to get the OEM Goodyear Wrangler STs but after reading some reviews I saw it was an absolutely horrible tire. Not sure why but on SUVs and trucks I love the white lettering on the tires.
I’m more a believer in making sure people put the proper tire on their vehicle. There’s nothing quite as disturbing as someone putting “offshore” tires on an expensive vehicle.
Living somewhere with a well defined winter season, I’ve always taken the approach that you’re better to have 2 lesser sets, one all-season and one winter, than 1 set of premium all season tires.
Personally I’d like to have 3 sets of tires for my car. But financially and just because of lack of storage it would be impossible. I have a set of summer tires and a set of winter tires. I would just like to have a set of all seasons for the month of in between weather. Last spring I had already switched to my summer tires and there was a significant snowfall one night. I was doing 60 KMH down the highway in the curb lane ready to ditch it if the guy ahead of me threw on the binders. That was not fun.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my tire, or tyre sickness. Perhaps we should start a support group or something.
I certainly qualify as a tire junkie. Not only the tires themselves, but the proper mounting and balance of tires.
My goal when buying tires for myself or helping others is getting tires with a high treadwear number. To most people, all Michelin tires are the same or all Yokohama tires are the same or…. (insert a tire brand here) are the same. They never bother to learn about the information that is provided for making a tire selection.
Once the tire is selected, the job is only half done. It wears me out to see the number of shops with computer spin balancers, that balance in static mode, putting a weight on the inside only. The modern computer balancer does a wonderful dynamic balance if you put weights on both the inside and outside planes. This started when fancy wheels came along and people didn’t want to scratch them with those ugly weights outside. The tire folks getting harassed for scratching wheels will just naturally resort to doing a static balance with weights inside only. NOW, many people including the factory’s use tape or stick on weights just behind the spokes to provide weight for the outer plane.
I do prefer Michelins in most cases, but sometimes, my wallet doesn’t allow it. If you pay attention to treadwear numbers you can get long lasting Michelins that payback in added mileage and they almost always balance out and drive silk smooth.
Like Eric, I have my own hypodermic and cooking spoon, er, I mean tire machine and balancer, enabling my addiction. I have an ebay Chinese rim clamp machine and an old Coates 1001. When I mount and balance tires, I do the mounting carefully and always carefully dynamic balance. When I’m done balancing a good set of tires, they will be smooth as silk at whatever speed the car is capable of.
End of sermon/end of rant.
I like tires. I favor Michelin on both cars and motorcycles. For my off road tires I like the BF Goodrich, which incidentally is owned by Michelin. I have BFG All Terrains on my Nissan Pathfinder, and Nissan Titan. I plan to go Michelin Pilot Road 4 when my Honda VFR800 eats through the stock tires. Pilot Road 4 have remarkable tread life for a motorcycle tire… Do I sound like a tire junky? Tires are the most important part of the vehicle in many ways…
It’s really comforting to know I’m not alone in this. Thanks to everyone for ‘sharing with the group’. It’s made me feel more normal.
Just thought I’d throw this in, just to see how many of us are really out there as tire junkies. I mean like, not able to go over an hour without a hit tire junkies. So, just for fun:
How many of you know what “RFV” is? Hopefully not all of you have as many needle marks as I do.:)
I just want to make sure I understand the idea of winter/summer tires. I live in the state of Delaware and in a perfect world, I should put winter tires on when it gets cold and summer tires when the weather gets warm, right? Assuming that’s correct, I always hear Blizzaks are really good, but many winters it doesn’t snow much here. Am I wasting my money if the weather is just cold without a lot of snow? Also, let’s say it hits 50 degrees for a week in March and then it drops to the 30s for the next 2-3 weeks. Now what? I’m probably overthinking this, but I’d like some input on that. You guys here are pretty knowledgable and helpful.
:ohmy: [quote=”MBDiagMan” post=164200]Just thought I’d throw this in, just to see how many of us are really out there as tire junkies. I mean like, not able to go over an hour without a hit tire junkies. So, just for fun:
How many of you know what “RFV” is? Hopefully not all of you have as many needle marks as I do.:)[/quote
Radial force variance
yes i am, i believe tires make a huge difference in the quality of your ride and its performance, and my recent purchase sort of supports that, i got some Michelin pilot sport AS3s for my car and they ride amazing and get a ton of grip! the car rides so much better.
I’m a tire Junkie, I think. I can look at a tread design and know what the tire is meant to be used for and how well it will fulfill it’s intended purpose.
On my performance car, I love some low treadwear numbers. On my car now is Toyo Proxes R1R with 140, which are the best tires I’ve tried so far. Now they make R888’s in my size with a 100 treadwear rating. Those tire will probably give me 2000-3000 miles of bliss when I install them later this summer.
But I’m not just a Tire Junkie who’s obsessed with high grip tires, I’m also a tire junkie who installs lots of junk tires. I even have a wall of shame:
The Shop’s wall of shame:
[quote=”Fopeano” post=167642]I’m a tire Junkie, I think. I can look at a tread design and know what the tire is meant to be used for and how well it will fulfill it’s intended purpose.
On my performance car, I love some low treadwear numbers. On my car now is Toyo Proxes R1R with 140, which are the best tires I’ve tried so far. Now they make R888’s in my size with a 100 treadwear rating. Those tire will probably give me 2000-3000 miles of bliss when I install them later this summer.
But I’m not just a Tire Junkie who’s obsessed with high grip tires, I’m also a tire junkie who installs lots of junk tires. I even have a wall of shame:
The Shop’s wall of shame:
Is that a DSP 9600 in the back ground?
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