Tires

Your not the only one sporting the 590's. I put them on the steers 2 weeks ago.

Michelins are junk tires. I'll never put them back on my truck in any postion.

 

The problem with buying cheap or off-brand tires is finding an exact replacement should you have a blow out on the road. I spent almost two weeks looking for a Yokohama dealer out east before just giving up and buying different steer tires.

I just installed four fresh retreads on my 379 today with four more going on next week. The casings come from my inventory so I know every mile that's been on them.

Two tires of the tires are on Goodyear casings and (surprisingly) gave me over 300,000 miles on the original tread then 440,000 on the first retread. With any luck I should have over 1,000,000 miles on those casings when this retread is worn out... then I'll do the same thing one more time.

The other four casings are Michelin XTE's that I bought from my son's friend. he took them off of his old A-model KW. I'm pulling my Michelin XDN's off the truck for the summer to try to achieve a little better fuel economy... and I'm going to convert every tire on the truck (except the steers) to an XZE tread design... just simpler to go with one tire I guess.

I also installed Equal in the tires in lieu of no balancing or Centramatics. It's the first time I've ever balanced any drive tires...

BTW... the Michelin XZE tread I put on these casings cost $147.00 each...

Next in line are two new 315/80R22.5's on the steers... I already have two new Accuride 9" wide wheels ready to go.

 

actually I've got like four of those geostars on my trailer and they are wearing REAL well. I was getting them for $260 mounted. But I stopped a few weeks ago and they had gone up to a point that I no longer think it's worth.


Another cheap tire i've had real good luck with is roadmasters but it seems like everybody is phasing them out now. I still know a place that has about 6 more trl tires in stock for me but I can't find anyone who has drives. I've run the drives on another truck and they wore real good for a tire that was $2000 for 8 mounted new stems


the TA's in MI have those geostar drives for $2200 for 8 or $1100 for 4 but they are an open shoulder lug and I prefer a closed shoulder. I don't know how they would wear




yes I'm the king of cheap tires.

I've had my share of really bad ones too. Mainly super cargo (them things even looked cheap but it was a blowout situation) and there was some brand I got from a tire shop behind loves in pauls valley, OK. cant remember the name but it wore down to the cords in one month. the tire brand new was over an inch shorter then the half worn out good year next to it (was also a blowout situation)

 

I put 590's in my truck over thanksgiving. $1100 out the door with centramatics at petro. they've been great so far

 

Here's my fresh XZE's...


And the XDN's I put on in July. They will be coming off this week when the next batch of casings comes back from the retreader.


I plan on buying 8 more aluminum wheels so I can just swap wheels this fall to make the switch from all-position to drive tires a bunch easier... and less expensive.

 

why not just get steels for winter? alot cheaper and they won't look any worse then nasty aluminums in winter.


do you know how soft that retread compound is? I have mostly all positions on my drives now but they wear considerably faster then a lug type drive.

 

Weight... I get paid by the cwt so I need to be as light as possible when I load... after that it doesn't matter.

I got pretty good wear from XZE's and FS590's on my FLD. I did switch to B-Stone 726's when I hit my first winter with that truck.

I got 440,000 miles from the deep tread XDHT's on those Goodyear casings... my virgin XDHT's got pulled off at 400,000... two of those Goodyear's are on the LF drive now and one of the XDHT's are on the right. The other casing is one of my old steer tires... an XZA2.

 

I got 4 new virgin xze's for $200.00 each a while back. put on my spread flat. so far wearing great. going with all position or steers on your drives will improve your m.p.g. I got great m.p.g. with my old steelmark's $2000 for it all. they do not last as long as lugs, but do not ride as rough either. I am thinking about putting steer b.f 244's on my drives when the time comes, or maybe go with a drive with a lot less r.r. than my current kelly's at 146 r.r. also thinking about double coin. the thing with not going with lugs is you have to fork out money sooner for tires,you save enough with the fuel you save, but you have to save it to have it when you need it

 

Yokahama is not a cheap, off brand tire. It's unusual you couldn't find a dealer Krooser they're owned by Bridgestone.

 

yes they are, theyre just one of the better ones. most the cheap lines are owned by one of the big boys.