Bought my Aeolus tires today.

I bought 8 new Aeolus Hn308 drive tires today at Loves in Idaho Falls. The tires were $279 each($40 off each tire when you buy 8 ). I got $120 in casing credits ( 6 of my tires were scrap, run down retreads not good for much!) plus I got centramatics for all four axle ends. All up it cost me $3220.64 out the door for the tires , fitting, valve stems and gator caps, two sets of centramatics , tire disposal fee on 6 tires and taxes.
They had me in and out in under 2 hours as well. Also got 4000 loyalty points with the purchase.
Was going to have 2 steers with centramatics fitted as well but they didn't have them in stock. Would have been approx $600 for the steers plus $180 for the centramatics.
I was happy with the price and also with the service they provided. I would not hesitate to do business with that particular Loves travel stop again.

 

I did a bit more homework on the duty I might owe importing these tires to Canada. Interesting thing I found was that no duty is owed on importing tires into Canada if they are marked as "made in USA,Canada or Mexico" OR if not marked with the country of manufacture under the North America Free Trade Agreement. I looked all over all 8 tires and none have "made in china" stamped on them. I may just be able to loophole my way out of paying the import duty if this is the case as it clearly states in the CBSA website that if there are no identify markings showing the country of manufacture then import duty is not owed on those items. This could save me a few hundred dollars !

 

Yes , they are a Chinese tire. Not getting michelins for that price !

 

I could be wrong on that. Looking closer that applies to personal use items. My tires are commercial use so probably won't be getting far with that one!

 

I will be sure to give a few updates on how they go. I'm hoping they do well but time will tell. I think a lot is in the maintenance of the tires. Keeping pressures checked regularly, keeping them rotated regularly , using quality shocks and keeping axle alignment in check. Front end will probly be getting new king pins etc and new shocks next week before the new steers go on. Then a three axle alignment once the steers are fitted. Top line tires won't last long if mistreated and I'm hoping to see these lower tier tires do well by maintaining them properly.

 

I know people have there opinions on Chinese tires but honestly I could not afford top tier tires at the moment and I needed to replace my tires now. I had got the most out of them I could but they were done. I had a lot of financial set backs last year with my truck and I have only just started to get on top of the situation that I was in because if it. After replacing my clutch in January I have been putting $500 a month into a seperate savings account for my tires . $500 a month from January to June is $3k. That was my budget for my drive tires. When I'm quoted between $5.5k and $7.5k in Canada for tires then I had to look elsewhere and to lower tier brands. I needed tires and had a limited budget so had to make the best of what I could. I did my research and asked my questions on the Aeolus brand and was happy to get the replies , especially to hear from some forum members who had purchased them, so I made my choice and am happy with it.
I did go against my usual desire to be supporting the US and Canadian economy but when it comes to the crunch I had to go with the Chinese brand due to budget.