Are “cheap” tires bad?

[bigcountry78]

Something I’ve been wondering for a while. I have Sailun tires on my 78, and my car came with Ironman tires. Cheaper brands, no doubt. But I’m the last few weeks, I’ve noticed 18 wheelers at work running sailun and Ironman tires. Now, I’m my opinion, that means these tire companies know what they’re doing. I may be wrong, but at least that’s the impression I get. Of course, we all remember the Firestone fiasco with the Ford Expedition. What do y’all think? Are big name tires like Michelin, General, and BFGoodrich worth the extra cash?

 

[Midnightmoon]

I've never owned them personally, but a lot of RVr's swear by Sailun tires on their heavy 5th wheels.

 

[bigcountry78]

I've never owned them personally, but a lot of RVr's swear by Sailun tires on their heavy 5th wheels.

I’ve been happy with mine. I only bought them because they were the absolute cheapest 31 the local store had, and I needed tires immediately. But, they’ve ridden well, been quiet, and taken me everywhere I needed to go including through snow and mud.

 

[bucket]

There's a lot of "off brand" tires that are very good. Sailun is one of them. We've had Ironman steer tires on a couple work trucks, they were... well, they weren't terrible.

Tires like Primewell, Douglas, Fisk all come to mind as ones I consider to be no good. Hercules have made some good ones, but also some that are garbage. Most Dayton and Mastercraft tires are pretty good, if not excellent. My other favorites that come to mind are no longer in production. But there have been many off brands that I thought made an excellent tire.

 

[Midnightmoon]

I pretty much deal with one local tire

There's a lot of "off brand" tires that are very good. Sailun is one of them. We've had Ironman steer tires on a couple work trucks, they were... well, they weren't terrible.

Tires like Primewell, Douglas, Fisk all come to mind as ones I consider to be no good. Hercules have made some good ones, but also some that are garbage. Most Dayton and Mastercraft tires are pretty good, if not excellent. My other favorites that come to mind are no longer in production. But there have been many off brands that I thought made an excellent tire.

I deal with one local family owned tire shop. They are primarily a Bridgestone/Firestone dealer. So, most of my vehicles are sitting on their tires right now.

Speaking of Dayton tires, he used to carry the Dayton Timberline AT tires that we would run on our old XJ Jeeps. They were a great tire. I'd buy them again in a heartbeat if he still had them available.

 

[77 K20]

I've had "cheap" tires on different vehicles off and on. Usually when buying something they said it was a selling point. "It's got new tires!!!" then you look at them...

They have all been safe enough. No blowouts (other than a re-tread in 1990 blowing apart on my old K5). But often I found sometimes the tire felt "squishy" even at max pressure. So felt floaty and cornering was mushy and made more sway. Or there might be more road noise, not quite as smooth, strange wear pattern or they wear fast... little things like that. Sometimes it wasn't too noticeable until I went and got new tires. Then when I had some BFG/Continentals/Michelins installed it was a big "wow" moment.

And every now and then you buy a cheap set of tires and are pleasantly surprised by them. I bought a set of Falken Wildpeak AT tires for my father in law after heard he got stuck in the woods and dented up his Ford Ranger on a tree. His old tires were worn to the steel belts... Falkens had just come out and were about 1/2 the price of the BFG tires he had. I thought it rode well and had good traction.

 

[bucket]

I forgot to mention, you normally can tell the crappy model tires from the better ones, just by looking at them. If you are familiar with the specific size in question, the low quality tires that are squishy and don't handle well will generally be taller and narrower than the same size tire of a better brand. They also tend to have more of a crown in the center of the tread surface and the shoulders will be more rounded off.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Something I’ve been wondering for a while. I have Sailun tires on my 78, and my car came with Ironman tires. Cheaper brands, no doubt. But I’m the last few weeks, I’ve noticed 18 wheelers at work running sailun and Ironman tires. Now, I’m my opinion, that means these tire companies know what they’re doing. I may be wrong, but at least that’s the impression I get. Of course, we all remember the Firestone fiasco with the Ford Expedition. What do y’all think? Are big name tires like Michelin, General, and BFGoodrich worth the extra cash?

As you may know I spent a lot of years working at tire stores so I'll give you my take on all of them.

Ironman tires are the bottom of the barrel. The manufacture believes in them so little that they do not come with tread life expectation or tread life warranty. They do come with a defect manufacture defect warranty. When I'd buy them wholesale they were always cheaper than all other brand, we did not stock them but would order them for certain customers who only wanted the cheapest thing they could get. If someone wanted 4 I'd order 5 so I could send one back if one of them was out of round and frequently that was the case. I would recommend buy used tires before Ironman.

I worked for Firestone for a lot of year and though the recall years. The biggest problem with that scenario was that the trucks had a inflation recommendation of 26psi. If not kept in check the pressure would drop into the teens over time, and a blow out on the top heave explorer meant a roll over if the driver didn't know how to handle it. We'd put a new set of tires on the truck and new inflation sticker on the door recommending 32psi. Ford did not like that because it meant the trucks rode rougher.

Most of my carrier was first with Firestone and later Goodyear. At Firestone (setting aside the recall) we'd warranty maybe a dozen tires a year for things like tread separation or pulling. At Goodyear we'd warranty probably a dozen a month. Goodyear does not manufacture their tires to a tight of standards creating more issues. Eventually I had a hard time believing in Goodyears tires and that in part was why I left the company. I just could work for a company I didn't think was make a quality product. Both Goodyear and Firestone manufacture tires for big rigs BTW. Firestone still makes some hard to find sizes such as 16.5.

I think with Michelin your paying for the name, but I have never worked somewhere that sold Michelin so I really can't comment further than that.

BFG VS General. I'm a General guy. I've got General Grabber AT's on all my rigs and here is why. Back in the late 90's I got my first pickup and put BFG All terrain T/A s on it. They did good off road, were a bit noisy and where terrible on compact snow and ice. I wore them out and installed set of General Grabber AT's because they were about $25 cheaper per tire. They were just as good off road, were a little quieter and during the first snow they really shown though. I thought I'd have to chain up to get up my hill but the grabbers drove though. I've been a Grabber fan ever since.

Hopefully that helps.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I forgot to mention, you normally can tell the crappy model tires from the better ones, just by looking at them. If you are familiar with the specific size in question, the low quality tires that are squishy and don't handle well will generally be taller and narrower than the same size tire of a better brand. They also tend to have more of a crown in the center of the tread surface and the shoulders will be more rounded off.

I agree with that and will add those low quality tires will have a low load rating as well.

 

[bigcountry78]

As you may know I spent a lot of years working at tire stores so I'll give you my take on all of them.

Ironman tires are the bottom of the barrel. The manufacture believes in them so little that they do not come with tread life expectation or tread life warranty. They do come with a defect manufacture defect warranty. When I'd buy them wholesale they were always cheaper than all other brand, we did not stock them but would order them for certain customers who only wanted the cheapest thing they could get. If someone wanted 4 I'd order 5 so I could send one back if one of them was out of round and frequently that was the case. I would recommend buy used tires before Ironman.

I worked for Firestone for a lot of year and though the recall years. The biggest problem with that scenario was that the trucks had a inflation recommendation of 26psi. If not kept in check the pressure would drop into the teens over time, and a blow out on the top heave explorer meant a roll over if the driver didn't know how to handle it. We'd put a new set of tires on the truck and new inflation sticker on the door recommending 32psi. Ford did not like that because it meant the trucks rode rougher.

Most of my carrier was first with Firestone and later Goodyear. At Firestone (setting aside the recall) we'd warranty maybe a dozen tires a year for things like tread separation or pulling. At Goodyear we'd warranty probably a dozen a month. Goodyear does not manufacture their tires to a tight of standards creating more issues. Eventually I had a hard time believing in Goodyears tires and that in part was why I left the company. I just could work for a company I didn't think was make a quality product. Both Goodyear and Firestone manufacture tires for big rigs BTW. Firestone still makes some hard to find sizes such as 16.5.

I think with Michelin your paying for the name, but I have never worked somewhere that sold Michelin so I really can't comment further than that.

BFG VS General. I'm a General guy. I've got General Grabber AT's on all my rigs and here is why. Back in the late 90's I got my first pickup and put BFG All terrain T/A s on it. They did good off road, were a bit noisy and where terrible on compact snow and ice. I wore them out and installed set of General Grabber AT's because they were about $25 cheaper per tire. They were just as good off road, were a little quieter and during the first snow they really shown though. I thought I'd have to chain up to get up my hill but the grabbers drove though. I've been a Grabber fan ever since.

Hopefully that helps.

Man, some good information here. I hear a lot of complaints about goodyear for some reason. The Ironman tires have been ok, not great. Definitely noisy for what they are, and they are wearing fast. They were like new when I got the car at 177k, and now at 194k they are close to the west bars. I won’t buy a set, I’ll go with a different kind when the time comes. I’ve had good experience with Maxxis and mastercraft. I put some coopers on my wife’s car last time around and they wore quickly and got noisy.

Im leaning towards going with general on my Titan next. It currently has Duck Commander all terrains, that are noisy and vibrate. They’re from Cooper. I’m looking at the General Grabber HD, or maybe the Michelin Defnder MS. Definitely going with a road tire, I want something quiet and smooth riding in my old age lol.

 

[Shorty81]

I work for a Continental tire Defense plant. Continental owns General, so I buy Generals at half price. They are on all our and our Family's vehicles. They are really decent tires. I have never had Continentals though.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Man, some good information here. I hear a lot of complaints about goodyear for some reason. The Ironman tires have been ok, not great. Definitely noisy for what they are, and they are wearing fast. They were like new when I got the car at 177k, and now at 194k they are close to the west bars. I won’t buy a set, I’ll go with a different kind when the time comes. I’ve had good experience with Maxxis and mastercraft. I put some coopers on my wife’s car last time around and they wore quickly and got noisy.

Im leaning towards going with general on my Titan next. It currently has Duck Commander all terrains, that are noisy and vibrate. They’re from Cooper. I’m looking at the General Grabber HD, or maybe the Michelin Defnder MS. Definitely going with a road tire, I want something quiet and smooth riding in my old age lol.

I didn't think to mention this but I did spend a short time like about 2 years working for a cooper dealer in the 90's. At least then Cooper made some good tires, but they also made some crap. Mainly their economy tires were crap. The Cooper Trendsetter SE was not a new tire then, and they are still selling it. I hope they have at least updated the rubber compounds, because it doesn't look like they have updated the tread pattern. I might be willing to by a set of coopers but I'd research and read reviews first.

I've never had the HD, or the defender, so unfortunately I can't help you with which one might be better.

 

[wanderinthru]

I didn't think to mention this but I did spend a short time like about 2 years working for a cooper dealer in the 90's. At least then Cooper made some good tires, but they also made some crap. Mainly their economy tires were crap. The Cooper Trendsetter SE was not a new tire then, and they are still selling it. I hope they have at least updated the rubber compounds, because it doesn't look like they have updated the tread pattern. I might be willing to by a set of coopers but I'd research and read reviews first.

I've never had the HD, or the defender, so unfortunately I can't help you with which one might be better.

I run the Cooper Discover A/T on the little 89, short bed 4wd. Seems to give the best wear, ride.
84 K 20, work truck Yokohama's 10 ply. They are a real good tire, square sholders and wear forever.
Ironman's on the 75, welding truck. They are cheap and that old truck is so heavy nothing will last. Not to mention where this thing has to go will probably run over something and ruin a tire before it's wore out.

 

[Kim Burke]

I agree with that and will add those low quality tires will have a low load rating as well.

I agree with all SirRob and Bucket said and only add, my satisfaction with a tire sometimes depends on the tire store. Customer service makes a big difference to me.
However, if you drIve a refined car, (Lexus) for instance, replace with same brand and size as manufacture installed. A cheaper tire can really make a difference.

 

[Midnightmoon]

My brother-in-law's new 2021 Ram 1500 was delivered with Falken tires. Time will tell, but not what you would expect on a new vehicle. Of course with the supply shortages everywhere, he was lucky to have the truck delivered at all.