Just a heads up. I just dropped in to Discount tire to have my wheels balanced. 36k miles and I've never had them balanced so it's time.

The guy say's "let me pull it in and see if it's worth balancing them". I'm laughing inside thinking he's going to try to convice me to buy new ones now. So the guy pulls them off the Expy, comes in and says "hey, you've got a bad tire...". I'm thinking, "..what? Ok show me the *scratch* on the tread that's going to cause a major blowout and endanger my family".

So I walk up and drop my jaw! There on the inside of the tire tread was steel shining through. About 20% of the diameter was worn more than the rest that still had tread. They are worn on the outsides but evenly. This tire was worn through in one spot with steel belts showing and you can slide your finger under the tread and lift it!!!!

I'm pretty convinced it's just 36k miles of wear on a tire that needed balancing and that's what happens.

Scary thing is, just yesterday I was running 90+ on I635 which isn't all that unusual.

The moral of the story is, check your tires regularly!! I did, but not thoroughly enough and who knows what could have happened.

So, 4 new Michelin Cross Terrains are on order and should be in Monday. Not much selection in the stores when it comes to 275/60/17's. And not much slack in price ANYWHERE on the Cross Terrains. They don't like to sell them because I think their margin is slim. They can make more on a set of $100 tires.

Sigh.....off to stick the spare on for the weekend. Wish I would have htought about that when they had the tires off.

 

FamilyRide, i have 2 questions about your FIPK. i have a 98 EB Expy and i looked at the pictures of yours and i saw that there was that sensor and the pipe that comes off from the pipe. ok...
1. What are those and what do they do?

and 2. Are those in the same location on our 98 as yours??

thanks for the help. good luck with the new tires. we have michelin's too but i can't remember what kind so ill take a look at em when my mom brings home "The Beast"

 

You know Ford puts cheap tires from factory those General
are a horrible. My mom's had those tires on her Escape and
they were crap. Not to mention those Firestones.

Good luck with the tires and slow down.

 

we had goodyears on ours

 

Good thing you werent hurt using the dangerous tires. Your lucky you brought it in just in time.

All I can say is I went wih yokohama. I cant stand the problems that all of these companies are having so I get yokohamas. They are imported from japan and have the best ride. They are so much better in every aspect then the General Grabber AWs I had. I paid under $80 a piece and it was well worth it.

 

wannanicecar
I'd have to go back and look at it and probably research to remember what each one is. The are OEM they just disconnect from the stock airbox and you install them in the FIPK tube in the same spot.

I don't know about the '98 but I would imagine it's about the same.

I'd have to say, I never thought I'd get 36k miles out of these tires and the tread is still pretty good. But yes, they are cheap tires and they're inexpensive too. I have to run them 32-35psi to get a good ride and handling out of them which makes them a bit rough. And they hydroplane quickly!! That's the scariest thing about them.

I can't wait now. I LOVE the feel of new tires. It's like getting a whole new car!

 

I have those same tires on my wifes 02. One day out of the show room a piece of rubber was missing out of the back tire. The dealer said it was not a saftey issue. I told my wife when we have $600.00 to burn, we would put on some Michelins.Ryan

 

I have the same tires Familyride. They are no good. I suspected the wheels were out of balance with only 2000 miles on the truck. I took it to discount tire near vista ridge (my nieghbor is the manager) and all tires were out of ballance. One tire was so bad that they could only get it close with as much wieght as they could on it. They ran them before taking off the wieghts. So I got the aloy Gator wheels and that same tire was very hard to ballance but they got it pretty good. Still a lot of stick on wieght to do it. I was going to just swap it out with the spare, well the spare has a shaved high spot on it so bad I don't think it will be much better. Bad tires that is the botton line.

 

I managed 62K out of my set of Generals and believe it or not, they still had a bunch of tread left, but they had cupped so I went for the Michelins. I have already put 54K on these and I have a bunch of tread on them. I rotate and balance them every 5-7k. I figure I'll put another set on around 140k or so.

 

Ya, I have to say though, I've been running the Generals over inflated (32-35 psi) according to Ford when not towing and I've getten better wear out of them. Once I did that, they weren't really bad tires, well for OEM. But, I should have had them balanced at least once already and I didn't do a good job of rotating like I should either. But they are terrrible in wet weather. Hit a puddle of water and you can feel it jump up and start skiing.

AINTNOTOY,
Although the dealer said that, General warrant's the tire and I'd have them looked at by a General dealer and ask for a replacment. Shoot, unless you go to Discount where they mark up all the OEM type tires where they can make their margins, you can buy that General for about $60. Discount wants $129. However they had the best price on the Michelins and don't keep them in stock. You tell me where they make their margins. Either way, on a new truck, if there's no sign of road damage that caused it (and that might be hard) they should replace it no questions asked.

 

Just for grins, here is a couple of pics of the tire. You can see that the tread is worn in the first one, but compare it from left to right where you can see the worn spot. It's about 10"-12" and the rest is just as even/uniform as the other 3 tires.

 

I run mine at 32-35lbs also. I will keep them rotated and hope for the best. I would like to get 40K out of them. My nieghbor has been getting kind of cheap on my discounts at Discount Tire!!

Later

 

dfwbmw,
I like the way the navi rims look on your truck. Definately looks better then the stock ones on Expys.

 

Thanks, I got thost brand new off Ebay for 400 dollars for the set and sold the old steal wheeels for 400 dollars also. My nieghbor who is manager of Discount tire put them on for free. So as you can see it was a not brainer. After not being able to ballance those steal wheels very good I thought this was the way to go. I also picked up a spare off ebay that is the same as the other four for 15 dollars. Lost a few pounds also.

 

Definately a good trade. It makes your truck really stand out. Maybe only us carnuts can tell.