

| Subject: | Where The Rubber Meets the Road |
| From: | Larry Alofs |
| Date: | Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:20:10 -0500 |
A couple of years ago, dissatisfied with the lack of stability of the car tires that the PO had put on my '91 GL, I bought some Firestone F-570s. 205/70R14 95T M+S Max pressure 44 psi I felt that Firestone had probably gotten more bad press than they deserved and I'm a cheapskate; these were about $50 apiece. I was quite satisfied with the performance. The van was much more stable in cross winds, tho the tires were a little noisy. I run 35 psi front and 44 rear. (non-Westy) Everything seemed fine until this past July when we traveled from Chicago to Ashville, NC, to Austin, TX and back. From Austin to Chicago there was a noticeable vibration at speed and a slight wiggle of the steering wheel at 20-30 mph. I assumed that a tire had somehow gotten out of balance. Checking with my hand, however, revealed that about 10 or 12 inches of tread along the outer half of a front tire was bulging out slightly. I assumed that this was a fluke and started trying to find a replacement to match the other tires. I soon found that Firestone no longer sells the F-570, at least not in this country. Talking with a guy at Discount Tire, I said that I wanted at least a 95T rating with a max pressure of at least 44 psi. He suggested an inexpensive replacement called the: Warrior TR 205/70R-14 95T for about $45. So I bought one, and it seemed OK, the diameters matched well and the handling seemed about the same, tho it's hard to judge based on one tire. Well about 2 weeks ago on a short trip to South Bend, vibration again. Same exact problem with one of the Firestones on the rear. This time it developed so quickly that I felt I had to put on the spare. I no longer consider the failures a fluke. The tires were bought from two different Firestone dealers about a month apart. One was on the front at 35 psi; the other was on the back at about 44 psi. I believe that a third one was starting to vibrate a little by the time I got to Discount Tire to buy 3 more Warriors. So far the Warriors seem pretty good for a cheap tire. They are made by the Michelin-BFG-Uniroyal conglomerate. A little less stable laterally perhaps. Very quiet. We'll see. Larry A.
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