As I stated in my original post, we built tires for outside retailers and many times those spec's were tighter than ours or even OEM spec's. I didn't and do not claim all OEM tires are always superior to all those you'll buy elsewhere. My only suggestion was to consider OEM take-offs as they're always within a given tight tolerance and usually can be bought cheaper than the new ones with the same label and ten fewer miles on them. To me, the combination of a guaranteed tight spec'ed tire with ten miles on it for a lower dollar vs. a zero mile tire with no such guarantee for a higher dollar was an easy call.
You sound as though you may have been opposed to having the Firestone tires on your vehicle because of the alleged problems with them when combined with Ford's poorly designed, top-heavy SUV's. That's just an example of one reason the like new, take-off market exists. Another would be a worker at a Firestone plant ordering a new vehicle only to have it arrive with another brand of tire on it. That Firestone worker will have those tires taken off so he can support his company by having Firestones on his new purchase.
I hope this clarifies what I was attempting to convey. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
My F250 came with Firestone SteelTex tires. I left them on and have gotten 55, 000 miles out of them. I may or may not try to get another 5,000 miles out of them before I get new tires. These tires have performed flawlessly for me. They ride smooth, have worn evenly and have never been balanced. I was not too keen on having Firestone tires on my new truck and I can't say that I will buy Firestone next time but that set of Firestone tires has been as good a set of tires as I have ever owned.
<font color="blue">You sound as though you may have been opposed to having the Firestone tires on your vehicle because of the alleged problems with them when combined with Ford's poorly designed, top-heavy SUV's. </font color>
Gary... don't beat around the bush. Tell us how you really feel. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
//bruce (who's Ford Excursion did just fine with the Firestone Steeltex tires.... because I check the tire pressure regularly.)
Thanks for bringing to my attention that I was a bit 'over the top' with that. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] I just felt Firestone got a bum rap on that whole thing. I also got a bit worn out with everyone blaming the tires (which apparently never caused a problem on a Blazer, Jimmy, Tahoe, Yukon or Suburban). [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Your 55,000 miles is a great testimony to the high quality of the tires sent to OEM and to the value of keeping proper tire pressure. Keep up the good work. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
<font color="red">having the Firestone tires on your vehicle because of the alleged problems with them when combined with Ford's poorly designed, top-heavy SUV's. </font color>
It is not that the truck was poorly designed, its just that its not a car. It was a truck, made to go off road where you needed to have high ground clearance. It is just that people now use them as a station wagon, and expect them to handle as good as there Volvo. And these same people do not, and have never had a tire gage. Nore do they know, how much, or how to fill it if its low. The bad part that now, if you want something that will go off road well, you need to get a HD truck, that may be to big, or build something yourself. Sorry to vent, but I see people every day drive SUV's WAY faster then they should, and make dumb mastakes, when changeing lanes, and going around corners. If it is allready at the limmits, and something runs out in front of you, you got no where to go but over.
I agree that most SUV's don't even get driven across wet grass, much less taken into anything even resembling off-road conditions. They've replaced the minivans as the choice du jour for yuppie soccer Moms. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Maybe I should have said "poorly designed for 99% of their real world use."
As to something to really go off-road, check out a Unimog. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I agree whole heartedly.... I just love watching the SUVs on the highway during a snowstorm. These folks think that now that they have 4-wheel drive, they can do 60 MPH in the snow. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Most of them end up off in the puckerbrush.... and they need the tow truck to get them out of there. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
I always get a kick out of counting the number of new SUV's and other 4 x 4's with front end damage that still have the 30 day temporary plates on them. I just smile and think "Yeah, you can go better with 4 wheel drive in snow, but you sure don't whoa any better, do you?" [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img][img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img][img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
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