Chinese Tires?

I run Road Warrior tires that I bought on ebay. The steers do not last at all but the drives are wearing nice. I run ceramic balancing beads in them. Going with Bridgestones on the steers next time but I will continue to buy the drive tires.

 

Some of the Chinese brands seem to be moving up in the quality scale. I bought a set of Double Coin 400's drive tires for $200 off my mechanic slightly used. Darn things lasted for over 200K miles. Problem was, rolling resistance was absolutely horrible.

Fast forward, and I just put on 6 LT105's on the trailer. Rolling resistance in the 70's, and under $400 out the door. If they'll wear decent, I think i have a new favorite trailer tire.

 

Hancooks are pretty good. We run em, and have had good luck with them.
Course, they keep trying different ones. I think now they are on a Continental kick.

 

no, no, no

 

Insightful.

 

It will say the country they were made in on the sidewall of the tire......

 

Some are better than others. I've had decent luck with some samsons on trucks we run local. All the other cheap import tires I've gotten don't balance right no matter what you do, at least as steers. No matter what it is you'll need the balancing beads or whatever. If the truck is doing low speed stuff locally I wouldn't worry about it. If it's primarily highway I wouldn't bother and just go get some quality tires, at least for steers. Drives have been generally fine even the real crap ones.

 

Ironman and Samson is what I prefer

 

Sorry wasn't in a place to type much more. There are tons of threads on this topic. Buy a cheap tire that is what you get. I have sold them, installed them, seen them in a fleet, and yes even ran them on my truck when money was tight. They fulfilled the job at the time. But they are not round, don't hold air well, don't wear well, they are black. You normally end up with more problems than they are worth. Shakes, vibrations, damage to wheel ends, dashes, door panels. The last fleet I worked for I tested them against Michelins, dollar to 32nd of tread are the same. But I saved labor on one tire change. Michelin lasted longer. Fuel mileage up 10%. Reliability was way up and held air like no other. What I never did compute is the added damage to the cab and body over the life of the truck. You probably could, I either didn't have that time or to stupid to analyze that information back then. But I seen a difference.

 

^^^all of that!!! ^^^