Hey guys. I have about 61k on my 06 FEH with the stock EcoConti's on it. The tread on them is showing it is time to change them out, and definitely something I want to do before winter.

I took a look around and while I wasn't unhappy with the stock conti's, I would entertain the idea of a different tire.

I will most likely be ordering from tire-rack, and having them locally installed.

Right now I am looking at these Avon Rangers which seem to have pretty good reviews, despite the fact I have never heard of them.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....wall=Blackwall

Consumer Reports rates the Goodyear Fortera HL Edition tires as top rate, however many of the reviews on them lead to concerns about tread life, and tire balance.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....nSpeedRating=S


Anyone have any reccomendations, or things to look out for? I need a bit more aggressive of a tire, as I have 2 jobs that neither close for snow...and I leave at 3:00am for one of them, so a bit before everyone else is out there! I am not considering snow tires, due to the fact I did okay with the stock contis on there, and worst case, I will pickup some simple cable chains.

 

I have Michelin LTXs on mine. Some one changed them before I bought it. They have 80 psi max pressure rating.

 

Mark, what pressure do you run in them? The tread design looks a little less all terrain, but I don't need that myself. I've always replaced my stock tires with Michelin, but if I can get better mileage, I may stay with the eco plus. Please tell me more about the Michelin LTX, because I'm interested in the 80psi rating.

I personally would not buy Goodyear with how they've performed for me in the past. Even when I brought up Goodyear tires where I buy, the guy said Goodyear tires are only good for a good year as the name implies. The Goodyear tires that came on my Explorer where so out of round, they had to be indexed on the rims.

GaryG

 

I picked up four new Goodyear Tripletread tires that have the Mountain + Snowflake label. This indicates they are severe winter rated tires that are also rated for 60,000 miles. For 16 years I used snowtires but hated the limited treadwear and felt I was giving up some dry road handling. I will use my EcoPlus tires for like 7 months a year.

 

Everyone seems to have their own experience with tires, but, before the FEG, I had Goodyears on 4 of my last 5 new cars and they were all great. I got about 90K out of a set of Wranglers on a Ford Ranger and I'm expecting 70-80K out of a set on my Dodge Dakota. The Goodyears were all better than the Michelins I had on the 5th car.

That said, I think I would stick with an eco-tire. Are replacement Contis prohibitively expensive or is the snow performance the issue?

 

I pulled my EcoPlus tires w/only 13,000 miles on them. I was having difficulty keeping them balanced and I had about 6 flats and I just thought "screw this" and I replaced them with GoodYear Fortera TripleTreds.

I have only had them a few months, so I can't give the long term review, but so far I really like them.

I liked GoodYear because it's a US company and because the Fortera line seemed to be ok at Consumer Reports, and because they were cheaper than the Michelins at Costco and because I live in a snowy climate so the snowflake logo on the tripetred means something for me.

They weren't cheap... about $720 installed... but I'd do it again.

PS: I haven't noticed any mpg difference between the Contis and the Goodyears. I don't spend a lot of (ok, any) time worrying about how to maximize my mileage. I don't have a scangauge or scantek or whatever. I don't know anything about the L gear. I certainly don't turn my car off and coast. I just drive it. So I end up getting about 30mpg in the summer and 28 mpg in the winter and that hasn't changed. Perhaps if I tried to maximize mpg I would notice the difference.

 

Snow performance is the issue I looked at. There is a poster from Rochester New York who has several years experience with the EcoPlus tires in winter conditions and stated he was not impressed. Better safe than sorry.

 

The snow performance, is "okay" aka, I have never been stuck. The cost is not prohibitive at all, tire rack actually has the stock conti's as the cheapest tire if I remember correctly. I was just looking for something a bit more aggressive in the snow, without having to go to an all out snow tire.

If I really get in deep, I will probably slap on some cable chains (something I am also looking at)

 

I just put new tires on my 2004 Prius (at 99.5k miles). The Prius is not great in snow so I did some research. If you want aggressive, all-weather tires that will actually improve your MPG a little, take a look at the Nokian WR tires from Finland.

JeffD

 

The Nokians are nice...however they are a winter tire, and I am looking for something that I can run all season.