Finally replaced those POS Pirelli tires

[Tylus]

I was really wanted to get the Goodyear Silent Armour, or the Goodyear Duratrac. Had originally been waiting until October to buy new tires. But my neighbor had a tire blow out yesterday while driving with her kids. She called me to come help since her husband is deployed. This highlighted to me that my wife could have been the one this happened to. Kinda made things clear for me. Spent all day yesterday pricing out tires and driving around. But I kept getting sticker shock. Bad shock. Last time I bought truck tires (Feb 2009) I got 4 265/70/17 Silent Armour tires for $860 installed. I spent $1,250 today for 4 tires . Would have been over $1,400...but I found a coupon, and Firestone was running a 5% off promotion if you use their card. All told, I saved about $200 by shopping around. When did rubber get so damn expensive? Not willing to break the bank, but still get a quality name-brand tire, I had limited myself to Goodyear, Firestone/Bridgestone, and Michelin. After pricing out the size I wanted, I went with the Firestone Destination A/T. Was really after the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo II, but at an additional $180 overall, just didn't do it. My eyes about popped out of my head at the $1,500 Goodyear prices, and the Michelins were almost $1,800! Firestone Destination A/T @ Tirerack.com - Size 275/60/20 I upsized to a 33" tire (factory was 275/55/20 which is a 32" tire). No rubbing or any contact whatsoever. The width is the same, and the sidewall is about 1/2" taller. The wheel well gap looks much better IMO as well. btw, my stock Pirelli Scorpion STR tires only had 22,250 miles on them. Over 1/2 worn and dry-rotted. I wouldn't recommend them to anybody. Thanks for the worthless tires Ford. For a measly $15 more per tire, they could have put the #2 rated tire on these vehicles instead of the #14 tire. Overall, I am very pleased. The new tires are much firmer than the Pirelli tires, they look better, and the tread is much more aggressive. I feel I can actually get near the beach now and not have to worry about getting stuck in a puddle. As they say, it didn't happen without pics (well crappy cell phone pics...and notice how my rims are dirty again ) Rear Front Tread Old POS Pirelli I'll shoot some pictures with the good camera later once I clean her up again...and make sure the rims are clean. I also had them remove the wieghts from the outside of the rim and use hidden wieghts.

[bigunit54]

Tires look good. Rubber is out of control man. My dad farms and had to replace a front tractor tire, he paid double what he did a couple years ago. I know they haven't doubled in automobiles, but they have sure gone up. My folks have an 07 Expy that had the pirellis on it, I thought they looked bad too. It has Cooper discoverers on it now. My dad hit something and ruined the sidewall on one, so he just replaced all them. And I hate those pirellis on the new f-150's I see, they look like car tires.

I got to give you a thanks on something else. I had my truck start acting up recently not wanting to shift out of park when I applied the brake. I did a search and found a thread you had posted on about rigging the shift-lock solenoid so that it was always in the down position. Well, I took my shift console off and found that about 40% of the time that I applied the brakes the solenoid was not releasing. On those times it didn't release my brake lights came on, so I ruled out the brake switch. Well, I was able to find a small piece of scrap wood and jam that in there to hold the white tab down, so no problems. Thanks for the tip, it saved me a lot of money.

[Blue Rebel]

lol those pirellis are still better tires than the crap generals that ford likes to use. Nice upgrade tho!

[Tylus]

tires aren't what I truly wanted, but on the other hand, they are some of the best in their category and I don't have to worry about the wife driving on them. So it's a decent compromise. In another 3-4 yrs I'll be replacing these I'm sure due to age/dry rot rather than mileage. blah

glad to have helped on the shifter solenoid. It used to be a common issue, and I personally could never see shelling out big bucks for that solenoid when you could "fix" it for free and still have your vehicle functional. We used to live without that feature in the old days...so why not nowadays

[twigsV10]

My wife has the same tires on a dodge dingo that i would like some MTs on but they just wont wear out.

[Tylus]

this evening got a bit better

a buddy connected me with one of his buds that blew a tire on his 04 Ram with 20's and was needing some cheap tires. My old tires were the same size, so I sold him all 4 for $150. Said he's gonna use them for a few months until he has the money to buy 4 new ones. Gotta love it when things come together.

[MCDavis]

Nice choice Tylus. Curious though as I bought 275/60/20 LTX M/S2 in December for $1440 and that included mount, balance, disposal, and all the hazard BS etc. Hawaii must be pricey even on tires....$1800 is extreme.

[kenttrudiw]

Good choice, don't have them yet, but I will look long and hard when it is time to replace my Pirelli's.... Please keep us informed on the ride and the tire noise? The ONLY good thing about the Pirellis is that they are extremely quite on the road...