I have a 94 Ford E250 in-line 6 cyl.and have been looking for the best tires. I have a history of problems with brand new tires and have learned a lot about twin ibeams and problems with Ford designs etc. This truck is terrible on ice and snow but I cannot have the tires I want because I have learned aggressive tire patterns exaserbate the wear problems. Does anyone know of a great tire that will be good on my truck? My truck shakes and I am tired of it. The tires I have are new and going back to the store now because they are out of round caused by tread seperation?

 

You're right, the trucks tend to eat tires. My initial thought would be to go back to one of the OE tires. I think that the 94 E250's originally came with the LT225/75R16 Firestone Steeltex. Now, they come with the Michelin LTX M/S in the same size. An option, I think standard with the PSD and the E350's, was the Goodyear Wrangler HT in size LT245/75R16, it has since been replaced this year by the Hankook DynaPro AS in the same size.

Most of the time, you will have the best luck replacing the tire with the OE fitment. These tires usually provide the best combinations of traction, ride, handling, noise and rolling resistance. (**Please be aware that I said most of the time, there will be those that didn't have good luck with the original fitment)

How do you know that you had a tread separation? If I had a tread sep, there is no way that I would be driving on the tire.

Sometimes, a tire can be diagnosed as out of round (OOR) for multiple reasons, irregular wear, poor balance, or even a new tire may have bad vibration (e.g. high road force) due to insufficient quality control during manufacture. If I bought brand new tires and they were shaking my truck, you can bet that the truck would be back at the tire store within a few minutes!

 

The tires HAVE been back and replaced with same and back again. I have had 6-8 tires of the same design on the truck this year. I am tired I can not spend all my time with this. Tred sep. is what I was told causes the OOR but like you said could be wear. Thsi time I decided to get help and info in choosing a tire. I don't want to do this again. Thank you.

 

Then switch brands. Ive had exellent luck with Goodyear Wrangler HT on Dodge and Ford 3/4 and 1T vans. Be carefull with the ratings as you can get them in C, D and E. I use D except on a E350 dually cube truck and then I go with E's.

Take the van to an alignment shop that isnt afraid to work on the twin I beams; many just dont want to get involved with setting them up correct.

And vans need a lot of weight for snow traction, Ive had no problems when I have 600-1000 Lbs in the back and NH is serious snow country. Also dont go oversize width, you will loose traction; stay OE or go down one size if weight isnt an issue.

 

I have gone through several sets of the Goodyear Wrangler HTs on my van. I was never impressed with them. I went with the OE tires because of all of the reasons above and I could get them cheap through TireRack.com. However, the wrangler HTs have been discontinued by Goodyear.

After I found out the Wranglers were NLA I shopped around and found BF Goodrich Commercial T/As at Sams Club. I put on a set about a year ago and love them. Far superior to the OE Wrangler HTs. They wear longer, run smooth and true and have excellent traction both wet and dry. So far I would compare their performance favorably to the Michelin but at about a $30 to $40 less.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

The tires I have been suffering through are Goodyears but they were from WalMart so they are suspect. I did not want to have to search for the best tire and price so I bought Goodyear thinking surely they would not put their name on a bad tire. I am learning. Micheline (SP) have some good tires but I didn't want to buy from that company. Bridgestone Blizzak is an excellant tire but would be too aggressive for the twin ibeam Ford.

 

The BF Goodrich commercial T/As sound like what I am looking for What do I need to track them down? Is there a specific model #or is the above name all I will need? I want to go today. I want to make this problem history. I am worried about one thing. Sams Club is Walmart and this has been the cause of my prob. I fear. I think the tires I bought were made by Goodyear esp. for Wally. I will have the same prob. with the BFs at Sam's?

 

different companies have different standards. Keep in mind that BFGoodrich and Uniroyal are both owned by Michelin. Michelin typically has pretty good quality standards.

Just because the tire is made for Walmart does not necessarily mean that it is junk. It will just depend on the type of tire. Not every tire performs well on every vehicle.

You can try the BFG's that Clubwagon recommended, but 286merc had a good point, a good alignment (along with tire rotation and maintaining the correct inflation pressure) is key for long tire life.

 

You said "Just because the tire is made for Walmart does not necessarily mean that it is junk." I did not say that. What I said was I got 6-8 junk tires that were Goodyear tires sold by Wallmart.

Also said "286merc had a good point, a good alignment (along with tire rotation and maintaining the correct inflation pressure) is key for long tire life." I have had the car aligned by the best in the area and then checked and re-checked (and it was right on each time) 3 times. This after changing tires each time. Also the rims were checked, ball joints replaced and other work done to isolate the problem. My 90 day old tires are severely chopped. My truck shakes down the road very bad at 35 and 65mph.

 

Sorry to mis-understand.

Sounds like the pattern might be to aggressive.

Good luck with whatever you buy.

 

looking at three tires now the Michelin X radial LT and the BF Goodrich Commercial A/T and another BF Goodrich (maybe radial Long Trail or was it an M/S I don't remember). The internet is loaded with LOTS of Michelin sidewall blowouts and manufacturer is doing nothing to service customers. I do not want to go with Michelin. The commercial A/T has a very mild tread pattern but it is a low end tire no? I am concerned about going with the M/S because I have been told I need a mild tread pattern but traction is a concern for me too. Any Ideas?

 

Knowing how WalWart beats vendors mercilessly about prices I wouldnt be at all suprised if those tires are seconds or built to their spec.
I wonder what your local Goodyear dealer would have to say about that??

I buy mine from a local discounter and get 35-40K with no problems. These are on vans that get worked daily delivering heavy auto shop equipment from local to ~150 miles away.

And yes, tire pressure is watched carefully as well as a 10K rotation schedule.

 

dagriggs, I know all about the quality issues with tires sold at WalMart/Sams. As noted above most tire manufacturers you see at Walmart/Sams make a Walmart/Sams specific tire that is not sold through their other distribution channels. They are WalMart/Sams specific and are typically much cheaper and of lower quality than the models sold through their regular distribution channels.

However, Walmart/Sams also sell the better quality tire models mfg by Michelin, BFG, Goodyear, etc.... along side the price leaders. I have made the mistake of buying a set of the cheapies at Sams and was terribly dissapointed. I am very picky about the tires I put on my vehicles (both cars and trucks) and will gladly pay a premium for a quality tire. I buy almost all of my tires now through TireRack.com. They don't sell junk. Before I bought the BFG Commercial T/As I did some research and talked to people that had them. I have seen several trucks and vans equipped with these tires and everybody that I have talked to have had the same experience that I have had.

I use my van to pull my racecar trailer, that's really all it does. The trailer weighs 4800 lbs loaded and I put about 800 lbs of equipment in the van. So these tires get a real workout on my van. A typical race weekend is anywhere from 500 to 1000 miles each way fully loaded at a consistant 80 mph cruise. I have a tire pyrometer (used mostly for the racecar) which I use to check tire temps (and trailer wheelbearing temps) at fuel stops. The BFGs run consistanly at 120 to 125 degrees under these conditions in the heat of the summer. No sign of overheating at all. I am very happy with them.

As for model designation, BFG just calls them "Commercial T/A". You can find out more at BFG's website.

Go to: http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/bfgap...aallseason.jsp

Hope you like them as much as I do.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

After all of your good advice I was able to choose the BF Goodrich Long Trail T/A. After Mi 2000+ there seem to be wearing well and they drive well with none of the problems I had with the Wally tires. This was a good choice. I appreciate all your help. I returned the Wally tires and they returned all my money (even though we had gone through 6 tires and had several thousand miles on them. I do owe Wal-Mart credit for customer satisfaction. Just do not trust the advice of their mechanics). Thanks again.and ). Thanks you 86rustbucket, 286merc and clubwagon for your help.

 

Glad to see your problem has been resolved.
I have purchased "discounted" tires before, and one of the things that the tire has stamped on it is the word "blem". This is supposed to only refer to a cosmetic blemish, but I found out that isn't always the case.

Patrick