I think the ATR is one step milder that the ST series, probably a bit better for highway mileage.

 

It does not matter if you are purchasing new, or used tires, you have to check the date it was manufactured as tires over 6 years tend to have a higher rate of failure, and fail in the worst way causing seasoned drivers traveling at modest speeds to end up in the ditch upside down.

Some say "who cares, I'll just get the warranty and if it goes early, I'm covered" but dead people do not collect on the warranty!

There is a spot on the inner sidewall where there was a tag inserted into the tire mold before the mold forms the final shape of the tire.

They list the week, and year.
The week is numbered up to 52.
The year is the last two digits.

So 2902 would be the 29th month of the year 2002.
And 0100 would be the first month of the year 2000 and no good as it's too old!

Be sure that if a set of tires lasts you 3 years, that they will hit the 6 year mark after you wear them out, so they should be less than 3 years old.

 

And yes, some tires much older have given their lives after covering a useful amount of miles, but some have not.

They were stored in a shed behind the garage and "grandpa" purchased them on sale as a set of 8, and 4 were for the next tire change after the first set wore out.

After he passed away, something like 10 years later, the family finally decided to kick out the renters, my friends, clean things out everywhere including his old shed to get ready to sell the property and I got a great deal as I needed 2 rear tires as I had just replace the front tires.

They might have been real old the day he got them as they fit cars from the 1950's up to the 1978 Chevy Caprice I put them on.
I know they were 10 years old minimum, but had been driven not one mile before I got them.

I was 19 or 20 back then and totally clueless.

They both gave out at the same time about a month later (one going off so badly causing the other to go?) at the top of the grape vine on HWY 5 just south of Bakersfield Ca leaving a freeway full of what looked like black popcorn and only the smallest band of sidewall remained on both.

I thought I had been rear-ended by an 18 wheeler going over 100 mph!

The sound was freaky loud, my rear axle must have cleared the road by at least 3 feet, some of the crap I had in the back seat was in the front seat, my head hit the roof, and the car was all over the road.

I only had one piece of crap spare and the gas station at the bottom of the grape vine wanted $75 for the replacement!

I could get two BRAND NEW PREMIUM tires for $75 back then!!!

 

I nearly had that happen to to me once. My truck came with a mint spare that was tossed in the bed. I figured no problem and put it on when I got nails in my front, left tire and the tire shop couldn't fix it. The tire lasted well for a few days puttering around town, but after 150 miles at 70 MPH, I started to notice a wheel hop in the front. I dropped speed as a precaution. When I pilled up in my cardlock, there was an obvious "walking" on the front. Looking closer, it apeared that I had a badly broken belt in the "new" tire. I still have that tire in my yard, I'll stap a picture of it and post to see just how close I came to a high speed blow out.

I too was clueless (and to a large degree still am) about the higher knowledge tires. My sister who once worked the parts desk at canadian tire then explained that the rubber ages weather it is used or not. Having ridden sports bikes, she had to know these things because a blown tire on a bike is garanteed to cause injury or worse.

I'm glad we had the chance to discuss this here because I know I'm not the only one that has a few things to learn about tires.

 

I meant to type week instead of month, and I'm sure I corrected it before the first time I posted it.

 

Heres that tire that nearly let go on me.



The rubber spit open exposing the steel belt a few days after I removed the wheel.

 

Well, I ordered the toyo open country H/Ts. They have a 5 year/100 000k warranty, which is the highest I've seen except for michelin and I'm not impressed with michelins. googling of the toyo tires yielded no complaint stories, so I hope they will be good. They were a non stock tire and should be in tomorrow. I'll be glad when I get those crappy tires off my truck, not one of them is balanced anymore and at least two are out of round. That can't be good for MPGs, or safety, or bearings or suspension, or headaches, or driver fatigue or..........

 

I just had one of my back tires go flat with a punctured sidewall on my jeep and put the ORIGINAL SPARE on from 1990!!! I look at it every day before I leave to make sure it is holding and there are no weather crackes or gashes. Everything is perfectly balanced so if it slowly came apart, I would know but Im worried it might go BOOM. It has had a good tire cover on it since day one. When I get the money though, I will change it asap cause like you said, yours looked mint, but had issues so till then, I guess I will drive a little slower. With this short of a wheel base, I need no issues like that!! My brothers friend just had a serius accident in an import car like a celica and were thrown at 110 mph(yes, they were speeding) when the rear tire blew. I guess it looked good but still gave way breaking my brothers friends back and his buddys neck. They both lived but the doctors said they will have issues till the day they die. Because of a bad tire and going a little too fast didn't help either.

I have never had a front tire blow out (had them go flat pritty quick) but Sometimes wonder how hard it is to control in a larger vehicle at say 70-80 mph. Does it take you all over the road or is it somewhat controlable. Im also wondering what would happen to that aluminum rim when it hits the pavement that fast with over 2'000lbs on it. I can visulize the rim shattering but not sure if that can actually come apart.

 

I've seen police chases where the rims stay in tact and the vehicle stays some what controllable, but maybe being high on crack is a prerequisite for controlling a truck in those conditions....

The tire I showed had maybe 300 miles on it, if that. It still had the rubber hairs on it when I put it on. It only had problems when I took it out on the freeway. After about 125 miles at 70 MPH, A front wheel hop became noticable. After 150 miles, I could feel it was definately worse so I backed of to 60 MPH and below to get the rest of the way home. At the time I still didn't know what was up and didn't suspect the tire that I just put on.

From what archangel, and my sister has told me, after 6 years, the dice are on the table when it comes to tires. Since the rubber itself organic, it decays at a certain rate weather it is used or not. If its out in the elements it will be faster. But I'm told that if tires sit in the store rack for more than 6 years, they cannot be sold for safety reasons.

 

Well the new tires are on. They are whisper quiet and much smoother than the bald tires I had on until now. Traction on our steep gravel driveway is also way better and I can get in and out without having to grab momentum. Build date of the tires are early march of this year, so they should be good for a long time. Wasn't aware if this, but the tire shop offers free rotations every 10 000ks as part of the warranty. Felt strange going to a vehicle service shop to get work done on my truck, I haven't been to a mechanic in at least 6 years. They were crazy busy but still gave me good service and I was impressed.

The only complaint is they nasty oversteer that the truck has now, but I'm thinking it might just be because the tires are still new. Any opinions about the oversteer? (all tires are at 75 psi)

 

You're going to open a can of worms with the pressure question.

My opinion....empty truck, E rated tires at 75psi, pressure is too high. I run 40-45 lbs in the rears and 50-55 in the front, when empty. Loaded, I put them all at max. I also keep an eye on the wear pattern and raise, lower, pressure as the pattern indicates.

On new tires, I keep a close watch on wear patterns, especially on the front and rotate as soon as there is any wear pattern (usually on the edges) Once a bad wear pattern gets started on a new tire you'll pay heck getting it to wear flat and even again.

I always check tire pressure after the shop puts on new ones. The set I just had installed on our Jeep had 15 lbs difference between the highest and lowest pressure. No tire was the same. Check and adjust the pressure when the tires are cold.

 

I always run load range "E" truck tires. I always run them at the highest air pressure (usually 80 psi) which keeps these heavy trucks from wearing the outside edges much faster than the middle.

Gotta be careful at fast lube shops because they will often set them down to 32 psi.

Uniroyal Liberator is a good, inexpensive tire.

 

I got 50K miles out of a set of BFG 235/85R-16E All-Terrains (still have one as the spare). When I went big, I have had good luck with the rebadged Coopers...ProComp, Mickey Thompson and now Dick Cepek (on the F-150). Good value on those tires. The best tires that have ever been on the '86 are the Mickey Thompson 285/70R-16D MTX. Great performance and so far, after about 12K, they are hardly showing any wear at all.

 

David,

Here in BC the best tire you can buy is the Michelin LTX I found.

They will last you 100k and will not deteriorate or the rubber go hard on you.

The other advantage the Michelin tire has that no other tire out there has is that they have full thread depth so they will not suddenly get slippery after they are worn 25% down.

If you look at any other tire they usually bridge across the threads once the tire is 25% or 50% worn and then become slippery. Sure you still have 50-70% of thread left but the water got nowhere to go once the thread is worn down to the bridge like on the Factory Firestone tires that used to come with our trucks.

If you are wondering what I am talking about with bridging just look a a new tire and look at the connector between the threads. You won't find a connector on the Michelin tires so you can wear them down to minimum thread without loosing much performance.

I think I got about close to 140kkm on one pair of Michelin tires I used mostly in the rear of my truck and they still are well above the legal thread limit.

You can get them at COSTCO for a reasonable price, unfortunately all other places charge an arm and a leg for the Michelin tires.

Seb....

 

Thanks guys, I went with the toyos. Only complaint is a bit of floaty oversteer which seems to be better after a few hundred ks on it. I'm hoping its just a "new tire thing". I don't really have any business driving my truck like a ricer anyway.

They came with a 5 year/100 000 kilometer warranty. Traction seems to be very good even though they are a highway ribbed tire. Tire noise is nearly impossible to hear. My dad's GMC 3500 came with Michelins and I wasn't too impressed with them. They aged rather quickly in the sun and wore unevenly. The PO of the truck ranted about them too, but thats what the dealership carried and since he was the head mechanic there, it wasn't really his call.