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Post Info TOPIC: Tire Industry Recommendation


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Tire Industry Recommendation
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Ok... John Jr's home on spring break. He complained of a nasty wobble & pull while driving home, so I went for a little test-drive this morning. Oh Yeah - not nasty - BAD!!

Got out & looked around and found the RF tire had no tread on the outer edge, a visible blister under the tread, and a "kink" in the tread-lines. A belt separation or internal failure would be my guess. (OK, the fronts were about shot, we'll just replace them sooner than anticipated... the rears still have 60% tread.)

Shop around online and get a decent price for some decent replacements. Nothing fancy, just hoops for a 100K+ college beater. Set up the appt. online, reserve 2 tires, click on "finish order". Print out my copy. Across the middle of the order is **Because you are ordering less than 4 tires, we will mount the new tires on the rear for safety & handling**

HUH!!?? headscratch

They even have a video that explains that when you don't correct a skid, you'll go azz-first in the ditch!! (Funny thing that the cartoon at :36 seconds shows steering correction, but the video and narration at :52 seconds states "The driver's hands don't move....".) laughing

http://www.discounttire.com/videos/2NewTiresDTC.html

They will be putting the new on the front... Imgonna OR moving the rears up front for free (if their "corporate policy" bs doesn't permit new tires front only...

 



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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

1965 El Camino - LT-1, 4L60e, 4wh discs, SC&C susp.
2013 F-150 Platinum - Twin Turbo 3.5

2018 Factory Five MkIV Roadster build thread



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That's interesting John... my Dad always used to say 'Put the best tires on the front, that way you can steer if one of the back ones blow out."  Of course, that was in the day of rear wheel drive, but always made sense to me.

Hopefully they will work with you on this, or probably make you sign a 'I promise not to sue you...' form if you put the new ones on the front.  Our culture has taken that option to a new extreme IMO.  cuckoo



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Stan S.-Twin Cities 'South Metro'

1972 Malibu Convertible 2nd time around 

2001 Mustang GT Convertible 

Forum influenced terms: 'Link Paste', 'Stanitized', & 'Revolving garage door...' 

 



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That is odd. When I take the Malibeater in for an oil change, the receipt states they didn't rotate the tires because the fronts had more tread left than the rears.

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Keith - Rochester, MN

1970 El Camino SS 396 L78

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Its whats called a seperated tire in the industry. Happens all the time actually. Most of the time, its caused by things like the million potholes we have to deal with. Especially this time of year.



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Chris - Ramsey, MN.

Dear Optimist, Pessimist, and Realist.

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add to that the typical underinflation from people not checking thier tires....

I always went with the idea that your steer and drive tires needed the best tread for traction both accelerating and braking.

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Bryan-NW 'burbs
1972 Malibu
Vaguely stock appearing, and the opposite of restored.
1999 std bore 5.7, Vortec heads, Holley Stealth Ram, GM cam
700R4, Viking coilovers, 12 bolt 4.10 posi, and a whole bunch more



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There's all sorts of bad advice out there...

We used to (maybe still do, haven't watched TV in almost 2 years) have a law-firm give safety advice on their TV commercials recommending that you put your best tires on the rear so that the rear doesn't try to pass the front in a slippery curve... I sort of buy that for extremely unskilled drivers, but I still prefer better tires on front for better braking.

Another tip that has me scratching my head was one I heard on the radio saying not to use overdrive on icy roads... in low-grip situations, IMHO it is far better to gear UP rather than DOWN. The last thing you want on ice is unexpected engine-braking, especially with FWD.

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Derek Kiefer - Mantorville, MN

69 Malibu Pro-Touring stroker LS1-383/T56 - 69 SS396-325/3spd project



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Update... "Discount Tire" politely refused putting the new hoops on the front. tsktsk

Jr. called me from the shop... so I had him ask "If that's the case, there will be NO CHANGE to your "out the door pricing" to move the rears to the front... RIGHT??!! Imgonna

They put the newbies on the rear, and moved the rears up front.

(It's not a big deal, the old rears have 60% tread left... but what about doing what the customer wants, not what some industry/gov't/"expert" study/LAWYER recommends??. I think Derek nailed it... lousy, complacent drivers (I call them "two holers"... Key in this hole, Gas in that hole, that's all I need to do).



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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

1965 El Camino - LT-1, 4L60e, 4wh discs, SC&C susp.
2013 F-150 Platinum - Twin Turbo 3.5

2018 Factory Five MkIV Roadster build thread



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I'm still trying to figure out how you would prevent fishtailing the rear end out by having worn front tires that couldn't hold a tight turn anyway? cuckoo



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Bryan-NW 'burbs
1972 Malibu
Vaguely stock appearing, and the opposite of restored.
1999 std bore 5.7, Vortec heads, Holley Stealth Ram, GM cam
700R4, Viking coilovers, 12 bolt 4.10 posi, and a whole bunch more



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I'm still trying to figure out how you would prevent fishtailing the rear end out by having worn front tires that couldn't hold a tight turn anyway? cuckoo  They probably figure it's easier for a "two-hole driver" to crank more correction into an "understeer/plow" condition (with its inherant throttle-lift & "oh-sh*t" stab on the brakes), than having a reasonably skilled driver do a controlled steering input to compensate for an "oversteer/slide" condition....

Update v2.0

Kid went back to school yesterday, and I did my usual "pre-flight" on the rig before he left. Just for S&G's I checked tire pressures.
Fronts (old rears banghead ) = 34psi (What I run tires at on this car)
Rears (new hoops) = 28psi

!!!***!!!....... They can't even inflate them to the sidewall recommended 32psi? doh

I also discovered that the accessory drive idler pulley was making some growlings... so a new pulley & belt went on it... $22.50 for the steel pulley & bearing, $50 for 5 feet of rubber cuckoo (and another addition to my "If I ever meet the engineer who designed this I'll punch him/her in the nuts/ovaries file Imgonna ")



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John D. - St. Louis Park, MN.

1965 El Camino - LT-1, 4L60e, 4wh discs, SC&C susp.
2013 F-150 Platinum - Twin Turbo 3.5

2018 Factory Five MkIV Roadster build thread



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Unless the guy at the tire shop didnt have a very accurate gauge when he checked the tires. But they more then likely didnt check them.



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Chris - Ramsey, MN.

Dear Optimist, Pessimist, and Realist.

While you guys were busy arguing about the glass of water. I drank it!

Sincerly,

The opportunist.



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I believe most tire shops inflate for "ride". They will use the low end of the inflation table.

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Mitch D.   River Falls, WI

Lifetime member of the "Cars apart Club"

1966 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1970 Chevelle SS 396 M20

1967 Camaro SS/RS 350 M20

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