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  View original topic: Did your tire get an "A" ?
Wildthings Thu May 28, 2009 5:20 am

I had a long conversation with a retired employee of Hunter Engineering yesterday which was quite informative. Hunter Engineering makes equipment for balancing, truing, and testing tires. Of note was that most tire manufactures (or maybe all) rate their tires after they have been molded and vulcanized. The tires are given an A, B, C, or D rating according to how well they meet the design specs. "A" rated tires will typically be sold to new car manufactures, "B" rated tires will typically be sold at company stores (i.e. Firestone, or Goodyear), "C" rated tires are typically sold through other vendors like Tire Factory, TireEasy.com or your local garage, while "D" rated tires may end up being shipped to a third world country, or end up on discount tire racks.

An "A" rated tire will ride, handle, and last longer than a lower rated tire, which is one reason tires on a new car will typically give a smoother ride, perform better, and last longer than the "identical" tire you might replace them with when the original set wears out. By just looking at the tire there is no way to tell its grade as the rating are not marked on the tire.

Perales Thu May 28, 2009 5:38 am

Is there any way to find out what your tire rating is?

Volksbulli Thu May 28, 2009 6:46 am

hah Pep Boys tires must be F rated those POS Patriot tires didn't last for shit.

buildyourown Thu May 28, 2009 7:41 am

In my experience, OEM tires kinda suck. They only need to be good enough to make you buy the car. If they suck in the rain and only last 20k mi, that won't affect the sale at all.
If a car company can save even $100/car on tires, you damn well know they will.

vanaguy Thu May 28, 2009 7:50 am

The worst-handling, quickest-wearing, poorest-traction tires I've had were all OEM. I've had Discount Tire's house brand (Arizonian) that were better.
Maybe it has more to do with what kind of car you're buying... I think Porsches come with decent tires. My VWs didn't.

danfromsyr Thu May 28, 2009 8:21 am

our stock Hyundai Santa Fe tires are @ 70K= and still good all season (even snow) tread

we get ALOT of snow where I live so I'll swap them finally with GOOD SNOWS for this next season, but intend to run them still thru the summer&fall.

they're a 225/70/16 (101 rated) and I'll try them for rub & fitmwent on my syncro before we recycle them.
I like to keep a pair of varying sizes around for fitments & such.

Dan in NY

Wildthings Thu May 28, 2009 8:36 am

Perales wrote: Is there any way to find out what your tire rating is?

Unfortunately no, not that I was told. Maybe you could get it from the serial number is you had access to the companies master list, but maybe not. The rating process just determines which stack the tires go into and thus how they are marketed.

The rating doesn't make up for a poorly designed cheaply made brand/model. It just determines how the tire will perform compared with other supposedly identical tires.

For what it's worth the original Michelin 205/70R14's on my Multivan were way better than any of the other tires I have run over the years. I can only assume they had an "A" rating on top of being a well designed tire. Never bought another set aftermarket so I can't compare.

240Gordy Thu May 28, 2009 10:03 am

so how would they test the tires in the factory, store them separetely, ship them separetely, and so on?

and why would they sell the best tires for the lowest price? why wouldn't they sell the best tires for a premium in their own brand stores, where it would have the greatest impact on their reputation?

Wildthings Thu May 28, 2009 4:56 pm

240Gordy wrote: so how would they test the tires in the factory, store them separetely, ship them separetely, and so on?

Well they test tires using Hunter Engineering (and probably other brand) machines. According to the guy I spoke with it sounds like they test for five or six different specifications. A few specs are correctable to a small extent, like the tread being slightly in the shape of a cone verses being cylindrical as it should be. Others specs such as consistent firmness around the tread are not correctable.

Quote: and why would they sell the best tires for the lowest price? why wouldn't they sell the best tires for a premium in their own brand stores, where it would have the greatest impact on their reputation?

You buy 4 tires at a time, while VW or GM orders 4 million. Nuff said.



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