New Rubber on the '04 Vibe Today

[CharlesinGA]

Bought the Vibe last September. It had right at 50K mi on it but the original tires had already been replaced. This was a one owner, retired couple, wife's car, used on short trips in town, so I guess that wore the tires quickly. The ones on the car were Mastercrafts. They were about half worn when I bought it, and now. 12K miles later, they had about 10K to go, quite a bit of rubber left.

Well, I'm going on a road trip next week and I was sick and tired of hearing the tires. These were some of the worst riding, most noisy tires I've ever had.

I've had good luck with Uniroyal Tiger Paws in the past, running Tiger Paw AWP II in 195/70R14 on both my Ranger and the Plymouth Breeze that was replaced by the Vibe. I wanted a set of Continentals, and even stumbled into a nearly new set at the Ford dealer. Parts manager had bought a Focus with custom rims and 215/55R16 Continentals on it, and pulled the tire/wheels and set them up in the parts department for sale, $500. One size off, about 4/10's of an inch taller, about 1 mph difference in speedometer readings, but I'm no good at selling stuff (like the custom rims) and was looking at the cost of dismounting and remounting the Continentals plus dismounting my old tires, and balancing. Its adds up quick.

Finally decided to go to my favorite family owned small town tire store, where they don't jack you up with sales hype, inflated bills and all kinds of other BS. They had the Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring in stock (usually they have to order in my tires) so I had them mount them. $547 out the door with new stems and balance. Discovered the source of a speed dependent thump...thump....thump I had not been able to locate. Turns out one of the rims (aluminum factory wheels) had a slightly dented inboard bead/f-l-a-n-g-e (forum software keeps censoring this word for some reason). It showed up during balancing. They put it on the right rear, and when I left, i went straight to the Chevy/GMC former Pontiac dealer and ordered a new one, about $440!!!

With new tires, the thump is not noticeable but will get worse with time. I'll save the rim for a spare in case I total a rim, but its not much good for long term use. I pulled the wheels when I got home and gave the rims a good scrubbing and remounted and torqued them (they use a 4 way to tighten wheels at the tire place and still get them way too tight). Hope to have the new rim in Friday so I can get the new tire swapped to it prior to the trip.

Expensive day.

Charles

[tpollauf]

I've had good luck with Uniroyal Tiger Paws in the past,

Nice. That's the brand/model that I put on my '92 F-150 four years ago, when my original tires went "dry rot" on me

[ColonelPanic]

I have had a set of Tiger Paw Tourings on my '06 Accent for almost 20k and I really like them. They're quiet, ride very good and have been the most stable tire in heavy rains that I have owned in recent memory. 560 tradwear rating, 70k warranty and a decent price.

The Kumhos on the Vibe are about down to the wear bars, haven't decided what to put on it yet but these are certainly a contender...

[glhboy]

I just bought Hankook Ventus HRII H405 at Discount Tire, these tires ride excellent and seem great in wet weather.

The best part is that I got them for $300.98 OTD with taxes, mounted balanced for a 205/55-16 tire. Best deal ever. They are advertised at $65/tire on their site, but they will negotiate which is what they did for me.

[CharlesinGA]

Well, just finished my trip. 1861 miles of the worst roads Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Iowa could muster up.

There is not doubt about it, the low profile tires ride like..... really terrible, hard, awful. You simply have to accept that. One member posted about having installed 15 inch steel wheels and wheel covers and taller tires, which cannot help but improve the ride. I spent a lot of time in the left lane, which is, in Illinois and Kentucky, much better than the outside lane of the interstates. Traffic was real light, spread out, and I'd watch for somebody closing in on me from behind and I'd move over, then get back in the left lane after they passed.

Anyhow, I quite pleased with the Tiger Paws. On real smooth road surface, they are dead quite. On rough surface, that where the aggregate seems to protrude from the asphalt, they make quite a bit of noise, but any tire it going to do that. All in all, they were quite much more pleasant to listen to than the old Mastercrafts.

I'm going to spend some time looking for a set of 15 inch steel rims with the right offset, lug pattern, center hole, etc, and after determining they are round, I'll clean them up, repaint them and figure out what tire (probably a 65 series) will be the right height. Next tire change I'll put them on. Anything has to be better than those 55's. Smooth road they are great, but the interstates by and large are not smooth. In Illinois the repairs are rougher than the original bad asphalt!!

1861 miles, averaged 32.66 mpg for the trip, which pulled my "lifetime" average (since I've owned it) up to 31.959 mpg

Charles