budget tires

[Guest 54fins]

Lucas has some 225 75 15 radial tires with a 1.5" WW on close out $80 each! For the budget minded that isn't going for judging I'm in under $100 mounted and balanced per wheel. The space along the rim is small enough that the look is good enough and I suspect a little WW paint could fill that in, but I was quite content with the results. Had a set of vintiques in reasonable shape that can hold a radial. Only bummer is CARS ran out of spinners and mine are marginal.

The cleanup was quite a bit of work. A toothbrush won't get everywhere so I used a microfiber on a screwdriver and tediously cleaned them for countless hours.

[NTX5467]

Looks pretty good!

NTX5467

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

I like it!

Ben

[buick5563]

Looks good Fins.

[Bleach]

I tried to look them up at Lucas but the only ones came up were a brand by Sierra and were blems at $89. I've never heard of the brand.

[Guest 54fins]

They are indeed Chinese and I would definitely not consider them "top quality". I didn't expect anything impressive but Lucas has raised the price so I suspect they are a hit. My recommendation would be to get a top brand tire for any car (I only use Michelin on my personal cars) if you can afford it. http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2014/05/should-i-buy-tires-made-in-china.html

 

That said, my theory is a cheap new tire is better than an old tire. I did some research and I would not get China tires for a truck or SUV. Although they don't rate well against name brands, you have to factor in the price. I see a lot of old cars on dry rot tires. If you are just cruising, you can find WW at swap meets but they are almost always over 10 years old or use your old dry rots and some fix a flat. Beside being unsafe, they are a pain. Or get some new cheapos with a thin WW if any and they look crap. Painting a WW doesn't work that well either.

 

These cleaned up great. I think "blem" means China as the tire was quite sound and balanced right out. I want to be clear, I'm not promoting these as anything other than a better alternative to old tires.

[NTX5467]

In some cases, a "cheap tire" today can be a better product than what was around when the '50s and '60s cars were new, unless you only bought OEM-spec tires or better, back then.  A service station operator once referred to these "lower quality" tires as "may pops".  One time, he showed me a tire that looked to have enough tread depth to pass inspection, but when on a wheel and inflated, it would not pass inspection due to shallow tread depth.

 

It has seemed to evolve that Korean brands are the main sources for P225/75R-15 size tires.  Some of these same brands are now OEM suppliers for GM's smaller cars, plus Hyundais.  Cosmetically, their sidewall graphics look VERY sharp and nice, as does the rest of the tire.  If you go into TireRack, different sizes of the same model of tire can be made in a different country than other sizes of the same tire model.

 

NTX5467