Firestone Tires

My son-in-law is in the tire business in Greenville, Texas. He handles Michelin and Bridgestone/Firestone tires plus several other brands. Firestone is owned and operated by Bridgestone. He has told me that Bridgstone & Firestone are every bit as good as Michelin, if not better. It is important to get the right rated tire for the application. Back when all of Firestone's problems with Ford Explorer were making headlines, I found that the problem was that Ford had Firestone build tires to Ford's specifactions, and then Ford recommended a lower air pressure than Firestone stated. At THE SAME TIME , FIRESTONE received the Number one quality award from General Motors for at least 5 years. Firestone built GM's tires to GM specs., which were much better than Fords. I ran Bridgestones on my 96 Blue Bird till 91 when I went to Liberty. Also, switched from Michelin to Bridgestone after a left front blowout on a Michelin in 2004.

I put two new Firestone FS400s on my front wheels.... took them off 600 miles later and put Michelin Piolots XZA1s back on. The Firestones didn't handle nearly as well and my fuel economy dropped about 1mpg. They also got very hot. (Way hotter than the Michelins.) Yes, they were properly inflated. I will never buy anything other than XZAs again, so noticeable was the difference. And believe me, at $200 per tire less, I REALLY wanted to like the firestones.

~ADAM

Adam,

Please explain how steer tires can result in a 1 MPG loss in 600 miles? Just interested, never heard this before.

Ed, like you I run Bridgestone tires. This is my second set (on two Prevost coaches) and have had no problems with either set. I think they are comparable to Michelins, but every one has their own opinion. Isn't it great we have so many choices.

Ok Poggers, it is tire time. I am working with a local tire dealer that I have done business with since 1989 on passenger vehicles and light pick up trucks. I think it has come down to either Michelins or Firestones. The price for Michelin XZE is quoted as $602 per tire plus mount and balance. The price for Firestone FRS 560 is quoted as $406 per tire plus mount and balance.

The dealer was told we did not want tires that had been on the shelf for more than three months. The freshness date on the Michelins is March 2009. The freshness date on the Firestones is August 2009. I'm curious if that difference would sway the purchase to Firestones over Michelins? Since I would prefer Michelins, the dealer is going to go back to his representative and see if he can come up with some fresher tires.

I am currently running 12/R22.5 Toyos on all wheels. I am going to put two new steers on and have the steer Toyos moved to the tag position with the current tags being discarded. The tags have a freshness date back in 2003 so I have gotten more time than I should have and that is the reason it is time to re-tire. My drives and the Toyo steers all have freshness dates in 2005 so I'm thinking one more year and we have a big tire bill coming due.

I've read and reread the earlier posts and am just trying to get some confirmation from those running the Firestones that you remain satisfied. If something has changed your level of satisfaction then perhaps the Michelins are the way to go. I have had sets of Michelins on a 1996 Lincoln Cartier Town Car and on my 2003 2500 Dodge Ram 4x4. I've like the service and ride quality on both vehicles.

Thanks for any enlightenment that may be provided in response to my inquiry.

Will,

I believe this to be accurate. At Sevierville and Pahrump we had tire experts speak to us about their brands and tires in general. While they were competing brands, the message about age and service life was the same.

In their view a tire's life was 6 years from the date of being put into service, or up to 10 years from date of manufacture, provided there was no sidewall cracking in excess of a certain amount. Rather than letting 6 years be the life of the tire, they stated 6 years was when detailed tire inspections for sidewall cracking should begin to occur with frequency. Michelin has a chart depicting acceptable levels of sidewall cracking and what is not acceptable.

They also agreed that if a tire is run at a pressure that is 20% less than the required pressure based on its loading, it is likely damaged and should be removed from service.

Based on how similar the messages were from opposing tire experts it is my opinion the quality levels and technologies in tires are probably very similar. Keep in mind however that I'm willing to run Chinese tires, which to date are still doing very well.

Jon,

When were the Chinese tires put into service on your Liberty?

How many miles on them?

Why did the moderator cross the road?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loc

Why did the moderator cross the road?

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Loc, you have got to get back on your meds. Your not driving the bus anywhere this weekend I hope.

OK, why did he cross the road???

I just recently purchased (three weeks ago) a complete set of Firestone FS400's for Evangeline based on price, recommendations from a few POG members and the recommendation of my selected tire jobber. So far, I could not be happier. The Firestones replaced a set of Michelin XZA1's with a date code of 2001. The old tires "looked" fine, but on close inspection had some fairly widespread cracking in the sidewalls. In fact, I probably dodged a bullet by getting them replaced before I suffered an inevitable catastrophic tire failure due to excessive age! The tire jobber quoted Michelins, Firestones, and Hankooks as options he could recommend, but was strong in his opinion that the Michelins did not justify the $200+ per tire difference in price over the Firestones based on the way I use my coach (miles driven per year). I appreciated his recommendation even more due to the fact that he could have made significantly more money off me had he steered me to the Michelins that I was predesposed to buy, simply based on reputation and because it is what I'm used to! His reasoning is that the tires will need to be replaced again due to age long before I wear them out (just like the set I replaced this time)!

Bottom line, I'm happy with my decision to save about $1,800 by choosing the Firestones over the Michelins so far. Time will tell if my decision was wise or just "penny wise & pound foolish"! :p

Oh yeah - while getting "new shoes" for my baby, I had them install the Doran 360 TPMS that I bought on eBay a couple of months ago!