Alternatives to OEM tires

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Landshark said:
On the flip side, tire manufacturers, auto makers and professional drivers have conducted tests and their conclusion is to recommend that tires with the most tread remaining be installed on the rear axle.
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Hi @Landshark, I appreciate your concern for my welfare, but by your theory above, you could never rotate tires at all since after only 5,000 miles of driving on new tires, the front tires (especially on a front wheel drive car) will always be more worn than the rear. This would be even more true after 10,000 miles of driving.

I prefer to maintain as even wear on my tires as possible which almost necessarily requires that you routinely put the tires with the least wear on the front.
 
BrianRC said:
I appreciate your concern for my welfare
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For the sake of clarity, I’m not the least bit concerned about your welfare or how you choose to burn through the last few curly hairs of tread on your tires.

Also of note, it isn’t my theory. In case it wasn’t clear, is the recommendation of those mentioned previously.

Best of luck with your choice of new tires.
 
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BrianRC said:
I prefer to maintain as even wear on my tires as possible which almost necessarily requires that you routinely put the tires with the least wear on the front.
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I think the expert recommendations would be consistent with this.

If the tread on all 4 tires is very good, then the position becomes unimportant. This is the scenario with all new tires, and I believe the expert advise would be to rotate the tires in order to balance wear (without nit-picking which have 'more' wear and should go on the rear) because they all perform equally well.

When there is a large discrepancy in wear (as there is when a pair of tires gets replaced, or perhaps when the tread is nearing end-of-life), then it makes perfect sense to put the 'good' tires on the rear as described in the article above.
 
BrianRC said:
Hi @Landshark, I appreciate your concern for my welfare, but by your theory above, you could never rotate tires at all since after only 5,000 miles of driving on new tires, the front tires (especially on a front wheel drive car) will always be more worn than the rear. This would be even more true after 10,000 miles of driving.

I prefer to maintain as even wear on my tires as possible which almost necessarily requires that you routinely put the tires with the least wear on the front.
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There are two competing interests:

The desire to wear your tread evenly.
The desire to maximize grip in the manner safest to a driver.

In a FWD (technically FF) car, the front tires tend to wear faster than the rears. That means that when you rotate tires, and want to wear tread evenly, you would put the tires with the most tread on the front to balance wear.

However, putting tires with less grip on the rear means that the rear will tend to lose traction first relative to the front in less than ideal conditions. If you're ok with the rear potentially swinging around on you, go ahead and keep doing what you're doing. Some people (like me) are comfortable with that risk and prefer to have even tread wear.

That being said, if you're a frequent rotator of tires, there shouldn't be enough of a tire disparity to make a difference front to rear, and when you replace tires, you'd replace all four. The problem comes when you have new tires on the front, and old tires on the rear, and that would make it more likely to end up in a spin condition.
 
Just installed my 3rd set of tires @80k miles. Went with the Bridgestone Potenza re980as+ , these have more grip than the oem tires but the tradeoff is wear. I'm expecting about 30-35k miles before they will need to be replaced. Smooth quiet ride with enhanced grip in the corners (no chirping like OEM tires) when driven aggressively.
 
Update on Nexen Platinum tires

After about 2000 miles I wanted to update the forum on my impression of the Nexen Platinum tires I bought to replace the OEM tires.

I think the handling, dry grip and wet grip is better than OEM and the car feels more stable in turns.

They are actually quieter than the OEM tires that came with the car. I used to hear a low rumble from the rear of the car that disappeared with the new tires. I suspect that there was some defect in a rear tire that caused the rumble.

Mileage does not seem to have suffered at all. My GOM today reads 51 estimated electric only miles. My total battery capacity is 47.74 amps.

All in all I am impressed with these tires. I realize that my observations are just that but there is no question that I saved about $100 per tire.



Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
Charged_Up said:
Update on Nexen Platinum tires
After about 2000 miles I wanted to update the forum on my impression of the Nexen Platinum tires I bought to replace the OEM tires.
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Thanks for the update. At 77,000 miles my original Michelins still have some life but I got a slow leak in one and I figure at this point its not worth fixing. So I've gone another level in cheapness than you and ordered from Walmart 4
BlackHawk Street-H HH11 UHP
for $84 apiece. They have good reviews on the Walmart site and are 420 AA rated, 50,000 mile warrantee (all tire warrantees pretty useless anyway). I'll report back how they work out.

 
Charged_Up said:
Mileage does not seem to have suffered at all. My GOM today reads 51 estimated electric only miles. My total battery capacity is 47.74 amps.
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Thanks for the update @Charged_Up. I can't wait to step up to the Nexen myself. I have a few more thousand miles to go, or unitl it starts raining here in Sacramento. Since rolling resistance improves with age, the fact you don't notice a reduction in mileage implies that that rolloing resistance is better on the Nexen than the OEM Michelins.
 
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David Towle said:
Thanks for the update. At 77,000 miles my original Michelins still have some life but I got a slow leak in one and I figure at this point its not worth fixing. So I've gone another level in cheapness than you and ordered from Walmart 4
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Great find, @David Towle. Those do get great reviews at Walmart. The only downside I see is they are made in China. I've been cautioned against buying tires made in China. But if they work, great! I see Walmart has a 90 day return policy so if you don't like them for any reason you can get your money back.
 
BrianRC said:
Great find, @David Towle. Those do get great reviews at Walmart. The only downside I see is they are made in China. I've been cautioned against buying tires made in China. But if they work, great! I see Walmart has a 90 day return policy so if you don't like them for any reason you can get your money back.
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There are LOTS of tires made in China now, I've noticed it especially in new cars. All the western manufacturers have plants there. So I don't know if it means anything unless you want to avoid Chinese stuff on principle.
 
BrianRC said:
Great find, @David Towle. Those do get great reviews at Walmart. The only downside I see is they are made in China. I've been cautioned against buying tires made in China. But if they work, great! I see Walmart has a 90 day return policy so if you don't like them for any reason you can get your money back.
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I have installed and used the BlackHawk Street-H HH11 UHP tires for about a month/1000 miles and am quite happy with them. Note they are made in Vietnam, not China. They were actually $82 each plus $20 to mount and balance. They clearly have better traction than the OEMs especially in the wet, no more chirping as I accelerate from a stop. The ride is quite soft, so much that I have upped the pressure to 42 psi, I'll explain the rationale below. They definitely are not low rolling resistance, I have seen my around town driving range drop from 66 to 61. And on the highway I've seen my gas mpg drop by about 1 mpg to 42 as best as I can tell. But at about $700 less than the OEMs, and $220 less than the Nexen Platinums, it seems well worth it, especially since I have an excess of solar power. How long they last, I shall see, but I'm not concerned since the originals lasted 77,000 miles. For many here though I would think the Nexens make more sense with their reduced rolling resistance.

When I first used them at 36 psi the ride was way softer and smoother than the OEMs. I thought of my rougher riding Tesla Y and looked at its specs. It weighs about 400 pounds more than the Clarity, but its much larger tires are good for 500 pounds more load each, total 1 ton, AND the recommended pressure is 42 psi. So I thought if that car can use 42 psi with those much larger tires, then certainly the Honda could too. Even at 42 psi the ride is still significantly softer than the OEMS. Maximum recommended is 44 psi.
 
Charged_Up said:
Update on Nexen Platinum tires

After about 2000 miles I wanted to update the forum on my impression of the Nexen Platinum tires I bought to replace the OEM tires.

I think the handling, dry grip and wet grip is better than OEM and the car feels more stable in turns.

They are actually quieter than the OEM tires that came with the car. I used to hear a low rumble from the rear of the car that disappeared with the new tires. I suspect that there was some defect in a rear tire that caused the rumble.

Mileage does not seem to have suffered at all. My GOM today reads 51 estimated electric only miles. My total battery capacity is 47.74 amps.

All in all I am impressed with these tires. I realize that my observations are just that but there is no question that I saved about $100 per tire.



Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
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Another Nexen Platinum tire update.

I've put 2000 miles on my set of Nexen tires, and wanted to echo @Charged_Up's findings: I've had the same positive results that he described, including no change in mileage. I've also had no issues with vibration (given that I mounted and bubble-balanced them myself). I'm very happy with these tires.
 
I'll chime in as well.

I got a set of Nexen Platinums from Sam's Club in April for a bit over $600 including mounting and tax. What a deal! I agree with all the comments above. Noticeable improvements in grip and handling and no loss in rolling efficiency. If I had to quibble, I would say they are slightly noisier than the Michelins but I barely notice as I have earbuds in most of the time.
 
Anyone ever heard of Waterfall ECO Dynamic tires sold at Walmart? Somebody on a different forum said they have them on their Clarity and they are great. $300 for a set of four at Walmart!
 
BrianRC said:
I'll chime in as well.

I got a set of Nexen Platinums from Sam's Club in April for a bit over $600 including mounting and tax. What a deal! I agree with all the comments above. Noticeable improvements in grip and handling and no loss in rolling efficiency. If I had to quibble, I would say they are slightly noisier than the Michelins but I barely notice as I have earbuds in most of the time.
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Nice to know for next time, I do wish I had spent the extra $200 for the Nexens, the reduction in range with the Blackhawks is annoying at times even though they are very good in every other aspect.
 
I made it to 12,000 on original Michelins. The tires were 3-4/32. You could tell the ride quality had disintegrated because of the old made in 2018 tires. Bought Goodyear GT electric specific tires for about 175 each. Handling, comfort, noise all improved. Must be my all city stop and go driving that caused the excess tread wear. .
 
Louis Nisenbaum said:
I made it to 12,000 on original Michelins. The tires were 3-4/32. You could tell the ride quality had disintegrated because of the old made in 2018 tires. Bought Goodyear GT electric specific tires for about 175 each. Handling, comfort, noise all improved. Must be my all city stop and go driving that caused the excess tread wear. .
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Pretty much same here... made it to just over 20,000 miles on the original Energy Savers. Same here... mostly city driving. I've stayed with the Michelin Energy Saver A/S and got better mileage from the second set (closer to 40k miles). I'm on the 3rd set now with about 65k on the car.
 
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