Firestone tires..just the facts

02_2500hd · October 29, 2001

No more Firestone tires for me....

Me and Firestones don't agree... I'm not slamming Firestones, but here are the facts....

We bought a 1999 Ford Explorer, 2 days after getting it home and with 200 miles on it we had a stone from our gravel driveway puncture the tred. I could not believe it when I saw that rock. Within the year, another rock went through another one of the tires. That's when I had all of them replaced. We've had this gravel driveway from day 1, 6 years ago and only these Firestone Wilderness had rocks go through them.

Now, my 2002 GMC 2500HD came with these Firestone($56 tire upgrade) and now, after less than 600miles, something has cut the side wall enough to cause a slow leak. I don't think I've hit anything, it could have been something on the car carrier. I didn't inspect it down that close when I bought it. But it, is all but flat now.

So that's it!! No more Firestones for me.

We just don't get along....

gary

FIRECAT · October 29, 2001

Dude, no offense, but where have you been?? Don't feel bad about bashing Firestone's, they suck major @ss!!! Please tell me you do know about the major recall for the past year?? You couldn't pay me enough to put Firestones on my truck.

First thing I did to my truck was to get rid of those POS tires. I still can't believe that Chevy is still using them as OEM on most of their trucks. :angry:

viperapex · October 29, 2001

Yup....I agree about the firestones. When I bought my truck last month, I had them swap the firestone tires/wheels off of the truck with another that had Good Years on it. Made me feel a little better, at least until I can get some tires and rims I like. It was the only way I'd let them sell the truck to me. BTW, I also noticed in the owners manual that GMC calls for LT tires, yet I found P rated tires on every rig on the lots. Just thought that was interesting

Sean ???

Shaners · October 29, 2001

I replaced the tires on my 1500 because I didn't think the "P" rated was appropriate for a truck. The Firestone SteelTex on my HD are OK so far... The biggest problem with them is they are about 2 sizes too small...

raventai · October 30, 2001

Quote from Shaners, posted on Oct. 29 2001,3:12

The biggest problem with them is they are about 2 sizes too small...

agreed see pic in sig, the stock wheels/tires are to small

had to do an emergency stop the other day and acculay got into the antilock area seamed to not have much traction this heavy truck needs some tall wide meats on it something with a good size contact patch

I am going to give the stock tires some timw til my finances recover enuf for some good wheels and tires, I have the stock pie tin over steel whell so it is no big loss to replace them

CMNTMXR81 · October 30, 2001

I can't wait to replace these Firestone Steeltex with some BFG All Terrain's. I also concur, they are about two sizes too small.

Kansas Kid · October 30, 2001

Those Steeltex that come on the 3/4 ton and up GM and Ford truck really aren't that bad. My cousin had to replace the 265/75R16's Goodyears that came stock on this F350 after about 10k miles because they just couldn't handle the weight of a heavy truck combined with a heavy trailer. Only tire that was available at that time in a load range E was the Steeltex. They have about 40k on them now with no problems at all, much much better then the crappy Goodyears that came stock. Alot of farmers around here run the Steeltex without trouble either.

02_2500hd · October 30, 2001

Well I just went out and got a replacement tire for the spare rim. Move the spare tire(Firestone) to the LR rim and put a new goodyear 265/75/16 to the spare rim. I got it from SAM's and it was $117+mounting.

I also kept the bad Firestone to see if I can repair it from the inside.

The Goodyear has the same load rating as the Firestone ~3042lbs and a M&S tred.

Hopefully I'll get 20-30k out of these Firestones and then upgrade the other 4 to the same as the spare(265/75/16).

I can't wait to get home and examine the one with the puncture to see how thick that side wall is(or is not)

What is the purpose of steel belts if not to stop punctures?? Just seems that is you have 8 plys that something that only gets through the first ply or 2, shouldn't affect the tire.

Am I wrong???

Another thing about new car tires....My wife is in software sales and made a call to a tire manufacture near Richmond VA and she was talking to a person there that told her tires that come on new cars are NOT the same that you get in the aftermarket world. They may look the same and have the same raised letters, but they just aren't made to last nearly as long as aftermarket tires. So he told her don't waste your money upgrading tires on a new vehical.

gary

pacodiablo · October 30, 2001

i will never have firestones on any of my trucks, firestone doesn't care about safety, just money

CMNTMXR81 · November 1, 2001

Plys do help puncture resistance but if you have a 2" nail and a half inch crosswidth of the ply's, on rolling 6,000lb vehicle, nail will go through. Simple physics.

76BBSub · November 1, 2001

My neighbor with a brand new 2500 4-door diesel had the same problem with the sidewall on his Firestone tires. One of his tires blew out a big gash in the sidewall while he was driving down the street. Had his wife and kid with him, nobody saw anything in the road that could have caused the problem. He is trying to get the dealership to replace the tires with something other than Firestone...

Jeff