Which of these would you put on your Toyota Rav4?

[Brian McVickers]

Hi all,
It's looking like time to put new shoes on Amy's 1997 Toyota Rav4 4wd 4door

She drives everyday for work and relies on her vehicle heavily. Driving is mostly highway and surface street miles. We never take the Rav offroad except for maintained dirt roads, and not often enough to factor it into the decision.

Choices I have narrowed down to are based on availability

Costco - BFG Radial Long Trail TA -- Set of 5 for $520 out the door

Discount Tire - Yokohama Geolander HT-S -- Set of 5 for about $530 out the door or $620 out the door with thier lifetime warranty deal

Here are details on each http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...=0&sortValue=1

Which would you choose -- any other sugguestions or other options I may be missing

Thanks
Brian

[pskhaat]

Choices I have narrowed down to are based on availability

For a street-rig, the Douglas tire is kind of a unknown beauty, go read some reviews on them and people love them. They are made by Goodyear.

Not that it should matter, but I've run two sets of them on two of my commuter vehicles thusfar and have been very happy with wear, the tread, longevity, and especially my increase in fuel mileage (1.5-2mpg) over the previous Firestones.

The ones in particular are the Douglas Performance GT-H. Enbarrasingly, they are sold at...cough...Walmart. It may be worth your while to see if they come in a compatible size.

[calamaridog]

I am not a big fan of BFG's and I do like Yokohamas so take that for what it is worth

[Brian McVickers]

Ok -- How about SHOULD I replace the current tires??

The current tires are Uniroyal Tiger Paws
From what I can tell the original tire either had 11/32 or 9/32 of tread
They were purchased new in December of 2003 and easily have 30K miles on them.

I measured the tread depth in the middle of the tires to be 6/32, so that is at least 66% of tread depth left.

Thoughts

Note that this came about after walking out to a flat tire this morning. The flat was caused by a nail and can be repaired. But at 7am when the family unit is was already running behind schedule the reaction was "new tires".
Now at the end of the day I am wondering what is really necessary!

[pskhaat]

Nah, keep 'em...you got tons of miles left unless they have dry rot or something.

[goodtimes]

IIRC, 3/32 is the legal minimum tread depth. If you have twice that, the tires are in good shape (no damage or dry-rot), I'd keep 'em for awhile.

[Jonathan Hanson]

I agree. Spend the money on a shotgun instead. When you really need new tires you'll find the funds.

[asteffes]

I agree about the shotgun idea. They're fun. However, I would replace them as soon as your wife says the truck feels floaty in the rain. Hydroplaning is scary.

[Brian McVickers]

Yup, the guys over at Discount Tire say the tires have another 10-12K miles on them.

By the way, here is a plug for Discount Tire -- I took the Rav in to have the holed tire patched and all of them rotated. They did it for FREE, no charge, even though the tires were not purchased at a Discount Tire!!
What a great idea for creating brand loyalty.

Now to take a closer look at shotguns

[Brian McVickers]

Thanks for all the input by the way!