After my ill experience with GY wranglers HP I opted for GY wranglers silent armors.initially they where great, but after 30.000 miles driven mostly on highways i might be the only guy who is unsatisfied with these tires for a long run,even after rotating every 5000 and balancing they where never vibration free and noise is now quit pronounced.So, I came to the conclusion, that you can never have"best of both worlds" anything.There is no such thing hybrid tire for good highway performance and at the same time have good off road qualities.It is usually mediocre in all situations,compromising noise levels ,fuel consumption and handling , when it comes to highway driving,also when you need this tire to perform in extreme off road situations it behaves average at best and I know since yesterday,when off roading in mud and ruts,some rocks as well, my both differentials were locked almost all the time threads blocked with mud, slipping and causing diffs to work a lot harder than 6 months a go when my tires where brand new .Same thing applies to skis called mid fats ,all mountain .No such thing,again as all around skis for all conditions,they usually perform poorly in all categories.My conclusion is ,if you want low noise and great handling on highway , buy all weather performance tires that do this job well,well better then all terrain rubbers and if you need good off road capability,get tires that wont compromise your safety in wilderness areas.Also if you don't go off road at all , which is a shame with LR3 capabilities and all , get anyway two sets of rims and designate them to summer-winter sets or all weather -off road sets.This way you feel good driving on highway (95% of my time), but when you switch to set of MT'rs ,you know that they will not compromise your car's ability off road.Two sets of rims is the key for each particulate purpose.There is no way that all season tire can save you out of trouble in harsh winter conditions and usually fails in many categories in four season areas in any country.My action will be as follows:
-get all weather nokians WR G2 SUV tires for my 18 " rims as 3-4 season tire since we in NJ don't usually have hard winters,but this tire also have a Snowflake sign, which means it is suitable for extreme winter conditions ,UTQG is 500 ,so it wont wear out that quicly (GY SA have 520) and it complies to new EU sound (noise) level regulations and minimal rolling resistance which should save me some money at the pump(I drive a lot) with low noise inside the cabin.
-off road GY MT Rs for my 19'rims, so I could ease my diffs a bit next time I out weelin' in mud and ruts.
There is a reason that many good tire manufacturers make season or , terrain specific tires,they know they many experienced and demanding drivers will appreciate these choices and buy them for there own safety.I understand, that these companies like Vredestein and Nokian are relatively new to American market, but as sure as hell they know how to make good winter on high performance tires.You trust a European car manufactures why not to trust in European tire makers , well,.. except German made GW hp, after all , they have harsher regulations in almost anything, than US.My more than 0.2 cents.
