manoftaste
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- Sep 18, 2006
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Ok, first, my sincere apologies in advance for starting yet another new thread relating to the tires. I've been around long enough to know better and should know better.
But in the light of my recent personal experience, I thought starting a new thread might be beneficial and informative to other non-pro every day owners/drivers like myself who were reluctant to deviate from the factory/stock stuff, didn't think that reading a lengthy thread about tires was important or beneficial to them, and thought that all was well and that they were truly fully enjoying their LR4s.
So this is how it went down for me:
I picked up my brand new MY16 LR4 back in October last year. Drove in with my MY13 HSE LUX with factory 19"/Contis Contact combo and, dreadfully and skeptically, drove out of the lot with a Landmark with factory 20"/Pirellis. Dreadful and skeptic because of the SCV6 vs my former V8 as well as the 20" vs my former 19" wheels/tires combo.
But, as soon as we left the lot in our brand new LR4, I was very, very pleasantly surprised how refined the ride quality and the suspension was. Remember my thread "First Impressions..." where how I raved about the refined suspension as the first thing in the post? :
http://www.landroverworld.org/threa...ng-from-my13-lr4-nav8-to-my16-lr4-scv6.28666/
Anyways, I truly thought that LR had re-tuned the suspension/bushings to make it smoother and much more taut as the same small bumps/unevenness on the same roads/freeways which I had travelled every day for the last ten years (first on my 06 LR3 HSE and then 13 LR4 HSE LUX) had now become a pleasure to driver over with my new 16 landmark. The truck tracked extremely well in straight line and just put a big grin on my face
Before we could reach home, I was already sold and super happy with my decision.
When I checked the tire pressures the next morning after we had picked up our new 16 LR4, the PSI levels were around 50 on all four corners. So even with such high levels and the 20 inch rims' less tall sidewall, the suspension felt amazingly smooth on our way home from the dealership the evening before. I of course set them back to the correct levels of 37/43 asap.
Was very happy with everything but I always wanted to swap my 20" with the 19" and had already talked to the dealership manager at the time of picking up the truck.
Then about a month or so later when I got a moment from work etc, I drove over to the dealership and had them swap out the wheels/tires combo for a new set of 19"/tires combo stolen from another new LR4 in their lot.
I was super excited because now with that great new and refined suspension of my Landmark, I had gotten myself some extra sidewall to float over those bumps and road imperfections for a truly enjoyable smooth and well-planted freeway ride, like I used to enjoy with the softer suspension setup of my former LR3.
But guess what? Instead of getting softer and more plush, the ride got firmer, a bit crude, and almost the same as my 13 HSE LUX which I had just returned. And even with that extra sidewall of the 19" wheel/tire combo, the ride felt far worse than the 20" setup.
When I had picked up my first LR4 (MY13 HSE LUX with 19" wheels/Contis Contact), coming from LR3, I had always thought from day one that the ride quality had gotten a bit crude on the LR4. I felt that as I first left the dealership with my brand new MY13 LR4. But I had never known that it was predominantly because of the quality of the tires. I never knew that the tires alone could make such a huge difference.
And now that I think about it and to really drive it home for me, I now remember how impressed I was as far as the suspension/ride quality when I had test driven an LR4 for the very first time. It was smooth as hell. I remember that then some time later as I was driving home in my very own brand new LR4 (a MY13 HSE LUX), the first thing that I had noticed on the freeway was the crudeness and not such great ride quality. At the time I remember attributing it to every thing being brand new and thinking that things would settle a bit and would get better as time went by. But I remember that the same neighborhood roads felt rougher and I even remember making an appointment with the service for that reason and having them look at everything. They said all was fine so I chalked it all up to the firmer suspension setup of the LR4 vs the softer setup of LR3.
But looking back at things now, I remember it very well that that test drive LR4 I had driven for the very first time at the dealership had 20" rims, and of course a different tire than the Continental Contact I even remember joking around with the sales guide and thinking that I loved the truck so much that I wanted to pick this one up but it wasn't equipped with the 19 inch rims that I wanted.
Before all this experience, whenever I'd read here someone saying that because of this or that tire, the ride quality had gotten better, or the trucks tracked better, or that the braking was better, etc., I'd think to myself how much difference could the tires really make, and that I was just gonna stick to what LR had chosen as there must be a reason.
But man oh man, I know better now
I know now that throughout the ownership of my MY13 LR4, without even knowing, I clearly never really truly fully enjoyed that truck because of the crappy stock tires it had come with because I never had to change the tires as my well-maintained truck had only 20k some miles (with proper rotation cycle) when I returned it. Even if I had to change tires, I prolly would have gone with the same stock contis Contact.
What a shame really that LR continued to equip the LR4s until the very last moment with that same crappy rubber hence robbing its customers of a truly an amazing ride quality experience that they could have had for their money. Some may have returned the truck when the lease expired, some may have purchased something else when the time came etc. I am sure not all may have had the chance to replace tires as not all of os stick to the same car years after years.
I mean even I, almost an eleven years owner of the same truck (06 LR3, 13 LR4, and 16 LR4) have just found out that a tire could make such a huge difference in the ride quality
Sorry for the long post, just thought some may benefit from it.
But in the light of my recent personal experience, I thought starting a new thread might be beneficial and informative to other non-pro every day owners/drivers like myself who were reluctant to deviate from the factory/stock stuff, didn't think that reading a lengthy thread about tires was important or beneficial to them, and thought that all was well and that they were truly fully enjoying their LR4s.
So this is how it went down for me:
I picked up my brand new MY16 LR4 back in October last year. Drove in with my MY13 HSE LUX with factory 19"/Contis Contact combo and, dreadfully and skeptically, drove out of the lot with a Landmark with factory 20"/Pirellis. Dreadful and skeptic because of the SCV6 vs my former V8 as well as the 20" vs my former 19" wheels/tires combo.
But, as soon as we left the lot in our brand new LR4, I was very, very pleasantly surprised how refined the ride quality and the suspension was. Remember my thread "First Impressions..." where how I raved about the refined suspension as the first thing in the post? :
http://www.landroverworld.org/threa...ng-from-my13-lr4-nav8-to-my16-lr4-scv6.28666/
Anyways, I truly thought that LR had re-tuned the suspension/bushings to make it smoother and much more taut as the same small bumps/unevenness on the same roads/freeways which I had travelled every day for the last ten years (first on my 06 LR3 HSE and then 13 LR4 HSE LUX) had now become a pleasure to driver over with my new 16 landmark. The truck tracked extremely well in straight line and just put a big grin on my face
Before we could reach home, I was already sold and super happy with my decision.When I checked the tire pressures the next morning after we had picked up our new 16 LR4, the PSI levels were around 50 on all four corners. So even with such high levels and the 20 inch rims' less tall sidewall, the suspension felt amazingly smooth on our way home from the dealership the evening before. I of course set them back to the correct levels of 37/43 asap.
Was very happy with everything but I always wanted to swap my 20" with the 19" and had already talked to the dealership manager at the time of picking up the truck.
Then about a month or so later when I got a moment from work etc, I drove over to the dealership and had them swap out the wheels/tires combo for a new set of 19"/tires combo stolen from another new LR4 in their lot.
I was super excited because now with that great new and refined suspension of my Landmark, I had gotten myself some extra sidewall to float over those bumps and road imperfections for a truly enjoyable smooth and well-planted freeway ride, like I used to enjoy with the softer suspension setup of my former LR3.
But guess what? Instead of getting softer and more plush, the ride got firmer, a bit crude, and almost the same as my 13 HSE LUX which I had just returned. And even with that extra sidewall of the 19" wheel/tire combo, the ride felt far worse than the 20" setup.
When I had picked up my first LR4 (MY13 HSE LUX with 19" wheels/Contis Contact), coming from LR3, I had always thought from day one that the ride quality had gotten a bit crude on the LR4. I felt that as I first left the dealership with my brand new MY13 LR4. But I had never known that it was predominantly because of the quality of the tires. I never knew that the tires alone could make such a huge difference.
And now that I think about it and to really drive it home for me, I now remember how impressed I was as far as the suspension/ride quality when I had test driven an LR4 for the very first time. It was smooth as hell. I remember that then some time later as I was driving home in my very own brand new LR4 (a MY13 HSE LUX), the first thing that I had noticed on the freeway was the crudeness and not such great ride quality. At the time I remember attributing it to every thing being brand new and thinking that things would settle a bit and would get better as time went by. But I remember that the same neighborhood roads felt rougher and I even remember making an appointment with the service for that reason and having them look at everything. They said all was fine so I chalked it all up to the firmer suspension setup of the LR4 vs the softer setup of LR3.
But looking back at things now, I remember it very well that that test drive LR4 I had driven for the very first time at the dealership had 20" rims, and of course a different tire than the Continental Contact
I even remember joking around with the sales guide and thinking that I loved the truck so much that I wanted to pick this one up but it wasn't equipped with the 19 inch rims that I wanted.Before all this experience, whenever I'd read here someone saying that because of this or that tire, the ride quality had gotten better, or the trucks tracked better, or that the braking was better, etc., I'd think to myself how much difference could the tires really make, and that I was just gonna stick to what LR had chosen as there must be a reason.
But man oh man, I know better now
I know now that throughout the ownership of my MY13 LR4, without even knowing, I clearly never really truly fully enjoyed that truck because of the crappy stock tires it had come with because I never had to change the tires as my well-maintained truck had only 20k some miles (with proper rotation cycle) when I returned it. Even if I had to change tires, I prolly would have gone with the same stock contis Contact.
What a shame really that LR continued to equip the LR4s until the very last moment with that same crappy rubber hence robbing its customers of a truly an amazing ride quality experience that they could have had for their money. Some may have returned the truck when the lease expired, some may have purchased something else when the time came etc. I am sure not all may have had the chance to replace tires as not all of os stick to the same car years after years.
I mean even I, almost an eleven years owner of the same truck (06 LR3, 13 LR4, and 16 LR4) have just found out that a tire could make such a huge difference in the ride quality
Sorry for the long post, just thought some may benefit from it.
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