The annual 19 inch tire question! Whattya got? Whattya like?

[EIGHTLUG]

Does anyone get road noise at highway speeds with their Pirelli ATRs?

I posted a thread a month or so ago asking about differential noise at highway speeds (take the foot off the gas, feel a vibration. Apply gas, it goes away).

The dealer mechanic said it was my differential but my new LR mechanic thinks it is the tires. He is admittedly anti-Pirelli because he has found them to have loud road noise in the past. And me, I don't know. I don't think I noticed the noise until 6 months after I bought the Pirellis, but maybe I just didn't notice or was playing the stereo too loud.

Just curious. Drive 'em at 65+, take your foot off the gas, let me know if you feel anything.

I'll put my money on your diff whining.

 

[sprale]

We're looking at tires for our 06 LR3 with 19s, not much selection out there. My wife wants something more aggressive for off-road use, but for 19s there doesn't seem to be much aside from the Cooper Xeons. I stumbled upon a Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure, but in 255/60-19 instead of the 255/55-19 Michelin Synchrone I've been looking at replacing. From what I've read, it looks like this 31" tire is just under the maximum diameter that will fit the LR3. Any thoughts?

 

[Houm_WA]

If you look hard enough you might find Goodyear MT/Rs in that stock size.

 

[toddjb122]

Nice to see this thread is still going!

Figured I might as well post an update...

• I didn't like the Goodyears that came with my 2005. The nylon belts (?) gave them flat spots after I'd park and they'd make for a lumpy drive.
• I had 2 sets of Michelins Synchones, which performed great but I always felt they had more of a road tread and I wanted something better off road that still wouldn't **** me on the highway with noise and low mileage,
• So I got the Pirelli Scorpions mentioned above. Those performed fine but the tires always had shown some abnormal dry rot. Just little cracks... and after about 40K I had both of my rear tires fail at the same time...well, one failed me as a flat and then I looked and the other was about to go. I had 3 large cracks going perpendicular to the tread direction, at the edges of the tire. They opened up and that was it. I don't know if I got a bad set, an old set, or what, but I'm going back to Michelins for my next set of tires.

Just ordered the Michelin Latitude Tour HP XLs. I wish they had a little more of a pronounced tread, but I still think they are the best 19" tire that I have been able to obtain in the NE U.S.

Here are two pictures from the tire that did not fail, but was about to;

http://images41.fotki.com/v195/photos/6/666681/6912527/photo4-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v1495/photos/6/666681/6912527/photo4-vi.jpg
Yes, I know, some bad wear on the outside edge of that tire, but it shouldn't have caused these failures.


(I honestly don't remember if I had 2 sets of Synchrones or 1...seems like 2...if I do the math, as I'm at 157K now I either got 52K out of each set of tires or 40K. I'm too far into my mileage to care.

 

[san6279]

Have 46K on my Latitudes currently and can probably get another 4-5k or so. After much thought am probably going to get them again as well. Was leaning heavily toward the Nokian WRG2s, and would probably be very happy with them, but have been very satisfied with the Latitudes and given the cost involved have decided just to stick with what has worked so far.

In other tire news, I see Pirelli Scorpion Winters are now available in our size. V rated.

 

[Houm_WA]

I'd be shocked if you ONLY get 50k miles out of your Latitudes. I got about 75k out of my Synchrones. I am replacing them next week with Nokian Hakkas (I'm not gonna spell it out!) that I'll run from November - April. Then I will put on my MT/Rs. I have a great situation in that I just don't put a lot of miles on the LR3 (commuting) any more, so I can afford to run two separate sets of performance tires.

I looked hard at the WRG2s as well; but sort of got smitten by the Hakkas.

 

[PaulLR3]

We're on our second set of Nokian Hakkas on our LR3. Winter traction is great, but more importantly they help brake and turn this heavy vehicle on slippery roads. As for durability, we can get 3 winters out of a set, which is probably around 15K miles total. Just bought a set of the new Hakka R2 SUV winter tires for the LR4. Looks like they will be better is slush than the original Hakka R SUV.

 

[Houm_WA]

The R2s are what I bought as well. 15k miles is not great....but then again it may take me 5 years to do that much mileage.

 

[rovernut]

Had a set on my wife's Odyssey and they were a very hard compound tire that got very noisy after about 15k miles. Though the ratings may be different, I would not opt for them again as they were a little too slick in the rain and too noisy on the dry, but they wore like iron.

 

[PaulLR3]

I will agree that the original Hakkas tended to hydroplane in really heavy rain or deep slush. The Hakka R2 has deeper channels that run from the center of the tire to the edges to address that issue. I think they are very quiet and handle well. Not squirmy at all like some winter tires.

As for wear, I bet they last a lot longer on a lighter weight Odyssey than the LR3. But the best reason for buying Nokians is that they remain a winter tire as they wear. On some other winter tires the tiny sipes that stop you on ice wear away and you are left with just an all-season tread pattern.