Truck Tire Time

[SchralphMacchio]

Gislaved is a Swedish Continental brand, according to the Internets Continental bought it out in the 90s!

[J. Barron DeJong]

Gislaved is a Swedish Continental brand, according to the Internets Continental bought it out in the 90s!

Ok, but they’re a budget brand. Like, a Nordfrost is half or a third the price of a VikingContact. If anything I’d expect the design/technology to be flowing in the opposite direction.

I just don’t see any similarity between these tires:



and these tires:



(Showing Euro Frost since those are studless like VikingContact.)

[SchralphMacchio]

Meh, having worked for (and managed brands for) a multinational conglomerate in a previous life (and different industry) I don’t put as much stock into terms like “budget brand” as conglomerates are basically choosing among engineering teams, manufacturing plants, and distribution for a given brand when coming up with products … products are often cross branded to increase distribution for different markets and/or channels. I guess I meant in my previous post that, as Gislaved has historically been a Nordic tire brand with a strong history of winter tire design and engineering, just like Nokian, by naming a Continental tire product “Viking something” I was just wondering if the design originated from a Swedish engineering team. But closer looks at your pictures show the block designs are quite different. Who knows!

I was googling some more and these really blew my mind:
Bridgestone is majority owner of Nokian.
Michelin owns the BFG brand.
Goodyear and Falken are part of the same company (Sumitomo).

This (unverified) webpage talking about tire brands is pretty eye opening!
https://tiresvote.com/articles/subsi...ire-companies/

[J. Barron DeJong]

I obviously have no idea about how Gislaved and Continental are run. I do have a former boss whose brother worked for Kelly tire, and I never got any inclination from discussions with my boss that Kelly had anything to do with Goodyear designs, even though Kelly is owned by Goodyear.

(Also, even though being a Kelly employee he had the benefit of getting any Goodyear product he wanted for free, he apparently always choose to buy Michelin.)

[J. Barron DeJong]

I think that Goodyear Sumitomo statement is off.

I see this:

The Falken Tire brand was launched by Sumitomo in Japan in 1983, and was introduced in North America two years later.
In January 2016, after the dissolution of the partnership with Goodyear, the Sumitomo Rubber USA factory in Tonawanda, New York began to produce Falken Tire-branded tires.

Sounds like they had a partnership, but I don’t see anything suggesting Goodyear is a subsidiary of anyone.

And as of 2020 Bridgestone had reduced it’s ownership share of Nokian to 3%, from a high of about 18%.

Honestly, from what I can see, Gislaved appears to be run as a brand within Continental. I don’t see any separate headquarters, and their manufacturing plants all seem to be Continental plants.

[SchralphMacchio]

Good to know, I once toured a Goodyear tire plant in North Carolina and it made me never want to buy a Goodyear tire! (Despite me having their Endurance STs on my RV and those tires having a reputation of being the best overall trailer tire out there)
The plant was a dark dingy dirty mess of a place and I felt bad for the blue collar workers there.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Good to know, I once toured a Goodyear tire plant in North Carolina and it made me never want to buy a Goodyear tire! (Despite me having their Endurance STs on my RV and those tires having a reputation of being the best overall trailer tire out there)
The plant was a dark dingy dirty mess of a place and I felt bad for the blue collar workers there.

Unfortunately that’s true for a lot of US manufacturing plants (but definitely not all).

Worst I’ve personally been in was an aluminum foil plant in the south.

Our company makes some manufacturing equipment that goes in tire plants. I don’t personally work in that area so no great insights, but from the bit I recall seeing it looks like European tire plants are nicer than American ones (or at least the ones from more wealthy European countries look that way).

[teleee]

Any body tried the BF Goodrich Trail Terrain’s thoughts? Van get a pretty sweet deal on them and it seems like they fit my needs….

Edited to add, yea I am to lazy to go back and read the posts.


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

[J. Barron DeJong]

Any body tried the BF Goodrich Trail Terrain’s thoughts? Van get a pretty sweet deal on them and it seems like they fit my needs….

Edited to add, yea I am to lazy to go back and read the posts.


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

FWIW, it was last in a three way test by Tire Rack:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...y.jsp?ttid=309

Trailed in almost every category.

[teleee]

FWIW, it was last in a three way test by Tire Rack:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...y.jsp?ttid=309

Trailed in almost every category.

Yea I keep hoping I would be able to save some coin and go with them but I may just have to go with the Falkens. I know they are good


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[J. Barron DeJong]

Yea I keep hoping I would be able to save some coin and go with them but I may just have to go with the Falkens. I know they are good


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Tire Reviews does more in depth testing than Tire Rack. They still fared poorly there. 8th out of 9 tested:

https://www.tire-reviews.com/Article...-Tire-Test.htm

[teleee]

Tire Reviews does more in depth testing than Tire Rack. They still fared poorly there. 8th out of 9 tested:

https://www.tire-reviews.com/Article...-Tire-Test.htm

Yea you are still not saving me any money.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[J. Barron DeJong]

Yea you are still not saving me any money.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Sorry. Saving money on tires have never been my thing. They’re more like a fetish.

[teleee]

Sorry. Saving money on tires have never been my thing. They’re more like a fetish.

duly noted! I am actually more worried about performance in snow and off road more than highway. Not a lot of highway miles on good roads for my truck.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[snowaddict91]

I've been very happy with the General Grabber A/Tx on my F150, I'm on my second set now. I haven't ran the Wildpeaks for comparison though. My criteria is much the same as you, snow performance is the most important factor.

[J. Barron DeJong]

duly noted! I am actually more worried about performance in snow and off road more than highway. Not a lot of highway miles on good roads for my truck.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Then maybe you can save some money after all. They were tops in snow and gravel and sand in that Tire Reviews test. So that may be all the justification you need to save some cash.

[teleee]

Then maybe you can save some money after all. They were tops in snow and gravel and sand in that Tire Reviews test. So that may be all the justification you need to save some cash.

That may well be. I just read that review and they just might the exactly what I’m looking for.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[SchralphMacchio]

I think marsb ran the BFG Trail Terrain. Someone in Uintas. They gave very positive reviews on snow ice and gravel several pages back, I seem to recall superior to KO2 on snow and ice.

No D or E rated version that I could see however, may or may not be an issue for your rig depending on your GVWR. I know people run them on half tons, but if I was loading the half ton or towing with it I would not want a max 42 psi tire.

[SnowMachine]

I've been very happy with the General Grabber A/Tx on my F150, I'm on my second set now. I haven't ran the Wildpeaks for comparison though. My criteria is much the same as you, snow performance is the most important factor.

I have run both. Maybe not apples to apples. I had the General's on a Range Rover Sport and the Wildpeak's (AT3W flavor) are currently on my 2500 Ram. Both are good, but I'll give the edge on ice/snow to the Wildpeak. Then again, 8000lb compared to 6000lb.... YMMV.

I like the K02 a lot for snow/ice, also. They only survive 25k on my 2500. The Falken is going to double that.

[snowaddict91]

Thanks, good to know. I was thinking about trying the Falkens this go around but IIRC they were out of stock in my size, and I couldn't wait due to 2 flats from a weird fender bender.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Looks a Toyo C/Ts for a relatively long lasting E rated workingmans tire.

I'm on my 3rd set on my F250. I Run'm hard for 2 years. I think they a good all around mountain tire. Not great at anything but tough and dependable.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

[Foggy_Goggles]

Oh...if you want your local mechanic to stick around and but you at the front of the line when you need him, buy your tires there.

Those guys need the tire and oil change work to stay in business.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

[anotherVTskibum]

Oh...if you want your local mechanic to stick around and but you at the front of the line when you need him, buy your tires there.

Those guys need the tire and oil change work to stay in business.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

I did my part this fall--five Nokians. On the plus side, their pricing was reasonable (biggest cost difference vs an online purchase plus a local mount was the damn state sales tax). They also didn't seem to mind when I handed them a box of TPMS sensors from eBay.

The existing spare was scary old, and I thought about just getting a same-sized budget snow tire for the spare. Then I came to the conclusion that Murphy would probably crash the party if I did that and force me to buy another Nokian.

[californiagrown]

Oh...if you want your local mechanic to stick around and but you at the front of the line when you need him, buy your tires there.

Those guys need the tire and oil change work to stay in business.

Sent from my Turbo 850 Flatbrimed Highhorse

Yep. I have a "XXXXX Tire Pro's" shop a few blocks up the street from work where i get ALL my work done on my 20yr old 4runner. tires, oil changes, milestone major maintenance etc. For the first few years i google-backchecked everything they said i needed and the price, and it always checked out, so now i just trust them. Its really nice to just remember to bring it in for an oil change every 3k-4k and have them tell me whats needed based on the mileage and never have to worry about keeping track of anything. And yes, they have bumped me to the front of the line for oil changes and new tires. Once you find a good shop, keep feeding them work.

[skaredshtles]

<snip> bring it in for an oil change every 3k-4k

You get your oil changed every 4K miles?