williemon

I have to buy tires for my 2nd gen. I knew that it would need them soon, but the front end needs aligned and it ate up a fairly worn front tire. Anyway, getting 265 70 15 Bridgestone Revos to replace the Michelin LTX AT. Then Im getting it aligned and having the tires trued (if needed) and balanced on the car. This always results in a glass smooth ride. This way, we can still use it safely while searching for the Sport Edition we want, and any potential buyer of this 2nd gen wont have to be worried about crap tires.
Later!!

williemon

OK, their on now. So far they look good. I did not have them balanced. Im going to take thim to be balanced on the car next week at a different place. Later!!

williemon

3 posts in a row by myself!! Woo Hoo!!

I was just doing some looking at the paperwork for the parts, mods and repairs to the runner over the years. I discovered this: I put the Michelin LTX AT tire on the Runner back in Feb of 98 with about 54000 on the runner. ( I bought it used with low miles) They are now worn out due to bad alignment at 147000 in July of 2003 That makes them about a 90000 mile tire!!! (if my math is correct) I sure hope the Revos last as long.

I put the Revos on white letter out. I hope I dont regret that. Later.

Jeff B

I've never heard of this. Where do you get this done?

williemon

What it is, is most all tires have some degree of out of roundness to them. Good quality tires have less of an issue with this, but they are not absolutly perfect. Some tire shops try to match the low or light spot on a rim with the high or heavy spot on the tire. This does not always result in a smooth ride.
So far, the best way I have found is to have the tires mounted, put on the vehicle, then taken to a shop that can true the tires. They will jack up the vehicle, spin the tire while its still on the car, and look and measure for out of round conditions. If a high spot is seen, they will cut some tread off that section so it is truly round. Then they will balance the tire while its still on the car.
The set I had on the 4 Runner, the Michelin LTX AT, as I stated had around 90000 miles on them. During this time, I rotated the tires every 6000 miles or so. I only had to have a couple tires trued when they were new, and one needed trueing about 30000 miles ago. I had them balanced about 4 to 5 times over their life.
Intresting thing, when new, after the trueing, only one tire required any weight at all, and it was a postage stamp size of stick on weight. The ride was glass smooth from 0 to 85. The shop that mounted and balanced the tires where I bought them to start with, had gobbs of weight stuck all over the rim, and had to do it 3 times. It still was not a smooth ride. So I took it to this place that did it on the car. I was VERY impressed. This remained this way for over 50000 miles. The last 1/4 of the tread useage was when weight needed to be put on 3 of the tires, and still that was like maybe 1 to 2 postage stamp size stick on weights. Very little weight.
I would have a balance check every time I took it in for alignment. 4 bucks per tire plus any weights needed. So 16 bucks total if no tires required any weight. The trueing cost about 12 per tire. They would always check for true before doing anything else.
I got the Revos from the same shop as I had the Michelins, but I had them waive the balance fee. Ive always got the best price on tires from this place anyway. They have the proper adaptor for the balance, but they understand my reluctance to have it done with it.
Later!!

Plays_with_Toys

It sounds like you keep good records, but I was just going to point out that future buyers are sometimes reluctant when the tires are brand new, because alignment, camber, and other suspension/wheel problems might be hidden now that the tires are new and don't have wear patterns.

What are the Revo's? Are they an A/T, M/T, S/T or road tire?

williemon

You might have a point there. I guess all I can do is plead my case to a potential buyer, show them the tire, balance and alignment recipts from over the years and tell them to take it to a good mechanic to check it all out if need be. Anyway, it might take a while to find what I want in the price range anyway. And as it is, just about everything that needed doing is now done. It runs good and is safe for my wife and little one so at this point im in no big hurry.

BTW, the Revos are an AT type of tire. I decided to keep that type of tread pattern since it is a 4x4. I figured if someone wanted to buy a 4x4 2nd gen, they would want at least an AT tire on it. They look SHARP!!! I will get some pics soon.