Anybody Running A Grand Touring Tire?

[hayden55]

I have some cheapo LRR tires on my Prius and yes tires do make a difference but my god they are noisy and harsh. Rode in my Parent's Lexus ES350 (same gen as my Prius) with Conti Grand Touring tires and wow it rode much smoother. Any Recommendations or experiences with this type of tire anybody?

[ChazInMT]

Beyond a doubt, the General AltiMAX RT43 tires have been the best tire sets I've ever owned, I put 55,000 miles on one set, then have put 10,000 miles on my new set. Great,smooth, comfortable ride, good in snow, and good traction in wet and dry conditions. And best of all, they're very reasonably priced. Call around locally, you should be able to get them for about $400 installed, with tax, out the door total. Check out Tire Rack for ratings on these and other possibilities.

[ECO-AKJ]

I really like the Continental Truecontacts, they are LRR and have a 90K mile tread warranty and show very good ratings for all conditions on the tire rack, also they have the technology built into the sidewall that deflects the impact around the tire instead of straight up the strut, I put 10K on mine before totalling the car they were on.

[gumby79]

Originally Posted by FordMan

I really like the Continental Truecontacts, they are LRR and have a 90K mile tread warranty and show very good ratings for all conditions on the tire rack, also they have the technology built into the sidewall that deflects the impact around the tire instead of straight up the strut, I put 10K on mine before totalling the car they were on.

Ok totalled the car?
How? If it was anything other then you were hit please give some details as tire proformance could be a factor.

Were you eco modding your air at XXpsi over side wall, placard, or aiming for balanced wear? Like I would adjust my air pressure for best road track proformance/ best contact patch wear, braking and reduced traction (sand /gravel/ ice on road) /best forward bite, lowest /most even tread temperature?

[ChopStix]

Originally Posted by hayden55

I have some cheapo LRR tires on my Prius and yes tires do make a difference but my god they are noisy and harsh. Rode in my Parent's Lexus ES350 (same gen as my Prius) with Conti Grand Touring tires and wow it rode much smoother. Any Recommendations or experiences with this type of tire anybody?

I'm a fan of Kumho brand tires. The Kumho Sense work pretty good. But as you mention they do affect the ride, especially when I run them @50psi. I've also had great results with their Kumho Solus tires, which are a touring tire. I got basically the same mileage with them and with a better ride. But they are more standard sized, where as you can get the Sense tires in odd sizes to play with cruise rpm's and such. Prior to my Eco-awareness I used to run the Kumho Ecsta tires, which are a sport tire. The mpg was also pretty close, but they wore out faster since they hook better. I think most tires are about the same these days. Its just the small details that make or break your personal needs.

Also I run Firestone Winterforce tires on my cars in the winter. I believe they are the best winter tires you can buy. But they negatively affect your mileage. So I keep 2 sets of tires/wheels per car, to swap around depending on the season.

[ECO-AKJ]

Originally Posted by gumby79

Ok totalled the car?
How? If it was anything other then you were hit please give some details as tire proformance could be a factor.

Were you eco modding your air at XXpsi over side wall, placard, or aiming for balanced wear? Like I would adjust my air pressure for best road track proformance/ best contact patch wear, braking and reduced traction (sand /gravel/ ice on road) /best forward bite, lowest /most even tread temperature?

Tires Handled great, I ran them at 55PSI on my 2005 Focus, I was able to still do the speed limit with 3 inches of snow on the ground and felt in control like it was dry ground, I feel I didn't see much return on FE until around 5000 Miles, they were definitely sticky, I drove mostly Payment, when I drove gravel roads, they did well to absorb the bumps unless I was throwing the car around

[JSH]

I'm running Bridgestone Serenity Plus tires on my 09 Prius in 195/65R15. I would have preferred them in 195/60R15 but Costco couldn't get that size. The tread width is 7" wide vs 5.9" for the stock Ecopia and the tire weighs 22 lbs vs 18 for the Ecopia.

The tires transform the car. Handling is much better, steering feel it better, the ride is better, they don't track rain grooves and the wet traction is night and day different. The downside is that the fuel mileage dropped 10% from 50 mpg to 45. Worth it to me but next time I'll look for a little lighter tire. I've also had good experiences with Falken ZE-912. Great tires without much of a mileage hit but they only last 30K miles.

[Andyinchville1]

Originally Posted by JSH

I'm running Bridgestone Serenity Plus tires on my 09 Prius in 195/65R15. I would have preferred them in 195/60R15 but Costco couldn't get that size. The tread width is 7" wide vs 5.9" for the stock Ecopia and the tire weighs 22 lbs vs 18 for the Ecopia.

The tires transform the car. Handling is much better, steering feel it better, the ride is better, they don't track rain grooves and the wet traction is night and day different. The downside is that the fuel mileage dropped 10% from 50 mpg to 45. Worth it to me but next time I'll look for a little lighter tire. I've also had good experiences with Falken ZE-912. Great tires without much of a mileage hit but they only last 30K miles.

Do you think the tire weight made the fuel economy hit that big or possibly other factors?

I've often wondered if a slightly larger diameter for highway use would change the effective gearing enough to offset any extra weight to net more mpg's...
what do you think?

[ThermionicScott]

I use BF Goodrich Touring T/A on my car during the spring/summer/fall months. Since I have a set of honest-to-goodness snow tires for winter, I tried to find something that had nice smooth tread and wasn't too expensive for the rest of the year, especially considering I don't know how much longer this car will be in service. They do the job.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Andyinchville1

Do you think the tire weight made the fuel economy hit that big or possibly other factors?

I've often wondered if a slightly larger diameter for highway use would change the effective gearing enough to offset any extra weight to net more mpg's...
what do you think?

The new tires are wider, heavier, with a more aggressive tread pattern, and heavier. All are bad for mileage.

The slightly larger diameter may help at highway speeds but my car spends most of the time in the city and there I think the higher gearing is a negative.

However, the trend has been the same for me regardless of the vehicle. Better tires = lower mileage. Which is fine for me, the mileage difference is trivial and improved traction is more important to me. (The difference between 50 mpg and 45 mpg over a year is 22 gallons and $55)