Tires made from orange oil, not petroleum
 

When life gives you orange peels, make tires.
Said on one ever.
Until now.

Who would like an affordable, quiet, grippy, LRR tire that lasts a long time and is made from renewable resources?

Orange oil tires use orange oil extracted from very renewable orange peels to make tires. Orange peels something most people would consider trash and not think twice about tossing in the garbage can.

From what I am finding these tires just don't use a small squeeze of orange juice to make them smell nice and up their green appeal for advertising. It appears that they have truly found a way to replace most if not all the petroleum oil used in the manufacture of the tire's man-made rubber. No doubt about it, these tires are made from oranges.

I started out very skeptical about this orange oil tire thing. The whole concept screamed "too good to be true" and as we all know when something sounds too good to be true it almost always is.
The further I looked into it the better it started looking. It turns out these tires have been around for a while, but no one is really paying attention to them.
In the meantime the front tires on my bug were getting smoother and smoother.
I looked up the price for a pair in OEM size, 205/55R16 tires and found that they were on the lower end of the price scale for tires in that size. I have put the cheapest tires on other vehicles in the past and it’s no fun.

So I bought a pair of them for my bug.
They showed up at my door where I promptly brought them in.
First thing I noticed is they didn't stink up the living room with the lovely smell of a hot tire plant as other tires do. My guess is that would be a result of using the orange oil. I would wager that since these tires are not off gassing all that stench the rubber compound is more stabile.

I have since installed and tested them, putting about 1,500 miles on them and all I can say is they have made a good and proper tire. They are far quieter, have more grip than I thought any LRR tire would ever have and they are T speed rated (118MPH). I didn’t even know T rated LRR tires existed. These tires have no problem operating at the upper limit of their T rating.
So they have managed to make an affordable, higher performance tire that has a high tread life rating, rides quietly and smoothly and stuffed all that into an LRR rated package made of orange oil.
Good job.

Edit: Something I for got to add. About 4 months ago I put a pair of these in 225/60R17 on the back of our hyundai sonata. That size is about an inch taller than the original size and they were $30 per tire cheaper than OEM size. In that time we put about 7,000 miles on it.
I look forward to putting a pair on the front before winter.

And who do you think would come up with this technology?
Surely it would take unlimited money and infinite resources of one or 2 of the largest tire makers working together to develop such a thing, right?

Nope, Yokohama tire did it and they are the only ones doing it, making them all in Roanoke Virginia.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

Orange oil tires - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BluEarth / Sustainability / Yokohama - Yokohama Europe - Tyre company

I thought I would mention that rubber comes from trees too. Of course only race car, heavy truck, and aircraft tires use natural rubber anymore. :P

Sounds great to me. Are there any P205/75R15s or P205/75R14s?

I would believe this more if more than one tire company was doing it. As of now I don't know if it is all just marketing hype.

Unfortunatly yokohama does not make 13'' tires and I believe they are making few if any 14s anymore.

The tallest 15 inch wheel they have listed for the orange oil tire is 205/65R15.
My guess is they can't make every size everyone wants and keep this tire line as affordable as they are now.

Use the tirerack link I posted there will be a row of tabs near the bottem of your screen (not the page its self), click "other sizes" and tirerack will provide you with sizes and prices for that tire line.
I say use tire rack if you are trying to put something besides OEM recomended size on your car.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

The process looks like its only 2 or 3 years old and is likely still under patent.
The other tire manufactures could make orange oil tires and pay a royality fee for each tire they sell or just buy the rights to make them.

Thanks. (I wasn't looking for 13s, Though.) I'm not very familiar with tires, Not being car-savvy for everything car-related (And is any human, Really?) but would I be able to use the P205/65R15s on my 1984 Caprice Classic? (They're P205/75R15s.)

I remember looking into those tires about a year ago, but there were none that fit my car. :(

The 205/65R15 size would work but I think I would try to go away from 15 inch car tires and go to 16s.
Then get 215/65R16 tires, they would be about an inch taller than the OEM size.

Which is another reason I think it is all hype.

Edit: I wish we had some data that didn't come from yokohama or was just regurgitated from their PR machine.

This is definitely worth buying a new set of wheels for.

The tire calculator says the 185/55/15's will fit my car. I will definitely buy these and put Azenis on my 14's.

Thank you for this easy choice!

Maybe CapriRacer will chime in with some insider information??

Looks like 15" tires is the smallest option unfortunately Yokohama Tire Sizes (Just click the sizes and specs tab)

I guess I will have to look into 15" wheels. I was planning on going away from the steelies anyway. ;) The question is what the ROI would be and if it would be worth it (as in a decent payback time period).

I'm not a rubber chemist, so this is a bit out of my area

- BUT -

Oils are used in rubber to a) Provide additional cross-linking sites, b) reduce the amount of rubber needed, and c) Aid in processing (utilizing the lubrication properties of oil).

I suspect it is the last one that is where citrus derived oils would be of most benefit.

And did I mention the PR? I think the marketing department would be all over anything even remotely sounding "Green". There's nothing more important to the marketing department than something positive they can talk about.

Tire rack does their own testing.
Customers can post reviews too.

I just compaired prices of the other "grand touring all season" all season tires in 225/55R17 and 225/60R17 (hyundai sonata sizes) and the yokohama ascends are $30 to $80 dollars per tire cheaper than the other ones.
The main test it didn't do so well in was wet traction.
So you can slow down 5 to 10 mph in the rain if your speed limit is 70mph or higher or you can pay a lot more for the tires just so you can burn more gas.
Usually wet traction is not a problem for me living in eastern newmexico, driving around west texas and near mexico.

Some of their customers aren't the brightest:
"If your "innovation" doesn't translate to noticeable improvement in mpg in the real world, then you should expect low ratings. Unfortunately, I don't see an mpg rating in the survey. I was getting about 37mpg with the old worn out tires and now average 35. I like the tires well enough--but I would not recommend the tires to anyone expecting increased mpg."

Most of us on here already know you are going to get better milage with warn out tires. The rubber hardens over time, they weigh less and have better aero due to lack of tread.

Another person claims they wore out a set on a mini van in under 30k miles. My guess is they did not get an alignment when they bought their tires and/or they need new shocks.
The pair that have been on the back of the hyundai have over 7k miles, have at least 90% tread and still look brand new.

This is not a sure thing to expect as tires age.

"Change in Rolling Resistance Versus Tire Wear
The rolling resistance of each tire was measured using the ISO 28580 test procedure. All tires were measured prior to beginning the testing. At the severe wear condition, the tires were also measured after 400 miles and at the end of the 800-mile test. At the mild wear condition, the tires were measured at the end of the 800-mile test. Tires were also weighed prior to the rolling resistance test and after 400 and 800 miles of wear. The data is shown in Appendix 3. Figure 47 shows the rolling resistance versus the weight of the tires. Some tires, such as type G12 and B11, seem to show consistent decreases in rolling resistance with tread loss, and there seems to be a tendency for lighter tires to have lower rolling resistance. However, many tires show no clear relationship between tread loss and rolling resistance for this testing."

http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NVS/V...res/811154.pdf

Looks like that test took place over 4 months and they only put several hundred miles on them, unless I missed something.
I can't see where they tried to account for the rubbers oxidization and hardening over the course of years.

The also didn't account for weakening side walls and steel belts which would offset that.

I think the big issue for the wear vs RR test was the ability to measure RR. There was not a lot of difference between the wear points, so small differences might not be measureable.

I've seen tests where the tread rubber is shaved off, and the results were quite measureable.

But I think that the hardening of rubber over time doesn't really affect things much. Rubber is so much softer than the steel and the ply cords that for practical purposes you can ignore any changes in rubber properties.

I also think steel and ply cord don't change much over time as well.

I tend to think that the material affects of aging on tread rubber would INCREASE the RR, but that would be more than offset by the affects of having less tread rubber. It would be interesting if someone did this for a wide range of tires.

Ok, I've had mine on for a few days and driven over a hundred miles on them. No tank refills yet. Changed from worn out no-name 175/70/13's on steelies to brand new 185/55/15 Avid Ascends on steelies.

First impressions are that they do seem to roll better and I can coast for a long time. It has been mentioned that they have good handling as well. They have decent road holding, but are not terribly responsive. Obviously they're not racing tires or anything, but I really beat the **** out of them in an open lot tonight and they seem competent. If you push them hard they lose traction gradually and are reasonably predictable. Come to think about it, they handle a lot like my skinnier no-name tires.

So, while you're not going to have a lot of fun driving these through the twisties, they also aren't going to let you careen into a ditch. Remember, just preliminary seat-of-the-pants review. Watch my fuel log in the future for any MPG changes.

Bottom line: Yes, would recommend for a hypermiler. But if you like to go racing on the weekends, buy a set of sport tires. I plan to buy some Falken Azenis RT-615's for the weekends.

PS- the 185/55/15's do have some sidewall bulge on 7" wheels. I would recommend 7.5" or even 8" wheels if you're concerned about aesthetics and fitment. The latter will probably stretch a tiny bit.

I would always recommend buying a set of highway or touring tires for normal driving and a set of specialty tires and rims for what ever you do on the weekend.

There is nothing worse (or stupider) than wearing out a set of expensive mud tires every year by driving them on the highway for 99.99% of their life.

I was looking at this one:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....5ASC&tab=Sizes

Is the rolling resistance coefficient known publicly? I asked a sales representative about it and she said she wasn't sure if that information is public.

I bet they smell real good, especially during a burnout.. like Mandarin oranges !

Subscribed.

Add my $0.02 on the skeptical side (at least concerning the 'greenness' of the orange oil). Until Yokohama defines how much of the petroleum oil has been displaced by orange oil, and accounts for the energy required to extract the orange oil (and if only there was a certification for it), it might as well be snake oil, at least in terms of green production.

I can't even find the patent. Anyone?

I've read too many plugs like "vinegar is the greenest cleaner and disinfectant". (Hint: muriatic acid = vinegar x 100, but mostly just for cleaning hard water deposits.)

Im thinking of pulling the trigger and getting a pair for my insight. They got a sale on them and a gift card too. I have had 2 sets of the avid envigors. Nice and grippy, some road noise on cement highways, great on wet or flooded surfaces. :thumbup:

Unfortunately they do not smell like oranges but when i order a set they do not stink up the house like a set of normal tires.

I wouldn't be too worried about the greenness of the tires.
They have to be greener than ethanol from corn and dont use food product to make the tires like the good year soy bean tires.

Since japan has no petroleum oil deposits making a petroleum oil free tire would be a pretty handy thing to know how to do.

Question for those who have these tires: How has your fuel economy been effected? I also notice the PSI goes up to 51 in these which is helpful; The tires I have on the Caprice currently are rated for 35 max and since they're old I don't want to go much higher than that.

I've still been thinking of buying the P205/65R15s, And some of the reviews say they went bald earlier than the warranty covers. Well if they do and I buy them it's not a worry, Is it? I can just use the warranty as long as they're bald before I reach 65k or 75k miles at five years.

When I replaced the warn out tires on the VW with these avid ascend tires I experienced almost no "new tire mpg drop".
They replaced a set of non-LRR Michelins that I ran till they were worn smooth.
Usually you lose up to 2 or 3 mpg on a car when replacing worn out tires with new ones. I think I lost 1 to 2 mpg for 2 fillups and it was back to normal, not that it ever went beyond the standard deviation.

On our other car we replaced OEM sized avid envigors, 2 at a time with avid ascends that were almost an inch taller. Eventually the MPGs turned out to be 2 to 3mpg better than ever before once we got all the tires switched to the larger LRR avid ascends.

The ultra high performance all season avid envigors were too much tire, they were real sticky and we were replacing a pair about every 20k to 30k miles, or about every 9 to 12 months.

The ascends are touring tires, have been on there for almost a year now and still look like they have all their tread.

These tires are going to last a really long time.

The main reason tires go bald is bad alignment and driving it like you stole it.
Wearing out too soon is the most common complaint across all makes and models of tires.

Lack of proper rotation schedule too.

I read a review on Tirerack.com about them that said "I was rotating them";

Coming back to this conversation, If I were to jump up to 16s would that change the odometer readings? The odometer is accurate with the current tires at least for a 126.6 mile trip.

going from 205/75R15 to 205/65R15 is a big change in diameter of tire. your rpm would be much higher at cruising speed.

I think I lost as much as 5 mpg with the avid envigors in oem size. BUT, BUT, BUT, the traction well made up for it. I had a deer jump out in front of me at 70 mph on i295 one night. I twisted the steering wheel and swerved a lane over and back with no problems. Ive also driven around in the snow n ice in Richmond the past few winters with no problems. I did have problems this winter, but I also got 2 tires that need to be replaced. True this is my second set in 2 years, but I am driving like I stole it. :eek:

Down side I cant do a screaming burn out. I got the touring s on my sidekick and I can do a mini burn out, then it grips. :thumbup:

OK. Well then, Out of all the tire sizes these AVID Ascends are available in now is there one recommended for the Caprice that allows a lower RPM? Or is there another LRR tire that will fit while keeping the odometer readings close to the way they are now? I asked about this on Tirerack.com and was suggested this tire:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....e&autoModClar=

I say stick the largest size you can on there and hand calculate your MPGs.
Figure out the difference in tire size percentage wise and when you fill up add athat precentage to your tank miles.
I have to do that with my suburban.
Plus you dont want close, a 3% difference is close. Add the difference to your milage even if its 1 or 2 percent. The slightly larger tire is likely to throw off the odometer reading by at least 2 or 3 percent and that could easily make a 1 mpg difference.

Shop around. When we put bigger ascends on the hyundai they were $9 per tire cheaper than the OE size ascend, That made the larger ascends the same price as the cheapest smaller OEM size tire.
$36, thats most of a tank of gas right there.

The envigors are pretty wild.
I had ultra high preformance W speed rated "S4" tires on the camaro for a while.
I could barely do a burn out they were so grippy. Way too much tire.
Think I am going to tone it down and put envigors on it.
My friend gets about 50k miles on a set of S4 tires on his 4th gen camaro with a V6 engine.
They don't drive the camaro a lot so about the time the tires start to side wall crack they are warn out.

Ironically, some people (not me) advocate NOT rotating tires TOO often, ie: not more than once a year or so.

I've found that according to Automobile-Catalog (1984 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Sedan 5.0L V-8 automatic overdrive tire sizes (since September 1983 for North America U.S.)) These Yokohama AVID Ascends work:

225/65 R 16 - 1.6% Larger than OEM - http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....6ASC&tab=Sizes

225/60 R 17 - 2.0% Larger than OEM - http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....7ASC&tab=Sizes

I also found this size works but these AVID Ascends offered are not 215s, They're P215s.

215/55 R 18 - 0.9% Larger than OEM - http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....8ASC&tab=Sizes

Got suggestions?