the tire debate
 

All right, so everything about these tires has me completely confused. I have been pretty happy with the stock michelin 255/55 R18 tires thus far, except for the snow traction which seems to lack greatly. In looking around on tire rack, these particular tires seem to really loose out on snow traction and don't have very high ratings on anything else. I want all seasons that will provide just as good, if not better performance all around. Does anyone have experience with say the Geolandar, the Deuler, or the Pirelli Scorpian Asimmetrico? Like I said earlier, these are all rated much higher than the Michelins, and have all got the same or high speed ratings and what not. The Michelins usually end up costing much more than these other tires, and I figure that the potenial for better performance combined with a less expensive tire would make changing a worth while thing.

Michelin Energy's have always sucked in the rain and snow. Just not enough ability to expel the stuff quickly I think.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....num=555VR8ESTX

Give those a shot, inexpensive and they rank pretty high across the board.

The Pirelli's that you're talking about don't come in this size. Only the regular Scorpion Zero comes in this size (i just recently tire shopped for the same size). I don't know if you have a 3.0 Sport or a 4.4 non-sport, but if you do have sport package, run away from the geolandar. We had it for about a month and it was a driving hell. Ridiculously bouncy, small bumps sent shockwaves through the spine, not loud, but still not quiet. In end, we sent them back because two of them wouldn't balance properly which became a blessing. If you don't have sport package, I think the Yokos would give a nice crisp feel.

We ended ordering the oe michelin mxv4 plus from CostCo. They're soo nice. I never appreciated them so much. So quiet, so smooth. Steering feel is better with the michelins, they just "read" better. The Yoko's also tended to roll more. Anyway, the pluses from buying costco. The price we paid for them michelins were cheaper than any other place--plus--that price includes mounting and balancing, lifetime rotations and balancing, lifetime roadhazard, they fill the tires with nitrogen. I guess, we'll just need to be a little more careful in the snow :-).

One other option for this size is Toyo Proxes. I've read and heard good things about them.

Advantage of nitrogen tire fills?

Doesn't absorb moisture like air. Maintains pressure regardless of temperature. This is what I've been told.

This I can buy.
Can't. Charles' law. V = kT

Mantains pressure better than oxygen.
But really, not a big issue. Let me dig up a link.

http://mbworld.org/forums/showthread...light=nitrogen
and
http://mbworld.org/forums/showthread...light=nitrogen

OMG, bringing back bad memories of my chemistry class already!

Regardless, the main advantage with costco is the lifetime rotations/balancing and lifetime roadhazard. The nitrogen is a bonus.:)

Here we go again :)

Good topic.

Nitrogen can't hurt, and can probably help, but IMO is sometimes oversold as a fix for other problems. It also leads drivers to believe they don't need to check their tires, and they still do. Valve stem leaks and rim leaks are the two most common failure modes (again, IMO), not air passing through the tire carcass.

Nitrogen is a great advantage on a race track, since it expands more uniformly with temperature change. It means that if you check your tires after several laps (hot), the pressure change will be more predictable. Not much of an advantage for those of us who only check our tire pressures cold. Big advantage for someone llike hayaku.

The biggest problem with plain old air in tires is not the air itself, but the moisture that is left in due to lack of air compressor maintenance by the shop. Nitrogen addresses this issue, but so does using a dry tank of air.

More here, on both sides:

http://www.xoutpost.com/showthread.ph...light=nitrogen