Another Tire Tale - Firestone Sucks

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Amskeptic
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Re: Another Tire Tale - Firestone Sucks

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jul 18, 2010 8:36 pm

hippiewannabe wrote:
Amskeptic wrote: Every Firestone I have ever had the displeasure of having to live with has attempted to assassinate me..
In 36 years of driving, I have gone at least 500,000 miles, on just about every brand of tire. Perhaps 10% of those miles were on Firestones. I have had exactly four blowouts, and every one was a Firestone. Never again.
Tell it Brother!

I am getting Hankook 195R14's, as soon as I figure out how.
Then I will repaint the wheels and get rid of these "beauty rings", vwlover77, ya want them?
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Vdubtech
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Re: Another Tire Tale - Firestone Sucks

Post by Vdubtech » Sun Jul 18, 2010 9:15 pm

Amskeptic wrote:Then I will repaint the wheels and get rid of these "beauty rings", vwlover77, ya want them?
Colin
If Don doesn't want them, I'll take em. The RustyBus needs every bit of shiny it can get.

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Mr Blotto
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Post by Mr Blotto » Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:48 am

When Firestore had that BIG-ASS recall about 10 or 12 years ago on the Ranger/Explorer/F-150/Expedition, someone in the tire industry told me somthing that I will never forget and still use to this day. If McDonalds has a BIG-ASS recall on their quarter pounders, would you ever order a Big Mac instead? HELL NO - you woud go to Burger King!

Never even looked at Firestone again.
1978 Sage Green Westy - 2.0 FI - SOLD WITH 109887 miles :-(

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Post by static » Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:51 am

Firestone made it pretty difficult to buy Firestone tires.

They're all under the Bridgestone (their parent company) name now.

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Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:32 am

static wrote:Firestone made it pretty difficult to buy Firestone tires.

They're all under the Bridgestone (their parent company) name now.
Well then anything with a stone in it doesn't belong on a car.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Post by airkooledchris » Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:41 am

I needed some tires before our trek this past weekend, so I hit up Les Schwab and got these:

Image

Image

for as aggressive as they appear, they were amazingly quiet on the highway.

they are Maxxis MA-751 Bravo Series in size 27X8.50R14

ive ran both the 195r14 and these 27x8.50R14's on my Vanagon and couldn't determine any difference in head temps or climbing ability in the hills, so I stuck with them even though I know some say oversized tires is a huge no-no.

In one mile:
185R14 turn about 811 times
195R14 turn about 791.4 times
8.5 x27 turn about 772 times


There seems to be some confusion over the gearing of the air-cooled Vanagon and the baywindow busses.

From the researching I have done, the difference in 4th gear between the late bay and the air-cooled Vanagon:
76-79 4th is .89
80-83 4th is .85

4th gear x final drive on a bay is 4.07 to 1;
on a Vanagon it is 3.88 to 1

at any rate, they worked well on the highway, felt very easy to turn and corner with in the city, and performed great in the loose gravel roads along the coast - though I bet I would have felt the same about any new tired I put on, so it's hard to say how they would compare to brand new tires of another brand/type.
1979 California Transporter

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Re:

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:35 pm

airkooledchris wrote:I needed some tires before our trek this past weekend, so I hit up Les Schwab and got these:
Image
. . . and those very tires last rotated on July 16, 2015 with 52,000 additional miles on them.
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Another Tire Tale - Firestone Sucks

Post by airkooledchris » Sat Oct 10, 2015 9:48 pm

I am actually running a slightly used set of these same tires again, just on the rear of my bus, to once again play with how it affects head temps. I think the 27x8.5R14's are a great match for my baywindow bus. It lowers the rev's at higher speeds and the motor in my bay really enjoys that (temp-wise.)

My engine has great pulling power up hills, but it's head temps suffer at higher speeds, almost regardless of the load. The tires on the back currently are unevenly worn on the inside, with more than 50% of the tread gone where the rest of the tire seems new. (which is why someone dumped them.) It's just for testing purposes. I wonder if going to the 'freeway flyer' transmission gearing would be worthwhile to explore, given these results.

Anyway, im glad this photo showed up as it brings up a question ive been wanting to ask. What's with the star pattern on the inside of those stock rims in this picture? I have spare rims here and there and about half of them have that star pattern and the others are just smooth on the inside. Did they do this to strengthen them for certain models, or after a certain year?
1979 California Transporter

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Re: Another Tire Tale - Firestone Sucks

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Oct 11, 2015 9:35 am

airkooledchris wrote:I am actually running a slightly used set of these same tires again, just on the rear of my bus, to once again play with how it affects head temps. I think the 27x8.5R14's are a great match for my baywindow bus. It lowers the rev's at higher speeds and the motor in my bay really enjoys that (temp-wise.)

My engine has great pulling power up hills, but it's head temps suffer at higher speeds, almost regardless of the load. The tires on the back currently are unevenly worn on the inside, with more than 50% of the tread gone where the rest of the tire seems new. (which is why someone dumped them.) It's just for testing purposes. I wonder if going to the 'freeway flyer' transmission gearing would be worthwhile to explore, given these results.

Anyway, im glad this photo showed up as it brings up a question ive been wanting to ask. What's with the star pattern on the inside of those stock rims in this picture? I have spare rims here and there and about half of them have that star pattern and the others are just smooth on the inside. Did they do this to strengthen them for certain models, or after a certain year?
What star pattern are you referring to?
Image

airkooledchris wrote: I think the 27x8.5R14's are a great match for my baywindow bus.
It lowers the rev's at higher speeds and the motor in my bay really enjoys that (temp-wise.)
My engine has great pulling power up hills, but it's head temps suffer at higher speeds,
I don't quite know what you are saying yet. speeds vs rpm
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Another Tire Tale - Firestone Sucks

Post by airkooledchris » Sun Oct 11, 2015 11:28 am

I just went out to the driveway to take a picture of that one rim im referring to, then remembered by bus is at the body shop right now.
(the big window opposite the sliding door, where my worst rust is. too many holes when I pulled the window, it needed donor metal, which I provided to them.) - that's the only place where I get water entering the bus, it needed to be done now even without any prospect of a job. :P

There is a big difference in the shape of that center area. Instead of those soft rounded looking triangles between the bolt holes - there is a more defined shape to those reinforced parts. I'll get a picture of it when I get the bus back again.

"My engine has great pulling power up hills, but it's head temps suffer at higher speeds,"

I should have said that my head temps suffer at higher RPM's. Slightly larger diameter tires drop the RPM's at a given speed. I used to hate the freeway flyer style gearing of my vanagon, as it wouldn't climb for shit and still ran hot as hell. It was a shitty build and shouldn't have been my measuring stick for some of these assumptions. We've discussed this before, where lugging the motor doesn't seem to build up head temps as quickly as sustained high RPM's. It's certainly easier and cheaper to lower your RPM's by using oversized tires rather than going with the freeway flyer transmission.

Just random thoughts. I was up late last night watching the FIA WEC 6 hours of Fuji race last night when I saw this thread pop back up.
[YouTube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/-b-wu3cVjeI[/YouTube]

I can't get that youtube code to work, so here's a clickable link:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-b-wu3cVjeI

The battle between Audi and Porsche, as the track was going from full wet to partially drying lines, was fantastic. This is on topic because um, their tires worked really well? yea, that's it.
1979 California Transporter

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