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Performance Upgrades - Maintenance - Modifications - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street Trucks. Covering the Explorer, ST, Sport, Lincoln Aviator, Sport Trac, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Aerostar. Featuring H.I. - Human Intelligence.
We've had ours for a year and we live in the snow belt near SW Michigan. I can honestly say we are pleased with the performance of these OEM tires. In dry, rain or snow they have performed well for us. We went on a trip to Florida a month ago and pon the way home got caught in those big southeastern US snowstorms. We drove in the snow for 600 miles and were impressed with the Sport's and tires performance.
My OEM on my 14 Altima were Dunlop performance tires...now THOSE were bad. I replaced those with Michs within 800 miles and the difference was night and day in the ride.
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My OEM on my 14 Altima were Dunlop performance tires...now THOSE were bad. I replaced those with Michs within 800 miles and the difference was night and day in the ride.
They have 14,000 miles on them. I rotated them once at 8k miles and will do that again at the next oil change. I'm not saying they are the best tires ever... just there is nothing about them that we could complain about. They perform well in the 20" size on our Ex Sport.
I also think the TireRack reviews should be taken with a grain of salt because we don't know how savvy the person posting reviews is about anything. Most people don't know how to change a tire, let alone rate them.
I've only had my Explorer LTD since Jan, just when the majority of snow hit in northern NJ, and found the Optimas adequate. Obviously not as good as a set of Blizzaks, but many of the TireRack reviews sounded like you'd be better off with bald tires!
I would have preferred a tire with a stiffer sidewall for the Sport. Stocks not too bad though. When they are worn, I'll switch to a summer performance tire, and dedicated snow tires for the winter.
I would bet more than a few people wouldn't be able to identify what tires they were riding on if they weren't allowed to look first. This is one of the reasons I take Tirerack's reviews with a (very large) grain of salt. Show me some "blind" test results for the professional tire reviewers too. That would be interesting.
Those people that say the tire was horrible on ice...have no clue that even a winter tire will be horrible on ice. But when you have 600 bad reviews about wet weather and or ride issue ect...it's hard to believe all 600 have no clue. Because you will go to a top rated tire and see 10 reviews out of 150 for the same issue ect.
If you have a very large sample size and the tire is rated poorly...i would go with the general consensus if i was looking to buy that tire and stay away. But if a tire say only has 15 reviews and 10 are bad...sample size is wayyyy too small ect.
it's tough picking a tire as they are expensive especially in 20s ect. I know if i spent 900 on a tires and they were poor i would be pretty upset. Most of those reviews are people being put into the tire (OEM) then buying them it seems...as least for those hankooks as a lot of Explorer reviews and i think Hyundai?
I just have had some bad experiences 2 weeks into the truck with these tires so that's what i am going based off of. If the tire was brand new i may really like it.
Granted I only have about 900 miles on the stock Hankook's on my 15' Explorer Sport... I really like these tires. They take corners at speed really well and even clear water quite efficiently on storm saturated roads. I find the "road noise" to be extremely minimal and less than the sound of the engine RPM's (of which I love.) Of course there are rough patches that transfer some vibration to the floor boards and pedals but that is a product of a ****ty patch of road, not the Hankook's... I'll keep them rotated/balanced/aired right until they wear out and fade away. Only then will I consider changing them to a slightly wider version of a completely comparable tire.
Although not the same tires, I'm running Hankook' s on two of my vehicles currently. Both are a truck tire, but I have been very happy so far with every aspect of them so far. They were also much cheaper the the bigger brand name tires. They make a very good high quality product.
I have a 2012 Limited, the 1st winter the Hankooks were acceptable. The 2nd winter I had a hard time turning from a stop when it was snowing even with all wheel drive and the snow mode turned on. I have also had a vibration in the vehicle between 40 and 50 mph since it was new. Discount Tire recommended Nitto tires and I had them put on at about 42,000, rides marginally better but the vibration is still there. Ford checked it out, 2 dealers, and told me it was the tires. Looking at Michelins or Bridgestone Dueler Alenzas.
I have a 2012 Limited, the 1st winter the Hankooks were acceptable. The 2nd winter I had a hard time turning from a stop when it was snowing even with all wheel drive and the snow mode turned on. I have also had a vibration in the vehicle between 40 and 50 mph since it was new. Discount Tire recommended Nitto tires and I had them put on at about 42,000, rides marginally better but the vibration is still there. Ford checked it out, 2 dealers, and told me it was the tires. Looking at Michelins or Bridgestone Dueler Alenzas.
I am pleasantly surprised with the ride quality, very low noise levels and comfort offered by the Hankooks. Its here 99% of the time dry driving, and always at a temperature between 70F and 120F...
I just bought a new 2015 Explorer and it came with Michelin tires and I'm glad it did. I also noticed that all the 2016 Explorers I saw on the lot also had Michelin tires on them. For some reason Ford is now using Michelins on Explorers. I once had a class B RV that came with Hankook tires. Even though I took good care of them with proper inflation, the front passenger tire tread separated with only 6,500 miles on the RV while traveling home. Right after that incident I replaced all the Hankook tires on my RV with Michelins and no more tire problems. So I was happy to see Michelins on my new Explorer. I guess it was because my 2015 was a late March 2015 build when the factory was using Michelins on Explorers instead of Hankooks. I've had good luck with Michelins in the past. Of course everyone has there own personal opinions on tires. But this is based on my personal experience.
All I saw on the lot for '16s were Hancock, I don't remember the model. Does anyone know what model Hancock is delivered?
I suppose one could ask for a different tire from the dealership.
Same... '16 Sport, 20" with Hankook tires. I don't have the model, but will try and check this evening.
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I got 45000 k miles on the OE Hankooks and they were quiet and rode well. We don't get much snow where I live so can't comment there. I bought the Firestone Destination LE2's which were highly rated on Tirerack and have been happy with them in the 1st 1000 miles. Also quiet and similar good feel.
