Crimmy

Has anyone tried it? Mine is an 89 xj pioneer that ive cursed at too much to let it go. It is my daily driver and all stock. It wont see more than gravel roads or some light mud. Im trying to do ANYTHING to increase gas mileage or wet pavement traction.

Right now ive got geolander at tires on it 235/55/15 and it is awful. Anytime it is wet its like i crank the wheel 90 degrees and floor it. Thats how it acts under any amount of throttle. Have to let off the brake let it roll on its own first then give it gas.

So opinions. Anyone run a highway tire on an xj? See any improvement in gas mileage and traction? Thoughts for or against this?

EZEARL

Drop down in tire size to what was std on your vehicle. 205's or 215's Then go with an all season tire.

KaMoore

Others will chime in with different brands, but my 1994 had Goodyear Wrangler radials from the factory in the 215/75/r15 size. My 1999 came from the factory with 225/75R15 Goodyear Wrangler RT/S all Terrains. I have used both Goodyear & Big O tires to good advantage on these two xi's and a 1998 GMC S model jimmy.

cruiser54

235/75/15 Kumho KL78s.

Ralph77

Pretty happy with my Cooper Discovery HT's. 225 75 15.

mschi772

Great tire, but hardly a highway/street pattern. Also discontinued now--replaced by the AT51.


Sorry to hear you're having problems. Yoko AT's are pretty solid tires, so it is odd to hear such an extreme story such as yours (spinning out under any amount of throttle when wet....are you sure you're not exaggerating just a little?) How worn are they? How OLD are they?

Will highway tires provide an MPG increase over Yoko AT's? Marginally. Great HT options are, in no particular order:

• Yokohama Geolander HT G056
• General Grabber HTS
• Firestone Destination LE2
• Kumho Crugen HT51
• Bridgestone Dueler HL Alenza Plus
• Kumho Road Venture APT KL51 (My current 3-season tires--I have zero complaints but have never used them in winter)
• Hankook Optimo H727

I find Michelins and BFG's to be wildly overpriced. Goodyears are both overpriced and overrated in the realm of highway tires for truck and SUV's with some of the worst tires you can buy and for almost Michelin-high prices.

235/55r15 is a goofy tire size. I recommend 215/75r15 or 235/75r15 (only if you do very little city driving) assuming you have stock gearing.

s346k

I had 225/75 Goodyear wrangler sra tires on mine when I bought it. they're great tires. onroad oriented and will last a very long time if maintained.

Waynerd

A lot of suv's around here run cooper at3. A coworker is running them on his wrangler. I've even seen them on smaller pickups. The tire shop in town actually recommends them. When I had my '87 Chevy 2500 with a 9 inch lift I ran discoverer radial lt in a 35-12.50-16.5 and I had no complaints. I drove that truck everywhere every day. Also the discoverer ast is not too bad either. Ran those on the front of my full size van. Of coarse Goodyear makes similar tires. The wrangler sra came on the wj factory. Running a set of star fire on the wife's '01. They were very cheap and work well in all weather.

shooptube

I ran Kuhmo Road Venture AT51s for 5 months for a 20mile commute to campus and back. They were great in the rain and snow.

I paid $336 for 4 shipped to my door off tirecrazy.

Ralph77

That is crazy cheap. I guess hence the name tirecrazy. I just priced 5 Kumho Kumho Solus TA11 2183163 - 225/75R15. $360 after some sort of rebate and with free shipping. Even after paying somebody to mount and balance you are looking at maybe what, $420 total for 5.

shooptube

Yeah they had a Kuhmo rebate plus free shipping month. Mine were 265/75r16s which are a metric 32" tire. Also I got mine mounted for free because I know a shop through my work.

Ralph77

When the dust settled I paid $400 for 5 of the Coopers I mentioned above. Mounted, balanced, and with Nitrogen in the tires. But that was after a $50 rebate and getting $80 for my old skins. Had I not done quite that well I would have been pissed that I did not know about this site. I also through work might have been able to get them mounted for free too. Maybe. Would have felt a little funny though. Like you are good enough to mount my tires, hopefully for nothing, but not good enough to buy them from kinda deal.

Crimmy

Cruiser is about the only thing other than sweat and determination that has kept this jeep on the road. I take his advice pretty seriously so his suggestion is going to the top of the list.

I am giving a slight exaggeration but it seriously takes next to nothing. Ive had to feather the throttle a few times to regain traction in dangerous situations on wet pavement. The rear tires are worn but not the worst in the world. 1/4" tread left as an eyeball guess. Fronts are gone though from bad alignment thats fixed now and giving bad tire vibrations from wearing improperly.

As far as your suggestions the optimos are a big no. Those are on every vehicle ive driven for work and they just are not good in my opinion. But ill add your suggestions to my list and do some more research.

If i wont see any significant gain in wet pavement traction or gas mileage from a highway tire which seems to be the concensus here ill probably go with an all terrain just so that i have the option of going offroad once i get the one piece axles and delete the vaccum disconnect.

Thank you guys for your time and suggestions.

BillyBoy

First let me way that I agree on listening to cruiser pretty religiously.

Second, I bought a set of Goodyear wranglers with original rims from a guy who was upgrading. P235 75R15. They had about a year on them when I got them. Probably not many miles as they looked pretty new. Gave him 500 for the rims and tires. I'm going on 3 years on them, with about 80000 miles. A lot of highway driving, some dirt roads. Snow and ice in Michigan, as well as whatever rain falls. I'm crazy happy with them and never had any issues with slipping or sliding. And... for road tires, they don't look too bad.

Crimmy

Oh cruiser. Just to share i had a really good jeep fail. I very smoothely hit a curb making a u-turn. The curb smashing broke the zip ties holding my cooling fan on. The fan then fell over and butted up into the power steering pulley. This shoved the serpenderp belt back 2 teeth and shredded it. The power steering reservoir cracked right at the top so thankfully a soldering iron melting the plastic shut fixed that. And then the shredded belt slashed through a transmission line. Heheh. All that because i forgot about my temporary fix. It is now properly bolted in and running again. Still cant get any of my gauges to read properly though. One gremlin i dont think i have energy to care about anymore.