Firestone Destination LE2 or Cooper Discoverer HT

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Be needing new tired for my 2001 Ford Escape. I currently on my second set of Kuhmo. solus Kr21. Just want something that will last. I drive 50 miles a day to work all freeway. Any suggestion will be a huge help. Thank you
 
I don't have experience with the Cooper Discoverer but I have had the Destination LE2. Good tires for the money. Fairly long lasting and handling is good. Great all season tire.
 
LE2 with one reservation. They are quite harsh riding compared to the previous Destination LE. Other than that they are good.
 
I had a different experience with the Firestone LE's. Put them on a basic 1/2 ton P/U and only got 1/2 the quoted mileage before they needed replacing. Alignments and rotations were done on schedule. This was with easy driving, no off-roading or hot-rodding. Just had a set of Cooper Discover H/T's installed on the Xterra Wednesday so it's too early to tell how they will hold up. So far they feel fine. Buy the Cooper's now and you also get a $60 Visa card rebate.
 
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Manny, what is your exact tire size, what is your preferred budget, and are you open to other choices? There may be other brands that will serve you equally as well, if you're not locked into the choice of just these two.
 
My F150 came brand new used with LT235/85r17 Discoverer H/T tires. I won't do a review but lets me just say I replaced them within the first couple months of owning the truck- and they still had 6/32nds of tread.
 
Honestly, I'd rather have a tire with full depth grooves... and that isn't the LE2.

Personally, I think you're looking at the wrong Cooper. Why are you not considering the Discoverer CTS? (and the reason might be due to 15" wheels).
 
I have been watching this thread closely as I have exactly the same situation but in 215/75R15.... I have also been considering the BF Goodrich Long Trail TA Tour as a replacement for the Michelin LTXs that I currently have on my 2wd Tacoma. I drive nearly 60 miles per day and the Michelins have been great for that with over 100000 miles on them. The tire dealer here has suggested Long Trail Tours as the closest that he could do to replace my LTXs with "another set".

I am considering both the Destination LE2s and the Discoverer HTs as well.... But I don't like the look of the LE2s at partial wear and the fact that the Discoverers haven't been updated by Cooper in what seems like 10 years.

Anyway, hope that gives you another option to consider..... And if anyone has experience with the Long Trail Tours, I'd be interested.
 
Originally Posted By: mannymachine
Your right size is 225-70-15. Any other suggestions would be very helpful!


In that size, I would prefer the BFGoodrich Long Trail T/A Tour or the General Grabber HTS instead of the Firestone or the Cooper. If you surf some on eBay, you'll be able to see that the Firestone Destination LE2s look nice when new, but much of the tread grooving disappears as the tread wears; some of the larger voids aren't full depth. The BFGoodrich and General tires both maintain much of their tread pattern as the tire wears, meaning that you at least know that you won't lose a whole lot of performance due to disappearing tread siping. The rubber compound may harden over time, but you'll have that with all tires and that's not really something that you can photograph.
 
Yeah, that is an unfortunate size. Tall 15" tires are slowing fading away.

Out of curiosity, what has been your experience with the KR21? What have you liked about them, and what would you like to improve on?
 
I am on my 2nd set of Discoverer HTs. They wear well. I won't have any problems getting 60k out of them but we are easy on tires. They did well in 12" of snow while my wife was in labor, too.

I also have 225/75/15 tires.
 
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Manny,
Another option might be the Toyo Open Country HT...
Just another thought (and should have mentioned it earlier!)
 
How about the General Grabber HTS or Grabber AT2 or Continental ContiTrack? The BF Goodrich Radial TA (white lettering yo) and Long Trail TA may also be good choices.

Kumho also has a Road Venture APT, which might be better than your current KR21's because they are actually a truck tire as opposed to a car tire.

I'd probably take the Grabber HTS
 
LE2 - just half worn... Would never be on my vehicle looking like this.

Look how deep the groove is at the arrow. The tire isn't worn out, but due to its poor design.... it is! There's nothing like designing and selling a tire that will need to be replaced much sooner than necessary.

_12_zps22539f64.jpg
 
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Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
LE2 - just half worn... Would never be on my vehicle looking like this.

Look how deep the groove is at the arrow. The tire isn't worn out, but due to its poor design.... it is! There's nothing like designing and selling a tire that will need to be replaced much sooner than necessary.

_12_zps22539f64.jpg



The tire looks okay to me. I don't understand what you mean when
you say the tire is half worn, and worn out?
 
A lot of the siping is gone, meaning that a lot of the wet traction and snow traction is likely to be gone with it. Compare that picture with one of a new LE2.

$_12.JPG


What once were somewhat individual tread blocks (on the new tire) quickly fade into larger, more nebulous tread blocks. This type of tread design usually offers good performance when new, but traction often falls off quickly as the tread wears.

Other tire choices, including the Coopers, change less as they wear, which potentially means that the tire's performance will degrade less over time. There's more to wet- and winter-weather traction than siping alone, but the relatively rapid loss of tread grooving certainly doesn't help.
 
The other choice was a Cooper Discoverer HT. Here's a picture of a new one:

$_12.JPG


And here's a picture of a half-used one, one that actually appears to have been run over-inflated for a while:

$_12.JPG


Yes, much of the center tread rib has changed, but you can see how the next two outer tread ribs, and the shoulder ribs, maintain most of their profile. Most of the siping goes all the way down to the "floor" of the tread. Where the shoulder of the Firestone has become completely closed, the Cooper maintains an open shoulder design all the way down to legal wear-out.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that the Firestone is a bad tire. I'm not saying that the Cooper is a good tire. Tread/sipe depth as the tire wears has to be but one of the factors taken into consideration when shopping for a tire. I like to point it out because it's a factor that many people overlook. How much this factor is taken into consideration by the buyer is his or her own decision.
 
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