Tire Review-AltiMAX RT43

[Pokermatters]

I've had my General Altimax RT 43's for a month and about 2,500 miles. My first impressions were that they were softer, spongier than my previous Hercules Tour. 4.0 plus tires...which the lower density layer between the belts and treat certainly nicely soaking up some road imperfections. The Hercules were a quieter tire....In particular with the windows rolled down when travelling on new asphalt as low speeds I can hear the rapid fire light fluttering noise of the tread on the Altimax RT43's.....and noise for me is really only moderate above that.

These tires are 5 pounds lighter per tire than my prior Hercules and as a result I feel that the tires are easier on the suspension with less unsprung weight working against it. In some regards the RT43's feel more agile than the Hercules, but with 1 ply sidewall on the Generals vs. 2 ply for the Hercules, the sidewall feels softer on turns/curves to me.
Without question the Hercules had a firmer ride and felt more grippy and I felt more confident at a higher speed on interstate ramp curves than with the RT 43's....on dry pavement.

I've driven the RT43's on wet pavement at high interstate speeds and have yet to feel a hydroplane....I have felt slippage on acceleration a couple of times.....something I never felt with the Hercules....though the Hercules did briefly hydroplane just a few times during their 46K mile life I drove them.

The biggest issue I'd had with the RT43's so far is that they seem to lose air....I've probably added 16 psi to each wheel since I've purchased them in just a month. I have about 2 weeks to decide if I can live with that as part of Generals 45 day return program.

 

[Rand]

if they lose air that's an installer issue, most likely they have corrosion in the wheel bead area.

 

[CharBaby]

I do have one tire(and 1 tire ONLY) losing air! I determined(with soapy water) that it is the valve stem and not the bead.I brought it back to the installer and he replaced the valve stem after checking the whole tire in the tank of water.

It's still leaking at the stem and I may have to swap this tire to the other spare aluminum wheel(spare tire is OE aluminum). I will try this soon as I am losing 1 lb every 2 days and winter is approaching!

 

[Bamaro]

Just bought these tires for my Cobalt based largely on the following test at Tirerack
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=178

 

[CKN]

To me the Firestones were(scored) close enough I would just have shopped and got the best price on both brands. Of course, with Firestone prices it would probably be the Generals anyway!

 

[Bamaro]

Originally Posted By: Bamaro
Just bought these tires for my Cobalt based largely on the following test at Tirerack
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=178


Forgot to add that the AltiMAX RT43 were USA made

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: Bamaro
Originally Posted By: Bamaro
Just bought these tires for my Cobalt based largely on the following test at Tirerack
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=178


Forgot to add that the AltiMAX RT43 were USA made


They're not all USA made, though.

Tire Rack lists the COO info for all the sizes. I don't take their claims as god's honest truth, but here's the info:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43+%28T-Speed+Rated%29

 

[Bamaro]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Originally Posted By: Bamaro
Originally Posted By: Bamaro
Just bought these tires for my Cobalt based largely on the following test at Tirerack
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=178


Forgot to add that the AltiMAX RT43 were USA made


They're not all USA made, though.

Tire Rack lists the COO info for all the sizes. I don't take their claims as god's honest truth, but here's the info:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43+%28T-Speed+Rated%29

FWIW, true but mine were A3 which indicates Mount Vernon Illinois as the place of manufacture.
http://www.harriger.com/tire3.htm

 

[cp3]

Nice review.

Looking at these and the CS5 Ultra for the Charger next year.

 

[CharBaby]

Yeah, I am liking the RT43's more & more all the time! We'll see how they perform in the snow/ice/slush. I'm sure they'll do fine during their first-second winters anyway! Their sipes don't go very deep into the tread blocks. A disappointing feature that I didn't notice prior to the purchase!

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: cp3
Nice review.

Looking at these and the CS5 Ultra for the Charger next year.


I just had a set of the CS5s put on the wife's minivan and we love them! They're quiet and smooth, and very good in the rain...still waiting for snow to see how they handle it...

 

[supton]

We had slush the other day and I thought nothing about driving in it with the R43's. That is to say, didn't feel a thing. But it was pretty minor stuff. Supposed to get a few inches of snow tomorrow, so I should have a much better idea then.

 

[cp3]

My main concern is hydroplane resistance. Quiet and smooth sounds good though, as well as better cost than the more performance oriented tires I've been using.
I run dedicated winters for the white stuff so that isn't a worry for me.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Char Baby
Yeah, I am liking the RT43's more & more all the time! We'll see how they perform in the snow/ice/slush. I'm sure they'll do fine during their first-second winters anyway! Their sipes don't go very deep into the tread blocks. A disappointing feature that I didn't notice prior to the purchase!


The sipes don't go all the way to the edges of the tread blocks, but I think they are full depth inside the tread block. You should be able to verify this with a flashlight.

 

[FordFocus]

I put a set of the rt43's on my sisters taurus this past weekend and was very impressed with how they balanced they should be a lot better than her worn-out Starfire SF 340 that the car had on when she bought it. the road force numbers were 2, 3, 3, and 9!

 

[CharBaby]

Originally Posted By: FordFocus
I put a set of the rt43's on my sisters taurus this past weekend and was very impressed with how they balanced they should be a lot better than her worn-out Starfire SF 340 that the car had on when she bought it. the road force numbers were 2, 3, 3, and 9!


Yes, ours balanced nicely first time out. I like that!

I typically check all of the tires on the hiwy, as they were put on the vehicle from the installer. Then immediately rotate the tires(front2back) and recheck again at hiwy speeds to make sure all tires are balanced properly.

If all is good, I'll just leave the tires where they are and run'em to their proper rotation mileage. All was good with the RT43's.

 

[IveBeenRued]

Three of my wife's RT43s were perfect but one was out of round. Because I had purchased them online Continental told me that I would be responsible for purchasing another one at a dealer somewhere somewhere, having it mounted/balanced, and shipping back the defective one before they will refund the original purchase price of the tire. So we are just going to stick with the out-of-round tire because AAA was able to get it pretty close to balanced using road-force balancing.

 

[CharBaby]

Yeah, if you can come close enough to a good balance with a RFB, it may be worth it to keep the "out of round" tire. As you will only be reimbursed the price of the tire and not all of the extras that you'd be purchasing such as the installation and tax with, possibly even paying for the return shipping of the "out of round tire". Too bad!

I'd be nice if they(Conti) would pay for the inconvenience of the whole experience!

This is what I chose to tolerate when buying tires online as compared to buying locally. Over the past 10-12 yrs of buying tires online, I have alway paid between(for 4 tire installed), $120-$150 le$$ online, compared to the "apples4apples" tires locally. In this case, the RT43's.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Char Baby, do you generally have to bargain with online vendors on tire prices? I've never found online tire buying to be cheaper. In fact, it's often significantly more expensive, at least in my experience.

As an example, I'm considering the Bridgestone Dueler H/L 422 for our CR-V in the spring. Tire Rack sells these for $137 each. Add shipping, and I'm looking at $611, and that's just to get them to my door. I then have to carry them somewhere and have them installed, which will be another $40 at the bare minimum.

My local Firestone Complete Auto Care will install 'em for, quite literally, the same price ($610.88). The info is right on their website. Plus, I wouldn't have to face the decision to mail a tire here or there if I happen to get a bad one...my local Firestone dealer would have me covered.

I've just never seen the value in buying tires online. For one, I've never found them cheaper to begin with, but when you factor in the potential need of after-the-sale service, I think I'd find that frustrating dealing with either an online dealer or the tire manufacturer directly.

 

[99Saturn]

^I know it wasn't towards me, but generally the deals I pick up for tires online are not so much the tires I absolutely want but are good tires for the price, and suit my needs.

This past year, I've been able to pick up deals on Yokohamas, Coopers and General's through Discount Tire Direct (Discount Tire doesn't exist locally) for fractions of what they would cost locally, paying somewhere between $80 and $150 for many of the sets of tires (granted these are all for pretty small sizes too - economy sedans). We have a chain called Mavis that just opened up locally and might match the pricing (every time I call it's like playing Lets Make a Deal) but I'm not sure I would want to go to someplace I don't frequent and suffer thru whatever upsell problems they find while changing the tires, so I usually just bring my online purchases to an Indy I like, but is overpriced for mounting and balancing IMO.

Typically when I want a higher end or a specific tire, I have not been able to create significant savings when buying online, had that experience recently searching for a set of Pirelli P7s.