Used tires

[wander2039]

Does anybody on here only buy used tires? Not wanting to much money on our beater car I bought some but almost new tires for half what new would cost. I noticed they had some used tires that would fit our Escape also.

We mostly use it for out of town trips, most of the trips are made by the wife solo. We have road side assistance on it just in case. I've had bad tires that were brand new so I don't see much difference if I'd get a bad one.

Would I be taking a great risk buying only used? For the price of 1 new one I could buy four used. The only vehicle I wouldn't buy used would be for the hauling truck..I see a hugh risk if a tires blows on it.

 

[CapriRacer]

The problem with used tires is that you don't know how the previous owner cared for them.

Sort of like buying a used car - if the previous owner didn't change the oil regularly you may have a time bomb waiting to go off.

And there are folks who would gladly sell you a bad tire, knowing that they are probably not going to be held responsible for any problems that you have.

You said this is an SUV used as an out of town vehicle that your wife drives solo?

This is exactly the worst scenario for used tires. Lots of miles, high speed, high center of gravity - and I hope you don't take offense - but a driver you is likely to overreact to a tire failure.

Personally, I'd put the best possible tires on this vehicle

 

[obbop]

Did the previous owner hit an obstruction or pot hole or whatever so hard as to damage the innards of the tire? Could a belt or ply or whatever have been damaged?

Hidden damage. Undetectable until the tire self-destructs.

A big price to pay for a little savings.

 

[alreadygone]

Been selling tires over 30 years. Been actively buying and selling used tires since January this year. Out of a container load of 1,600 used tires, there might be a set of 4 I'd put on my wife's car,,,,,,but I doubt it.

As Capri said, THIS is the applicaton of your 3 that begs for new tires.

Bob

 

[wander2039]

I'd only buy the almost new ones or factory pull-offs. Unless I can find one of those I'll just buy new. The set of Conti's on the Escape now has 60k and will probably last until 75k.. so maybe new ones would be better so I can rotate them on a regular basis would be more cost effective.

 

[Auto-Union]

I don't like used tires. I got burned once, that's it. I take the good used tires they offer me free at the Audi dealer and use them in summer, that's about it. My last cars were AWD and required the same exact 4 tires be installed, so that was tough. Now I have a FWD that can use different tire pairs, so I make the most out of it.

imo, a good scenario is to buy 2 new ones every Fall for the front.

There are good deals on decent new tires, if you select carefully. I really like the Kumho ASX but wear is not great. The Yokohama TRZ is a lil more money, but last better.

Used tires are fine if you don't have to pay for them. Otherwise remember you have to pay to have them mounted and such....I rarely mount a tire w/less that 1/2 tread unless it's a "smoker" for mid-summer.

Ironicly, the best way to get the most out of your tire purchase is to spend even more via having 2 sets of wheels. Good newer tires for winter and worn sets to use ion the hot summer pavment. I never throw away a tire before the wear bars and always have the right tread.

I have a bunch of used 16" tires in the classifieds, as low as $60/4 for Turanzas with 7-8/32nds. They don't fit my new car and I traded-in the old one.

 

[rjundi]

Brand new tires can be purchased on the cheap. All makers have a budget value line with great quality and support. Some examples I know are Dayton(Bridgestone) and Fuzion(Bridgestone) and store brands(mostly Coopers). Also Kumho tires are pretty inexpensive too and decent tires.

On a vehicle my ex girlfriends father who neglected his cars pretty badly but they all limped into the 200k range said one thing.

Three things not to skimp on cars are tires, exhaust and brakes. They all can potentially kill you.

 

[Master ACiD]

im a used tyre consumer. i find a supprising ammount of cars at the boneyards in this area have new or nearly new tyres. i dont know for sure whats going on but i speculate that someone has a project car in their garage. they put some new tyres on it among other parts but never get the car going. eventually it finds its way to the boneyard.
i cant count how many times ive bought $7-$15 tyres that still had the rubber nipples on the treads yet the tyre date codes said the tyres were a few years old. as long as they are not too old, and i inspect the tyres carefully for internal and external damage and find none, i see no problem buying used tyres.
when someone buys a used car they normally come with used tyres, a used motor, used seatbelts. used brakes. i see no difference any of these items can kill ya new tyres are not going to save ya from a large ammount of situations.

ive been running around for a few years now on a set of falken tyres that i bought for $40 for 4. they were nearly new when i got them and they are still doing fine.

the other thing is that alot of americans replace their tyres far too early and they get sold to other countrys. alot of used tyres are that valuable that they are actually worth the hassle of loading onto contrainer ships and shipping them across the pond, or boarder. whatever. my point is we should be sending them tyres with 2/32nds remaining. ha@!
in my entire life i have bought 1 set of new tyres for a 4 wheel vehicle. maybe a handfull of motorcycle tyres too.

right now i have used tyres on my bmw sport bike, my vehicles, my atv, and my golf car. you all can laugh now.

 

[CapriRacer]

Master Acid - and anyone else who is interested:

I am going to take issue with this statement:

"........ used tyres, a used motor, used seatbelts. used brakes. i see no difference any of these items can kill ya new tyres are not going to save ya from a large ammount of situations........"

It's a good thing you are carefully inspecting the used tires you are purchasing - especially the date code.

Florida ranks #5 in the list of states where tires fail. This ranking is not based on rate - merely quanitity. I am sure population has something to do with this, but the other states (AZ, TX, NV, and CA) seem to have one thing in common that FL doesn't - very high temperatures.

Tires will deteriorate even if they are not used - and the degradation may not be apparent on inspection. Cracking takes time and STRESS to develop.

The net effect is that when a tire fails at high speed - which is when the stresses are their highest, it can cause a vehicle to go out of control and you've lost the ability to recover control - unlike the other items on the list.

There are many recommendations regarding tire age. I think it boils down to this: 6 year limitation in the 5 states mentioned above, 10 years in the cold whether states and the states in between......ah.....in between.

 

[Panzerman]

I would always buy the factory tires a kid would pull off to put on Big mud tires on his/her new truck. I figure these were on a new truck they always had less than a couple hundred miles on them. I never had any trouble finding truck tires because of this either.I had my last pickup 12 years and bought new tires once. This wasnt a beater truck this was my good truck. Nothing to be embarrassed about, smart thinking. Anybody who takes tires off a new truck to put jumbo mudders on and sells the new ones for less than half is the one thats got more money than brains.

 

[Auto-Union]

I need 2 nice new a/s tires to do my thing in winter. New-new.

 

[dickdog1]

oi wouldnt go buying used tires for the wife, but for yeatrs I bought used tires, especailly whwnve r one would fail For the Toiyaoita truck, it was simpoly a matter of visual inspection. {Pleanty of tread, no obvious defects or big punctures? Sidewallas look ok? Then I would pay 15 or 20 dollars. Of course, these tires never saw speeds in excess of 80 miles an hour,and usually at lesast a couple of the tires were from a newly puirchased set. Also, once i bought a nice set of nearly new firestones for my Toyata truck off a Ford Ranger, that someone hasd obviuosly replced with wider or lower pro tires and I got the entire set for 160.00 aqnd it lasted about a few years and about 50,000 miles

 

[Bamaro]

FWIW, if you ever bought a used car, you probably got used tires too.

 

[Master ACiD]

thought i would mention that i just put on 2 used tyres on the front of my mothers car. they cost $10 each. i dismounted the old ones and mounted these myself. i brought the tyres to walmart while they were still off the car because walmart balances tyres for $5 each. i also threw on 2 new valve stems at $1.00 each. for a grand total of $32.00 (if you dont count the 10 miles of gas i used and about an hours labour) she got 2 nearly new tyres. i got to laugh because i bet alot of you are rolling youre eyes thinking how could i do this to my own mother!

i was thinking more about this used tyre thread. for a guy like me used tyres work great. all the vehicles i own or service hace relatively common tyre sizes. i can get the used tyres cheap. i have room to store a few tyres if i find a deal. and i own a tyre changing machine that i bought at harbor freight for $40. not to mention walmart is 5 miles away and only charges $5 to balance each tyre. the other 2 big tickets is that i have the TIME to do this kind of stuff and i dont mind workin to save a couple hundred bucks once in a while.
if a person DIDNT have a tyre changing machine, or access to a shop that balances tyres for cheap, or the time and paitence to change his own tyres, this may not be worth it. its probably not worth it for alot of people, actually i know it isnt because used tyres only make up 3% of the tyre market. so running on used tyres isnt worth it to 97% of the usa. but for my family and i, used tyres work great.