Highlander

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I have an '06 Highlander 4wd that will be needing new tires soon. Firestone Destination Le2 are on it now. What would be a good all-season tire for nw iowa weather?
 
I would enter your vehicle in on the TireRack website and look at tires. The TireRack test tires they sell, pitting them against each other. They are honest about the pros and cons and will say things like: This Michelin needs a big bump in wet traction.... ..This General tire makes a tread growl at all speeds..... .

What you sometimes see here on Bitog is that, hey I have Double Coin Chinese tires on my Saturn that are great, never mind I drive like I'm 80 years old and don't know any better.

Or the herd saying get General RT43's, the best tire since the Goodyear Tiempo.
 
I've been looking on tire rack, maybe that's my problem way too many choices. I had RT43's on my old work car, they only lasted 30,000 miles of highway driving. Not impressed at all or buying again. I've had GY Assurances on the Highlander, not a bad tire but didn't last either. Leaning towards Michelin, mostly highway driving with gravel roads 10% of the time.
 
Consider the Toyo Celsius. We've installed several sets and have gotten very good feedback. They carry the snowflake symbol as well, they'll help you a bunch in the snow.
 
What is your tire size? Will be using a separate set of winter tires?
smile.gif


If snow performance is important, and you will be using only one set of tires year-round, consider an all-season with the 3-peak sign, sometimes called"all weather" tires. Examples include:
Toyo Celsius
Nokian WRG4
Vredestein Quatrac 5
Goodyear Assurance Weatherready
 
Nokian Entyre C/S. The arimid sidewall compound will provide a durable tire for gravel roads. There is a good amount of sipes for dependable all-season traction.

I am very happy with this set on my cross over.
 
How about a bit more information such as:

Did you just buy this Highlander?...so you don't know how well the Destination LE2 performed?
Did you install the Destination LE2 prior and did you like them?
Do you care about tread noise?
Do you want more of a passenger car tire or more of an SUV tire?

The Destination LE2 are a great A/S tire for that vehicle. However, there are other alternatives also that will serve you well. We owned a Lexus RX AWD(same as Highlander) and had Good/Year Assurance ComforTred that were quite good though I'm not a fan of G/Y. These were a nice tire for a LEXUS

We also had the mentioned General AltiMAX RT43 that were wonderful on this Lexus and did very, very well in our North East winters. It all depends on how much money you have to spend and what your personal criteria is for a tire, how you drive and your Iowa climate.

It you want the cream of the crop for an all season SUV tire for your Highlander AND if these tires are available in your particular size, then get the Michelin LTX MS2. However, they're pricey and IMO, there is no other step to go except down in tires. They're smooth, quiet, long lasting, wonderful in foul weather including snow/slush and yuk along with dirt roads.

Others may disagree!
 
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I'm using the Cooper Discoverer SRX tires on my Highlander and they have been perfect. After using dedicated winter tires for the last 20 years, I was a bit worried that the SRX wouldn't provide enough grip in the white stuff but was pleasantly surprised. The SRX tires do very well in rural NW Ohio winter conditions. If you do any off-roading in your Highlander you would probably want something else, though, as the SRX is more of a highway type tire.
 
I've owned the highlander for 10yrs, has 93,000 miles on it. Changed the 1st set of tires at 30k to GY assurance they were fine but wore out after 30k miles. Put the firestones on then & after 34k miles almost down to the wear bars. Rotated both at every oil change which was 5000 miles, also had an alignment when bought as well. Firestones were great in snow, not so much on ice. Not too worried about price, would like a decent deal if possible. Has anyone tried Cooper CS5's?
 
Originally Posted by daleferd
I've owned the highlander for 10yrs, has 93,000 miles on it. Changed the 1st set of tires at 30k to GY assurance they were fine but wore out after 30k miles. Put the firestones on then & after 34k miles almost down to the wear bars. Rotated both at every oil change which was 5000 miles, also had an alignment when bought as well. Firestones were great in snow, not so much on ice. Not too worried about price, would like a decent deal if possible. Has anyone tried Cooper CS5's?


The CS5 is a very popular tire on here, and often goes on sale with huge rebates during the DID holiday sales. However, their founder died recently, and the sales are starting to be not as good. But still check, anyway. Their next sale will be Black Friday.

But the tires I mentioned in my previous post in this thread might be better choices for you
smile.gif
 
Thanks for the input, I'll check those out as well. Haven't been luck enough to find a set of cheap rims for dedicated winter tires.
 
Originally Posted by Char Baby
It you want the cream of the crop for an all season SUV tire for your Highlander AND if these tires are available in your particular size, then get the Michelin LTX MS2. However, they're pricey and IMO, there is no other step to go except down in tires. They're smooth, quiet, long lasting, wonderful in foul weather including snow/slush and yuk along with dirt roads.

Others may disagree!

I agree, great tire. I didn't realize LTX MS/2's were still available, I see they are, but in a very limited set of sizes (see below). But that makes me wonder why ON EARTH people ask for tire recommendations without giving the required tire size??? Just about every modern vehicle has at least 2 tire sizes, and there's sure to be recommendations that just won't fit. I guess they want people to dig for them, or they want recommendations that could never work.

Tirerack thinks that 06 Highlanders came with two sizes, 225/70-16 and 225/65-17. I don't see either on available MS/2 sizes:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?message=noTires&tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=LTX+M%2FS2&width=235%2F&ratio=75&diameter=16&cameFrom=selectSize
17

P235/70R17108T
LT235/80R17*120/117R
245/70R17*110T
245/75R17*112S

LT245/75R17*121/118R

18

P255/70R18112T
P265/60R18*109H

20

275/55R20*113H
LT275/65R20126/123R
 
I agree with Slack.
Not that the Cooper CS5's aren't a good tire, as they do have their following, it's just that there are better choices(higher rated/scoring) tires for your Highlander. And maybe for le$$ money too!
 
Originally Posted by HangFire
I agree, great tire. I didn't realize LTX MS/2's were still available,

The LTX MS/2 is gradually being replaced by the Defender LTX MS. It is available in the 225/65-17 but not, on TireRack, the 225/70-16. I didn't dig further.

I have the Defender LTX MS on a F150 and, in only about 12,000 miles, like it a lot. Other than the folks here who have had significant problems with cracking of their tires, it seems well thought of.

I'm a Michelin supporter, living in Greenville SC and with many friends who work at one of their many facilities within 40 miles of me.
 
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