Speaking of white letter side walls.......

YELLAHEEP

NAXJA Forum User
Ok, gotta rant here a bit and I apologize up front to Mike (in4aride) as I mean no slam against his affiliation to Big O Tires......... And the service I've received so far from the Big O store I've been working with has always been top-notch. :thumbup:

2 months ago, I bought 6 "E" rated tires for my Dodge Dually. Big O "Specialty" A/T's. They had the tread I was looking for - something a bit more aggressive than the General Ameritracks the truck came with originally. The sales guy couldn't say enough good things about these tires and talked me out of the more expensive BFG AT's I wanted to go with.

Right after install: I have a BAD front balance vibration from the right front. I take it back, they re-balance and said "yeah, it was way off for some reason - may have tossed a weight." No big deal.

The next week: I still have a front vibration after the re-balance but it's not as bad as before. I gotta work the rest of the week, so I can't get it taken care of right away.

3rd week: I take it back for the vibration. They think it may be a combination of 2 or more off-balance tires and re-balance all 6 tires while I wait - did it in 25 minutes! I was impressed. Unfortunately, the vibe is STILL there, but they've made a bit more improvement - it's still feels like it's coming from the right front and it's always between 65 and 80 mph. Too much need for the truck to take it back in again these past couple of weeks.

I'm thinking it may be just a bad tire - although the tire techs insist the tire/wheel are true, well below specs for run-out.

The other complaint with these tires is that they ride WAY softer than the Generals did. So much so that the front tires bounce a whole lot more on pot holes/expansion joints like a rubber ball. I figure the pressures are too low, I had them double check the pressures during the last 6-tire balance and they reported all was good. It seems like the sidewalls are softer than the Generals. When I change lanes, the rear "floats" to the side during turns and right after a lane change - like the sidewalls are deflecting a lot. The truck used to corner like it was on rails before, now it's almost "gooey". I don't expect this from a "10 ply tire".

Now the straw that's broken the camel's back....... I take the truck through a drive thru the other day. I catch the right rear outter tire's sidewall on a bit of cement curbing. Done that hundreds of times with the Generals, hardly a blemish. The Big O tire now has several patches of white showing through around the sidewall. The black rubber covering the white letter underlay is PAPER FRIGGIN' THIN! I still have the Generals and looked at the tires that used to be the outter dually tires. There's one very small sidewall tear and there's at least an 1/8th inch of rubber before it gets down to the white underlay.......

Not happy. I'm hoping Big O will understand my concerns and lack of satisfaction......

Anyone else experience such a drastic difference between "E" rated tires?
 
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what pressures are you running?
for as much as you tow (weight/regularity) i would have about 70psi in them...
big o's are made by cooper and anyone who works with tires all day will tell you they are a pain to balance sometimes...
one of my big issues wowkin with others is people wont tkae the time to balance them to "0" all the time as the figure "its a big truck they wont feel it" those people are idiots...
look at your tires if you could and get me a DOT#..the whole number prefferably but more specifically the last four digits...

i have yet to see any of our A/T's act liek how your sayin so i want to look up your DOT and see whats up....

the black covering over the white is really this on a lot of tires...ESP. BFG's...
most tires show the white as they are aged or cosmetically damaged

i knwo our shop had nothing to do with it but i think you should be taken care of to full extent....

as stupid as it sounds...if your ever down this way again give me a heads up...(or any other big o...just check to make sure they have your size in stock...235 85's?)
get them replaced...if the salesman doesnt wanna do it punch nails in all your sidewalls...road hazard.. free coverage...

but really let me know if i can do anything for ya
 
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235/80/17

DOT: 3DAB T8D

Tire pressures up front (rears are a huge PITA to check) Right= 62, Left= 70. Max. pressure is 80? 85?

So now I'm wondering if that right tire is leaking down. The sales guy insisted he'd put them at "spec" pressures himself the last time I was in. I used to run the Generals at 65 just to take some of the harsh ride out of them and still got the solid feel and performance I liked.


For what it's worth.... the BFG AT's I put on the silver '00 had some minor gouges on one tire along the plane of the white letters and it definitely wasn't remotely as thin as the rubber on these Big O's....... seriously Mike, it's paper thin - hard to believe the rubber doesn't let the white show through.

On a positive note though, the tread design does exactly what I wanted it to do - improved traction in the snow over the General's. I did like their performance on the crappy highway conditions along C470 the past 2 snows. :thumbup:
 
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dont get me wrong...im in no way at all tryin to say the Big O's are best tire out there lol...
but what your experiencing is VERY strange from how ive seen them perform

a LOT(most) of our customers beat the crap out of their trucks and tires...be in ranchers or workin at the mine or the CDOT guys...
ive seen some abused tires and NEVER seen our A/T's do that...so im concerned that you may indeed have a "bad apple" tire/set....and that to me is not acceptable and needs to be changed....
 
Nope - just double-checked. No other series of letters/numbers on the tire except for a series of numbers after the word "design".

There's 4 ovals, the first 3 are "DOT" "3DAB" "T8D" the 4th oval is blank.
 
oh its on OTHER side of tire then...lol...its all good...i cant do much til monday when i can get things looked up...
but monday morning i will be takin to my store manager/store owners and see what the dealio is...
LMK if something pops up
 
i talked to the bossman today...
he doesnt like hwo those tires are acting either...
he thinks the big o should warranty them out...if not...(if you want) give us heads up to get them in and we will warranty as many out as you want to your satisfaction...LMK
 
Went to my Big O and talked to the sales guy I've been dealing with all along.

We discussed the continued problems with the one tire, and the tears on the other and without hesitation, he said he'd order up two replacement tires under warranty and scheduled me for Wednesday. Again, nothing but the best service from this store...... the tires are leaving alot to be desired.

We'll give 'em another shot - see if they can get them properly inflated and balanced yet again. If not, we'll be discussing a full return.

And if that don't work...... I'll be reinacting the old lady tossing a tire thru the window commercial.......... :D
 
You gunna toss all six, or will just one make your point? I'd be worn out at number 4.

Steve
 
You gunna toss all six, or will just one make your point? I'd be worn out at number 4.

Steve

Troy is going to toss all six at the same time during business hours and in uniform..............:gee:
 
Awrite ya overly-literal freaks.......... There won't be any dress or uniform.... :roflmao:

And yeah, that Tommy Boy sales pitch does sound eerilly familiar....... :D
 
Big O got the tires replaced for me under the warranty. :thumbup: I went in on Friday afternoon to get this taken care of.

Although, it was kinda comical/concerning to watch the tire busters get really confused when the sales guy told 'em "Replace the right front and right outside rear with the new tires, move the left front to the right outter rear so that both new tires end up on the front."

Remember, this is a dually truck and two tire busters couldn't figure out how to put the left front onto the outter right rear and get the white letters showing....... :doh: Yeah, it required them busting the tire and flipping in on the rim...... but they took it over to the right rear several times and spun it around and flipped it and just couldn't figure out how to make it work! :twak:

I also bought 4 new trailer tires while I was there and brought them the 4 tires/wheels from the trailer loose and in the back of the truck, along with the 4 32" tires and custom wheels for the MJ project to be mounted and balanced....... here's where it get's PHUNNAY! :D

One of the tire busters takes a custom wheel and puts it on the tire machine. He then grabs a new 205/75/15 trailer tire and spends 10 friggin minutes trying to get it to fit on the 15x8 rim........ until his buddy smacks him on the back of his head and points to the 4 stacked 32" tires......
huh.gif


After a while, they go to balance the truck tires. I watch as one of the guys struggles to get the right combination of cones set up to hold the dually wheel. He tries 3 combinations before getting it to spin fairly straight. I see that the first attempt shows 5 oz. of weight for both inside and outside. Now, if you've ever balanced tires working in a shop, you know that generally this is usually too much weight and you should re-adjust the wheel on the machine and spin it again...... Not this guy. He pounds on 5 oz. and spins it. It shows it's .25 oz off on the outside, so he pounds on a 1/4 weight and spins it again, and it shows it's off .25 oz again, so he pounds on another 1/4 weight. This time after it spins, the machine shows "ERR" on the display. So he goes through the entire same process again....... I had to go get the sales guy after that....... :rolleyes:

I then poke my head into the shop and tell 'em I want to save the 2 better of the old trailer tires and they ask me to come out and set the two aside, so I do. Later, when I check all the tires in the back of the truck before leaving, I have to go ask for my old trailer tires. One of 'em goes to the tire pile and searches, then brings back two totally wrong tires...... I have to go find 'em myself....... :doh:

The sales guy was apologetic and didn't charge me to mount/balance the 32's which was cool of him!

3 1/2 hours later I'm on my way home......... And as I reflected on that whole experience, it donned on me that I'd just officially witnessed the rare combination of a cluster-fawk AND a monkey fawking a football in that time frame....... :D
 
Now that is funny..but not. LMAO!
 
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