tdonnell

Hello there everyone,

I swapped my kdw2's for a set of rt-615's a few thousand miles ago (probably have about 3500 miles on them).

The tread is already about 1/4 - 1/3 gone.

I read that the average tread life is only about 10-12k and didn't believe it at first but I guess it might actually be true.

I was wondering how many miles you guys get out of them 215/45/16's.

BTW: these kick the kdw2's in the ass.

Thanks.

funkypc

I did a quick google search. Looks like the treadwear rating is 200. They will be a nice sticky tire but will not last long at all on the street. I have ziex 512's and the treadwear is 360 I think - they are getting chewed up like nothing.

It will partially depend on your driving habits - AutoX will eat up your tires - but a tire with a tread rating of 200 will not last very long at all.

'treezy

I have a frind with a mazda3 with these tires and holy balls do they grip. we continously beat the shit out of them up the mountain and today we got an alignment for the track weekend, so after this sat.l sun. there won't be much tire left. be he's had them for about 6 months. a good rotation (maybe 2) and they're done. so I'd say 9-12k miles and you'll start to notice a drop in performacmce/tread.

btw, sorry for mispellings, I'm drunk and REALLY tire.d ///

-patrick

tdonnell

Thanks for the info guys,

Yeah, I know the treadwear is only 200, and yes, they do grip like crazy.

They make the car very fun to drive; with the only sacrifice being I will have to put 2 sets on the car per year, lol.

Does the inside of the tread wear faster than the outside on his car?

I tweaked my front toe and it handles much better with a tad of toe in, so I just figure I had a bit too much toe out causing the tires to scrub on the front.

I know I should get a precision alignment, but with all the adjustments I am always making I would be spending way to much money on it, lol.

'treezy

well, we got it aligned to zero toe, maxed out the caster and camber in the front as far as posible while still keeping it even, like -1.5 - -2.0deg camber, and i dunno what caster was. and the rear camber was wacky, (which would explain why it felt like the rear was gripping so much on the mountain.., not cool in a FWD), so we zeroed everything out in the rear.

the tires were evenly worn overall, the rear ties were a little uneven due to the camber issue.

the car is an amazing vehicle, it truly is a surprising "wagon". he just needs to do something about the torque, everyone passes him on the straights..

haha (I'm watching him now)..

optimoprime

you should tape your progress i would love to see your mountain spot. we dont have mountains here so no togue for us... mad.gif

Nex

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (funkypc @ Sep 22 2007, 01:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I did a quick google search. Looks like the treadwear rating is 200. They will be a nice sticky tire but will not last long at all on the street. I have ziex 512's and the treadwear is 360 I think - they are getting chewed up like nothing.

It will partially depend on your driving habits - AutoX will eat up your tires - but a tire with a tread rating of 200 will not last very long at all.</div>

Those ratings are only comparing to the same brand tire. Using ratings from one brand against another can be misleading.
What this rating means is that they tested one tire, usually one thats the most economic type, that tire gets a rating of 100.
If they have a better tire that'll last twice as much, it gets 200 so on and so forth.

The problem is that companies dont test against other brands. so for example a BFgoodrich tire might have a rating of 300, but when compared to a Firestone, it might have a rating of 400 or 500. So the best way to compare these is actually to try them out.

of course, driving habits are indeed a big difference when it comes to testing, rotating them are the correct intervals and such.

'treezy

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>you should tape your progress i would love to see your mountain spot. we dont have mountains here so no togue for us... mad.gif</div>

Search for "Mingus / Mingus Mountain" or "Jerome Run" I have pictures and a Google Earth map up from like a year ago.

To reduce manufacturer bias tire ratings, they create a control, the Uniform Tire Quality Grade Standards (UTQG) created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The control is the course monitoring tire (CMT) sold by the NHTSA in San Angelo, TX (UTQG test facility). The CMT is given a treadwear rating of 100. A manufacturer tire of rating 200 should last twice as long as the CMT, and so forth. They mount the convoy of cars (with tires to be tested) with the CMT's and the manufacturer tire, to ensure both tire experience the same road conditions.

this has been going on since the 80's. The first CMT's were Goodridge Custom Steelguards. Later they were made by Uniroyal. They are now specially designed and built to American Society for Testing and Materials standards to limit variables.

But all in all, you are right Nex. The DOT does not test tires, it's up to the manufacturer to test their tires and thus, once tire manufacturer will legally rate their tire at 240 when their competitor's tire is at 220. And this leads to further inflation of treadwear numbers.

In general, manufacturers tend to overstate the treadwear of their tires in an effort to create the impression that their tires last a long time. The exception to this is in competition racing tires, which customers expect to have very soft rubber compounds and very short lifespans. Manufacturers tend to give their race tires low treadwear numbers (often zero) to emphasize how soft and sticky their rubber is.

Of current tires:

15% are rated below 200
25% are rated 201 - 300
32% are rated 301 - 400
20% are rated 401 - 500
6% are rated 501 - 600
2% are rated above 600

tdonnell

Good info.

Thanks guys. smile.gif