Greetings,

Just a heads up for all you "E" owners. I recently purchased a tire and wheel combination from the Tire Rack. I purchased the steel wheels and a set of Kumho Road Adventure AT tires for winter use. I went to 15" wheels and 215/75/15 tires. Some experiences are as follows:

1, Tire Rack had the tires mounted and balanced when shipped to me. They were very poorly balanced as my "E" shook badly starting at 40mph. I called the Tire Rack and they had me take my "E" to a local shop and had them rebalance the tires for me. All four tires needed rebalanced, they were at least 1.5 ounces off.

These Kumho's are a little noiser than the OEM Goodyears but they seem most noisiest at speeds below 25mph. I bought the Kumho's because of their tread pattern and wear ratings of 440. I put too many miles on my "E" ( 25,000 since I bought it in March) to waste monies putting on true snow tires.

Handling is fine though not as good as the OEM tire wheel package.

In the rain they work well and track well at speeds up to 75mph which is as fast as I normally will drive.

So far I have only driven in snow of 1/2" depths or less and really cannot comment on the tire's performance till we get some real lake effect snows here in Western New York.

I have done business with the Tire Rack in the past and this was my first problem, they resolved it with as little agravation as possible.

Tom......

hummm good to kno i guess... ive never had any trouble with em... what kind of steel rims did u get.. the regular dx wheels??? or others

The steel wheels were purchased from Tire Rack. I am not sure whom they buy them through. They are black in color and were cheaper than the OEM steel rims as quoted by my local Honda dealer.

Tom......

Hmmm... Thanks for that posting.

440 rating? Doesn't that work out to about a 40,000 mile rating?
Just FYI the Nokian WR-Suv fits the stock rims, (225/70-16), are severe weather rated, get pretty much reviewed as "year round" tire, and are rated for 40,000 miles.

My daughter has Kumho's on her "sport wheel" 95 Tercel and is very happy with the wet and dry traction, although she has yet to actually try them in the snow, to comment on that aspect.

I have always hesitated to buy tires mail order, pretty much worried about if something goes even legitimately wrong, through no fault of Tire Rack or where ever, its gonna be a pricey recovery out of MY pocket. Just never seemed worth it for the risk of something as tempermental as tires for me, personally.

YMMV

Honu,

I had heard of the Nokian WR-SUV tires but could not aquire them. As luck (bad) would have it, I was involved in a minor accident Saturday and ended up with 3 sidewall punctures in one of my new Kumho's. I ordered a replacement today. I have done business with Tire Rack three times over the past decade, this was the first time I have ever had issues with any order. But like you I prefer to do business face to face when possible.

Take care, Tom......

Tom, do you realize you pretty much purchased an off-road tire? That is the reason for all of the noise you are hearing. As for the handling not being as good as the OEM Goodyear, that makes sense as well... the tread blocks are too wobbly as compared to the Goodyear. I hated how the Goodyear handled and could only imagine how badly the Kumho handles. :(

I am very surprised that Tire Rack didn't balance all 4 wheels/tires properly. I can see one being off, but not all 4. Very disappointing to hear that. But at least they took care of that issue for you.

As for not being able to find the Nokian's, did you check their website for a dealer near you? Believe me, they have dealers up in the Buffalo area.

Hope the Kumho's work out for you this winter.

I purchased the steel wheels and a set of Kumho Road Adventure AT tires for winter use. I went to 15" wheels and 215/75/15 tires. .

Tirerack has two Kumho ATs. These are the At 825s?

Spdrcr5,

Thanks for the input, I realized what I was getting into with these Kumho's and if my tone was negative, it was not meant to be. I was just being informative. I expected the Kumho's to perform exactly as they have and have no regrets with their purchase. They cannot compare to a street oriented tire for sure. Once we get a real "lake effect" snow storm up here, I will be able to fully evaluate my tires and "E"'s ability to trog through the wettest/heaviest snows anyone can imagine. I went to a Nokian dealer in Gasport, NY and he stated to me that there were no tires in my size in the country according to his distributor. He was also quoting me a price of $114.00 each plus mounting and balancing. That was beyond my budget also.

I was also taken back by the poor balancing of the tires by Tire Rack but was not taken back by Tire Rack's responsiveness to my problem.

Take care, Tom......

Paulj,

Yes they are the 825's. We got some snow here is western New York! I drove through some wet heavy stuff that was about 8" deep. My E performed as well as I had hoped with the Kumho's. On black ice they were just Okay, no surprises.

Tom......