New member: The Shark!

[The Shark]

Been modifying my truck for better F.E. for some time, Its a 1997 dodge Dakota and if ur thinkin about getting one....dont. EPA is supposed to be 14 in the city and 18 on the highway. When it was all stock it got about 9.8 in the city and about 15 on the highway. All of the problems were solved by correcting some major design flaws on Mopar's part. For example putting on headers, fixing the throttle body by porting it and putting on an electric fan which helped a ton. Now I can get 17.8 or so in the city and about 21 on the highway without tryin too hard, however I need new tires soon and was thinkin about getting some goodyear Viva 2 LRR tires and would like to know if there are any better choices because i hate goodyears for obvious reasons and they dont have the sizes I would prefer (225/75/R15 OR 235/75/R15).
If anyone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

Nikolai

[SVOboy]

I'm not the best with tires, but your improvements sound pretty good already! Ever think about trading it in for another car/truck?

Welcome to the site!

[Matt Timion]

welcome to the site. There are a few other truck owners on this site already. They might be able to shed some light on modifications that have worked for them.

It does sound like you've made progress already. I would recommend the LRR tires, and perhaps tweaking your driving habits a bit.

[MnFocus]

Welcome !! Check kitcar's threads .He's running a Dakota called stinkerbutt and achieving some amazing numbers ! I'm assuming your 97 is a 5.2 V8 ? I had a 97 also, but with a 3.9 and a clubcab . Nice trucks they are .

[The Shark]

Svo boy: I would like to but I use it for work but I try to drive our ford probe GT from time to time its combined EPA is 21 MPG but I usually get 30-33MPG using hyper mileing techniques

[Hockey4mnhs]

welcome to the site

[ELF]

Welcome, just curious, what are the obvious reasons for hating goodyear?

[The Shark]

Goodyears are made terribly their tread designs are horrible. I have some goodyear wrangler RT/S's on the dragon and they can barely handle dry weather rain, snow, and mud on these tires are completely worthless even though they are advertised to work in these conditions if only for a minute.the only way to get a well made goodyear is to spend an assload of money the only good lines they have are the silent armor and the ultra high performance line of "supercar" Tires just go to tire rack and look at the ratings customers give them too I think you'll find I'm not the only person out there with a predjudice aganst goodyear because they just make half *** tires and sell them cheap to manufacturers. BF goodrich and nitto on the other hand they make some bad *** tires.