Bought new BFGoodrich Long Trail T/A Tires

[Bill in Houston]

The Element's OEM Goodyear Wrangler HP tires were due for replacing. I poked around everywhere I could think of to try to find a tire that would not negatively impact my mileage.

The Element groups were not much help, as they don't really think about such things until after they buy a tire that drops their gas mileage by 10%.

So I looked at all of the different sources for rolling resistance data that I could find, which wasn't much. The Long Trails seemed to have very good rolling resistance for their size and load rating.

I bought the Long Trails earlier this week. I like them a lot. I pumped them up to 38 psi just like the old tires. They are much quieter and much much smoother than the old HPs. They are so much quieter that at first I felt like they must be really draggy compared to the old HPs, but my low speed coast-down time is better with the new tires than the old ones. Good news. They feel slower, but just because they are so much quieter and smoother.

No fill data yet, not that I expect to be able to see anything anyway.

I wish I had taken a picture of the tread of the old HPs. They spent their entire lives at 38 psi, as compared to Honda's recommendation of 32/34 f/r. Even with that amount of "overinflation" they were still worn more on the edges than in the middle. Time to put that old wives' tale to bed... My tires made it to 42,000 miles, one of the longest lives recorded there for the OE tires.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for pickup or SUV tires and comes across this thread and wants an update, just let me know.

Bill