I forgot to ask. Have you hit any bad bumps lately? Here in Montreal, our roads consist of small parts of pavement held together by numerous potholes in between, especially in the spring. If so, have a look at the rim to make sure you did not dent it.

Cheers,

Roch

 

Never hit a bad bump, pothole or anything. This is Natalie's baby and she drives it most of the time. We have great roads in our area. I drive it like an old woman, ie, trying to get the most mpg. Natalie laughs at me for it. I drive my sports cars & my Dakota off road like a bat out of hell, but when I drive the FEH I get my geek on!

 

I had my first experience with a sidewall bubble last summer on a $150 Michelin CrossTerrain -- not on my FEH. I learned that (the tire experts will say) 2 things can cause those bubbles....a manufacturing defect, or an "impact fracture" of the liner from hitting a curb or pothole too hard. Sounds like they assummed from your low mileage that it was a defect and replaced it under warranty. In my case I had 9,000 miles on a 60,000 tire and they insisted that I had hit "road hazard" and would not replace the tire unless I had purchased the $15 per tire road hazard insurance.

My point was, if you are going to design and market the tires for SUVs to travel "CrossTerrain" then any impact that does not bend the rim of the wheel should not destroy the tire............it fell on deaf ears. It was the first of the over 40 Michelin tires I have owned through the years.......to ever display a bubble.

Until a comparable LRR tire is identified it is good that they installed a new EcoPlus on your FEH.

 

Your point is well taken Glenn. This is a sport ute and thus the tire should be able to take an off road excursion without failing. It is sad that sport utes have become the new mini van for soccer moms ( no offense, just taking a view from the designers perspective). I have owned a few off road vehicles in my time and I am amazed at how pedestrian 4WD and all wheel drive tires have become. I like the Contis on the road, but if I take the road less traveled, the pattern doesn't shed mud or snow, in which it becomes a big fat slick. I am already looking for a set of rims to mount snow tires on. I have done the same on my Dakota. NO tire is truly "all season".

 

The Eco Plus are OK, not great, not terrible. A typical OEM fitment (unlike the garbage Bridgestone RE92s that were stock on the classic Prius). Mine have 26000 on them now and still look good (at 25k when I rotated them the tire guys said they looked perfect and hardly needed rotation). I do run them at 40psi and rotate them every 5k miles.

When these are ready to go I will probably put Nokian WRs on. I put those on the Prius last summer and they are fantastic in the rain (which we get a lot of here) and are one of the only four-season tires that have the severe service emblem (snowflake) logo to work as snow tires.

 

Thanks for the PM andyh. Yeah, I have a hook up on ebay. QYK motors. I'll buy my rims from them. They rock. Hooked me up a great price on rims for '00 Dakota. Tires will be from Wal Mart. best prices. get a mounting from Gemini/Goodyear. Somebody have a FSM for '07 Escapes hosted? I have one for my Dak given for free. I would gladly host/scan and make available.

 

I have heard great reports on these tires, I may buy 4 of them for my 4WD FEH before next Winter sets in here. Other than gas mileage, I see absolutely nothing to recommend the ECO PLUS.

~John

 

Your stock tires are good for 80,000+ miles, if taken care of.
If you get rid of them early, you're loosing a lot of $$$.
( hope you can sell them )
I strongly reccommend 40-44psi to EXTEND tire life.
More than 35psi = good for 99% of situations.
Lower than 35psi = bad for 99% of situations.

 

Like I mentioned, when I went to the local tire shop to get mine rotated they were amazed at how perfectly evenly they were wearing. Compared to the Prius, which chews through tires like they were made by Wrigley instead of Bridgestone, the FEH is a dream.

The ECO PLUS tires are OK, but with WRs I think a 4WD FEH would be virtually skid-proof. One note on the WRs however, if you have mostly dry weather (e.g. California, Arizona, etc) they are not as solidly handling on dry pavement as some other tires, they can feel a little "squishy" then. But here in the urban rainforest they are ideal.

I should also mention that I've never needed a wheel alignment in the FEH despite our rather terrible roads. Of course, now I have the dreaded rear-end squeak to deal with, but that's another story...

 

Another thing to note when getting separate rims is the tire pressure sensors. In th 06 at least, there are sensors mounted to the rim. You either need to get new sensors for the new rims or live with the console computer complaining everytime you start the car (unless someone has figured out a solution).

Cheers,

Roch