Tires For 04 Highlander 2WD

[TedHNY]

My wife's new used HL came with offbrand tires. Discount Tire, I think. Front wheels spin in the wet, sometimes in the dry. Not a good feeling.

What is best tire for this vehicle?

Thank you

[LifeTech]

That's a loaded question.

Yu will get many answers.

Being a 2WD HL and not venturing out of the Sunbelt I would put Michelin Energy or maybe an MXV4. Basically a Quality touring tire. Yu will get a very smooth and quiet ride.

Living in the northeast or snowbelt areas, now the whole scenario changes.

Mich. Cross Terrains, LTX's are some that are proven on the HL.
But you will find these generally on 4WD HL's. These are agressive tread tires that give more road noise from more agressive tread designs. They will be fine on your 2WD also. But probably overkill. Your call on this.

I would consider other brands, but I like my Michelins.

Stay away from the OE Goodyear Integrity and the OE Toyo Transpath. They will disappoint you.

Others may chime in here with their experiences.

LT

[bepperb]

Whatever brand you go with, get a all-season, not offroad tire. Getting something with clunky offroad tread will make more noise, handle worse on pavement and not stop as well on wet pavement.

I agree with Lifetech, look towards something like the Michelin Energy. Michellin's are expensive, but have generally long life. The Bridgestone Dueller D687's on mine are average, and aren't much less in the long run. Some Yokohama Geolandars get good reviews. Both the Dueller, Geolandar and MXV4 come in several flavors (you'll see a model type after the name like D687), some better than others, so you may want to check out tirerack.com or go to a reputable tire dealer.

Here are all season tires available in P225/70R16 rated best to worst by tire-rack customers. It doesn't include off-road or touring tires.

Goodyear Fortera TripleTred
Avon Ranger TSE
Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza
Continental CrossContact LX
Michelin LTX M/S
Yokohama Geolandar H/T-S G051
Michelin Cross Terrain SUV
Firestone Destination LE
Pirelli Scorpion STR A
BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A
Dunlop Radial Rover A/T
Uniroyal Laredo All Season AWP
Goodyear Wrangler HP
Bridgestone Dueler H/T D687

[LifeTech]

I noticed too that the Avon Ranger is up there in ratings.
Caught me by surprise too.


LT

[Isyron]

I just put a new set of Michelin LTXs on my 01 2wd, and i have to say, that uneasy feeling of tire slip coming off the front end of your HL just because there's a little extra gravel or sand on the concrete is no more. I love them. Drive them hard, as I work right off the feeder. Houston weather is never predictable, so rain or shine, slick or dry, i was freaking out about the tires I had on there. Almost down passed the marker. but I definately love the LTXs, and I feel safe again on a rainy freeway, getting up to speed, cruising, or braking for the morons that plague H-town's roads (me included ><; :P)

But the tires are good, and though, like stated, a little pricier, you get what you pay for. I got a wonderful ride, no louder than balding tires sound. The tread isn't too aggressive. LTXs are a little rougher looking than the cross terrain (more square of an edge), they're cheaper, about the same quality tire, and they look cooler (IMO). Especially on the HL. They're rough enough, but the large flat sidewall buffs up real nice and pretty

LTX

[ddvk]

Personally I dislike Michellin becoz they are good tires demanding an "French wine" like premium and some of them have dismal traction.

I will go with Dunlop SP, Goodyear, Bridgestone (you get them at Costco) or Yokohama (very soft but a great ride with good wet and dry traction).

BFGoodrich will come last (low cost Michellin).

Whatever you do, pl. check the year the tire was manufactured and DONOT buy then for some discount tire store on the web (like Tirerack etc) since they stock up old tires. You don't want to put any tire which is more than 6 months old.

[kathyricks]

Originally Posted by TedHNY

My wife's new used HL came with offbrand tires. Discount Tire, I think. Front wheels spin in the wet, sometimes in the dry. Not a good feeling.

Most of the factory original tires 2004 Highlander tires were Bridgestone Dueler H/T and they deliver a very smooth and quiet ride and aren't real expensive like the Michelins.

Beware tirerack.com's ratings are not fully objective and impartial so high priced tires get most of the real good ratings and low or medium priced tires like the Bridgestone Dueler H/T get low or moderately low ratings.

Example: The Goodyear Assurance Comfortred gets top scores at tirerack.com for ride comfort, but in the real world you feet every little imperfection in the road because the tires absorb only big bumps well. The Comfortreds make a luxury car feel like an economy car. Conversely, the Goodyear Integrity gets low scores for ride comfort at tirerack.com but in the real world it rides smoothly on all types of roads and Lexus even installed it on the RX300 because it was smooth riding.

Bottom line: If wet traction is important to you then the tirerack.com ratings should help you find a high priced tire that has good wet traction, but won't necessarily help you find a low priced tire that has good wet traction because of biases built into its sampling and scoring systems.

[LifeTech]

While I agree that TireRack offer tires bearing date codes that are older than 6 mos. So do they ALL.

This problem is not unique to tire rack. Call them and have a discussion with them and they will ablige with what yu want if they can. As many tire centers will. Specialty slow moving tires will have an older than normal date codes.
Yes, 6 mos or newer is my rule as well.

There are many factors why. Can the consumer control the purchase ...yes.

Even manufacters will ship out lots of tires already 3 months old. Again depending many variables.

In the end, Yu get what yu inspect, not what yu expect.

Regarding Tire Racks rating system, yes it is flawed. I dare not say biased however.
Tire experience's are very subjective . And tire rack cannot control what users say.
My problem is with pooling data incorrectly.

i.e. comparing tire wear, wet traction and the other qualifiers across a broad spectrum of vehicles. This is not reliably good data. Sometimes not even for a general comparison across different brands of the same size tire.

It confuses most people who cannot interpret the surveys well. Then the purchase is based on price alone for most.

I can see trends of pros and cons and base my decisions on this alone.

The OE tires always stink 80-90% of the time. Not 100% !Manufacterers know this and merely spec a tire that runs quiet and soft. Engineers and designers know this. That is the objective for that initial feel of any new car.

The GY Integrity is junk...so is the Dueler and Toyo Transpath of the early HL's. Been there seen them new and used and on many cars. For Many reasons.

Lexus had them on the RX for a while. If yu got them instead of the Michelins yu were unlucky. My HL Ltd. came with the OE Mich. Energy LX4's.($165 msrp to replace)

I asked for them instead of the GY Integritys ($125 msrp to replace) at the time of purchase. I was abliged. They made it happen. Not all dealers have the vehicle inventory to do this. But this is common place. No dealer will offer this unless yu ask as part of the deal. Why wouldn't I want the better tire when the initial cost is the same.

It's not say the the LX4's are the best tire but it blows away the Integrity for sure. Ask any one in the business. Please don't believe me verbatum.
Verify this.

Yes, I am partial to Michelin. Other Tire Cos. make some good stuff. I will not argue. But Mich is better consumer oriented. Goodyear was a favorite and gave up them years ago, poor moldings, too many unlabled "blems and such. Bad warranty experiences with so many of their tires.
I just can't say that about Mich.

And, they are more money. But I can afford them. So I wear expensive shoes. It's "what yu ride on" is the truth.

I have over a million miles of experience with tires. I started out as a kid mounting tires for a GoodYear Dealer.

LT

[wumper]

Anybody have any experiences with the Toyo Open country H/T? (Not the OE transpaths that are junk), for the 2001-2006 generation highlander?

Peacemakerpete