130 mph is rare air for my vehicles, they'll fare well lol.

 

Which do?

205/70R15 96W TL Vredestein Sprint Classic; W rating, good for 168 mph, more than adequate for the XJ6 to which they were fitted, one would think.
Accelera Phi 2
285/30 R20 99Y XL Y rating, good for 186 mph, as specified for XFR, but trust me, entirely inadequate.

 

Contrary to the name, speed ratings aren’t just about speed. They’re also about ride comfort, wear and cornering ability.

 

the one in the OP

 

So far, so good.

 

721 Miles Logged :

Well the ever rare coastal N.C. snow storm hit Wed. night into Thursday morning, dumping 1-2 inches of freezing rain followed by 5-7 inches of snow. The temps' haven't made it above freezing since so what accumulated is still there.

Roads are thoroughly covered w/ snow & a good inch+ base of ice underneath. Took the car out & the tires did remarkably well. No sliding nor slipping even on inclines, they felt very stable. I was pleased moving along securely as I passed the uninitiated natives in ditches & one another's bumpers lol. So far these budget radials are very impressive, now let's see how well they hold up !

Pic taken in the early stages lol.

 

I am going to put in a big thumbs up for the Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 that I had on the XJ sport. I put about 1000 miles on them before the rear-ending (see other thread). Good ride, reasonable noise level, and great handling up to 107 mph. Cost of $547 for 4 tires + tax, shipping, and installation.

 

Headed to West Va. next week so mountainous & snowy conditions litmus test on deck !

 

Ohtsu has been around for a very long time. They were suppling tires to Honda for there 3 wheelers back in the 70' thats the first place I ever saw them. So I'm sure if they have been in business this long they probably build a very good tire for an economical price.

jack

 

Value tires can have many origins -- most time they are older molds (or not as complex) .. simple rubber w/o the speciality additives. They are best when driving lots of highway miles per year in moderate weather. My family supplies textiles to a few manufacturers and we helped with some Korean tires many years ago.

The XJ is great in the snow with proper tires -- for years the Blizzak was the snow tire .... in recent years other makes have taken some of the action. I have been using Dunlop Winter Sports for the last 10 years. I have winter sets for the Jag and my Porsche. For years w/ Blizzak I took my Jaguars skiing with no fear of getting stuck

Most A/S tires are decent in light snow when new ... except some Michelin offerings. The key is soft rubber and space between the tread ... even pure snows start to fade after about the 3rd year as the rubber hardens.

 

Zero issues on the up trip & these roads are indeed awesome !




PS :

Made it in 6.5 hours (wink,wink) lol.

 

Not to be argumentative -- but, what are you comparing them to. w/o driving one with proper summers your not getting the full car.

 

Comparing them to being non-problematic for cheap lesser known tires.

 

Budget tire experiment ended, I switched over to Pentas & Michelin for the overall upgrade.

My final stance on these Ohtsus is that they perform better than expected for an entry level all season tire w/ no grip issues in inclement weather. I only logged 3,300 miles with them but they were not problematic w/ performance I'd relate to say maybe a Cooper brand touring tire. I see now the brand is for lack of better words gaining traction w/ consumers. If you like Falken tires you will thoroughly enjoy Ohtsus.

Pros :
Price
Wet traction
Durable

Cons :
Road noise
They tend to bounce/float when cornering

 

I was able to get a deal on Michelin Defender T+H about ten thousand miles ago at Discount Tire Direct, absolutely love em, perform well in all weather conditions so far but haven't tried snow, and they don't show much wear at all yet.
Congratulations of the tire win and a great trip with them :-)

 

At various times over the years I have been offered and accepted deals on brands that I typically don't use ... a couple years ago two of my older MB's got sets of Kumho's. I was doing some work on them thinking I would get maybe two more years out of the cars -- they were not critical use cars and it was a case if the cars did indeed stay around for another 25k would I have to replace the tires on them. The Kumho's did nothing well .. they were round and black .. although they were better that fist winter in the snow vs what I think the older Bridgestone's would have been.

With over 15 cars to maintain (personal and business) -- have bought many tires since starting my business 30 year ago. Your experience with noise over time is a general theme with many value tires -- we were seeing it with the Kunho's when the cars went away.

In general ... tires are like paint .... you get what you pay for. It's interesting when you have 5 Lexus ES's that go 30k a year .. try different tires over a 200k life of each. We currently have a bunch of Prius w/ 17" tires and some of them can get 80-90k out of a set. Get all the fleet magazines -- when you factor in mounting and balance and shorter life .. value tires. End up being a misnomer.

The problem with the X308 and earlier versions --- the car needs a soft but strong sidewall. The OE tires were car specific designed with reinforced sidewalls in order to be able to run at such a low PSI. I can say without question that it's the most tire influenced car I have ever owned. Still have PZeros on the one R.. the other I went with Continental DWS AS .. as a compromise. They have softer side walls but need more than 26psi .... Have never liked any Michelin tire on the XJ. It was silly to be buying two set of tires on a car that may go 2500 miles a year -- the tires age out at my 5 year mark with little use.