Treadwright Experience

Interesting...

My experiance with balance beads and treadwright tires as follows...

Edit for summary...shit didn't work and I got my monies back, important parts in BOLD

 

I ran Gurd Dogs for ~10-15k miles. They were awesome off road, but terrible on. I'd slide everywhere when the pavement was wet and yes, I was easy on the gas. It was difficult to have someobody mount them as they did not want to fool with retreads so I had to find Paco's hole in the wall tire shops to do it. I kept up with balancing and rotaing them and no matter what, the wore unevenly and they were stupid loud.

Can't beat the price, but I will never buy them again.

 

Well.... He lives in NH with regular guard dogs. I'm sure he sees way more ice than you do in So Cal lol.

 

Huh I live in upstate NY got 20000 on mine with no issues they handle fine on road for a mud tire. They seem to wear even as long as you keep a close eye on your tire pressure.

 

Am I wrong in my research that these retreads might -MIGHT- save you $200 off a set of 4 tires?

I don't buy those big, aggressive tread tires, so I can't say really, but these things seem like reverse economics to me? I know, I said I'd leave this thread... just curious. That doesn't seem like enough savings to make it worth it?

 

if you compare the treadwrights to a street tire, or are only looking for smaller tires, they will save you less ($200-$300 sounds about right)but they'll save you a good $600+ on 35s....

 

The savings seem to be significant once you get into larger tires. A name brand 285/70R17 M/T can run you $250+ per tire, Guard Dogs will run you about $150/tire.

Edit, Colin beat me to it...

 

I had a bad experience with treadwrights. I had the guard dog MT 265/70/17. They looked great and I had no cuts or splits in the tire itself. My problem came with the balancing of the tires. The tires performed well in the mud filled trail I had them on but they were pretty bad onroad. I'd give them a 10/10 off road but maybe a 3/10 on. I had them balanced 3 different times using 3 different methods and they never balanced correctly but I couldn't narrow it down to 1 or 2 tires and according to Treadwrights warranty it had to be 1 or 2 tires or they wouldn't hold up the warranty. They were loud and caused my truck to shake but they were a decent tire especially for the price.

I will probably give treadwrights another try next time I buy tires if I feel they would get more offroad application than what I do now.

 

Well, that is significant.

 

FWIW, I've had 285/70/17s Guard Dogs (D) with Kedge on Toyo Open Country M/T carcasses for about 15k miles. I had no problem having them balanced, and they give me no problems on-road. Yes, they're a bit loud, but it's worth the off-road performance they lend.

After 15k they show a very minimal drop in tread depth, and I'm expecting at least 40k out of them. The road noise diminished significantly after 1000 miles on the road or so as well.

Just last weekend I aired down to 12 psi to beach launch my jet ski in Baja. They have a huge footprint and handled great on the 12" deep dry sand as well as in the rocky, slippery, wet tide pool I had to launch the ski from.

The things bite so hard in pretty much all conditions. I don't encounter much snow and ice in San Diego, but when on snowboarding trips the Kedge feels predictable and never broke grip unless I was purposely drifting .

I've personally never had any issues with the company or the tire. I'd definitely buy another set!

 

San diegans seem to approve. Wonder how the non kedge would have been in the tidepools?

 

As mentioned, it depends on the specifics of the tire. I bought a set of five, Treadwright Warden 285/75R16 tires recently. For all 5 tires I paid, including shipping, about $650 I think it was. They are closest in appearance to BFG A/T KO tires, which are about $225 each on Tirerack.com. So for 5 of those, you would be looking at $1125. This means a savings of about $500 when you factor in shipping from Tirerack. Pretty good deal.

Now as far as the Wardens that I have, two of them static balanced at only 1.0 and 1.25 oz. Two more balanced at 1.75 and 2.0 oz. The last, which will be my spare, came in at 2.75. So far I have enjoyed the ride, but I will admit that I have yet to get them above 40 MPH. Up to that point I have had a VERY smooth ride and they are not bouncy or erratic in ride quality. Once I get them on the highway I will be able to determine any vibration issues at that point.

 

I have run treadwright tires for a long time now, great tires, and at half the cost of new tires absolutely worth the money. The BFG AT clones are so close to BFG, they perform great all around and over all they were just as good as the BFG origionals i ran before that, only they lasted longer (harder rubber)

The gaurd dogs dont wear as well, thats to be expected since they are m/t. Clone of goodyear wrangler m/t and close, but smaller pattern. Great tires.. For every day driving, snow, rain, and towing the wardens are better. But the gaurd dogs are a little better off road. All of the tires i have ordered, minus one set have been on BFG carcus and the other set were on michellen x

265/75r16 bfg clone "warden" on bfg at ko carcus, 55k miles no issues, accept the balance never lasted (had stupid fake beadlocks that didnt help) but with my abuse, 55k was a miracle.

265/70r16 gaurd dogs, great tires. Noisy, but not too bad, wear faster than the wardens.. had 20k on them when i sold the truck with about half tread life left

265/75r16 gaurd dogs, what im runnnig now. This set came less finnished than the lsat set.. so far 7k miles no issues

31x10.5 gaurd dogs 20k no issues, 60 percent or so tread left (on my parents truck, they drive nicer than me)

265/75r16 wardens, 40k, at least 45 percent tread left when truck was sold.

 

my set that i ran 55k, balanced just like that origionaly.. between alignment wear, and fake beadlock mickey thompson rims collecting shit in the rings by 30k they were about 8 oz out. When i finally got rid of them the one tire had 13 oz in it and could not be balanced... I dont blame the tires, they had a rough life.

Both sets of gaurd dogs i have run on the tacoma 1 of the 4 balanced out around 5-6 oz and they always have a faint wobble. But again, common for MT that get no love, maybe a little bit worse.

The BFG AT KO may as well be a BFG, its so close to identical.
The Goodyear wrangler mt clone is not as close, but still very similar.

 

i agree here, BUT they have less grip like any other m/t on the road, they arent really very loud, not swamper loud or nitto mud grappler, very close to origional bfg m/t loud, or procomp m/t of the same age.

In the snow, they are not bad, but ice and rain they suffer, the WARDEN rocks in the snow/ice and rain in comparison. but offroad the gaurd dog is a great tire, probably the best anywhere near its price.

I would like to add, none of mine have ever been kedge grip. But they have all been chewed up from gravel and abuse..