PSA...Don't buy tires from Falken

They'll wear out in 30,000 miles and then they'll reject your treadwear warranty. Just happened to me with my AT3's, and the EXACT same thing happened to my buddy who bought his a month after mine.

 

Reason why they rejected it?

Was there an alignment done at the time of installation?
Or is there tread wear indicating suspension or steering parts caused the issue?

Got to be reason? Even if it’s not a legitimate one.

 

I steered way clear of them when none of them ever balanced right. They were the only tire I wanted for the longest time and my experience with them was a complete failure.

 

They rejected due to 1/32" of uneven wear.

Yes, I had an alignment done. The truck has 50,000 miles on it, and the tires were rotated every 5,000 miles or less.

I understand that there can be a lot of contributors, NOT tire-related, to uneven wear. But I've had a lot of different brands of tires on multiple vehicles that had alignment issues, old suspension, etc, and have NEVER had any fail to hit the treadwear, and ESPECIALLY fail to hit it by 45%.

I know these experiences are n=1 and anecdotal, but Falken dismissed any claim immediately on a call from the tire shop and declined to help at all when the shop asked about customer retention/show of goodwill, etc. I got the exact same response when I called myself.

 

I should have gone with my gut because I read about people having the balance issue when I bought them. I never noticed anything, and really liked the tires in the winter and how quiet they were on the road. But when I get 65% of the warranted treadwear and then they fail to stand behind their product, that's gonna be a "NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN" from me.

 

Never understood how a tire maker can give you a mileage warranty when there are so many variables.

 

I've got almost 20k on my SL 265/70/16 Toyo at3's. I'd be surprised if they make 30k. Far less than the advertised of "up to 65k"

Was wondering if the faulken at4's balance any better than the out of round faulken at3's. That's probably why they wore out so quick btw.

I might go Goodyear Duratrac next time.

 

I wouldn’t trust most tire companies to honor their warranty. Only ones that really do are America’s tires, etc. but even then you pay to warranty each tire. That said, I thought Falkens were pretty legit.

 

I too am curious about the new Falkens, not that I'd get them but just in general I'm curious if they're better.

I'm torn on what to go with next. Still have a ways to go until then, but almost at 10K now on the 265/75 SLs. I'm keeping a close eye on the KO3s to see how they do in the wet with the additional Silica and siping they have now. In February next year, they are coming out with the stock size in load D. I think that might be the way I go, assuming they don't have bad reviews by then like the KO2s always did. Little bit smaller than what I have now for the mpg and such, but not super harsh being D's. 265/75 comes out soon but it will be E and heavy and therefore worse to accelerate than what I have now.

I would do Michelins but they're just so boring, I really don't want them.

 

Goodyear sucks too but the Duratracs are legit..oddly enough

 

I bought mine from Discount Tire. Mine were done at 30k too. Discount Tire took great care of me and honored the warranty.

 

My guy at Discount Tire said the Duratracs are being discontinued and replaced with the "Ultra terrain." I tried to order some recently and he said he couldn't do it.
https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/goodyear-wrangler-ultraterrain-at

 

Sounds like your guy hasn’t heard of the Duratrac RT that just replaced the original Duratrac end of last year.

 

I hadn't heard of those either. Good to know.

 

They follow the old design in a lot of ways but seem to have a lot of improvements as well. I think they would be a lot better to drive with than the old version (I had that one on my Jeep), but they will probably still wear out pretty fast (like happened on my Jeep). I think the KO3 seems like a better option for me though.

 

I was really about to pull the trigger on the Ultra terrains in the next month or so. Glad I saw this thread. I was also looking at the K03s, but I'm on my 3rd set of Duratracs and they've treated me well.

 

In my 20 years as a tech I've never seen anyone get tire wear warranty approved.

You basically need 2 alignments a year and frequent tire rotations.

All terrains that are winter rated are soft. They wear quickly. Water is wet.

 

I have a set of ultra terrains for winter, they are the first set of Goodyears I’ve ever had that balanced perfect. Plus with 16/32” of tread they should easily last about 40-50k miles. They wore 1/32 in 5000 miles. I’m very happy with them.

 

Yeah, I'm torn. I considered the Toyo AT3, but just like was posted above, I've seen iffy reviews.

Goodyear Ultra Terrain TA, no mileage warranty
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac RT, doesn't yet come in 265/75/16
Michelin, boring like you said (although the LTX M/S is maybe the best set of tires I've ever had on my truck and we've had 4 sets on my wife's Highlander)

 

Interesting. We got one done super easy on my wife's car when her Agilis Crossclimates wore out super fast.