GodWhomIsMike
06-19-2006, 08:44 AM
Background:
I learned quick when I got my Legacy that it could not stand up to potholes with the stock RE-92 tires. I had one split along the bead at around 300 miles and another one had a nasty bubble at around 2-3K miles. I got fed up with bridgestone because of their horrible traction, poor quality, how easily they died, and the terrible customer service from bridgestone.
At around 2-3K miles, I cut my losses and got a set of Toyo Proxes 4. So far - I have them for almost a year, and put close to 10K miles on them. So far I found them to be very good. A bit loud at speed, but offer excellent grip in dry and amazing wet traction. Forget about snow though, these tires make snow drive a white knuckle experience.
Potholes:
Lately, it seems NYC had completely given up fixing potholes. The roads have got very bad in my area in the last few months - I've seen pot holes that were at least 6 inches deep that been around for at least a month or so on heavily travelled roads. Put it this way, they are so bad that instead of focusing your attension to what's down the road - you have to focus mostly on what nasty potholes are all over the roads so you don't nail one and lose a tire.
Saturday night, I'm driving with my gf, I avoid one big pothole and wind up nailing another. It was pretty big and packed one hell of a jolting punch. I almost threw up right there - that's how nasty it sounded. I though for sure that the tire and rim were completely nuked. I drove a little bit and pulled over where there was some street light. The tire survived, but I wasn't sure about the rim - looked fine but too dark even with the street lights to tell.
Yesterday, I looked in the sunlight, seems the tire has no bubbles, and I can see what part of the tire hit it too by the rim. The rim has a thick black mark on the lip and a small chip on the side. I drove a bit after hitting the pothole and everything seems fine.
Seems like I was lucky this time.
So my question is after this whole thread - these rims can hold up to bad pothole roads? Am I being too paranoid - I inspect my tires everyday - I look for any imperfection and then run my hands over them to feel for any bubbles. Is this overkill?
I learned quick when I got my Legacy that it could not stand up to potholes with the stock RE-92 tires. I had one split along the bead at around 300 miles and another one had a nasty bubble at around 2-3K miles. I got fed up with bridgestone because of their horrible traction, poor quality, how easily they died, and the terrible customer service from bridgestone.
At around 2-3K miles, I cut my losses and got a set of Toyo Proxes 4. So far - I have them for almost a year, and put close to 10K miles on them. So far I found them to be very good. A bit loud at speed, but offer excellent grip in dry and amazing wet traction. Forget about snow though, these tires make snow drive a white knuckle experience.
Potholes:
Lately, it seems NYC had completely given up fixing potholes. The roads have got very bad in my area in the last few months - I've seen pot holes that were at least 6 inches deep that been around for at least a month or so on heavily travelled roads. Put it this way, they are so bad that instead of focusing your attension to what's down the road - you have to focus mostly on what nasty potholes are all over the roads so you don't nail one and lose a tire.
Saturday night, I'm driving with my gf, I avoid one big pothole and wind up nailing another. It was pretty big and packed one hell of a jolting punch. I almost threw up right there - that's how nasty it sounded. I though for sure that the tire and rim were completely nuked. I drove a little bit and pulled over where there was some street light. The tire survived, but I wasn't sure about the rim - looked fine but too dark even with the street lights to tell.
Yesterday, I looked in the sunlight, seems the tire has no bubbles, and I can see what part of the tire hit it too by the rim. The rim has a thick black mark on the lip and a small chip on the side. I drove a bit after hitting the pothole and everything seems fine.
Seems like I was lucky this time.
So my question is after this whole thread - these rims can hold up to bad pothole roads? Am I being too paranoid - I inspect my tires everyday - I look for any imperfection and then run my hands over them to feel for any bubbles. Is this overkill?