Stock Ram Firestone Tires

[Evo2700]

This moring I was airing up all my tires before tomorrow’s winter trip. I noticed the front left of my Ram 2500 was cracked all the way around the sidewall. The tires are the stock Firestones and are two years old with only 12k miles. The tires have horrible reviews on the Ram forum. It seems like a lot of Ram owners replace these tires ASAP. I’m skeptical of replacing it with the same tire, but the local Firestone shop is covering it under warranty. I’ll take the free tire and replace them when I’m ready to spend the money. I’m disappointed the tire would wear that quickly with little use, but glad the local Firestone is covering it under warranty.

Here I am sitting in a tire shop when I should be prepping to leave in the morning.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by Evo2700

This moring I was airing up all my tires before tomorrow’s winter trip. I noticed the front left of my Ram 2500 was cracked all the way around the sidewall. The tires are the stock Firestones and are two years old with only 12k miles. The tires have horrible reviews on the Ram forum. It seems like a lot of Ram owners replace these tires ASAP. I’m skeptical of replacing it with the same tire, but the local Firestone shop is covering it under warranty. I’ll take the free tire and replace them when I’m ready to spend the money. I’m disappointed the tire would wear that quickly with little use, but glad the local Firestone is covering it under warranty.

Here I am sitting in a tire shop when I should be prepping to leave in the morning.

You are one of the lucky ones...

When I discovered that the stock Firestone Transforce HT spare tire had a large hole in the rubber all the way down to the steel belt, but still inflated under the bed of my truck, both GM and Firestone refused to replace it under warranty.

That tire had never been taken off of the tire holder until that day.

Truck was just over 2 1/2 years old at the time.

I was at the tire shop that day replacing them with a new set, but when they wouldn't cover that tire I purchased another brand of tire instead.

[Evo2700]

I told the manager of the shop I was skeptical to replace it with the same tire because of all the horrible reviews on the Ram forums. He said the tires are also on all the Chevy fleet trucks and none of them have complained. I told him the brand of truck has nothing to do with it, it’s just a sketchy tire.

[Kimber45]

maybe im to heavy on the gas but my oem transforce tires burned up in about 20k miles. I have been told that oem tires are specially made for a manufactures run of tires and that they are made cheep and not the same "trans force" tires that would be sold by a firestone retail outlet.

I ordered cooper replacements of the internet to save about 600$ and had a local tire shop mount them up.

[Evo2700]

As little as I drive my truck, I wish I could get 20k miles out of the tires. That would be another two years, but I don’t see that happening.

[Lins]

Mine are just over half worn at 30,000 kms. I noticed mine cracking around the outside lugs at only 7 months old or so but it hasn't really gotten worse. Ram puts too much toe-in into their alignment which eats the outside edge faster and probably doesn't help with the cracking. I adjusted mine slightly in the driveway and outside tire wear slowed down drastically and have less pulling to the passenger side. I wish the siping went deeper than 1/3 of the tread as you end up with a slick tire very quickly. I'm trying to decide between Toyo ATs or Goodyear Duratracs as replacements.

[goduc]

I hate my Firestone AT's. The truck seems squirrely. I towed the same 5er with a 12 Ram 2500 and it was far better even when it only had the pizza cutter 245/70/17's.

[pilotpip]

Not defending the firestones in any way, but my experience has almost always seen OEM tires get significantly less life than replacements. My wife had a car with a real oddball size and speed rating combo that only had two tires available in the area. Some no-name cheapy with no warranty, and a Hankook that came on it and was being replaced at about 25,000 miles. Somehow, the replacements were still going strong when we traded the car in at 75,000 miles.

[birdman77]

My OEM Firestones lasted 20k miles. Replaced them with Michelin AT2's... Traded truck in with 38k on it and tires were still in good shape... Now have 10k on the new truck and based on what I see, I will be replacing these Firestones in another 10k

[aceinspp]

Originally Posted by birdman77

My OEM Firestones lasted 20k miles. Replaced them with Michelin AT2's... Traded truck in with 38k on it and tires were still in good shape... Now have 10k on the new truck and based on what I see, I will be replacing these Firestones in another 10k

From what I've heard from a couple friends of mine these Firestone tires are junk and lucky to get 25000 miles on them. I'm replacing mine next month and only have 6500 miles on them and agree don't like they what they ride. Be getting Michelin. Later RJD

[Crusader 816]

My Firestones on my 3500 only lasted about 40,000 but they were a terrible tire. I ended up going with Continental terrain contact A/T and they are a much better tire. Not overly aggressive is what I was going for and nice and quiet. Feel like they are more stable too pulling the fiver.

[Draggo]

Wow, I must have been lucky then. My '12 Chevy came with the Transforce ATs and I got about 70K out of them before I had to change them out. Probably could have gotten another 6 months out of them but I wanted more tread going into winter.

[Ejs4029]

Originally Posted by Draggo

Wow, I must have been lucky then. My '12 Chevy came with the Transforce ATs and I got about 70K out of them before I had to change them out. Probably could have gotten another 6 months out of them but I wanted more tread going into winter.

X2.....No need for me to drop over 1K+ on new tires yet....So far on my 2015 RAM 2500 I have 29K on them and have no issues they are about 50% worn In all likelihood I will replace with a different Mfg. I've heard good things on the Michelin LTX and the Continential TerrainContacts.

[primo20]

I got 40000 km out of mine. I swapped them out with the Toto AT. They are a great tire. But I also considered the Michelin for the amount of towing I do.

For what it’s worth, I also bought. 20” take off set to upgrade my 18” wheels I ordered the truck with. I pulled those brand new 5 km tires off and sold them for 500 bucks. Not threat, but if Firestone is replacing for free, maybe hat a new brand and sell those as new takeoff right away.

I also agree the replacement Firestone tire will be better quality than the oem version. I got this confirmation directly from Toyo when we had oem tires replaced under warranty on our Toyota. The oem gone at 35000 km. Replacements, 120000 km. Oem tires are soft rubber to achieve fuel ratings, less rolling resistance and a smooth comfortable ride.

[Mountndream]

I got less than 30k before I had to replace mine. Replaced them with Michelen LTX and have been very happy.

[GeorgeFries]

With diligence I try keeping up with experiences as well as opinions of those posting about tires. Obviously there are too many variables to consider when it come to tire wear.

What I question is the validity of "...those dreaded Firestone Tires..."! Dealing with the same Firestone company store for these past 30- years, and on occasion Firestone company stores away from Daytona Beach, I've never been given reason to switch from their "TransForce". Below is a post I made previously.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f12/ram-2500-tires-towing-177028-4.html#post2010731

Perhaps there's a better tire to suit my purposes. I'm very satisfied with 75K to at one time 91K miles I've routinely gotten. My 1997 Dodge Ram is on it's 3rd set of Firestone TransForce HT's. Given the price point, their value is the best part of owning them.


George G. Fries

[Lins]

Originally Posted by GeorgeFries

With diligence I try keeping up with experiences as well as opinions of those posting about tires. Obviously there are too many variables to consider when it come to tire wear.

What I question is the validity of "...those dreaded Firestone Tires..."! Dealing with the same Firestone company store for these past 30- years, and on occasion Firestone company stores away from Daytona Beach, I've never been given reason to switch from their "TransForce". Below is a post I made previously.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f12/ram-2500-tires-towing-177028-4.html#post2010731

Perhaps there's a better tire to suit my purposes. I'm very satisfied with 75K to at one time 91K miles I've routinely gotten. My 1997 Dodge Ram is on it's 3rd set of Firestone TransForce HT's. Given the price point, their value is the best part of owning them.


George G. Fries

If I lived in Florida and never left a hard road surface I wouldn’t complain about them (the A/T version). They are a terrible tire for winter, soft sand/dirt or even just wet grass. If there wasn’t 8000lbs sitting on top of them, or if I did any highway driving in winter, I would have already replaced them.

[Mountndream]

Originally Posted by GeorgeFries

With diligence I try keeping up with experiences as well as opinions of those posting about tires. Obviously there are too many variables to consider when it come to tire wear.

What I question is the validity of "...those dreaded Firestone Tires..."! Dealing with the same Firestone company store for these past 30- years, and on occasion Firestone company stores away from Daytona Beach, I've never been given reason to switch from their "TransForce". Below is a post I made previously.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f12/ram-2500-tires-towing-177028-4.html#post2010731

Perhaps there's a better tire to suit my purposes. I'm very satisfied with 75K to at one time 91K miles I've routinely gotten. My 1997 Dodge Ram is on it's 3rd set of Firestone TransForce HT's. Given the price point, their value is the best part of owning them.


George G. Fries

I question why a tire that had 15k in towing (50% at 5000lbs, 50% at 10000) would not pass safety inspection in less than 30k miles. Given that i regularly get extended miles out of the other tires/ Vehicles that i own there is no value. Also, its worth nothing that my replacement tires, only cost $40 more and have a much higher rating

[Walholler]

I have a 2015 Chevrolet 2500HD,Crew Cab with 8 ft. bed, Duramax diesel and it came new with the Firestone TransForce HT tires. The tires and truck now have 34,000 miles on them, I have new Goodyear A/T Adventure tires with 60,000 tread warranty on order for replacement. I have keep the Firestone tires properly inflated and rotated every 6,000 miles when a oil change was performed by the dealer. I never expected to get too many miles out of the tires because we all know that the tires the manufacturers put on new vehicles are not the best. I went with the Goodyear tires because of the tread warranty, other brands do not even offer a mileage warranty.

[Ortep]

We have a '17 Ram 2500 CTD, CC, SB. Bought the truck new with the Firestone TransForce 285 60 R20's and 17 miles on them. It looked to me that half the tread was already gone and I said so to the salesman. He assured me they were "new" tires but I only got 24000 miles out of them before I replaced them with the Michelin LTX Defenders. I now have 24000+ miles on these tires and have 75% of the tread left. I will say that the Michelins rode a bit rough at first and took the truck back into the tire dealer and had them balanced again and the roughness seemed to go away. My son-in-law has the same truck, same tires and same experience with both brands and had the Michelins re-balanced and got the same result as me. It seems that that size Michelin is tough to balance but the wear factor is night and day between the Firestone and Michelin. We get good traction whether the roads are dry or wet, paved or dirt/sand.