Mile 279,893: Treadwright BFG A/T 30" retreads.

I got 5 treadwright 30" A/T BFG retreads mounted last friday, I've had time to drive them on highway, off-road, and in the snow (light) since then. Here's the verdict:

Fit: These tires fill up the wheel well, giving my XJ a more beefy look. They have very minimal rubbing on turns, and no rubbing in back on flexes (I don't have front disconnects yet....slacker.). My spare tire also fits in the stock mount spot, but does require some fighting with the liftgate to close.

Balance: They balance terribly, no lie. I looked at the spare, two massive weights on one side to balance it out, I can feel some vibe coming from the rear end not being balanced so well.

Road noise: Both on highway and off, these tires are quiet. No more noise than my other ones, even at speeds of 75mph they didn't make much noise at all, would easily blend in with other vehicle noise.

Off-road performance: The tires handled well, even when aired down to 20~25 psi. Very grippy overall, impressive handling on the sandy/rocky trail I went on (see trail report: lefthand canyon).

Weather: I had a few different times to test these out on snow and ice. On the trail, there were a couple spots where there was some old snow on the ground. On regular snow, these tires handled fine, with good grip and plenty of stopping power. On ice, these tires handled decently too, including the patch of ice I went over on about a 30% grade, but I could not start from a dead stop on this patch of ice, I had to back up until I was on gravel; they did hold up their speed alright though.

Delivery time: Alright, I'll give them the holiday mercy for delivery time, but it was still longer than posted. At time of order, delivery time was expected to be 6-10 business days. I called them once, they said they would look into why the delivery was taking so long, and I should get a call the next morning. I did not recieve that call, but after heckling the man I spoke with that day, I finally got a tracking number out of him. After about business day 12, the tires arrived on my front porch, I did not sign for the tires. Because no signature was required, you may want to request a signature upon delivery or else make sure someone is home.

Treadwright service: Service was decent, at best. I ordered over the phone. They were anxious to get my payment information, but gave me very little information on the tires themselves until I asked for it. At the end of the call, I noticed they neglected to mention how much these five tires would be, they said a figure around $400.

Ratings:
Grip: 4.7/5 - Other than a patch of ice I was on, I encountered very little in the way of grip problems, these tires hav excellent traction:
Noise: 5/5 - Way quieter than I expected, also way quieter than comparable A/T tires I have heard on vehicles with them equipped.
Cost: 5/5 - Even after $62.50 mounting fee (the cheapest I could find, Big O tires did mount/balance for this amount, I kept the old tires to resell.), these tires were the cheapest for five all-terrains I could find: $473.40, after all was said and done.
Balance: 3/5 - They're balanced at lower speeds, but develop vibe on the highway after about 60 mph; this shouldn't be too big of a problem since I'm rarely up that high speed.
Treadwright service: 2/5 - The staff was semi-helpful in pointing me in the right direction, but failed to verify information or ship in an expiditious manner. When they promised to call back, they again failed here. I had to call them three different times in order to get the shipping information for my tires, after they were already two days late.

Overall: 4.5/5 - these tires work great for what I need, but I was not very happy with treadwright's performance. The amount of weight these things need to balance also upsets me.

Until next time,
1,000,000 Miles Strong.