Chevy/Goodyear Tire Problems

[BLACKJACK]

Back in January I had 4 flat tires in a two week span, one of the tires was shot. The tire shop said it was rocks coming thru the tires. The tires are Goodyear Wrangler ST's on a 2000 Chevy Silverado 4x4 with 20,000 miles on the tires. I drive on 3 miles of gravel road and then 20 miles of blacktop. I complained to the service manager at the local Chevy dealer where I bought the truck. After 6 WEEKS, he finally got back to me, saying that his regional manager called it 'road hazard' and they weren't going to help me. I called Chevy's 800 number and they said they couldn't help me. My contention is that Chevy put the wrong tires on a 4x4 truck. You should be able to at least drive down a gravel road without getting flats!! My wife was driving the same road with her car without getting flats. Same with my neighbors. Am I out of line complaining about the tires? Any ideas on what else to do about the tires, who else I can complain to?

[TUMBLEWEED]

BlackJack, Sounds like these kind of tires
get kind of "tired" after 20K of use.Still,
one would assume they would perform better
than this.I am not a Goodyear person myself.
BF Goodrich T/A's are my tires for my burb.
Sounds like the rubber on your Wrangler is
somewhat soft and wears out or is more prone to punctures??? Maybe an Eye-team call would
help to see if it is a widespread problem.
Good luck.......

[Dan97]

Howdy Blackjack...

I've heard this from more than one owner of the "newer" model trucks. It seems to be very common to ALL the major brands. My read on this is that the BIG THREE, are looking for ways to make their trucks (mostly the 1/2 tons series) more "car-like". Supple suspensions, livingroom like interiors, fancy paint...... The list goes on and on. In the tire department, they use tires whose construction is more suited for car-like duties. But due to the extra weight of a truck, the tires don't survive for long. Sure they might be "truck rated". But are they really? And who rated these tires?

I went through the same dump in the late 90's when I bought my Dodge. Same dealer b.s.. I ended up going through Goodyear customer service and still was not satisified with the outcome.

I agree with Tumbleweed on this one. Stay away from BADYEAR. I drive BFG's (Mud Terrain T/A's) with no complaints. There are many manufacturers out the the make good TRUCK tires. You may lose a bit of that cadillac ride, but you do own a truck ya know.

Hope this helped a bit.....Dan

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[Valv]

Blackjack, I had same tires on a Dodge Ram 1999, used them for approx 25,000 miles then had so many flats repaired I had to replace tires. I wend with a suggestion from a tire dealer, and I've got some Firestone heavy duty tires.
These inflates max at 80psi with 10 plies.Ride is definitely rougher.....but I haven't had a flat the last 30,000 miles ( I think they spit nails out).
GoodYear were great for quiet and smoothness, but my daughter's little Hyundai had less flats than my Ram Tough....

Ooops I forgot, I live on gravel road, 2 miles in and 2 miles out, this will convince you.

One more thing...you should have got a Dodge ......here comes WAR !!

Val

[This message has been edited by Valv (edited 03-20-2002).]

[Grabs]

How many miles are on the truck? What dealership did you buy it from? I have had a lot of experience lately with warranty and service issue, I would definetly try and contact some one from one of the news channels, or all of them,..like I-team or Dimension, or the one that UPN has. Another bit of advice; don't give up, call everyday sometimes twice a day, until you speak to someone that is willing to help at both Chevy and Goodyear. Many times it all depends on who answers the phone. If these tries have a mileage rating which I am sure they do, and it is probably beyond 20,000 miles than keep pushing, you are entitled to a good product for at least the warrantied life. Let me know the details surrounding this, dealership, who put the tires on? Dealership or did the have some outside place do it? Most of these trucks came with Firestone tires, so why did yours have Goodyear? Did you buy the truck new? or used? Anything you can provide me would be great, I will do some digging around to get you contacts of the right person to speak to, trust me I have been down this route many times recently and I know how it feels, so I am willing to help ya out in anyway I can.

Good Luck

[BLACKJACK]

Grabs, I bought the truck new from Roth Chevrolet in Willmar in September of 2000. Those Goodyear tires were on the truck as original equipment. The truck had 21,000 miles on it when I started having the tire problems. All the flats happened in about a 20 day period, the conditions on the gravel road and the temps must have been 'just right'. The dealership has been no help at all, but the only person that I was able to talk to was Dana, the service manager. I got the feeling that he was stalling, hoping that I'd forget about it. Finallllllly after 6 weeks he got back to me, saying that the regional service manager called it road hazard. He wouldn't give me the name or number of this regional manager. When I called the Chevy 800 number, they said they couldn't do anything either.

I haven't really pursued the Goodyear angle because one thing that we learned from the Firestone/Ford Explorer problem is that its the vehicle manufacturer that says what kind of tires that they want.

Any help you could come up with would be appreciated. How do I get ahold of these I teams? (phone numbers or email addresses)

Valv, a new truck is nice whether its a Ford, Chevy, or Dodge. My previous truck was a Ford, which I liked for the 10 years that I drove it, I liked this Chevy until the tires went to hell, and I may own a Dodge some day if the price is right. I just know that my next one WON'T be a Chevy.

Dan97 and others, I agree, Chevy is putting tires on these trucks to make it a smooth, passenger car type of ride. For 90% of the truck owners thats probably fine, they do mostly blacktop road driving and if they get the occaisional flat when they take it out on the weekend, they blow if off. My contention all along has been that Chevy put the wrong tires on this truck, that you should be able to at least drive on a gravel road with a 4x4 truck.

Any help you guys can come up with would be appreciated.

[BLACKJACK]

**** I hate when this forum loses my post! Yet it puts the category up as having a recent post???! Lesson learned, always save your long posts somewhere else!

Grabs, I bought the truck at Roth Chevrolet in Willmar, the truck has 21,000 miles on it. The person that I talked to was Dana, the service manager. I got the runaround from him for 6 weeks. Any help that you could come up with would be appreciated.

Will post more later, want to see if this post works!!!!

[Grabs]

Blackjack, e-mail me or post your e-mail address so I can send you some links and information.

All I have to say is the vehicle has a 36,000 mile warranty on everything, GM should be standing behind these tires. I have the Firestones on my truck, I drive on gravel roads often but not daily, and do some serious off-roading at times, and I have never had a flat. This is amazing how everyone tries to pass the buck on this deal because no one wants to deal with it. Have you spoke with your salesman at Roth and see what he can do, threaten you will never do business at that dealership again unless the can come to some resolve of this problem.

I will send you info as I gather it, and I have your e-mail.

[email protected]
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by Grabs (edited 03-21-2002).]

[Guest]

I hate my Goodyear Wranglers on my F150. The tires were darn near new when I bought the truck and I just can't spend any money to buy new tires. I'm burning the Wranglers out first. They are terrible on snow, gravel, mud...everything.

I owned BFGoodrich All-Terrain off road tires on my last truck and these babies went 55,000 miles (mostly highway, towing, gravel off-road) and were still legal. Never, ever had a flat or a problem with the tire. They were indestructible IMO. Quiet on the highway, but the ride was rougher because these tires were so darn heavy duty. I am definitely buying BF AT for my next tires.