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Best Tire for the Asphalt Loving Jeep

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49K views 123 replies 26 participants last post by  CT2011JGK 
#1 ·
I am looking to replace the stock tires on my 2015 Overland with 20" rims. I find the ride to be a bit more rough that I would like.

As someone who rarely to never takes their jeep off roading, I wanted to hear suggestions for the best on-road tire. Most threads on this forum talk about snow and/or off road ability, what about on-road/wet?

One tire I found was the Pirelli Scorpion Verde. One of the reviews on tirerack.com was from an owner with a JGC.
Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Season Plus
 
#2 ·
Pirellis have good reviews. Can't see your location on my phone but if you live where it doesn't snow or if you do live where it does. Michelin defenders ltx seem to be a good choice for an all around good tire. #1 tire on tire rack. It is one of a couple tires I am considering to replace crappy Fortera's on my 15 altitude.


Sent from my iPhone using JeepGarage
 
#3 ·
Im in Dallas, TX. IF we get snow, its generally for a day or two. Mainly its just really hot or intense rains. Plus the occasional tornado but the tires arent going to help with that one too much.

Im also thinking about putting a thicker tire on the JGC. The stock 4x2 overland has a 265/50/20. I was thinking of using a 285/50/20 (which is what those pirellis are). The more rubber should equal a smoother ride. Thoughts?
 
#4 ·
The Pirellis are an option on the MY16 Summit so they are likely worthy of consideration.
 
#5 · (Edited)
agree with this^^^^^ Pirellis have high marks. Number 1 on the tire rack surveys compare to the fortera and number 15 towards the bottom. Kudos to Jeep for spending a few dollars to put a decent tire on as stock now.

Consumer Survey Results By Category

since they are stock on the new ones, go out and take a new one for a test drive and you can get a feel for what they are like without having to buy the tire.


if you do a few trails now and then go with the Michelin defenders LTX M/S


http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=HAS
 
#7 ·
Very happy with the Michelin Defenders. For your use in Texas quiet, smooth ride, better handling all around and exceptional in the rain including gullywashers. Have about 5,000 on them with no signs of wear yet.
 
#9 ·
After combing through other threads and this one as well (thank you everyone for your input!), The top 3 tires that I am seeing are listed below:

Michelin Premier LTX 265/50/20

Pirelli Scorpion Verde 265/50/20

Michelin Defender LTX 265/50/20


The question is how to choose the appropriate tire? They all have great reviews on Tirerack but most seem to talk about their ability in snow which doesnt help those of us that dont have that issue
 
#20 ·
They are all great tires that is a good list you have there from an all season standpoint, I added one more to the end I think is a good one for the all season tire snow crowd.

Think about them concerning how you will be using them that may help you decide. I put a few of my opinions next to each of them.

-Michelin Premier LTX 265/50/20 - all season tire - tilted to good on road manors and wet traction

-Pirelli Scorpion Verde 265/50/20 - all season tire - tilted to good on road manors and better handling (they use the run flat version of these on the SRT)

-Michelin Defender LTX 265/50/20 - all season tire - tilted to some mild-medium off road ok and ok on snow

-Nokian WRG3 SUV 265/50/20 - all season tire - tilted to snow and winter driving. (maybe slightly more noise than the others)

Those four in my opinion would be the best of the all seasons with each having their own flair in different directions but all generally great all season tires. That said the Michelin Defender LTX will be my next.
 
#10 ·
I guess it all depends on your intended use. Silvermax and a few others on the forum make that point. I am in the Northeast NYC metro area and asphalt 99.999% of the time. So the decision was based on a bias toward pure road performanc vs. some offroad/M+S capability, (irrespective of the each tire's wear/load attributes).

I ultimately chose the premier ltx. I think Silvermax has the predecessor latitude tours and is intending to switch to the defender ltx. You could refer to individual reviews on the manufacturer website and around the web as well. No regrets in my choice so far and living up to expectation and consistent with reviews I've gleaned from around the web.

I had not considered the Pirelli's as I've always gone with Michelin (even my Jeep wk1 were on 2x on the LT MS tires). Hope its helpful.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Nelson Iam very bias towards Michelin also, Defenders are still top of the list and will be my replacements. Glad you are liking the Premiers they are still too new to be showing on the ratings but my guess is they will be up there in the number 1 or 2 slot in the touring tire reviews once they do. anytime I have strayed away from Michelin I have always regretted it. The Pirellis are getting high marks though they would probably be my next choice if Michelins were not around.
 
#11 ·
I appreciate all the answers everyone has given!

Im leaning more towards the Pirelli Scorpion Verde AST. The reviews on Tirerack and their rating makes me think there has to be something positive about them. I found a Discount Tire by me that has an Out The Door price of $808.60 (Tires, installation, balancing, etc).
 
#13 ·
Bad news. The Pirelli's I want are on back order with no ship date in sight. The guy at discount tire said he can get me the same tire but in 255/55/20 (compared to 265/50/20). It would add about 1/2 diameter to the tire and throw off my speedometer by 1mph.

He also recommended the Yokohama YK580 but I cant even find them on tirerack. So now I need a new tire to put on there or wait until the correct pirellis are available
 
#17 ·
Tire rack has both versions of the Verde plus in stock ($199 for the reg. $192 for the XL-higher weight rating). You could have them shipped directly to discount, or any other tire shop for that matter.
 
#15 ·
The Discount near me is soon to have a basically new set of Pirelli Scorpion Verde take-offs in a couple weeks. I already know that my 2016 Summit is coming with them, and I'm planning on swapping them for the Defender LTX right away (mostly for the better snow/off road capability). Discount is giving me $90/ea for the Scorpions. My dealer only offered $50/ea. I hate giant corporate dealerships! (Autonation)
 
#18 ·
I looked into getting Tirerack to just ship em. But it bumps the price up from 806 installed to over $1000+. Just the shipping adds another $125 and installation is atleast $90.

Im going to call the Discount Tire and Firestone near me tomorrow and ask if they have the Michellin LTX in stock. They seem to be getting a lot of love on here.

I have yet to call my dealership. So theyre on my list for tomorrow as well.
 
#21 ·
To be honest the best price I found by far anywhere was the dealer when they have their buy 3 tires get 1 free mopar coupons going. I had my dealer do an estimate for me on the Defenders and it truly was get 1 free. It was around $800 for the defenders out the door, that was about two months ago. not sure if they still have that deal going but you could ask them or check the coupons on mopar.

Also something I recommend is spend a few extra dollars and request road force balancing and save yourself dealing with the shakes on the highway. its money well spent with these larger 20 inch rims and the sensitive grand Cherokee suspension setup.
 
#22 ·
Just spoke with my jeep dealership. They can get both tires (Pirelli verde or Michelin defender ltx). They are currently offering buy 3 get one for $1

The Pirelli are 745 installed and the Michelin are $845 installed. My advisor said that the michellins are better, even though the perellis Are now standard on the summit. Any advice between the two?
 
#25 ·
Im going with the Michelins. They come with full warranty on the tires including road hazard protection. The Pirellis are only be sold as the tires, no warranties.

My jeep dealership wanted $246/per tire. They stated that they do price match. I sent them the tirerack information at $212/per tire. Should come out to $650/tires and probably $80 for installation. Out the door for under $750 including road force balancing.

The advisor was trying to sell me on getting an alignment for $75. For a 7 month old Jeep with 6500 miles, I cant see it being necessary. Am I wrong?
 
#26 · (Edited)
You got a deal there id grab that and run. 4 defenders installed with road force for $750. you wont do better than that on such a good tire.

concerning the alignment, you would think being a new car you don't need it but because its new parts break in and settle this can happen and also from the factory they often come out of there misaligned to start believe it or not. Now the age is where I would argue that with them if the thing is only 7 months old and needing an alignment I thought they would be covering that. I might be wrong but I thought you got like a 1 year/12k on things like rotors warping, alignment issues and other not typically covered maintenance items like that because it should not happen when brand new.
Also they should be able to just check it and tell you if its out or not, if out I would push them to cover that though. now if you go in there with damage or bent rims then yeah that's different and you would be responsible to cover alignment. check the full version of the manual and see if it says anything about 1rst year on items like that. I had mine aligned when I dumped the forteras at 10k. It was out of alignment, steering wheel was crooked from the start.
 
#28 ·
Excellent Information. Ill push them for a free alignment check. Im good friends with my service advisor (who happens to be off today). Im sure hell be able to get me free alignment and whatever else I need.

Probably get the tires installed on Monday. Ill keep the thread posted on installation and reviews.
 
#29 ·
I, personally always get an alignment after getting new tires. Since tires aren't cheap, and you typically only get new ones every few years, it's a good way to ensure you don't wear them out unexpectedly due to a bad alignment. With your vehicle being so young, it's not as big of a risk, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to see if they'll give you a free check.


FYI, I will not be getting an alignment with my new tires, as the Jeep will be brand new, with no miles on it.
 
#30 · (Edited)
So thanks everyone in this thread. I ended up going for the Pirelli Scorpion Verde Pluses. Walmart had them for $186 for a day (now back up to $200), so I went for it. Considering install is $12/tire and includes lifetime rotations, I figured why not?

I drive my car like someone that probably should have gone for the SRT, so the V speed rating is pretty attractive. Plus, the awesome reviews don't hurt. I just hope I won't regret not picking a more aggressive tire when the heavy snow hits or if I'm taking off the paved road.
 
#31 ·
So thanks everyone in this thread. I ended up going for the Pirelli Scorpion Verde Pluses. Walmart had them for $186 for a day (now back up to $200), so I went for it. Considering install is $12/tire and includes lifetime rotations, I figured why not?

I drive my car like someone that probably should have gone for the SRT, so the W speed rating is pretty attractive. Plus, the awesome reviews don't hurt. I just hope I won't regret not picking a more aggressive tire when the heavy snow hits or if I'm taking off the paved road.
People are actually rating them pretty well in the snow for an all season so you are probably fine there as far as an all season goes. Off the paved road well the defenders are probably the best bet for an all season in that realm. But W rated ? I didn't realize that. So that's your trade off there, it'll likely be a good performer pushing to the limits of your left foot on road where you spend majority of your time. Give us some updates once you have run them around some
 
#33 ·
Today was the big day and it was as big of a pain the ass as you could imagine.

Dropped the car off at 9am. They told me it will be done around 330pm. I work from home so this didn't bother me. Got a call from them around 2:25pm that they "misquoted" the price/special so it was going to be more expensive. I didn't let that one fly. Got to the dealership around 430. Vehicle is ready to go. Oh wait, it's 5:15pm and they forgot to take photos of the alignment under warranty. So another 40 minutes is needed.

The bright side, $725 for all four tires, road force balancing and alignment. Plus I donated my old tires to a family in need since they're basically new. Will post driving impressions if they ever give me my keys back. Might be faster to just buy a new 2016
 
#34 ·
Initial impressions:

The tires are definitely quieter and feel more planted.

However, I am getting quite a bit of feedback to the steering wheel. Vibrations and movement. Is this just because they are new tires that need to be worn in or am I dealing with a poor balancing job? This is occurring at highway speeds, 60mph+
 
#36 ·
sounds like a bad balance job or an out of round tire. did the other tires have vibration at all? if so you could also possibly be dealing with a slightly bent rim if not then likely one of the first reasons, more than likely the balance job. this wont correct itself. take it back and tell them to road force balance them again and force match. They should have done the force match initially with the road force but a lazy tech will sometimes skip that part. Ask them to give you the road force numbers they got each of the tires down to. these grand Cherokees have sensitive suspensions especially on the 20 inch rims. years ago on smaller rims road force numbers of 20 would get you by on an suv now on this set up they really need to get them down to ideally like 12 and below which isn't always easy. if any of the tires are way off like 30 or 40 or something then they may need to replace the tire.

I have been through the mill on all this tire balance stuff on these GC 20s. Stay on them they need to make it right no matter how many tires they may need to send back for being out of round. ask them the road force numbers so they know you are watching them and they will try to do a better job. a road force job is only as good as the tech that takes the time to do it properly
 
#35 ·
Glad to see you finally got tires...LOL. I was the same way. After all you HOPE to be living with them for 40K miles at least and hopefully much more. They do make a huge difference in how your vehicle drives and then of course there are the safety concerns and even warranties. And they ain't cheap either. Of course I'm seeing a bunch of different comments about various brands and would like to interject my two cents. Oh I already did? Well here's another two... For your use in Texas ( btw, I have driven there, Bergstrom AFB) the reason I recommended the Defenders over the Premier's was gully washing rains on flat ass roads. In my opinion the Defender's will do a better job of evacuating the water than the Premier's. Having said that if I could have afforded to buy a winter set of tires I almost certainly would've bought the Premier's for here. And a set of Nokians for winter. The other reason I purchased the Defender's was the longer warranty. As far as the Pirelli's are concerned I read several complaints about treadwear on various tire sites. Everything else I read was good and I was really leaning in that direction especially after Jeep decided to use them in 2016. However as soon as I went to their site and read their warranty I decided Michelin, which I've had exceptionally good experience with for many years was the deciding factor for me. Again congrats!:thumbsup:
 
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