[VermontJGC14]

First big gripe about the new Jeep:

Driving over a dirt road on July 4th, and a two-inch chunk of stone punctured right through the thickest part of the tread on my back-driver's Latitude Tour. Went flat almost immediately, and dealership said the damage was so severe there was no way to patch it. Service manager also said something to the effect of, "we're seeing a lot of this with these tires." I had to spring $250 for a new tire, after driving less than 1100 miles on the brand-new vehicle. Kicking myself now for not getting tire protection added to the service plan, would have already paid for itself.

I know that the relatively low quality of these tires when it comes to off-roading has been well documented on this forum, but I was very surprised that an essentially new tire could be destroyed by one tiny stone on a dirt road - and that the service department at my dealership has seen this happen before, apparently more than a few times. Are these tires really that low quality? Should I just plan on swapping out essentially brand-new rubber, rather than keep paying through the nose for failures?

 

[bill_de]

I didn't measure the tread, but I think I traded my last three vehicles with more tread on the original tires. I'm thinking if I keep this Jeep more than a couple of years I'll be buying my first tires since 1990.


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[GBJeep]

I didn't measure the tread, but I think I traded my last three vehicles with more tread on the original tires. I'm thinking if I keep this Jeep more than a couple of years I'll be buying my first tires since 1990.


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Agreed - The reviews on this forum are not very positive when it comes to the Latitude tires. Mine have performed well for the past 18 months, but do seem to be wearing out faster than normal. When the time comes for new tires I will have to look at other options.

 

[AZhiCntry]

One 25mi trip on a gravel road was enough to ruin a Latitude for JG member Joel.

 

[jp467]

First big gripe about the new Jeep:

Driving over a dirt road on July 4th, and a two-inch chunk of stone punctured right through the thickest part of the tread on my back-driver's Latitude Tour. Went flat almost immediately, and dealership said the damage was so severe there was no way to patch it. Service manager also said something to the effect of, "we're seeing a lot of this with these tires." I had to spring $250 for a new tire, after driving less than 1100 miles on the brand-new vehicle. Kicking myself now for not getting tire protection added to the service plan, would have already paid for itself.

I know that the relatively low quality of these tires when it comes to off-roading has been well documented on this forum, but I was very surprised that an essentially new tire could be destroyed by one tiny stone on a dirt road - and that the service department at my dealership has seen this happen before, apparently more than a few times. Are these tires really that low quality? Should I just plan on swapping out essentially brand-new rubber, rather than keep paying through the nose for failures?[/QUOTE


The latitude is a rated pretty high as most michelin tires are. This is not an offroad tire but it is a good highway tire. With that said there is no way a small stone caused that kind of damage. It had to be something sharp and it might have been a piece of rock but if it put a hole in this tire it probably would not have mattered if you would have had an All terrain tire.

 

[AZhiCntry]

Was told by Discount/America's Tire that they will sell road hazard warranty for OEM tires if bought "soon" after picking up the "new" veh.

 

[tomk]

Hm, put 50K miles on my Latitude Tours on the '07 before swapping them off, and that's only because some errant piece of steel shrapnel punctured one of them.

But there are several different "Latitude Tour" tires, and I'm not sure which is mounted on my new WK2.

Did you get any pictures of the damage?

...tom

 

[VermontJGC14]

Did you get any pictures of the damage?

...tom

Unfortunately, it did not occur to me to take a photo until after I had pulled out the stone. It was two, maybe two and a half inches long, pyramid shaped, and the point drove right through the thickest part of the tread.

I agree, this particular stone may have punctured a more aggressive off-road tire, making this whole thing just bad luck on my part. But the service manager's comment about seeing this happen "more and more" with this specific model of tire made me wonder if it's an inferior product.

I ran Firestone Destination A/Ts on my previous Jeep and did a good amount of off-roading, including rock crawling over talus and dry river beds, and never experienced anything like this.

 

[AAAA]

Had the same thing happen on wife's car on a slate road in Poultney, VT several years ago. It wasn't the tire that was at fault. It was the knife like slate.

 

[AZhiCntry]

Dumped the Latitudes on Friday and put on new DUB Phase 5 wheels 18x8 +38 and stock size Cooper Discovery AT/3's with road force balance. What a nice looking tire (black side out) and seem to be just as quiet and rides nice too!