Kumho Tires

[2late4u]

have a 2011 mainstreet with 17 inch kumos and just turned 33k they they still look great they look less than half worn out, have rotated them 2 times so far.i do alot of interstate driving.i run 36 to 38 psi in them.my daughter runs a postal route in her dodge van and she goes thur a set of tires in 7 months, all the stop and go and on-off the road wears them out her brakes only last about 6 months also but it is how you drive and how you take care of them.

[Memristor]

I got an answer from Chrysler and they basically say that tires are a wear item and they do not provide assistance with wear out situations. He also said that OEM tires are not of the same quatlity as retail tires you buy at the tire shop.

When I was at the dealership ordering our Journey, I mentioned to the salesperson I would like to swap out the Kumho tires for another brand. I don't know if this is possible but I sent the dealer and email today to find out. Has anyone been able to do this? I'm willing to pay a little more if I can get something else. By the way I ordered the SXT with everything the same as the CREW, so I could stay away from the 19' tires.

I like your idea of changing the tires when the car is still new. Let me know how that turned out.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Memristor

[bramfrank]

Memristor: The person who replied to you is probably the same one who told me that uConnect does include Bluetooth on the 2011 and that I should claim a radio retrofit - wrong on both suggestions.

Well, tires ARE a wear item, but they are what are called 'spec' tires'. They are exactly the same as what you buy retail, but marked as OEM because manufacturers get a discount for the quantities they buy and because the manufacturer provides a very limited warranty.

However be aware that tire wear is tied to a number of factors; Obviously there are different formulations for the tire compunds and hardness is the most important factor - the wear factors are incorporated in what is called the "Uniform Tire Quality Grade" (UTQG) rating . UTQG defines tire life, traction and extended run speed ratings - you can always Google it if you want more information. The higher the number, the longer they'll roll.

While how you drive is also one of the keys, WHAT YOU DRIVE ON can be even more important. If you drive on what is called 'chip & seal' your tires will not last long at all because the finish is tough on tires and Michigan is one of those states that uses that paving technique, though where and how extensively I cannot say.

Rolly: As to swapping tires - your dealer likely would be more than pleased to sell you a set of tires and install them on your brand new vehicle and might even credit you something for having done so, and then he'll sell the removed ones as 'take-offs' at a very nice profit to someone who needs tires.

[rolly]

Bamfrank,

You're right about them selling me a set of tires, but I will only consider this if it's not going to cost me an arm and a leg. I don't mind paying a bit extra as long as it's Michelins or a similar quality tire. I'm a firm believer in regular tire rotation and checking my tire pressure. I replace my tires when I notice a change in the traction or because of age and not by their appearance. The Michelins that I had in the past still looked quite good, but had high mileage on them and the performance was causing me concern. If I had purchased a Town and Country, I could have ordered Michelins but I couldn't get them on the Journey.

[rolly]

Update on my attempt to swap out the Kumho tries. The parts department no longer swaps out tires, but they called one tire supplier for me who they knew would swap. He was only willing to give me $75.00 a tire. The supplier said he had 15 sets of Kumhos sitting in his warehouse already. I guess I'll have to live with them for now. As I said I do regular tire pressure checks and rotations so maybe it's a non issue.

[Windancer]

Obviously this is only one person's opinion, I have had no problems to speak of with the Kumho tires. When it comes time to change them out I will get something else, by that time there will/should be a larger selection available in the oddball size that is on my Journey. I agree with you tire pressure checks and rotations will be important. I just had my tires rotated for the second time an my vehicle has 28,000 kms, on it.

Terry

Edited October 16, 2012 by Windancer

[rolly]

Thanks Terry,

That makes me feel better. Maybe because I've seem more complaints about the tires than more positive comments it's left me a little concerned. I guess it's only natural to hear from someone who is having issues than it is from those without issues. A lot of times people will call to complain but hardly ever give feedback on a good product. Anyway thanks again!

[yoj5000]

kumho is korean company. actually they have huge market in korea next to hankook.

i was wondering if i should go get 20 inch rims and new tires, and i think i found the answer here...

[walkmanf1]

stay away from these tires. mines started to vibrate after barely 15000kms use only. rebalancing did not help. i have to see dealer next week and find a solution

[Windancer]

stay away from these tires. mines started to vibrate after barely 15000kms use only. rebalancing did not help. i have to see dealer next week and find a solution

With all due respect, is it the tires, the rims? These rims are prone to have snow and ice freeze on to them an make your car wobble.

I will replace the tires with something better IMO when the time comes. I have a 2010 R/T AWD and so far these tires while not the greatest tires, they have proved to be very satisfactory to date. Personally I think you should look on the inside of the rims to see if there is any ice or snow build up. This may be moot because I see you live in Montreal (my brother lives in Beaconsfield) where you have to put snow tires on your car by December 15.

I know I have a problem when negotiating deeper snow and it freezes on the inside of my rims and thus unbalancing my tires.

Terry

Edited March 31, 2013 by Windancer

[2late4u]

have a 2011 mainstreet with 17 inch kumos and just turned 33k they they still look great they look less than half worn out, have rotated them 2 times so far.i do alot of interstate driving.i run 36 to 38 psi in them.my daughter runs a postal route in her dodge van and she goes thur a set of tires in 7 months, all the stop and go and on-off the road wears them out her brakes only last about 6 months also but it is how you drive and how you take care of them.

well i havealmost 44k on my kumos as of now and they still look great have not had them rebalanced but kept them rotated every 10 k did it myself so i know how it is being done and torque the lugs myself so they werent over tightend with a air gun, any ways they are looking great with lots of tread left but will change them out before next winter as i dont like to run them down to the tread wear ind. getting older i like to have good tread come winter or rainey weather, i used to run bridgestone turanza for yrs on my minn-van and really liked them and they gave me great service but if you googled them alot of drivers hated them so guess its how you drive and take care of them of course you can always get 1 bad tire and it can make the whole set feel bad . this is the first set of 17 inch kumos and cant complain about them they handle real good in the rain and we dont get that much snow in al. but havent had no driving problems with them. getting ready to get the transmission fuild and filter changed in the next couple of thousand miles and not having a dip stick for it really pisses me off,something like that should still be mandatory to be there cause you could get a small leak and not notice it and then burn the trans up. oh well guess ill get off the soap box and i could spend the $$ and get a dip stick when i have the fluid changed. take care everyone and keep it between the ditches.....

[Carguy1709]

My 09" Journey has the 19" Rims. The Kuhmo tires weren't bad but they weren't good either. Now on myJourney i have Hankook Optima tires.

[poordebru]

Kumho tires on 10 journey almost wore out with 23000 miles. Called Dodge and they said only 12000 12 month warranty, said call manu Kumho. Called and told them they were almost wore out and they said 20-30 thousand miles is the expectancy. Dodge ask for a cheaper compound in the tire to make more money. I ask if I bought them again is this 20-30 thousand to be expected again and was told new ones, same name, same tire bought aftermarket would go 60,000 miles. They told me to call Dodge and complain, I told them it was a lack of integrity on Kumho's part to make 2 identical named numbered tires as if they were the same. They didn't care and told me to call Dodge.

[bramfrank]

poorebru

All car manufacturers do this - it really is not much different than how printer manufacturers supply 'starter' toner and ink cartridges. The tire companies are in cahoots with the practice because they have an advantage in that many (perhaps most) car owners will install the same make and model as replacements when they wear out and they will almost certainly buy the same make and model in the event of a tire failure.

They are 'numbered' the same, but I'm willing to wager a small amount that you will find the term 'spec' moulded somewhere on the sidewalls (and I'm not going out to the garage to check my vehicle).

[webslave]

All auto manufacturers "spec" out tires for bid when they start a model year and sometimes mid-year if they run short. The spec'd tires are quite often slightly inferior in contstruction materials (softer compounds usually) to improve the ride. The manufacturer is more concerned with your initial test drive impression than in how long the tires will last. If I were them, I'd do the same thing. Once the deal is made, the life of the tire becomes irrelevant to the manufacturer; whenever they wear out, the owner is least likely to come back to the dealer for new tires, so, it doesn't push the manufacturer to provide long-life tires vs. good riding tires.

I've owned a lot of cars in my lifetime and the Kumhos are no worse than most of the "stock" tires that my cars came with, and they are a bit better in some aspects to some of the "stock" tires a few of my cars came with. I had a 1978 5 liter Mustang (the first of the V8 modern Mustangs) and it came with BFGs. If you spit on the road those tires would slip and slide. They were so bad that I bought new tires before they had 3,000 miles on them. These Kumho tires ride nicely, have good wet and dry grip and had good bite this past winter in the snow. Are they the best in any of those categories? No, but, they are adequate and I'll leave them on the Journey until they are worn out (keeping them aired and rotated), but, I never expect to get more than 20-25K miles out of any original manufacturer's supplied tire. If I get that, I'll be happy. If I get more than that, I'll consider it a "gift". Will I ever buy Kumho tires again? Maybe; depends on price break, tread wear warranty and tread design. I won't say that the tires are so bad that I'll never own another set.

[onecrazyfoo4u]

Well I'm at 26k miles and I have probably half the tread left at least on the original 19" Kuhmo's. I'm more than happy with the tire.

[Robu]

I'm probably leaning more towards these tries (and the manufacturer) Being absolute garbage.

At 5000KM into owning them, one of my tires developed a nice little bulge.. OK Tire, Canadian Tire, and My dealership all flat out say "defect".. Kumho? "Road hazard were sorry!" despite there being zero psychical damage to the tire (tread, or side walls).

Granted it didn't help Chrysler didn't know how to even deal with the warranty process on these things! As soon as I get a chance, I'm dumping these pieces of garbage for something else

[2late4u]

turned 59 k on my 17 kumos and still have quite a bit of tread left in the center of the tire but on both edges of the tire they are wore down alot, it is a sign of running them with low air pressure which i dont always run 36 to 40 air pressure, so off i go to the alignment shop, i have always used for the last 20 yrs. and he told me the rear alignment was out a little more than the fronts were. so always keep a close eye on your tires as the car was not pulling to either side. good thing is i have got great mileage out of these tires, of course i rotated them every 10k. so not to upset i let them go so far. problem is they still look like they have about 10 k left on them but deep down i know i need to get new ones before the snow flies down here in north alabama. and also just had to replace the battery in my wifes remote, had to have mine changed last yr, these new remotes sure do eat up the batteries as my 2001 dodge truck is still going strong on the factory battery. also was thnking about changing out the engine battery in the near future as since it is in such a hard place to get to dont think i want to wait for it to go bad at a future date that would be really inconvenent. most of my mopar batteries have always seem to go bad after about 3 years.. how long have you all went before changing your batteries out?

[jkeaton]

turned 59 k on my 17 kumos and still have quite a bit of tread left in the center of the tire but on both edges of the tire they are wore down alot, it is a sign of running them with low air pressure which i dont always run 36 to 40 air pressure, so off i go to the alignment shop, i have always used for the last 20 yrs. and he told me the rear alignment was out a little more than the fronts were. so always keep a close eye on your tires as the car was not pulling to either side. good thing is i have got great mileage out of these tires, of course i rotated them every 10k. so not to upset i let them go so far. problem is they still look like they have about 10 k left on them but deep down i know i need to get new ones before the snow flies down here in north alabama. and also just had to replace the battery in my wifes remote, had to have mine changed last yr, these new remotes sure do eat up the batteries as my 2001 dodge truck is still going strong on the factory battery. also was thnking about changing out the engine battery in the near future as since it is in such a hard place to get to dont think i want to wait for it to go bad at a future date that would be really inconvenent. most of my mopar batteries have always seem to go bad after about 3 years.. how long have you all went before changing your batteries out?

When we traded in our 09 DJ with 80,000 miles on it last weekend, it still had the original battery in it. Kumho tires rock. I have them on 3 of my vehicles now. Never had a problem. They wear great and have good pricing.

[redtomatoman]

Just turned 31,000 miles. They have been rotated twice. At least 40-50% of the tread is left. Smooth. Quiet. No complaints here. At least on my ride.

Peace.

[Ric04SiR]

Only have 5000km on my DJ and already thinking about changing the 225/55R19 Kumho. These tire are crap

[bigtsr]

Why so negative on Kumho?

Have you had a failure?

They are a soft formula I know,you can see that when you turn

on asphalt while going slow or stopped as they heavy marking.

You will be switching to mandatory snows soon anyway maybe the

Kumho will last another summer.

[FROGBOX]

My Journey has only 40k km on it and the tires are pretty much done. They are too soft and wear out too fast IMO. This is not a sports car, so no need for super soft tires. Considering how expensive 19" replacement tires are in the OEM size, I am very disappointed with them. I will be replacing them with a different size (cheaper) and a harder compound (longer lasting) tire next summer. Probably the Yokohama YK580 255-50/19. They are rated for 60,000 miles and are a lot cheaper than 225-55/19 tires. When I was searching for tires, only 4 models came up in the 225-55 size versus 55 models in the 255-50 size. A lot more options means lower prices. Only 1% variation in the circumference, so no worries about throwing off my speedo.

[Windancer]

Sorry for repeating myself but I am placing the same post her as I did in another thread. I am one of those people that did replace the OEM Kumho tires with the slightly larger Michelin tires. This is my reasoning:

I got 40,000 kms. (24,000 miles) out of my original Kumhos, slightly disappointing but typical of OEM tires. Personally I would have liked to get more. Although they have been through 3 winters here and I never really had any complaints.

Around here there was a much larger choice of tires in the 235/55/19 size as opposed to the 225/55/19 size. About a month and 1/2 ago I went to my local Costco and had them order 4 235/55/19 Michelin Latitide HP tires for my car. Now as you probably know Costco only replaces tires in the same size as what is listed on the door so I printed off the TSB that DodgeCaCares provided here. They had no problem ordering the tires and putting them on the car. So far I have had no problems, rides very nice, lots of traction etc, although several forum members have had some problems with Costco tires, so I really don't want to diminish that fact and the trouble they encountered.

As I mentioned so far I have had no problems and over the weekend we have had several inches of snow, the Michelins seem to have much more traction and while a more narrower tire would probably be better in the snow, and snow tires would be better but a huge extra expense and considering I have 2 cars not a whole lot of extra room in my garage

I have no complaints so far, they seem to be better than my Kumho's but my Kumho's were nearing the end of their life. They advised me that the Kumho's would probably last me next summer, but they would be lacking over winter. I have been out on gravel roads and and on unmantained roads walking my dog and had no problems so far. I will definately post if there is a problem.

Terry

[2late4u]

well i just turned 60k miles on my kumos 17 inch tires and kept them rotated but the alingment got a little out of wack wearing the outside and inside of the tires so went down to my local tire store and got some 225-65-17 bridgestone dueller sport as tires out the the door for $340.oo mounted and balanced. oh did i mention they are used tires with 90 percent tread left on them. so far they are real quiet riding and smooth on the road hope they do good. have used this dealer for tires the last 10 years and have had no problems with their used tires they give a 30 day warrenty for any problem and have never had any problems with their tires so the cost savings are a real cost saver i used to never want to try used tires before but since tires have shot up in price, thought id try them have gotton over 4 sets over the years and no problems with them..