More freaking tire problems....

[SoCalChris]

I went to leave work yesterday, and had a flat. After I took the tire off, I rolled it around, looking for a nail or screw or something. The only thing I found was that a bunch of my tread is falling off!

 

I took it to the local dealer (Not the one I bought it from), and they basically told me "It's because Chevy is putting passenger cars tires on the trucks, it works fine for most people, tough luck."

 

I went round and round with the service manager, with him telling me that it is because I do a lot of driving on unpaved roads. If you've ever been to Montana, you know that almost all of the roads that aren't in bigger cities, or interstates are unpaved. So why did Chevy cheap out, and send trucks to an area with mostly unpaved roads, with tires that won't even last 5,000 miles?

 

Now I'm trying to work with the dealer I bought the truck from, but they are about 100 miles away. I don't want to drive over there though, unless I know that they will do something. I talked to the president of that dealer, he seemed like he is willing to try to help, so we'll see what happens.

 

I also had a blowout at 900 miles with these cheap tires.

 

Here's some pictures, although they don't really show just how bad the tires are damaged.

 

 

 

[larry arizona]

Contact the tire manufacturer if the dealer won't warranty them. I think the dealers must get kick backs if they can deflect any warranty claims.

 

Pavement is much harder on tire wear than dirt roads. And unless you were doing large smokey burnouts there is not reason your tires should look like that. That almost looks like a short shot on the tire molding process where the tread is not completely formed.

 

But if they are Bridgstones then contact them for warranty amd bypass the dealer. There should be a tire warranty in the glovebox of the truck.

 

Good luck.

[SoCalChris]

Unfortunately, they aren't Bridgestone's. They're the General Ameritrac. I've never done burnouts either.

 

I'll check for the warranty card, and see if I can get anywhere with that.

 

If I can't get Chevy to replace them, I was thinking of taking them to small claims court for the cost of new tires, I'm nots sure how that would work out though.

 

Anyways, I shouldn't be looking to get new tires with only 5,000 miles.

[mmmikkke]

With the price of oil so high, I'd guess that the tire manufacturers are scrounging for raw material. Who knows, maybe they're trying to mix in low grade or waste oil in the process, seriously degrading the "rubber" quality.

 

It looks like poor quality rubber, with lots of impurities or something, letting things fall apart.

[HotWheels301]

This has been an ongoing problem. When I bought my truck back in 2000, it had General Ameritrac. They absolutely SUCKED!!! After about 8000 mi. I took it to my tire store and got some Bridgestone Duelers. 75,000 mi. later and I just put on my second set. I love the Bridgestones. I can't believe that GM's still putting those crappy tires on. Unbelievable!!!

[SoCalChris]

After going around with the dealer I bought it from and Chevy's customer support line, they've basically told me "Too bad, we won't do anything for you."

 

They told me to take it to a General tire dealer, and try to get them to replace them under warranty, although they said it looks to them like it would be covered by road hazard warranty, not a tire defect. And since General tires don't come with a road hazard warranty, I'm SOL.

 

I'm planning on buying a full size van in a few months, I can tell you which manufacturer just dropped down to the bottom of my list to look at...

[asepgrad98]

the tires are not covered under warranty by GM, instead by General.

 

Get some Michelins or some Bridgestones. I had to replace my OEM tires due to unacceptable wet traction way before they wore out.

[slemmer]

Also look at the Yokohama's for trucks - they've been written up very well on Tirerack.com

[pm26]

If I had bought a 2WD truck instead of Z71, those lousy General tires would be coming of within a week to be replaced with Michelin LTX M/S. As it is, the Bridgestones Duellers on my Z71 are actually very good tires.

[SoCalChris]

It pays to read the manual...

 

From their warranty guide, in the section "What is covered: Tire Coverage"

 

The tires supplied with your vehicle are covered against defects in material or worksmanship under the Bumper-To-Bumper coverage. Any tire replaced will continue to be warranted for the remaining portion of the Bumper-To-Bumper coverage.

 

Following expiration of the Bumper-To-Bumper coverage, tires may continue to be covered under the tire manufacturer's warranty. Review the tire manufacturer's warranty booklet or consult the tire manufacturer distributor for specific details.

 

From their warranty guide, in the section "What is not covered: Tire Damage or Wear"

 

Normal tire wear or wear-out is not covered. Road hazard damage such as punctures, cuts, snags, and breaks resulting from pothole impact, curb impact, or from other objects is not covered.Also, damage from improper inflation, spinning, as when stuck in mud or snow, tire chains, racing, improper mounting or dismounting, misuse, negligence, alteration, vandalism, or misapplication is not covered.

 

So, unless they are going to say the road is an "other object" that the truck shouldn't have had contact with, I don't see where they could back out of it. Looks like I'll be stopping back by the dealer in Bozeman, and telling them to shut up, and replace the tires. I can go in every few months for the remainder of the warranty, and get a new set of tires.

 

And the fact that both dealers lied to me, and told me that the tires weren't covered by Chevy doesn't make me too happy either...

[pm26]

General tires are junk. I had a rear tire blowout on my 83 Pontiac Bonevillee years ago when a general tire simply split right on the sidewall at 70 MPH. And the tire was practically brand new.

 

Many Colorado pickup trucks equipped with General tires have incessant vibration and uneven tire wear problems. Bottom line: these tires are junk. Get rid of them and buy something decent, warranty or not. It is not worth endangering yor life over $ 300. If you claim them under warranty they will give you another set of crappy General tires. I would not want them for free, unless I ran them on my riding mover at less than 5 MPH.

[Shoot2Thrill]

My truck came with American General tires, and I noticed that the front tires had chunks missing out of them when my salesman drove it to my house. I took my truck back to him the next day and he had people frantically looking at my truck, making notes, and making phone calls about the tires. From what I could gather my new truck (shipped with 7 miles on it) arrived at the dealer with the tires in that condition. They got the tires replaced, but they couldn't just take tires off another truck for some reason. I ended up having to drive a demo truck for a day until replacements arrived. The roads around my area are smoothe and paved, so I know it couldn't happen on the drive home, especially without the amount of tread that was missing. I had Tiger Paws on my S10, and while they had plent of tread on them, the started drying out around 40,000 so I had them replaced. I will probably have the General tires replaced around the same time. -Shoot2Thrill

 

 

I went to leave work yesterday, and had a flat. After I took the tire off, I rolled it around, looking for a nail or screw or something. The only thing I found was that a bunch of my tread is falling off!

 

I took it to the local dealer (Not the one I bought it from), and they basically told me "It's because Chevy is putting passenger cars tires on the trucks, it works fine for most people, tough luck." 

 

I went round and round with the service manager, with him telling me that it is because I do a lot of driving on unpaved roads. If you've ever been to Montana, you know that almost all of the roads that aren't in bigger cities, or interstates are unpaved. So why did Chevy cheap out, and send trucks to an area with mostly unpaved roads, with tires that won't even last 5,000 miles?

 

Now I'm trying to work with the dealer I bought the truck from, but they are about 100 miles away. I don't want to drive over there though, unless I know that they will do something. I talked to the president of that dealer, he seemed like he is willing to try to help, so we'll see what happens.

 

I also had a blowout at 900 miles with these cheap tires.

 

Here's some pictures, although they don't really show just how bad the tires are damaged.

 

 

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

[freakyt]

I do lots of gravel driving in Minnesota on rough roads, and my Bridgestones are holding up ok. Maybe I should take a closer look at them tonight....

[SoCalChris]

Well, I went round and round with the dealer again last night, and we finally came to a compromise.

 

They're going to upgrade the tires to Bridgestone LT tires for $180. That seems pretty fair to me.

 

They did try several lines on me though, that I thought were pretty funny.

 

At one point they told me "You're technically right that those tires are covered under warranty, but that's not how GM meant to word the warranty."

 

At another point, they told me that I wasn't using the tires in the way they were intended to be used, so I asked them if that meant that the tires weren't intended to be driven on public roads.

 

Another time they told me that if they were to keep replacing the tires, it wouldn't be any different than if someone went out and destroyed their tires doing burnouts and donuts every weekend, and then came in on Monday morning asking for new tires. I pointed out that spinning the tires is specifically covered under the what is not covered section of the warranty guide, and all I was doing is driving to & from work.

 

And before they offered to upgrade the tires to the LT tires, they told me that if they replaced the tires, and I came back in a few months asking for new ones, I would be kicked off of the dealership's property, and told to take my business elsewhere.

 

So it came down to a lot of going back and forth with the service manager, and the general manager of the dealership, but they did finally offer to take care of the problem in a way so that it hopefully won't happen again.

[dewfpo]

I'm glad your making progress but it really stinks that you have to put us with such BS to solve a problem that is no fault of your own. They kiss your butt and are your best friend when your buying the truck then after you drive off the lot.......it's a completely different story.

 

DEWFPO