Subaru Outback Tires, Going Flat...Thoughts

[rayra]

low pressure, driver, or sociopath at her work would be my top 3 surmises. All before any imaginary quality defect in the tires. Age or similar decrepitude in the tire would manifest as visible hairline cracks between the tread lugs or on the sidewall of the tire at the peak of the bulge.

OP put a lot of extraneous details in his post but neglected to say anything about the operating pressure of the tires.

That she's had 5-6-7 lacerations / flats in just two weeks seems to suggest she is either a target or that she is blithely running the car through some sort of road defect over and over. I would suggest the OP ride with her one day, have her drive her normal route, normally with no inputs from the OP and see what she's running over / thru.

The common factor is her, those tires, that car. Very low probability there's anything wrong with the tires. Much lower probability than the other causes I've mentioned.

Too, where EXACTLY are the lacerations occurring on the tires? And which tires? The narrative is sorely lacking in useful information. Is it the same tire / corner every time? all on the same side of the vehicle? Could it be lacerations from contact with the fenderwell and the true issue a failing shock / strut? OP's narrative needs more technical details and less victim impact statement.

 

[jschmidt]

She managed to do just fine before recently. Nothing we read says driver error.

 

[Lieutenant Van]

Go on craigslist or offerup, buy a cheap-but-safe name brand used tire/rim for your subaru. If that gets cut and goes flat, you're running over something and brand's got nothing to do with it.

 

[Bikemobile]

Fresh Gravel is essentially "off road." You need an "off road" oriented tire for the car. I used the old 2nd gen Yoko Ats on my Jeep and they did not wear well. No idea on the 3rd gen.

I've seen Hankook Dynapro ATM's and General Grabber AT2's on newer outbacks recently. Ive had great luck with both of those tire designs.

80,000 mile tires are no good in any weather other than dry warm roads. Here in the deep woods of Colorado, 80,000 mile rated tires get a ride home on a tow truck or turned around and pointed home on the big mountain passes in winter. Selling a tire with a 80,000 mile rating is a huge dis-service to unaware motorists who get mad when they only last 60,000 before they are 4/32"and illegal for use during traction law closures, or get greasy at 50% wear.

 

[vicali]

I've run out Forester in rallies with both winter xice and Bridgestone dueller all seasons withou any problems. I think you may have got a spell of bad luck.

Before going to an all terrain like the geos or bfg I would look at how much pavement it sees. You will notice heavy tires in everyday driving.

You may be able to go with a 16 in rim and fit more rubber on as well.

 

[dman93]

I had OEM Geolandars on my Forester, and while they were reviled on the Forester forum, I thought they worked great in snow and off-road, including hundreds of miles in the Mojave, Death Valley and the Sierras. I replaced them with a Yokohama all-season, that saw another 40K miles of similar use, and in 80K miles total never had a flat or even slow leak with the Yokos. Not too great for dry road handling and pretty noisy too.

 

[Needin'Advice]

The Verdict

Well, it appears that the tires(Kelly Edge a/s) just can't hold up to being driven on gravel roads. The determination by the local tire shop that inspected them was that they just couldn't handle the added abuse that gravel offers over pavement. After breaking down the tires and taking a closer look, the final count was:

Tire#1 - One hole/cut - two plugs to fill it
Tire #2 - One plug and one patch
Tire #3 - Two patches (the larger one didn't work so well as the tire bulged when re-inflated)
Tire #4 - Nothing...go figure.

Of note: all the problems were within about 1/2 to 3/4 on an inch from center line on the tire.

The owner of the tire shop was awesome and handled things with the Goodyear/Kelly rep. Short version of that story is after haggling with them and arguing that their first "offer" was insulting they determined that they(Goodyear/Kelly) are going to credit us about $36 per tire (about $140 off of a new set). The owner of the shop then said that he would sell us tires close to cost and mount and balance for free. He recommended the Firestone FR710 as a replacement to what was on there. I would like to go with something more in line with the ones that had been mentioned here, but at $280 out the door for a set of 4, I can't really argue. Plus, if it is some crazy person cutting them(which I don't believe it is) it is a cheaper level of destruction. Its a 65k mile tire with decent reviews and the owner said he has some experience with that tire for customers that live/travel on gravel and hasn't had any issues.

Although, I wasn't impressed with the Kelly tire, I do have to say that I am pleased with the credit they are offering. We were not the original purchasers and we had no proof of road hazard coverage on them. They could have easily told us to take a hike. So I will give credit where credit is due.

So, we will give the Firestones a try and see what happens.

 

[RubiconGeoff]

If those don't hold up for you, I'd consider an even more puncture-resistant tire.

 

[Needin'Advice]

I wonder how my toyo open country at's would rate on this test? Pretty cool, thanks.