Thread: Speaking of tyres ... anybody had this happen?

Bloke reports in this thread ... Beware BF Goodrich All Terrain Tyres @ ExplorOz Forum

Beware BF Goodrich All Terrain Tyres

Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008 at 13:13
peter11

I thought I'd alert you to a tyre problem I have had with BF Goodrich tyres, which it seems is quite common, and their reaction.

I have a set of the BFG All Terrains on my 80 series. About 6 months ago I had one tyre develope a nasty bulge in the sidewall, and I found steel wires sticking out of the sidewall. I took it to the closest BF Goodrich dealer, who advised me that, despite the fact that the tyre had over 50% wear left I would get no refund, partial or otherwise, from BFG if the tyre was over 12 months old.

He told me he had seen a number of problems like this, but BFG stuck by the 12 months, any older and forget it. At the time I was irritated but let it slide.

Last week during a trip to the Wonnangatta area I had another tyre do exactly the same thing. Steel wires poking out of the inner sidewall, large bulge, this time in the tread rather than the sidewall, more than 12 months old, 50% wear left. I contacted BFG through their website and almost a week later they haven't even had the courtesy to reply.

So I spent quite some time today talking to both tyre dealers and 4wd shops that sold tyres, and had the same story from everyone.

This is a common problem. The tyres get what they call "tread separation" basically meaning that they start to delaminate, and that this results in steel wires moving around in the tyre and sticking out of the tyre. One dealer told me he had had 3 come back this week, all with the same problem. This was from a dealer who sold BFG but told me he would never recommend the BFG All Terrains for a 4wd for this reason. And he also told me that they were the worst at customer service that he had ever seen, except for Michelin. Michelin own BFG.

I said I had had no reply to my contact with them and he said this didn't surprise him at all.

And they all told me that BFG were well aware of it and wouldn't do a thing about it. Just what I experienced.

So I thought I'd put it up here and let everyone know. If you're thinking of getting BFG All Terrains make some serious enquiries before you do. I'm not having a bar of them again, especially as they have demonstrated to me that they couldn't give a damn about the quality of their tyres.

But read on, later comes a discussion about tyres failing depending on whether the white writing is facing inside or out ... news to me!


This was interesting comment also ...

peter11 posted:

Yes interesting indeed. While I was talking to the tyre dealers several of them also told me they wouldn't sell Coopers either because they had problems.

2 dealers told me they had a specific problem resulting in splits in the bead, one dealer told me they were good at partial refunds for this problem and one said they were'n't that interested in doing much about it, but both independently told me that the Coopers AT had this problem.

I have had 2 of the dealers, and one 4wd shop, recommend the Silverstones 117s. Exact same tread pattern as the BFG ATs, around $60 - $65 cheaper and they say just as good. Several said that you just pay for the name with Coopers, Mickey Thompson and BFG, they're no better, in fact worse.

Interestingly as well, one 4wd shop who sell lots of 4wd tyres told me that the Coopers AT and the Mickey Thompson AT come out of the same factory, are the same tyre, just a different tread pattern. As he sold both I was interested to hear that.

Simon.

A number of differently branded tyres come out of the same few factories. Korea is a major producer of tyres.

My understanding of the BFG situation is that depending on the tyre size they could be US made (the good ones) or made in SE Asia.

The tyre guy told me that Defender/County standard 235/85/16 BFG A/Ts were from the US, though admittedly this was a few years ago. Certainly mine have been excellent, just reaching the point of replacement after about 5 or 6 years and 80,000km. They are doing better than two Hankooks I have.

Chris