Hankook tires, any good?

Mokume

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I've got a 2020 Lariat SuperCab with the FX2 package on order, I am assuming that the standard equipment tires will be Hankook 265/60R18 OWL tires (chrome package also).. The so called LT tire option is not available with the chrome package.

What has been your experiences with this brand of tire? Frankly I don't expect them to perform admirably.

I am well aware of the fact that all auto manufacturers broker deals with certain tire manufacturers and specify the absolute cheapest tire available.
  • is it round, black and have tread?
  • does it meet the minimum DOT/FMVS standards?
  • will it remain inflated for any length of time?
  • can you supply X amount of them?
When you buy 5K plus tires, this is an important cost cutting factor. For all I know my new truck may be shod with Bridgestones instead.

Remember the Firestone debacle with the Explorers some years ago?

Thanks !
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I haven't been terribly impressed with the Hankooks, but I've not been terribly disappointed either. I can't say I've really tested them well (at least offroad). When the snow flies up higher later this year I will probably get a chance to test them a bit, although I don't do any serious off roading. They are reasonably quiet on road and thus far seem to be wearing well.

I know that doesn't help much, but.....
 

FULLSCALE

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I haven’t had mine long but no complaints so far!
 

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Not a bad tire, 20,000km in. They are not the best in the snow, but Mokume shouldn't have to worry about that, lol. I do plan on changing them before winter for a snow rated tire though.
 

Tracy Bowman

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I have driven mine through very hard downpours. My tires have performed very well. No hydroplaning. They also ride great (to me)!
 


I_smell_like_diesel

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I was happy with mine. I've also had them on another past vehicle of mine and they did the job well. We also use them on some of our fleet trucks at work, the operators that have them on their trucks always request them again.

Discount Tire also has them rebrand the AT-M's under their "Pathfinder" house brand. Discount Tire has pretty high standards, for a tire shop IMHO, so that says something as well
 

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I ripped through the sidewall on mine on some rocks when offroading.... and the sidewall on another has already started cracking...but thats my insight if you try to offroad on them without getting falkens beforehand lol
 

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I've got a 2020 Lariat SuperCab with the FX2 package on order, I am assuming that the standard equipment tires will be Hankook 265/60R18 OWL tires (chrome package also).. The so called LT tire option is not available with the chrome package.

What has been your experiences with this brand of tire? Frankly I don't expect them to perform admirably.

I am well aware of the fact that all auto manufacturers broker deals with certain tire manufacturers and specify the absolute cheapest tire available.
  • is it round, black and have tread?
  • does it meet the minimum DOT/FMVS standards?
  • will it remain inflated for any length of time?
  • can you supply X amount of them?
When you buy 5K plus tires, this is an important cost cutting factor. For all I know my new truck may be shod with Bridgestones instead.

Remember the Firestone debacle with the Explorers some years ago?

Thanks !
Hi Mo,

You are sadly misinformed on getting the cheapest tire. Auto manufacturers test to a set of standards and the tire manufacturers supply their product that meets these standards. The cost is determined mostly on volume. Back in the day, my volumes were 340,000 vehicles per year times 4 per vehicle... That gets a tire Manufacturer's attention.

Yes, I was integrally involved with the fiasco on the Explorer as the Ranger used the very same tire on all 4x4s. Then the edict by our CEO to get rid of the Firestone tires off all Ford products....trying to find a manufacturer with capacity to handle Ranger volumes was extremely difficult. Micheline refused as the image of Ranger was not to their status as used on premium vehicles. Finally we found capacity at Continental/General, but there was a huge problem with General's tire...My boss kicked off tooling on this tire to the tune of $20 million. Authorizing working on the molds 24/7. My vehicle dynamics engineer, Doug S. shut down the tire for wet handling...It caused big political problems, and my boss decided to get another Vehicle Dynamics engineer to evaluate the tire, I stood firmly with my engineer and against my boss....unfortunately this poor engineer also agreed the General was not up to wet handling standards. My boss was absolutely furious! So sitting in a meeting where it looked like we might all loose our jobs...I asked if there was a Continental tire of the same size to which the manufacturer said yes the ContiTrac... That night my vehicle dynamics engineer was on a plane to the manufacturer's test track....The ContiTrac worked...so now we stopped work on the General molds, my boss now having lost $20 millon, and we kicked off molds of the ContiTrac for another $20 million....Whew! Those were not fun days, I was on call 24/7, took no vacation until ContiTrac was in production.. I probably aged 20 years in that six month time period.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Range Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
 
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Fjsteven

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The hankook were ok. I found their traction on dirt roads was lacking. I did upgrade to BFGs and those were world better. I’d call hankook serviceable.

General opinion on the internet is pretty good. So I tried them out for a couple months. Ultimately upgraded but could have lived with them if I had to.
 

CoastieN70

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I had HANKOOKS on my Explorer Sport and they were better than adequate. They flat spotted over night and needed several miles to work their flat spots out. Other than that they performed well .
HANKOOKS on my ranger do not suffer from flat spots and so far have performed better than I expected, the only thing I haven't driven in is snow, but dirt, DEEP mud and torrential rain have all been handled well...
 
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Mokume

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Hi Mo,

You are sadly misinformed on getting the cheapest tire. Auto manufacturers test to a set of standards and the tire manufacturers supply their product that meets these standards. The cost is determined mostly on volume. Back in the day, my volumes were 340,000 vehicles per year times 4 per vehicle... That gets a tire Manufacturer's attention.

Yes, I was integrally involved with the fiasco on the Explorer as the Ranger used the very same tire on all 4x4s. Then the edict by our CEO to get rid of the Firestone tires off all Ford products....trying to find a manufacturer with capacity to handle Ranger volumes was extremely difficult. Micheline refused as the image of Ranger was not to their status as used on premium vehicles. Finally we found capacity at Continental/General, but there was a huge problem with General's tire...My boss kicked off tooling on this tire to the tune of $20 million. Authorizing working on the molds 24/7. My vehicle dynamics engineer, Doug S. shut down the tire for wet handling...It caused big political problems, and my boss decided to get another Vehicle Dynamics engineer to evaluate the tire, I stood firmly with my engineer and against my boss....unfortunately this poor engineer also agreed the General was not up to wet handling standards. My boss was absolutely furious! So sitting in a meeting where it looked like we might all loose our jobs...I asked if there was a Continental tire of the same size to which the manufacturer said yes the ContiTrac... That night my vehicle dynamics engineer was on a plane to the manufacturer's test track....The ContiTruc worked...so now we stopped work on the General molds, my boss now having lost $20 millon, and we kicked off molds of the ContiTrac for another $20 million....Whew! Those were not fun days, I was on call 24/7, took no vacation until ContiTrac was in production.. I probably aged 20 years in that six month time period.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Range Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
Aloha Phil,
Thanks for your candid response but I've a question, when you say "Auto manufacturers test to a set of standards" exactly WHO'S standards are these?
My 2000 Ranger 4x2 came equipped with (5) Firestone P
"I am well aware of the fact that all auto manufacturers broker deals with certain tire manufacturers and specify the absolute cheapest tire available"


I am more apt to believe this statement is based on misinformation.

I have no complaints thus far about my tires. They perform well and 10000km later are still doing their job.

If you feel the tires aren't up to your standards, then your option is to change them to something more to your liking.
Ford, nor any other manufacturer can make everyone happy.
Well, if you had 2 Firestones as original equipment go bad on you (tread separation) and were NOT part of the Firestone recall as I did on my then new 2000 Ranger, you'd doubt the integrity of the tire manufacturer or who had originally written the specs for said tires.
After the second tire defect occurred (within 2.5 years of ownership) all 5 were replaced with Michelins, all at my expense.
I wanted nothing to do with Firestone tires, indeed neither did Ford as it turns out.
However, cost was not the issue here, the fact that I had strapped my okole to a vehicle with such woeful tires was the issue
 

egilbe

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My understanding with the Firestone tires were that the Chinese Manufacturers left out a critical piece of the tire design because they couldn't understand what it did. To save cost, increase profit, they skipped it. Everyone was happy, tires cost less, until they started separating. It's also my understanding that the person who made that decision was taken out back and quietly shot.
 

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Aloha Phil,
Thanks for your candid response but I've a question, when you say "Auto manufacturers test to a set of standards" exactly WHO'S standards are these?
My 2000 Ranger 4x2 came equipped with (5) Firestone P

Well, if you had 2 Firestones as original equipment go bad on you (tread separation) and were NOT part of the Firestone recall as I did on my then new 2000 Ranger, you'd doubt the integrity of the tire manufacturer or who had originally written the specs for said tires.
After the second tire defect occurred (within 2.5 years of ownership) all 5 were replaced with Michelins, all at my expense.
I wanted nothing to do with Firestone tires, indeed neither did Ford as it turns out.
However, cost was not the issue here, the fact that I had strapped my okole to a vehicle with such woeful tires was the issue
The standards to which Ford tests are set by Ford...other Manufacturers set their standards. For example, the tire cannot hydroplane under X mph. X is defined by Ford. The tire has to pas the J turn...in a fully loaded vehicle...tough test for a tire as well as a vehicle. An so it goes...pretty extensive testing required to bring a tire to market. So for pricing, we tell purchasing which tire we like and it is up to them to work with the tire mfg for pricing... Hard to detail all this in a few paragraphs.

Your Ranger would have been part of the recall. Concurrent with the production fiasco, I had to develop a list of other tires suitable for the Ranger that people like you could install with confidence, paid for by Ford.. I was flying all sorts of brands of tires around the country to our Vehicle Dynamics folks to evaluate asap. My air freight bill for tires was well over $1 million. Most tries including Hankook were pretty good. Don't recall but we scrapped the idea of Chinese tires as they did not hold up. One brand I hazily recall was Foo Yuk... and Yuk they were...

Were your tires Wilderness A/Ts? or were they XTs The A/Ts were the the problem tire XTs were actually great tires, Our CEO wanted to bankrupt Firestone, but Bridgestone came to the rescue. Firestone CEO tried to tank the Explorer, but that did not work either... ATs from the South Carolina plant which was automated were never really a problem...the hand layed up ATs at another older Firestone plant were almost always the ones that had the Tread Separation. So it appeared that the AT design was not robuse for manufacturing variation. Explorer Chief Engineer did something unwise too, which was to drop cold tire pressure to 26 psi when rim rolloff was at 25 psi to try to address continuing complaint of rough ride... Hence, I think you will not find a Ford vehicle with a tire pressure cold of anything less than 30 psi...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
 

P. A. Schilke

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My understanding with the Firestone tires were that the Chinese Manufacturers left out a critical piece of the tire design because they couldn't understand what it did. To save cost, increase profit, they skipped it. Everyone was happy, tires cost less, until they started separating. It's also my understanding that the person who made that decision was taken out back and quietly shot.
Hi,

News to me...As far as I am aware, Ranger and Explorer tires were produced in the USA at two plants. Not sure where this came from , but am not aware of a Chinese connection with respect to the Ford/Firestone fiasco.
 
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Mokume

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The standards to which Ford tests are set by Ford...other Manufacturers set their standards. For example, the tire cannot hydroplane under X mph. X is defined by Ford. The tire has to pas the J turn...in a fully loaded vehicle...tough test for a tire as well as a vehicle. An so it goes...pretty extensive testing required to bring a tire to market. So for pricing, we tell purchasing which tire we like and it is up to them to work with the tire mfg for pricing... Hard to detail all this in a few paragraphs.

Your Ranger would have been part of the recall. Concurrent with the production fiasco, I had to develop a list of other tires suitable for the Ranger that people like you could install with confidence, paid for by Ford.. I was flying all sorts of brands of tires around the country to our Vehicle Dynamics folks to evaluate asap. My air freight bill for tires was well over $1 million. Most tries including Hankook were pretty good. Don't recall but we scrapped the idea of Chinese tires as they did not hold up. One brand I hazily recall was Foo Yuk... and Yuk they were...

Were your tires Wilderness A/Ts? or were they XTs The A/Ts were the the problem tire XTs were actually great tires, Our CEO wanted to bankrupt Firestone, but Bridgestone came to the rescue. Firestone CEO tried to tank the Explorer, but that did not work either... ATs from the South Carolina plant which was automated were never really a problem...the hand layed up ATs at another older Firestone plant were almost always the ones that had the Tread Separation. So it appeared that the AT design was not robuse for manufacturing variation. Explorer Chief Engineer did something unwise too, which was to drop cold tire pressure to 26 psi when rim rolloff was at 25 psi to try to address continuing complaint of rough ride... Hence, I think you will not find a Ford vehicle with a tire pressure cold of anything less than 30 psi...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
I honestly do not remember what model/design Firestones they were, but I do know that they were P225/70 R15 SL in size. The Ranger is a 2000 SuperCab 4x2, I wanted them out of my life after the second failure and have vowed never to be saddled by that brand ever again.
Indeed if any vehicle I purchase in the future has this brand of tire, they'll be promptly replaced with another brand, regardless of their age/condition.
I'll give the Hankooks a try on my new SuperCab with an open mind, but my tire brand of choice has been and will continue to be Michelin's. They were a vast improvement over the woeful Firestones.
On a lighter side, here in Hawaii we like to poke fun at the varied nationalities that make up the tapestry of residents, especially the Portuguese and Chinese. I myself am Hawaiian, Korean, Chinese and Dutch in background and very proud of it.
Leave it to the "Pakes" (local slang for Chinese ) to have "Yuk" somewhere in a name or title, or a word very similar in pronounciation. There is a well known "pake" restaurant here in Honolulu who's name is "Fuk Yuen",
scouts honor!
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