Kelly Safari TSR, Good or Bad?

[xskydivingdudex]

hey guys well ive been looking for a new set of tires and ran across a pretty good deal on Craigslist but im debating if i want to pick these up or not.

I know they are manufactured through Goodyear and are very similar to Duratracs and thought id see wat your thoughts/experience of them are... the ones im looking at are load range E which is not ideal but alot of guys on here ride with them fine and figured i could save a few hundred if i pick these up instead of a new set of tires.

 

[SCRunner12]

A few guys have them and like them a lot (Snowrambler? MarcP?). I'd get them if I was you.

 

[The97Runner]

My friend has them and he seems to like them so far. Had em for acouple months

 

[Baja Runner]

I would never run a load E on my 4Runner...

 

[4-Ripcord]

At first I was like :hungry:

Then I saw E-load and was like...

 

[IanB]

I would expect them to be very similar to Duratracs, except in the snow/ice as they don't have the same siping. Look for a set of C-load ones though.

 

[offthebeatenpath]

How a tire rides is a very subjective judgement.

Think what you want- I did a bit more reading than is available here.....
and found that a lot of people run E rated tires on 4Runners, FJ's and Tacomas without any issues. A lot of it depends on what you expect your truck to ride like. If you expect it to be like a Lexus, buy a Lexus. If you expect it to ride better than your old '87 Toy pickup, you'll likely be fine with E rated tires.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[Sherwood4Runner]

I have Load E BFG tires and I like them because I feel like the sidewalls are firmer (well they are because they are thicker), thereby giving a more stable feel. The load C Toyo's that were on it before felt verrrry iffy at higher speeds. Also, I punctured two of those tires on one veeeery light off roading trip, so I wanted a thicker tire to hopefully eliminate that in the future.

However I lost about 2mpgs all around because of the extra rotational mass of them. I will probably get Load D tires next time, as a good compromise between thickness and MPGS.

 

[the great him]

im running E rated Nittos TGs and love them, thats coming from a D rated Maxxis Bighorn, and the Nittos are much much smother(yes i know mud tire vs all terrain...). the problem is most tires that are either a 265 or a 285 are going to be a D or E load rated tire, thats because they are most common on larger 3/4 and 1ton trucks, so the majority of the market is geared towards them. i think most people who say "dont run an E rated tire" or "id never run an E rated tire" ect are people who have never had one or know anything about how they ride. just cause its an E rated tire and can hold 80psi does not mean you need to run them at 80psi, drop them down to 25psi and you will have plenty of air in them to hold up your rig and give a nice ride, without giving yourself a bone jarring/spine crushing ride. also P rated tires vs LT rated tires; the LT rating will almost always give you about 4/32 more tread depth than a P tire. my Nittos in a P rating would of only had 13/32 new, and the LT rating has 16.5/32 so thats 3.5/32 more tread, that equates to a longer life in more ways than one. the tire is build heavier and stronger, and generally has a harder tread compound(last longer) and its got deeper tread(more of it)... i think people who put P rated tires on SUVs and pickups are just trying to buy the cheapest tire they can find in that size, and that will cost them at some point.

 

[mbraider808]

had a set of these before. they are actually pretty good.

 

[ALBPM]

I agree with what Sherwood4Runner and the Kid have said about the stiffer sidewalls giving much better control. Plus if you are running more than 40 lbs of air in either 265 or 285 E weight tires that is too much and they will feel like bricks.

I've run both 265/75/16 and 285/75/16 E weights and usually about 38-39 in the front and 36-37 lbs in the rear ride really nice on pavement.
The other part is that all tires are not constructed the same. Some brands have a softer outer compound that will wear off around 30,000 miles and then they get really rough no matter what air pressure you run. I encounterd this with BF Goodrich Allterrain TAs on my 93 Runner.

 

[Fireside]

My experience with the TSR's has been very good. My kids have them on their older 4runners. My wife has had them on her last two Tundra's and I have had them on my 2008 and 2011 4runners and am putting them on my new 2013 4runner next week. We need a tire that will run on Deep snow, Icy canyon blacktop, and about 20 miles of gravel and rocky road. Sometimes these conditions are present all in the same day. We can expect about 2 years of use with a pickup and and maybe 2 1/2 on the 4runner under these conditions since we both drive 80 miles round trip everyday for work. The kids have had them for 5 years and theirs are still going strong.

 

[bluecollarjock]

I have been thinking of these, reviews in magazines and online great...only thing i found out is its only 2 ply C range which is what I want, but its still 53 pounds for a 265/70 17 which is as heavy as an E range tire??

 

[5vzT4R]

How a tire rides is a very subjective judgement.

Think what you want- I did a bit more reading than is available here.....
and found that a lot of people run E rated tires on 4Runners, FJ's and Tacomas without any issues. A lot of it depends on what you expect your truck to ride like. If you expect it to be like a Lexus, buy a Lexus. If you expect it to ride better than your old '87 Toy pickup, you'll likely be fine with E rated tires.

Just my humble opinion.

I agree with your post up until the part of buying a Lexus, because we all kinda did buy Lexus's....

But I had a set of Kelly Safari's (not the "mud" terrain ones) they were the all terrain ones on my Tundra. And they seemed like fine tires to me.