Review: Firestone Pathmaker A/T

[Chef-j]

My writting isn't that great, so i will try make it short/helpful.:fro:

Name: Firestone Lemans Pathmaker A/T
Tire size: 265/70/16
Milies: Total about around 60k. (Installed @ around 5xk and now 110k)
Vehicle: 03 4runner SR5 2wd
Weekend or DD: DD
HWY or City: Most Hwy milies.
Ave Speed: Hwy - 70~80 mph and local - 40~50 mph.
Sidewall: This tire is very round tires...idk if anyone care about it.
Price: 111.99 from my local firestone.
Web site Info: Lemans Pathmaker A/T | Firestone Complete Auto Care


Dry:

My front tires has about 15% life(?) and rears are complete gone. These tires did pretty well untill today. Did not give me any headche at all. Since my tires are complete gone, i do feel little bit of losing tracting when i make really hard turns and noise got increased on HWY but other than that..im pretty happy with it.

Rainy/wet:
I do drive little careful/slow down in rain/wet. Whole this times, tires did not give me any issue in rain too. If my car was AWD, i prob could have lot a fun with these.

Snow:
I live in TX, so we do not get that much snow. BUT we did see snow about 3~5inch and some ice on the road last year and year before. Tires did " OK ". At hard stop on ice/snow road, it didn't grab that good but noting serious. I did live in michigan before and i'm used to driving in snow. I wouldn't drive with these tires if area gets a lot snow like michigan.

Off-roadz:
I did not like it. I had chance to drove thru heavy mud and some off-roads before. It did NOT do good at all, was more harder to get traction than rainy/snow days.

Pictures:

Front-

Rear-

i tried find other people's review but i could not find it thru online. I hope this can help if you are looking for pathmaker A/T. Overall Great tires for that price.

Now it's time for me to look for new tires, i'm going to try Yoko Geo or Firestone Destination. We'll see...:hungry:

 

[downpour11]

WOW you do need new tires... those things are dead!
Also, thanks for the review.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

Informative write-up! Thanks for posting. Let us know what you replace them with, the Yoks or Destinations.


The Destinations A/T's are very well liked, I'd be interested in how they compare to the Firestone store's other offering.
:cheers:

 

[Chef-j]

Yep, I do need new tires. Going in today, firestone said 612 OTD for destination and discount gave me 550 for yoko. Other local tire store offer me, nankang or cooper but price was way higher than firestone destination.

Since I have to drive this car in any weather condition and just reading many reviews on both of them, I do feel like going with destination.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

reading many reviews on both of them, I do feel like going with destination.

I love Yok's and have had nothing but good luck. Many don't have such good luck and don't do well with them. I have read some very poor reviews (and some good ones).


I haven't seen many/any bad reviews on the current Firestone Destination. I think you're making a good choice:bigok:

 

[Chef-j]

I just went to one firestone and they told me I have to wait 2~3 hours today. So I called couple other place near my fiance's house and one being a jerk and other one quoted me 1/3 more $ than first place. Oh well i guess I will check discount tires now. Lol

 

[CJ3Flyr]

You've got to live with the tires for a long time... 2-3hours isn't that long of a time IMHO.

Discount has the Hankook RFM10 which is well liked and has some great reviews. It's similar in design to the Destination A/T.

 

[Chef-j]

Well I just didn't have enough time. But u know what chris? I never had this hard time to buying a tires.
I went to DT and manager told me yoko geo is 7xx OTD. I told them about other two DT price and he said sale is end yesterday. I'm like ok..
At same time, first firestone manager called me and told me he can get me destination LE for 550 OTD if I come back today. So now I'm going back lol.

Edit: now my fiance is going to give me a ride, so I'm just gonna drop my car off. Its call win win!

 

[CJ3Flyr]

Edit: now my fiance is going to give me a ride, so I'm just gonna drop my car off. Its call win win!

:bigok: Very nice. Post your impressions after you get a few miles

 

[Chef-j]

Sure :surfer:

Since my car is already there, i'm going to replace shock as well. I've been running blown rear shock for many milies. They putting monroe shocks/struts so we'll see. :bluejump:

 

[mtnrunner2001]

Since I have these tires on my 2004 4Runner I figured I would add my opinion on them should anyone ever look into buying these tires. I don't (as of yet) have anything to compare the drive/feel/etc to them since these were the tires installed when I bought the 4Runner 16 months ago.

Tread life: The tires were pretty new when I bought the 4Runner and after 10k the tread still has plenty of life left. I would say that at the time I bought the 4Runner the tires had maybe 2-3k on them.

Dry Pavement: The tires do great on dry pavement and I do not think the road noise is too pronounced. If I lived in a warm climate without need to handle snow and ice these tires would be just fine.

Wet: I haven't driven more than twice in the rain (once was a heavy rain) and I experienced no problems with hydroplaning.

Snow/Ice: This is were the tire really does poorly. While the tires still have plenty of tread left they are getting replaced because they are simply not a really good snow/ice tire. Without the 4wd engaged the tires will basically make the 4Runner a mediocre snow car. With the 4wd engaged I have not had any trouble but depending on the conditions I do shift to a lower gear to get out of our neighborhood (mountainous area). If you only do a little snow/ice driving it might not be an issue but since I have a 70 mile commute each way I need a tire that instills more confidence.

Off road: Have only taken the 4Runner off-road twice and needed to use the 4wd to go where we wanted to go. Since this is our first SUV we have no idea what our experience would of been like with different tires although the last time we took it off road we saw an Outback at a little turnoff and given how the 4Runner was handling I cannot imagine how they made it down the canyon.

Summary: If you live in a warm climate and snow/ice is not a concern this a decent tire choice. If we didn't have the snow and ice we would not be replacing the tires at this point.