So first off, this is my first post on the forum. Sorry for the long post to follow, but I think the background info is warranted...

Earlier this year I picked up an LR3 HSE Lux for my wife\family car. We are loving it so far, and have done some off roading already. The vehicle did great, and only had some trouble in some very deep mud ruts we probably shouldn't have gone through with street tires anyway But I knew what my first mod would be...decent all terrain's!

I was casually browsing around for a set of 18's to pick up since there are more tires available for that wheel size...but not much luck. I decided just to wait it out until our Michelin all seasons wore down a bit more, or until I found a good deal on local 18's.

Fast forward to this week...my wife was driving out of our neighborhood and got a flat. It was beyond repair and the tread depth on a new tire would have been too far off to not replace the whole set. Perfect excuse to get those all terrains! Luckily I had already done all my research and knew exactly what I wanted, Cooper LTZ's in 255/55R19. I quickly went to treaddepot.com and 3 days later the Coopers arrived. Now keep in mind, my wife had to drive the car a few miles back and forth to work on the spare (I wasn't thrilled about that, but I digress).

So the tires come in today while I'm at work, so I instruct her to load them up into the LR3 and head on over to the tire shop where I have conveniently scheduled an install. This was my mistake. You have a woman with two children driving up to a tire shop in a luxury suv (in one of the most yuppy areas in the country to boot). She lets the gentleman at the counter know she has an appointment to have 4 tires mounted on her Land Rover. About 10 minutes later I get a call from my wife and she asks me to call the tire shop because they told her we had the wrong tires for the vehicle...ok, so I give them a call. This is what transpired:

Tireshop: "Sir you are going from a v rated tire to an h rated tire, this isn't the right one for your land rover."

Me: "Sure it is, it's an all terrain tire. They don't make v rated all terrains with this size\load rating."

Tireshop: "It's unsafe to use anything less than the factory spec so we cannot install this tire"

Me: "This tire has been fully vetted and used for it's combination of on and off road compatibility with these vehicles. I am an educated customer and I wouldn't have purchased these tires if they were unsafe."

Tireshop: "None of our other customers with LR's run tires like this, or with less than a v rating"

Me: "None of your other customers use LR's for what they are supposed to be used for..."

Tireshop: "That's right."

Me: "That's right."

Tireshop: Akward silence

Me: "So can you go ahead and install the tires please"

Tireshop: "No it's unsafe and a liability. We can sell you the correct Michelin's though."

Me: "Thanks we will go elsewhere."

What the hell? Have you ever heard of this **** before? Do you think he was just trying to get one over on us because we brought in tires that were bought elsewhere? Especially since it was a woman with kids that brought it in. Or are they really that nitpicky about the speed rating? As I said...they are A\T's...find me an A\T with a v speed rating...better yet, convince me LR's were not designed to run A\T's, and in fact are sport trucks that we should be driving over 130mph.

 

Bleehhhhh. LR3's had Goodyear mtr's on the G4's if I'm not mistaken. That guy is just a turd

 

That's exactly right. In fact if you look on the door of the LR3 one of the factory sizes IS an h rated tire. I went to sears and they installed them no questions asked.

 

H rated tires are acceptable 130mph alternates. V is for over 140. Guy just saw wife driving, knows women drive fast and don't usually go offroad, but could have had you sign a release of responsibility waiver and mounted and let Cooper do tire warranty. He just wanted the extra markup of Michelins. Kind of weird that customer wasn't right business since.

 

Something similar happened to me at firestone tire with my Silverado. We had bought a back up set of new tires when we bought the ones that were on because we liked the tire and like all good things they get cancelled or discontinued so we wanted to make sure when the ones on it ran out wed have some more anyway it was like 3 years before we took them to the shop to get them changed out and they told us they wouldn't do it because the tires were to old and its a liabillity.... I told him thief brand new and he still wouldn't do it. Went right down the street and like your story got it done with no questions asked

 

Very familiar.

I did my research and decided that I want all terrains. I had been running the dealer's choice Kumho's for a year, experimenting with the truck's limits on mediocre tires.

I went to a Discount Tire, Firestone, and Goodyear and was told that I didn't really want all-terrains I had researched, but look! they carry exactly what I needed! I needed a V and not an H, and their brand. I didn't need any of what I had researched.

I didn't?

Yeah, you'll want V and want all-season.

I do?

(Now, I know that in order to get to the fun stuff, I have to d-r-i-v-e to get there...on the highway. But once there, I want to play. But I didn't want dedicated street tires.)

The moment I say something like, she's a beast who likes to get dirty...suddenly, I'm right to get all-terrains.

No ****.

My husband takes the truck in and gets information, and they don't question his choices: the same all-terrains I'd been asking about!

And, to boot, they assume it's his car.

I talked to our BMW mechanic, and he didn't hesitate to help us with the install or alignment.