Hi All...Recent transplan from CA to CO. Bought my 2006 LR3 in CA with the stock GY'rs. I'll have a 40 mile commute and will likely have to deal with some real snow/weather. Local dealer reco's the General ATII's but I've read allot of good things about the Scorpions (ice and snow version). Any strong opinions/reco's one way or another?

I know there have been a number of discussions on snow/offroad tire options but hadn't seen one between these two. BTW...I'm looking for a spare set of 18" wheels if anyone has a set they'd like to unload. Just email me through the board...

Thanks!!!
D.

 

We have a 2006 LR3 and live in CO. The Goodyears are crap when it comes to snow, especially the snow we had last winter.

We'll be having the Pirelli's put on this week due to some arguments we've had with Land Rover Flatirons. Reviews I've seen of them both professionally and just around the office is that they're "adequate".

As far as the Generals, I've not heard much about them. Should you decide to get them, please advise how they work out. I've come to terms with the fact that not only are proper tires for this vehicle hard to come by, getting tires that fit all the specs and are worth something in snow can be even harder. It's a good thing the car has so much intelligence built into it, i'd hate to see how bad it was in the snow if it was anything less.

PS. We had about 2-3.5 feet of snow in the neighborhood last winter due to the combined blizzard and we used my wife's LR3 to pull out a 3/4 diesel and run general errands while my 3/4 ton 4x4 was semi-useless. With all the smarts in the car, it was impressive what it was capable of doing (even with the crappy GYs). Only after my wife got a little stupid with it did she finally get it high-centered up on a small pile of iced up snow (then my 3/4ton wasn't so useless :-)).

 

I ended up going with the Scorpions...The CSprings dealer is pushing the General's but from the tirerack reviews and ratings, I decided the Scorpions would be a better tire all around. I guess if it gets REAL ugly, I do have chains but would like to avoid them if possible.

Funny story...We just bought an Infiniti FX35 for my wife. The salesman there used to work at LR. His screensaver is of him pulling a jeep out using his LR3!

D.

 

you'd have to be doing some pretty heavy incline-ice driving to warrant that, otherwise I don't think you'll have any need for chains, unless you're hauling concrete up monument hill in January .

 

Naw...I know...I bought them for Yosemite in CA. I've been forced to chain up twice in the last 5 years (4 wheel drive Chevy Avalanche)...The Park Rangers/Forest Service will force you to chain if it gets too crazy in order to "encourage" people to turn around. I kept them when we moved to CO so I've got 'em but wouldn't want to use them.

Chains are interesting...LR suggests putting them on the front only. I did the LR Adventure at Quail Lodge and the instructor there wouldn't commit (on the record) but indicated that axle location was less important than the manual implies.

 

Tylar...BTW...What's the issue been with LR Flatirons?

D.

 

The issue is the vehicle has 19k miles on it and the Goodyears are already trash. The second issue to that is that LR never rotated the tires until our 18k maintenance. When we bought the vehicle we were assured it had been service(it was a dealer loaner, so the first 7.5k was put on by them.) They said it was done the day we picked it up and everyone was happy. The second service was done per mileage . . the third, a month ago, was due to time as we hadn't driven the LR at all, really. BAsed on LRs rotation policy, the tire is rotated every even maintenance visit (second, fourth, etc). Commonly tires are rotated every 6k, LR thinks 12k miles is sufficient.

Problem: LR functions on teh principle that the tires only need rotated every other maintenance visit. Teh second maintenance visit shows no record of them rotating and the wear on the tires backs that up. So, we've been battling them over a) the lacking rotation policy, b) the fact they and the tires show no rotation done by policy in item 'a' or in wear, and c) they knowingly put on tires that are not designed nor capable of enduring the wear from a vehicle of that weight, suspension and drive train. hell, even finding replacements for the Goodyears is limited, at best.

So after a lot of whining, we got them to provide a free alignment and two tires, we're paying for the other two. Sorry for the rant'ish description. Love the vehicle, hate the dealer experience.

 

Got it...I'm getting ready for that battle as well. I also bought ours as a service loaner with about 7500 miles. After I drove from CA to CO, I took it in at around 12.5k. They rotated the tires and noted that they were "feathered". Not one or two but all friggin' four! I'm taking it in just short of 15k and plan on having a fairly direct conversation with the service manager. It's almost impossible to have 4 tires all feather equally without a fundamental geometry or material quality issue. Not sure what I'll get out of it (as I DON'T want more GY'rs)...

D.

 

In our research we found that there is a suspension design flaw that apparently LR is unable to resolve. Some people have filed class action suits. Some against the crappy tire application (not the tire, but LRs decision to use it) and some against LR and this reported suspension flaw.

The "free alignment and two tires" appears to be a common dealer way to solve the problem. AFter teh trouble we went through to get that far, we figured it was good enough.

I haven't seen any actual proof of teh suspension flaw, but you're point is the same as mine . . .tires shouldn't wear like that.

 

The Class Action suit is interesting in that so far it only includes 2004 and 2005 LR3's. I have heard about the suspension advisory from LR. When they rotated the tires on mine, they didn't have time (and I didn't want to wait 3-4 hours) to check the alignment. What irritates me is that I wouldn't want more GY'rs but I'm sure they're not gonna give me cash or credit towards something else...Thankfully, we've been one of the lucky ones and haven't had a lick of problems with ours...I've towed, taken it offroad, and basically just "drove it" and other than some interesting engineering (the European auto engineers could really learn something from the Asian auto engineers), have been basically trouble free...