What’s Treading with Tire Review

Latest Episodes:

Dive Into the Details of the Nokian Tyres Surpass AS01 With Us Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

Nokian Tyres recently launched the Nokian Surpass AS01, an ultra-high-performance (UHP) all-season tire for high-horsepower sedans, SUVs, and electric vehicles.
Steve Bourassa, Nokian Tyres North America Director of Products, joined us on the latest episode of What's Treading to discuss the tire’s improvements and standout features. This tire replaces the zLine A/S, which Nokian Tyres discontinued a few years ago.
This new tire fills a gap in the brand’s lineup, and Bourassa says it provides a balanced mix of performance, durability, and ride comfort for North American drivers.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com

Hankook Weatherflex GT review tests all-weather tire performance Jan 21, 2025

Show notes

During the waning weeks of 2024, Hankook Tire invited Tire Review to Joliet, Illinois, just outside Chicago, to experience the Weatherflex GT. It's the company's newest all-weather tire offering. For this Hankook Weatherflex GT review, we took to the track at the Autobahn Country Club, taking several laps with professional racing instructors offering guidance.
Key Specifications of the Hankook Weatherflex GT All-Weather Tire
Before diving into performance, let’s review Hankook's Weatherflex GT specifications. The Weatherflex GT comes in 37 sizes, from 15 to 22 inches. Hankook backs it with a 70,000-mile treadwear warranty. It also has the three-peak mountain snowflake designation for handling snow and ice. Hankook says it designed the tread pattern to deliver excellent winter performance. High-density sipes in the grooves enhance traction in snow. The sipes in the center and shoulder blocks helps to improve performance on snowy roads. Wide lateral grooves channel water away efficiently, reducing hydroplaning.
Wet Weather Performance and Hydroplaning Mitigation
The zig-zagged grooves improve cornering grip by engaging the road at various angles. This design ensures drivers maintain control. The tire's “3D GripKontrol Sipes” minimize block deformation. Better block stiffness leads to improved handling in wet and dry conditions, and we had the opportunity to experience this for ourselves on the track. Wide lateral grooves channel water away efficiently, reducing hydroplaning. This keeps the driver in control during rainy conditions.
Comfort Features Built Into the Hankook Weatherflex GT
To test the Weatherflex GT on the track, I drove two vehicles equipped with these tires: a 2025 Honda Accord and a 2025 Honda Pilot. The weather varied greatly during the test. A sunny, mild day turned overcast, windy, and drizzly. These conditions were perfect for testing this tire. The quiet ride stood out while reviewing this tire. Hankook says its engineers prioritized reducing road noise using strategically positioned tread blocks. The company optimized the block arrangement to minimize vibrations. Poorly positioned tread blocks generate unpleasant sounds, similar to clashing musical notes. Hankook harmonized these “notes” by varying block sizes and aligning them properly. This creates a quieter, more comfortable ride. The tire's “3D GripKontrol Sipes” minimize block deformation.
Introducing the Hankook Weatherflex GT to the Lineup
Hankook organizes its tires into families. These include the Kinergy, Ventus, and iON lines. The Weatherflex GT introduces a new family line. Tire Review spoke with Rob Nasca, Hankook’s Product and Marketing Training Manager, about the decision to introduce a new line. He explained the vision for the Weatherflex GT. "Consumers are looking at the market as a whole, and we've noticed that the snow accumulations actually decreased," Nasca said. "It's still getting cold out there in the wintertime, but there isn't as much snow. So, we've [responded] by having an all-weather tire that's going to be like an all-season, but have that three-peak mountain snowflake symbol. It's also going to be more cost-saving, because now the consumer doesn't have to buy a summer and a winter tire."
Asymmetrical Tread Design
There is one key feature of the Weatherflex GT that deserves extra attention: Its asymmetrical tread pattern. This design differs from the tread pattern of the Kinergy 4S2 – another all-weather tire in Hankook's line-up. The asymmetrical pattern allows rotation between the driver’s and passenger’s sides. This prevents irregular wear. Rotating directional tires similarly could cause performance issues. Hankook says its engineers prioritized reducing road noise using strategically positioned tread blocks.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
Hunter Engineering Company: www.hunter.com

What the January 1995 Edition of Tire Review Tells Us About Tire Industry History Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

What can tire industry history from 30 years ago tell us about today's trends? In this episode of What's Treading, Editor David Sickels takes a nostalgic look at the Tire Review 1995 issue. We explore '90s ads, timeless business advice, and emerging tire technologies that still resonate today. Ads in the Tire Review 1995 issue were all about showcasing bold, text-heavy designs and tire manufacturer-dealer partnerships. We also encounter a fair share of customer service and market trend articles, demonstrating how much of the 1995 business advice still applies. Whether you’re reminiscing about the tire business in the '90s or learning timeless fundamentals about the tire industry, this episode delivers on both fronts. Plus, we review some fantastic 1990s computing software that was used to show customers what a new set of wheels would look like on their vehicle. You might be familiar with it if you sold wheels around this time. Watch the video above to see what we thought was important three decades back, as well as a look at historic ads from Falken Tire, Maxxis, Mitsubishi, Jetzon Tire, Reliable Tire Co., Firestone, Mastercraft Tires, Keystone, Telstar, Raybestos, Galaxy Tire, Mopar, and Hankook Tire.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
Hunter Engineering: www.hunter.com

The best of What's Treading 2024 Dec 17, 2024

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We produce a lot of content on this show, and we know it can be hard to keep up. That's why we feel you deserve an easy-to-digest, condensed version of some of our favorite podcast moments this year. Enjoy thoughts, comments and predictions from the leadership at BKT, Continental, Hercules, Hankook Tire, Kumho Tire, Omni United, Ralson Tire, RNR Tire Express, Sailun Tire Americas, and ZC Rubber.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
AAPEX: www.aapexshow.com

Watch Tire Review surprise our 2024 Top Shop: Best-One of Indy Dec 03, 2024

Show notes

Not every tire shop can claim that they attract “raving fans,” but at Best-One of Indy, it’s actually what they’re known for. It’s literally part of the company's mission statement – and honestly, the team just does a great job at it. You have to give this team credit: It’s not easy making a “raving fan” out of someone who just found out they’re going to need to drop a few hundred dollars on tires. That's a big part of why Best-One of Indy has been named Tire Review's 2024 Top Shop.
But, if you stop digging into the shop's strengths there, you're doing yourself a big disservice.
To understand the inner workings of what makes this business tick – from attracting customers to hiring skilled technicians who want to stay on board for the long term, and how the business stays at the front of drivers’ minds in the Indy area, I sat down with the leadership team here at Best-One to pick their brains.
Watch the video above to see us surprise the Best-One of Indy team with news that they have been named Tire Review’s 2024 Top Shop Winner.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
AAPEX: www.aapexshow.com

How Turbo Wholesale Tires is taking a go-to-market approach for growth Nov 19, 2024

Show notes

Between dealing with inventory, competition, or adapting to retailer and consumer needs, there's a lot for a tire wholesale distributors to deal with. Add proprietary tire brands to the mix, and that brings a whole other level to things, like figuring out how to adapt to market trends, creating value across multiple segments and marketing your brands to the right audience.
Todd Pickens, Turbo Wholesale Tires' chief commercial officer, says that Turbo is trying to adapt it's proprietary lines to meet the changing needs of consumers and retailers in an attempt to position itself in an already crowded market.
In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, Pickens takes us through Turbo's 'go-to-market' approach for growth, from its partnership with Double Coin to launch Rolling Big Power's commercial line, marketing that targets younger consumers, developing an EV-specific tire under its Lexani brand, and climbing up the Tire Tier ladder.
Tire Review: www.TireReview.com
AAPEX: www.AAPEXShow.com

What the last-mile delivery boom means for Hercules Tires in 2025 Nov 05, 2024

Show notes

It shouldn't be news to anyone that the last-mile delivery segment is going absolutely bananas. Supercharged by the COVID-19 pandemic, online retail isn't slowing down; in fact, according to researchers at Statista, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated $5.8 trillion last year. Projections indicate a 39% growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to surpass $8 trillion by 2027.
To understand the effect this incomprehensible amount of dollars intends to have on the tire industry, we're sitting down with Marshall Gillespie, director of proprietary brand commercial merchandising at American Tire Distributors (ATD). Gillespie discusses emerging trends in the medium-duty truck tire market, the growing acceptance of value-oriented brands like Hercules Tires and the impact of economic conditions on purchasing decisions. He also shares how fleet owners and operators are more open to exploring new brands to achieve cost savings without sacrificing quality, a shift ATD is capitalizing on as the company expands its portfolio to meet this demand.
“We’re really leaning into [last-mile delivery] in terms of our product portfolio, our ideas for new product development, and our stocking strategies,” he says.
Additionally, Gillespie touches on the return of market stability in 2024 after a challenging 2023 and forecasts modest growth for 2025, driven by increased utilization in Class 8 trucks.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
AAPEX: www.aapexshow.com

Testing the off-roading capabilities of the RoadX RX Quest R/T from Sailun Oct 22, 2024

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The off-roading tire segment has seen a lot of growth since the pandemic, and it's only going to get bigger in the coming years. According to SEMA’s 2023 Future Trends report, U.S. off-roading and oversized tires rake in around $2 billion annually, and the light-truck segment in the U.S. is estimated to account for close to 80% of all new-vehicle sales by 2027.
Sailun Tire Americas is hopping on the off-roading trend with its RoadX brand, recently releasing the RoadX RX Quest R/T tire. Made for trucks and SUVs – and including on- and off-road capabilities, the tire comes in over 40 sizes, a 45,000 mile warranty and even a 3PMS rating for severe winter certification.
In this episode of What’s Treading, Sailun had Tire Review out to Horseshoe Bay, Texas to test the off-roading capabilities of the RoadX RX Quest R/T. Sailun's manager of PLT in Canada, Dwayne Sawyer, gave us the inside scoop into the tire's development process and the rigorous testing Sailun does on this and all of its tires.
Tire Review: www.TireReview.com
AAPEX: www.AAPEXShow.com

How leadership, trust and family values help propel the growth of RNR Tire Express Oct 09, 2024

Show notes

There's running a business, and then there's running a family business – and as it turns out, many running a tire business are in the latter. Building a company is difficult on its own, and adding family dynamics into the mix can throw a serious wrench into traditional notions of what qualifies as success in terms of leadership, expectations, value, accountability, legacy, and a whole lot more. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does bring its own set of challenges.
Of course, a business built upon family values comes with a host of huge positives as well, like a company culture strengthened by incredibly deep roots. At RNR Tire Express, those positives really shine, encapsulated by the relationship between Founder Larry Sutton and his son and CEO, Adam Sutton.
“We have an instant baked-in trust that usually takes years to develop… when you’re working off the same set of core values, it makes it a lot easier,” Adam says.
In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, Larry and Adam take us through their respective entrepreneurial journeys, from Larry's early days in the rent-to-own industry to the founding of RNR Tire Express, which initially focused on custom wheels. The duo shares how they made the shift to concentrate on passenger tires, growing the business into a nationwide chain with 200 stores in 30 states, and gives an honest and insightful look at the dynamics of running a family business.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
AAPEX: www.aapexshow.com

Let's put Goodyear's new Assurance WeatherReady 2 all-weather tire to the test Sep 24, 2024

Show notes

All-weather tires are becoming a popular choice for drivers, particularly as colder weather approaches. According to the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, there is a strong market opportunity within this segment, which saw 6.1 million replacement tires sold in 2023. This trend is not new to tire manufacturers like Goodyear, which is capitalizing on the demand with the release of its new Assurance WeatherReady 2 all-weather tire.
Recently launched in 58 sizes (with more to come) the tire offers a 60,000-mile tread life limited warranty. The WeatherReady 2 will eventually replace the original WeatherReady tire, introduced in 2017, as Goodyear plans to phase out the older model in most sizes.
In this episode of What's Treading, Goodyear provided Tire Review an opportunity to test the WeatherReady 2 firsthand, and Goodyear’s product marketing manager, Andrew Lau, provided insights into the attributes of the new tire.
Tire Review: www.tirereview.com
AAPEX: www.aapexshow.com

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