I just bought a 98' F150 and it has Firestone Wilderness tires. Does anyone know about how the recall works with these tires? Would appreciate any input. Thanks.

 

At this point, it doesn't matter. Ford's recall ended back at the end of May, if I remember corrrectly.

You also don't specify if they are Wilderness AT's or HT's. Only the AT's were ever recalled, the HT's were not recalled and have never been a part of Ford or Firestone's recalls.

 

If I was you I would replace the Firestones ASAP if not sooner.

 

the firestone wilderness AT tires problem was WAY overhyped. the media made it sound like these tires went bad in a split second and then blew up. if you pay any attention to your vehicle, then you will pick up on the signs before the tire fails in 98% of cases. have you ever had a belt seperation on a tire? it feels/ sounds like you are sitting there with somebody thumping on the tire with a lead pipe. if you check your tire pressure regularly, even once a month you would see the outer casings starting to crack quite some time before the tire fails. not to mention, if your going to underinflate the tires, check them more often. lets think about what most of the problem vehicles were....hmmmm the little super-utes...the ones that people just gas and drive, and never take the time to walk around their car and see if anything looks out of the ordinary......if you pay attention to your tires, they normally will tell you in advance that they want to throw in the towel. did i have my firestones replaced on my ranger?....of course...during the last month of the recall, what fool is gonna pass up a set of new free goodyears?...in short, just pay attention to your tires and dont worry about those firestones any time soon

 

I would keep the tires for now and follow Blues recommendations. I had the Firestones on my Exploder and tried to keep them on as long as possible to get as much free tire as possible. I have had Firestones on the Expoder, a Ranger and other vehicles and have never had a complaint about them. I to think that the problem was over hyped. How many idiots do you see hauling a$$ down the road in SUV's doing 80 regardless of weather. See it all them time here in New England. Up here no tire blow outs but plenty of wrecks in the winter from drivers with no clue. I know it sounds morbid but when I see them on the side of the road in the ditch I just laugh and drive on.

Save you money and keep on top of the tires and you should be fine.

 

I had the HT's on my truck and they were fine albeit too small and could not balance them (Used a road force twice) but they lasted a long time and worked fine in the bad weather.

 

My Wildeness A/T tires were absolutely horrible in Minnesota's snow and rain, but I actually kind of miss them.

Ford gave me $520.00 after I replaced the Firestone's with a set of Yokohama's and I just haven't been able to get these new tires balanced properly. It's a very sad story....

I believe the Firestone fiasco was a media/lawyer/driver issue rather than just a tire issue. That along with Ford recommending tire pressure that was simply too low.

 

Well here in the nashville area there is a lawsuit against FORD going on right for the Explorer as some woman was killed when her tire blew out and flipped over the brand of tire was Firesstone but they didn't sue Firestone because the tires on the Explorer wasn't part of the recall it pisses me off they are suing the wrong company as it was clearly a tire problem not a problem of the Explorer.

 

Yep... But here in America, it's never your fault. It's their fault.

 

My gut feeling .... You are right about it being a media / lawyer, etc thing. All of the pictures I remember seeing was of an explorer upside down, and the backend of the poor vehicle so stuffed with junk, I'm surprised it would even go over a rock in the road withthout bottoming out. The vast majority of mid-size SUV's have only a 500 pound load capacity (which includes passengers, gas, etc).

You know the routine ... hey, I got lots of room, keep it comming ... whatchmean, the bumper is on the ground, no sweat, it will level off when we get going.

 

Thank you all for the replies. The tires I have are the HT's, so I guess I needn't worry. They are pretty worn so Im going to have to replace them regardless. I was just hoping for a cheap out. Any suggestions on tires that have worked well for others on a F150 2WD Reg Cab would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

 

Only the 15" Wilderness A/T was recalled anyway, but since you have the HP, don't worry about the safety.

 

I had the HT's also and they were ok just could never get them balanced and the truck wandered a lot. I don't go off road that much (I have a 4x4) and I wanted a larger tire that is quiet on the road and that will do well in snow because where my wife is from they get a lot of snow! I went with a 265/75 16 BFG long trail because a slightly narrower tire is better in the snow.

They are great! smooth as glass. After about 1k they got even smoother they are e rated which I like because I tow a lot. I know have approx. 15k on them and they still look brand new. They have a 50k tread warranty.

I got them at sams for $99.99 a piece plus $9.00 each for road hazzard, life time balance and rotation. (oh and installation)

my .02

 

I had the BFG Long trails on my truck for about 11 months now and have a little over 22,000 miles on them they have done well it the time I had them.