Performance 15" Tires
 

Hi all, Anyone ever use these tires? Hercules.

https://www.herculestire.com/tire-de...rcules/HP-4000

Seems hard to find a performance tire in 15" that has a higher speed rating. These are T rates 118 mph.

The BF Goodrich letters are still turning brown. :mad: Looks like crap. Thanks

They look nice but I've never heard of them. I've got Mickey Thompson S/T on the back of my car and am happy with them. Almost identical to BFG

theres a few T speed rated tire brands available, ive suggested the M/T radial ST for awhile now, only heard good reviews on them & they are a name brand tire. the other off names like herculese & mastercraft etc are a little too generic for my taste. cooper cobras are probably better quality but the "cobra" name is still strange for a pontiac IMO plus ive heard/read of balancing & quality issues with coopers.

firestone indy 500s are being made again in select 15" sizes too which are great tires based on the older ones ive used.

BFG are over priced outdated tread & with the ongoing beige letter issue i will never buy them again.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mtt-6028

https://www.ebay.com/itm/352572245641

Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/T tires are made by Cooper, at least as of Aug 2020. Having purchased and used both I can say, although similar, they have a slightly different tread pattern.



.

pretty sure thats the case for many tire brands today, michelin owns/makes BFG & a few others. but most still use the same molds & facilities of the original brands. same for many other automotive brands that get bought out by bigger companies.

I bought a set of Mickeys 255's and 275's in Jan. Mounted, balanced. been sitting in the garage NO miles. One of the 275's is turning brown.

I am running Hoosier Street Pro tires on my modified Tempest. For DOT they are classified as a light truck tire. H speed rating, the rubber compound is a little softer than the normal street tire. Good tread and bite the road wet or dry.

FWIW,

They also make Dick Cepek, off road tires, Mickey Thompson, and they also own Avon tire in England.

Goodyear purchased Cooper Tire and Rubber in 2021, so Cooper doesn't exist any longer as a separate entity, all brands are now under the Goodyear umbrella.

A friend of mine (Greg Wilson) that races sprint cars, is sponsored by Hercules, he runs their tires on all his street stuff, and his trucks. It's always good to buy from a company that backs racers, IMO.

https://i.ibb.co/Mf88nh8/Greg-Wilson.jpg

I tend to concentrate on what quality the tire is, not what the sidewalls are advertising, all my vehicles have blackwall tires on them, and most of them are Continental brand, but Continental doesn't make many tires in 15", mostly LT (light Truck) tires.....;)

We have, and have had Hercules tires on a variety of vehicles and off-road equipment for the last 30 years. Always seemed to be a decent tire, usually not the cheapest option, or the most expensive, a mid grade tire brand. I have a fresh set their HD 16” trailer tires on our triple axle enclosed trailer right now, they are sharp looking tires.

I generally put the white lettering in though, so I have no idea how the white letters hold up. The tire itself though I would expect to hold pretty well with it’s competitor’s.

Thanks for all the replies. Really hard to find a 15" performance tire with a high speed rating. I only wish that when I bought my rims that I went away from 15". I also find it hard to believe a company would choose to put white lettering on a tire, only for it to turn brown. Makes no sense to me. I have BF Goodrich tire from years ago that are a white as the day I bought them. Bought 2 new rear tires last year 275/60R/15 and the letters are turning brown. I have 2 more on my wife's car that are very brown letters. Look like sh*t. I'm gonna look into taking them back to the tire shop for replacement. Thanks again all for info.

i have some older BFGs on a car too, they have not been washed in at least 3-4 years & stay bright white, when they do get dirty they clean up easily with just some soap & a brush or wesleys bleech-white when needed that works wonders on all other brands of RWL tires i own/owned.

these current BFGs dont come white no matter how hard you clean them, ive tried everything including lacquer thinner on each letter by hand, they will get "white'ish" but never bright white like they should then they turn brown within a few weeks to a month or so. this is the 3rd set BFG replaced, the 3rd set is better than the others but still not right.

i would contact BFG directly if you want to have the tires considered for replacement, if they are under 6 years old & they determine they qualify for replacement they will have you take them to a authorized dealer for inspection & tread measurement then will either fully replace or offer a pro rated refund towards another set... that may or may not do the same thing again. :(

i agree there is no reason for the letters to do this, no other brands of 15" RWL tires have this issue i have seen at car shows etc & my 17" light truck/suv goodyears dont do it either.

Thanks 78w72: Ya I'm gonna get a hold of the tire shop today. I too tried everything to clean the letters also, poor results. You can't clean it as the brown dye if permeated in the rubber/letters. I've been looking at new forged rims and speed rated performance tires. ouch $$$ May not be the best for a muscle car that is driven on the street. I did drive a C63 AMG that had performance tires on it and I think 20" rims. Was like a go cart. But the suspension is so much more modern. I think with these older cars you have to be careful what size tire you put on these cars. ex: sideway!
Here is something I saw this summer on a vehicle. Look very nice. https://tirestickers.ca/ https://www.tirestickers.com/product...SAAEgJwVvD_BwE

Boy Hercules takes me back a bit. One of the Chevy trucks I bought in the 90's had Hercules tires on it. I ran them till it was time for a new set. Don't recall any problems with them but it wasn't a brand that was or is readily available everywhere so I ended up with a different brand on that truck.

As far as performance tires, I've never really considered 15" tires performance oriented until you get into the late 80's when high speed rated Goodyear VR's that came on the camaro's and mustangs of the time were rated to 149 mph.
Those tires are reproduced today by Kelsey if you really want a high speed rated 15" tire.

These days I don't even pay attention to the speed ratings as I don't buy them for top speed blasting. Although I have to admit I've had them at the dragstrip likely over their top speed rating, but as far as our daily drivers are concerned, which all have 15" tires, I don't concern myself with it.

I bought a set of BFG 15" last year - then sold the car/bad timing - they were white as hell and I only ever use SOS pads and tire foam.

Maybe you got a couple bad batches... :(

Go to Summit just got front tires for my car with 130mph rating H I think for about $100 each shipped to the house. I’m at work I will take a picture when I get home.

the issue seems to be size related too, have seen the problems mostly on 255/60s. there may be batches better than others but there are tons of reviews out there of other people having the same problems for at least 5-7 years now.... & since BFG is replacing many of them they know about the problem. i spoke to a manager in 2018 that said they are aware of the issue & are working to fix it... the set they replaced for me in 2019 were better than the previous 2 sets but still not like they should be.

when brand new they seem to clean up ok... but after a few months or within a year of use or even just sitting in a garage, far too many of them start to turn beige & are difficult to keep clean/bright white.

For my purposes, it's become just as important, if not more so, to just find the sizes that I need and run on each car. 15's are slim pickins'

I use sizes like 215/65-15 which are going to get replaced in the near future with the stock size of 215/70-15. Not super common.

I also run 205/75-15's on the front of one car, again not too common. But I do run more common sizes like 255/60-15's and 275/60-15's and 225/70-15's.

So I take what I can get as far as brand goes.

Do you have a link?

I always liked those tires but can't find anything in 15"

All the searches I've come up with start at 16" tires and up.

yes i posted a link for the 500's in post #3. but here it is again.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/352572245641

this is to an ebay seller that also has 275/60 & i think 225/70. but if you google "firestone indy 500" & one of those sizes a few links come up from other sellers, even walmart has them last i checked. they are priced pretty good too compared to BFG or other name brands.