Old beater pickup needs new tires.Advice?

[frugalecon]

My household owns two vehicles, one of which is a 22 year old Ford Ranger. It is mechanically in decent shape, but it desperately needs a new set of tires. Or at least a different set of tires. It probably travels less than 2000 miles/year tops, and it doesn’t have a lot of value. But it is darned useful to have for yard work/gardening stuff, so I am loathe to just junk it. But a new set of tires may exceed its current value!

What is the best value source of tires for this kind of vehicle? Just buy low end from Costco or NTB, or is there something else I should be thinking about?

[Bernard]

I drive a 2002 Dodge pickup, maybe 3000 miles per year. Had it for 18 years and am now on my 3rd set of tires. I'm only using the best tires: Michelin. Buy them used, always, translated into near new take-offs.
Check with local tire stores or Craigslist.

[Dave1442397]

I've seen this site recommended by a few people - https://www.bestusedtires.com/

[Cadman]

Check around at your local auto salvage places, typically lots of good tires (in matched sets) to choose from, some still on rims that may be compatible with your Ranger.

[WSUCoug1994]

I would also look at any retail tire installer - especially one that sells upgraded rims.  Anytime someone upgrades to a larger rim/tire size they will actually give the person credit for their good used tires they are taking off.  Some dump them to used tire dealers and some resell them.  As mentioned earlier - Craigslist is a pretty awesome source for used tires but it might take some time based on your specific tire size.

[Fire2029]

I'll vote against used tires.

You drive so little that you will age out of your tires before you wear them down. If you buy used, make sure they aren't more than a year old. You can google how to read the date code.

For our primary vehicle I generally run Michelin, and for a secondary vehicle I try to catch a sale on a brand like cooper or general. 

[Alternatepriorities]

I've had very good results finding used tires on craigslist

The best deal I ever got was a nearly new set of winter tires for our '08 Fit on rims $125. I decided I didn't like the winter tires as much as the ones I had so I sold the tires for $200 and kept the rims... It cost $50 to have the tires swapped so I paid -$25 for the rims.

Having two sets of rims saves $100+ per year in seasonal tire change overs as well as saving a few hours of time and giving me more flexibility on timing my tire change to the weather. I can't believe everyone who needs winter tires doesn't do it.

[Roboturner]

Just buy a new set of tires, it doesn't matter that the tires are worth more then the re-sale of the truck, you are keeping the truck so you have to ask if $500-$800 worth of tires is worth 2000 mi/yr. To me it'd be a no-brainer, but if not, I'd be happy to buy your ranger with the bald tires from you for $800! :P 

The replacement cost of the truck to use is likely more than the tire cost

[Buffaloski Boris]

Dittoes on buying new tires. If you just need a spare then yeah sure, get a used tire. I just put a set of Kumho’s on my truck. Very nice tire for the price.

Couple of tips: use Amazon to compare prices. They can deliver tires to the installer. Then if you want, go to the website for where you’d get the tires installed and do a direct price comparison. In my case I went with the installers offer.

One last thing: why not drive the truck more? The wear and tear on already beat to hell vehicle is better than putting it on a newer one.

[MilesTeg]

Don't mess around with used tires. It's not worth the risk unless you're destitute. Tires start "aging" (aka rotting) the second they come off the assembly line and even a tire that has deep tread can still be about ready to disintegrate or are so old that even if they are in decent shape you won't get much useful life out of them. You shouldn't run tires on _any_ vehicle, regardless of mileage, for more than 6-7 years.

Your best course of action is to go get a low end house brand tire (Costo, Big-o, Discount Tire, etc) which you can get for $3-400 (maybe even less if you put some effort into it). The tires are cheap because they have poor tread life, are noisy, and have relatively poor handling. Things you don't care about in an old beater that you barely drive.

[frugalecon]

Thanks, all. I appreciate the feedback. Very useful. I won’t go on the highway until I get new tires.

[MilesTeg]

^ This. I had a blow out on the freeway going 65 because of tire rot. They looked perfectly good, thread not worn and not many miles on them but blew out in spectular fashion just the same. I was very lucky it was an.empty freeway because the blow out drug me across several lanes in a couple of seconds before I could get control of the truck. I just looked up my old size at Pep Boys and it was less than $350 for 4 new tires.

Yep, because we don't drive much we've thrown out "a lot" of perfectly good looking tires over the years, but a blowout at high speed is just not worth the risk. Tires & brakes are the most important part of your vehicle.

[robartsd]

Used tires can be OK, just be sure they aren't old tires. Each tire has a DOT code on one of the sidewalls - for tires made since 2000, the last 4 digits of the code are the week (2 digits) and year (2 digits) of manufacture.

[Cadman]

While I wouldn't buy a set of worn out used tires, cars (both new and old) get wrecked all the time, so your odds of getting fairly new tires for pennies on the dollar at the salvage yard is actually quite good. These are normally displayed up front as complete sets. For the naysayers, how old are the tires on your car right now? Are they suddenly 'junk' because they change ownership? Blowing out left and right?

Also keep in mind that new tires tend to sit around, too. It's not uncommon to have 1-2 year old tires installed when you're paying full price for 'brand new' due to the large inventory buys of the bigger retailers. Check the date codes.

I think I'd personally rather have used, expensive tires than new, cheapies. There's some dicey stuff out there.  I may have to make that decision in the spring since mine are 10 years old (I don't drive the truck much, either. Plus snow tires in the winter take the most wear.)

[sabanist]

Easy.  FB market place always has tires that people are selling where they bought some high end wide mud tires.  They sell stock tires with a ton of life left on them. 

Friend of mine sold his 2016 stock Tundra tires and wheels for 200 bucks. They were only 3 years old when he sold them

[Goldendog777]

We just put the Discount Tire brand on our 1998 Ford Ranger for $300 installed.   The last ones lasted 6 yrs (same brand).  We only replaced them because we live in the desert and they break down.  The treads were still good. 

[BTDretire]

I'll vote against used tires.

You drive so little that you will age out of your tires before you wear them down. If you buy used, make sure they aren't more than a year old. You can google how to read the date code.

For our primary vehicle I generally run Michelin, and for a secondary vehicle I try to catch a sale on a brand like cooper or general.

 I have a sour taste about Michelin's, we had a hole in a 3 yr old set, they wouldn't fix the tire because they said it had dry rot. Then Michelin didn't offer any compensation. Also, I had limited tread life and I drive like the 64 yr old that I am. I mentioned the tread life to a counter person and they said, ya, they had some bad years, but they have got it fixed. So, YMMV.

[Just Joe]

For our primary vehicle I generally run Michelin, and for a secondary vehicle I try to catch a sale on a brand like cooper or general.

What they said. My secondary local vehicle is running Generals. Had Coopers before. Our primary vehicle is running an Asian import tire (discount store brand) nobody has heard of that's been good and cheap and about worn out. They'll be replaced with Michelin tires.

[Just Joe]

Don't forget to check the spare. My little utility trailer ate a rotted tire earlier this year. Fortunately it has a spare tire that actually had air in it...

[thurston howell iv]

Buy new (barely used) take offs - usually off a new car where the owner wanted something else.

Also, check out discounttiredirect.com  I use them for all my new tires. Free shipping to my door and customer service is excellent. Their warranty is great too. Used it a few times with zero hassle.

[dogboyslim]

discount tire is decent if they are nearby.  Costco isn't bad if you are already a member.

If you drive off pavement at all, I'd go AT tires.  Personally I really like Bridgestone KO2s, but they are a bit spendy.  They just have always had great performance for me both on and off-road.