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The hunt for hydroedges :/

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by GasSaver1, Aug 15, 2010.

  1. GasSaver1

    GasSaver1 Member

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    The time has come for new tires!

    I have searched this topic on priuschat, read the reviews, saw the charts, even watched the tire rack video. The tires I have decided on are the hydroedge with green x but @_@ finding tires in my size are sooooo hard! It appears that tirerack and the country has no 185/65/15s anywhere!!! Does anyone know where to actually buy these things? even tirerack has them on backorder with no eta and I searched for both where I am living (south florida) and back home (new york) all the distribution sites are back ordered too.

    I decided on these tires because it seems like all the other tires seem to have a very low wear life. I was seriously considering the ecopia EP100s but I am not sure how much longer I will be staying in florida and if I go back to the snowy north I will be sunk with those. The 90,000 mile warranty on the hydroedges make it appealing. Sure they get slightly less gas mileage then the stock integrity tires and they are about $25 more per tire but if they last 3x as long I think it will make up for it....

    For reference I have a 2008 standard prius (package 5) and currently at 34,300 miles on the stock tires. I can still pass NY state safety inspection but the tires are on the wear lines.

    Also, my mother has a 09 camry hybrid and is in need of tires. I could not find any reviews or tire rack tests but I was going to suggest the hydroedges there too. opinions?
     
  2. cfusion

    cfusion Junior Member

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    About 3 years ago I bought a set of HydroEdge tires for my 2004 Prius. They don't seem to show much wear and the traction on wet roads is better than any tire I have owned. As others warned at the time, the tires are a bit noisy. However, the traction and wear advantages make up for the sound, at least for me.

    Also, I noticed a slight drop in mileage at first (about 2 MPG). Again, the trade-off was worth it to me for safety on wet roads. I still consistently managed 50 MPG in warm weather.

    I found mine at Discount Tire. I'm not sure who carries them these days. I'd buy them again. Good luck!
     
  3. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    Costco.

    Is that the OEM size? If you go with the slightly wider, you have to back off the other number (so, instead of, say, 190/65, you go with 195/60) to keep it within the specs.
     
  4. GasSaver1

    GasSaver1 Member

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    But in doing that does it change the outter circumference of the tire? I get worried about different tire sizes because it throws the speedometer off
     
  5. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    185/65-15 is a nominal 24.46 inches in diameter.
    205/60-15 is a nominal 24.68 inches in diameter.

    The 205/60 will make your speedometer read 1% slower which should make it more accurate than stock.

    You also need to consider rim width, that's the inside width that the tire seats against. It is probably cast into your wheels. One chart I looked at said 205/60-15 was good on a 5.5 to 7.5 inch rim. IIRC, Prius Gen2 rims are 6 inches, but verify that.
     
  6. flareak

    flareak Fleet Captain

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    yes, but the original prius tire sizes are not in sync with the speed anyway. you'll notice the difference when you are reading your speed off a GPS and your speed from the speedometer.

    I got some 205/60/15s and my speedometer is now accurate.
     
  7. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    There's a percent of difference that Costco is "allowed" to allow in tire sizes, and if you change the ratio too much, something "bad" happens :shrug:

    I know we've had ours for over two years (went with the slightly changed numbers - went wider) and they work great.
     
  8. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    1 person likes this.
  9. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    I quit buying tires at Costco about 12 years ago when they would only sell me the same size that came on my truck. The size I wanted made the speedometer and odometer more accurate, was better match to the wheel width than the stock tires and had a higher load capacity. I went a few blocks away to an America's Tire (AKA Discount Tire in most states), got better service, usually better prices and haven't been in a Costco tire shop since.

    The 'something "bad" happens', as 'splained to me by the Costco shop manager, is that the shop manager gets a demerit or worse for not being in lock-step with Costco's safe for Costco but not always sensible policy of sticking to stock sizes.
     
  10. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    They look scarce.:eek: Looks like 3 or fewer total in their entire system.

    [​IMG]
    Arizona
    Less than 2 In Stock
    (usually ships in 3-5 days) [​IMG]

    Ohio
    Less than 2 In Stock
    (usually ships in 3-5 days) [​IMG]

    Texas
    Less than 2 In Stock
    (usually ships in 3-5 days) [​IMG]


    [​IMG]
     
  11. GasSaver1

    GasSaver1 Member

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    actually I just called discount tire and they have 0 at all locations despite them reporting 2 2 2. There is a national shortage of these according to the salesman. On the bright side, all of them are made with green x now- i was worried because it did not specifically say "with green x" (they just mention what green x from michelin is) so I thought they might have been the older version.

    In checking, I should hold out a little anyway because (by 1 week) I missed a $70 rebate from michelin if I buy 4 :/

    There is a local place in florida that can get them tomorrow (called tires plus) but all told they want $140 per tire and a total of 762.57 + allignment. So forget that idea.

    I was thinking of getting the tires delivered to me directly and then having toyota install them. The tps + local amateur tire places scare me. Not to mention that a lot of the trie places down here are not in NY: Tires plus, Tire kingdom ect so if/when I move back home a roadhazard isnt going to really help. Maybe toyota will offer something.
     
  12. priusego

    priusego New Member

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    I have been trying to buy these tires all year. The fellow at Costco said they were canceling the HydroEdge in this size (What?!?)

    Called Michelin and they said this was untrue; However, they DID say that it had been a while since they made them and there were no plans, at this point (looking out 4 weeks), to run more. Maybe that will change? Who knows.

    The customer service at Michelin put a $70 rebate on hold for me for 2 months. I just call them when/if I buy tires.
     
  13. hpartsch

    hpartsch Member

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    I had the same problem when looking for these also.Michelin told me the same thing in June. I then saw the consumer report study posted on this site and decided on the hankooks. I got them from gripston.com. I am very particular about tires and I must say so far I love them. I've put over 10k on the car.

    When I first bought the car it had the integreties? on them, and wow those were junk. The traction control came on like crazy, they squelled like no other, and I thought I almost was going to die in the rain one.

    With these tires I feel extremely safe. I have not had a problem. The winters here are horrible, so I am glad they preformed so well in the snow/ice tests( better than most of the winter tires).

    Good luck!
    Herb
     
  14. talonts

    talonts VFAQman

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    Since they still haven't produced the stock size (my last email from them said July/Aug), and the rebate was ending 8/9/10, I went with the HEs in 205/60-15. While I might lose a little mpg, the increased traction is well worth it. So far, I see a 1-2mpg hit over the stock tires (I had a spare set of take-offs I was using, hoping the HEs would come out in stock size), but they're brand new, once they get a few K on them, the hit will be almost nil. At least that is what happened with the HEs on my 04, and the last time on my 06.
     
  15. priusego

    priusego New Member

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    So, the hunt for tires continues. Costco only has the 3 season tires (not including the X-radial) available. They say they can't get the Primacy in this size and I don't know that they'll let me go up to the 195/65/R15 tire because they're picky.

    Sam's club seems to be out of most of the tires suitable for the Prius.

    What's going on?
     
  16. talonts

    talonts VFAQman

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    You need to read the tire threads more carefully. More people than just me have gotten 205/60-15s and been happy with them. They even correct the speedo.

    While Sam's might not stock them in HEs, you can order them online to arrive at your local warehouse, as I did a couple weeks ago.
     
  17. Boo

    Boo Boola Boola Member

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    TireRack.com has the HEs with Green X in stock in the 195/60R15 size, which is the size I would get anyway if I were getting the HEs:

    Michelin HydroEdge with Green X
     
  18. talonts

    talonts VFAQman

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    I used to think the 195s were a better choice, but they're not. They're smaller than stock, so will throw the speedo off even more. It's already bad enough with the stock tires.

    And if you put 195s on a brand new Prius, you'd lose out on a couple K miles of warranty due to the odo racking up the miles faster.

    The only advantage 195s have over 205s is slightly less RR, so they might get better mpg. I wonder how much (little, that is), though, since my weeks-old 205s are following the same mpg loss-gain as the 185 HEs I first got at 4K miles.
     
  19. GasSaver1

    GasSaver1 Member

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    So long story short, Ford was kind of nasty so I decided not to go with the procontacts (plus they could not verify the tires were not going to be the contiprocontacts).

    In the end I bought Michelin energy saver as from discount tire. They were $115 total (no tax free shipping) and there is a $70 mail in rebate so they came out to $97.50 a tire.

    I know they will wear much faster than the hydroedges but I should get the best gas mileage with them and they are better than the OEM in every way. Maybe I will get the hydroedges next round.

    discount tire only had 4 left in arizona so after I placed the order I called them and they made sure to pull that stock and ship it to me. I will keep the integrities on for a few more thousand miles until they are really gone and then swap these in!
     
  20. GasSaver1

    GasSaver1 Member

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    I got my tires! As an update i was going to sit on them for a little but i will have them installed tomorrow. They were all made between the 13th and 38th week of 2009 so they are about a year old. As warranty usually is offered from the time of production I should get them on the car sooner rather than later.

    I am having Toyota install them for me. That way at least if they mess up the pressure sensor they have the means to fix it. They cannot offer a road hazard even on a new tire but it is only $15 per tire to mount and balance. So I am looking at about $60 to get the new tires on and another $80 for an alignment.