Tires Kumho or Firestone

Had the LE3s for 4 years on my escalade driving up and down the mountains and road tripping western US. A great tire, I took it through highway, pothole city, rain, snow, ice and even sand.

I currently have Firestone LE3's on my 14 Explorer. They have a little over 26k miles on them. 255/50/20's for $930 mounted/balanced back in 2021. Overall pretty good tires, especially for the money. Smooth, good traction in the dry/wet and pretty good in the snow. They did seem to get louder fairly quickly, but I don't think they've really gotten any worse over the last 15k miles. Wet roads seem to exacerbate the noise. Last time I looked at them (few k miles ago), they were wearing really well. I can't say I'd buy them again yet, but if they get us another 26k miles without getting significantly louder, they (or their successor) would be on the list. In the past I had OE Hankooks (good dry/wet, excellent life, absolutely terrible in the snow) and Michelin Premier LTX (good in all conditions, short life, overpriced for what they were).

If you are looking for something cheaper,

Kumho Majesty 9 solus can also be an option

Their noise around the same level as top brand grand tourinf tires... like pirelli p7 as 3 or micherlin mxv4, continental pure contact.

very good at dry weather and acceptable at wet,

ride quality is good, but soso steering response.

Snow traction is vevevevery bad with this tire, almost the level if summer tire,but its georgia.

personally, I liked it.

Firestone has Suredrive tires that are basically rebranded Kuhmo Solaris TA71s right in your range. Good reviews on Reddit. I just bought a set today. Seem quiet.

I decided to swap the OEM Kumho tires for a set of CC2s with just 350 miles on the car.

My butt sensor says the CC2s ride a lot more softly than the OEM Kumhos. The ride feels more compliant and less sharp over potholes, expansion joints, etc. I find the CC2's ride to be noticeably better than the Kumhos. The CC2s also solved 90% of the steering wheel vibration issue.

I have kumho tires on my car. I bought it brand new in 2020 and they are just getting to the point where I will probably need to replace them in the next few months. I have 39,000 miles on my car so I guess that's pretty good for a mid-grade tire.

I got the KU22 all seasons on my 4th gen 3 sedan a few weeks ago and its pretty nice. Not that much road noise, good grip.

Nothing wrong with the Kumho tires but those are Z rated and ultra high performance tires. They won’t last long and will ride like an ox cart. But they will grip very well.

Dang Firestone charges me 170 and can’t even clean the old wheel weight adhesive (from them) off, plus they overinflated each tire by 10psi. Maybe time to go somewhere else, I mean at least they haven’t damaged my rims like I’ve dealt with almost every other time.

They are pretty good in dry weather, but absolutely terrible in snow. If you typically encounter snow, invest in snow tires.