neoprufrok

Awhile back (about 2 months now) I purchased Toyo T1s Proxes to go with my Volk Le37t's. I purchased them from Edgeracing.com who gave me a decent price of 830 shipped for 4 235/35-19 T1s. A big factor in my decision was that they are 4-6 lbs lighter than other tires out there.

After recieving both my wheels and tires, I went to a local Wheel Works to have them mounted and balanced. They did a great job of not damaging the rim lip as the profile is very small. However, the moment I got on the freeway, I noticed a vibration throughout the car and steering wheel at 45-85mph. A week later I brought it back to be rebalanced, which they did. The problem still remained. I called them and they asked me to take it to an expert (I thought they were - hmmmm) - Custom Alignment in Mountain View, CA.

Custom Alignment is a great shop that specializes in alignment and wheel/brake/tire diagnosis and repair. They have the best equipment. Most notably, they have the Hunter GSP 9700 wheel balancer. Most places can balance the wheel/tire in the vertical plane. Few places can check the lateral runout and force variation.

Lateral runout occurs when the wheel or tire is not perfect in the horizontal or side to side plane. This can also cause vibration but most wheel balancing places can't check this. The Hunter GsP 9700 can and will also fix it if it isn't too bad.

Force varation refers to a tire that is out of round or has flat or high rubber spots. If its too high, you can feel the car shaking at high speeds without any shake in the steering wheel. Custom says that it should be less than 28.

At Custom, they remounted and balanced my volks and toyos and said that vertical and lateral balance was very good. The Force varaition on my tires though was off. The rears were 38 and 30 and the fronts were 18 and 28.

I contacted Chris at Toyo tires the next day. After talking to him, he immediately got me in contact with their tech dept who then immediaately sent me out two new tires to replace the rears. Wow what great service! I wish every company operated like this. Hear I was, expecting a long drawn out process and all of a sudden I have two new tires in 3 days!!! I can't say enough how impressed I was at Toyos customer service.

Anyways, I took it back a few days ago to get remounted and reblanced. Custom noted that Wheel works also didn't use the retaining bolt on my vlave and my front tire had a leak. Needless to say, I'm never going back there again.

The force variation on teh new tires? 10 and 10!!!

Now my car rides perfect. No vibration. No harshness. The tires are surprisingly very comfortable. Road noise is much better than the S03's I have had on other cars and equal to the stock sport Continental Contisport 2's. The cars handling and grip int eh wet and dry is the best I've had, and very predictable such that I feel comfortable driving closer to the edge.

All in all, I'm very happy with my Toyos. I plan to buy another set from them when the time comes.

I owe much thanks to Chris and Matt at Toyo! You guys made it so very easy to deal with this issue. I know sometimes not every product comes out perfect from the factory, but when it doesn't you guys handled it perfectly!

So my words of advice? Get your tires mounted and balanced at a place with a machine like the Hunter GSP 9700. I wished I did the first time.

AggregatVier

Excellent write up. I'm going with Toyo's once my P-Zeros are gone. Hmmm, Hunter GSP 9700?

ILMA_Revo_Stage_2+

thanks for the feedback... its a toss-up for me, t1S vs p4... but most likely p4.

neoprufrok

I'm sure there are others out there that check force varation and lateral run out also.

bhvrdr

Are you happy with their grip? I have been considering them because of their weight. Cheers! Mike

neoprufrok

out there, but I'd say they are on par or even slightly better than the S03's I used to have on another car. That's a bad comparison, but its better than nothing.

I chose it for overall qualities.

AggregatVier

<ul><li><a href="http://www.gsp9700.com">Find a Hunter GSP 9700 shop near you</a></li></ul>

Chris not @ Toyo now

as mentioned from time to time, there are tires that come out less than perfect and when this happens, we will take care of it. Get me that invoice for the remount/balance and we will take care of that too. Glad to have helped, after all, we want satisfied owners.

neoprufrok

No prob.. I'm very satisfied.. I'll send that invoice your way soon! Thanks