Testing the Latest Goodyear TripleTred
 

Regulars to the tire and wheel forum here on ChevyHHR net know I've tested several sets of Goodyear tires on the '07 my Wife and I own. The latest tire I'm writing about is Goodyear's premium, broad-market tire in 215/50R17, the new Assurance TripleTred All Season.

I put a set of those on in late March and the first difference I noted between them and the original "TT" is they look a bit different from the side because Goodyear changed the design of the tread pattern in that area.

To be honest, they haven't been on the truck long enough for me to get a feel for tread life. Tire noise seems about the same as the previous TripleTred. Dry traction and handling seem about the same as before. In both of those subjective categories, the Assurance TripleTred, both the original and the new All Season, do very well for a broad-market (i.e.: non-high-performance) tire. I might add that, while Goodyear sells this tire for non-high-performance applications, it is a premium passenger car tire and the influence of Goodyear's Eagle F1 line is obvious, especially in the tread design. In fact, as did the old TripleTred, the new All Season version continues to remind me of another Goodyear tire I tried on my truck a several years ago, the ultra-performance, F1 All Season.

As yet, we have not had any significant wet weather where I'm testing the new TripleTred, so I don't have anything to report about their performance in the rain.
I interviewed Goodyear Tire's Enterprise Project Leader, Mark Cherveny, and he told me that the TripleTred All Season has two new features: 1) "Evolving Traction Grooves" which help maintain traction in rain and snow as the tire wears and 2) a new tire tread pattern which maintains the three tread Zones: "Water", "Dry", and "Ice". According to Cherveny, the "Ice Zone" still contains volcanic sand and glass fibers in the tread compound, two tread compound components which were ground-breaking features when the original TripleTred was introduced several years ago and contribute to traction on ice and snow about the best you're going to find in an all-season-rated tire.

Based on the rest of my discussion with Cherveny, my belief is that, as my test proceeds, I'll observe improved tread life. Because there are now less tie-bars in the shoulder, the tread pattern is maintained to a greater degree as the tire wears. Also, the "Evolving Traction Grooves" listed above will help maintain the tire's appearance as it wears. Additionally, once the fall and winter arrive, I should experience improved performance during wet weather driving. While the locale in which I test almost never has snow or icy weather, if we get a chance to travel to an area where there will be freezing weather, the TripleTred All Season, by virtue of the new tread pattern, may give us better braking performance on ice. Finally, the redesigned Goodyear might offer a marginal decrease in rolling resistance and a corresponding gain in fuel economy, however, I do not test fuel economy when evaluating tires because I lack the calibrated measuring equipment to test fuel mileage with acceptable accuracy.

At this point, the truck feels about the same in handling as it did when I had the original Assurance tire on it. I like the new appearance from the revised tread design. My Wife, who drives our HHR the most, liked how the original Assurance made the truck feel and says the new TT All Season feels the same way.

I'll have more to report as we accumulate mileage on these tires.

Also using new Goodyear Tripletred
 

I biught four new Goodyear Tripletred tires for my 2008 HHR LS. Total cost was $640 and I run 34 psi all around.
The tires are impressive. Dry traction is good and after driving through two steady rainstorms wet traction is also very good.
The HHR feels more "secure" as well. Body lean is not nearly as prevelant as with the previous Firestones.
There is also a more "sporty" feel to the the truck. This may come from the much better grip the tires have.
Road noise seems to better. Not so much of the high pitched hum on lighter type asphalt.
Gas milage is marginally better althogh I was getting 27-28 mpg bdefore. On the two tanks I have used on these tires it has been 28.5.
Hopefully they will perform as well in the winter as some reviews has indicated. That is important in southern NH, where I am from.
To conclude, I would highly recommend these tires even if the are pricey. The definately improve tge performane of the HHR.

We've run our Assurance Triple Tred All Seasons about 7000 miles so far. Cold tire pressures we use are 28-30, front and 26-28, rear, for round town and light load driving. For long trips with heavier loads or if I plan to really drive the truck hard, I go to 32-34, front, and 30-32, rear.

We've begun to get rainy weather where I live in California and, once again, Goodyear's "TripleTred" idea is proving its worth in the wet.

With only 7000 miles I can't really get a fix, yet, on tread life but my belief is the TT All Season tire should be as good or better than the original TripleTred in that respect.

As for handling, like I did with the first set of TripleTreds, I've noticed better lateral grip and better yaw response compared to the original Firestones, on the truck when we bought it, but I have not noticed a decrease in body roll. If anything, body roll has increased because grip as increased, ie: since a higher rate of lateral acceleration is available, the body rolls more.

IMO, the only thing that's going to reduce body roll is more roll stiffness via bigger stabilizer bars or higher spring rates, but...I digress.

In short...so far, two thumbs up for the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred.

You purposely run the tires low on pressure?

Great question!
Under some conditions, yes.
The label on the driver side B-pillar does say 35-psi cold. I've been running my own tire pressure configuration for so long, I forgot that.

The Owner's Manual says those pressures are the minimum pressures necessary for the tires to support the vehicle at full gross weight, ie: four people, cargo and fuel.

We seldom operate our HHR that heavy so I choose to trade some tire pressure for tread life when the vehicle is operated around town and as a commuter which typically means two people, no or light cargo, and an average half a tank of fuel.

When I load the truck with four people, full cargo and fuel fuel, then I'd go to 35-psi cold all round.

If I load the truck with one person, no cargo and half a tank of fuel and intend to go drive it hard, I'll go with 35-psi front and 33-psi rear. I base that choice on the fact that the HHR, being front wheel drive, has most of its weight on the front tires.

Lastly, I would not ignore GM's tire pressure reccomendations unless you exercise a high level of tire care, ie: checking pressure weekly using an accurate gauge, raising it and lowering it a bit according to load, and inspecting the tread and sidewalls regularly.

Time for an update on my long-term test of the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred All Season...

After 15,307 miles and a week short of a year in service, this morning, I jacked up the truck, pulled all the tires and rotated them. I try and do this about every 10K miles, so I'm a little late. On front-drive vehicles, rotating the tires helps even tread life, front-to-rear, and it gives me a chance to closely inspect the tires.

I was amazed, frankly, because, while the tires show some wear, it's only modest–certainly less than I expected. Clearly, from a tread life perspective, the TripleTred A/S is a better tire than was the original TripleTred.:twothumbs:

https://www.chevyhhr.net/gallery/fil...2/_jay8160.jpg

Duty cycle most of the time has been four days a week round-town driving, a one-day-a-week 140-highway-mile commute and several long road trips thrown in. Cold tire pressures typically have been: for normal 'round-town driving, 28-30 in front and 26-28 in the rear. If I load the truck up and take a long trip at or near GVW, I go up to 32-35 psi cold depending on how much of a load I have. Loads have varied widely from one-person commuting to work, to four in the truck on a night-out and two in the front seats with the rest baggage and cargo on a couple of trips to Las Vegas and back.

So far, the car's handling performance has been quite good for a tire which is not marketed as a "high-performance". This tire shines in bad weather. Excellent traction and high resistance to hydroplanning due to its tread configuration.

Where they have been different is, of course, the aforementioned tread life and tire noise seems a little bit less, although that's my subjective opinion rather than based on noise measurments.

With the tires off I, also, checked my brake pads. They're getting down there, but there is still pad material left. My guess is the original front brake pads will go 100,000 miles.

All and all, my experience, so far, with the Goodyear Assurance TripeTred All Season has been very good. Given that we've got 15,000 miles on them, now, with only modest wear demonstrated, I suspect these tires will have little problem going 50,000 or 60,000 miles, maybe even 70,000.

As I've said previously, both on this thread in in my earlier test of the original Assurance TT (see: https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/tires-wheels-49/now-im-testing-assurance-tripletred-26541/) these Goodyears might be a little pricey, but the Assurance is an excellent value considering their dry and wet handling and their tread life.

The Assurance TripleTred All Season has been the best of the four different tires I've run on our 2007 HHR.

I wanted to share my experiences on the TripleTreds as well. A few weeks ago I purchased a set of Ecopia's from my Firestone store for my 10 HHR LS. I came to pick the car up and then I realized that they were ugly tires but I drive 40K a year and have to pay for my own gas so I will live with it. Took a long trip that week for about 1200 miles and I knew I was returning them under the 30 day trial. They felt unsafe when making a turn. Just hated the feel, but I have yet to make it back to the store to get them swapped. I'm doing that tomorrow.

In the mean time my daughter has a beautiful black 07 LT2 which has been lowered and has an intake and muffler installed. It looked and drove great with the Comforttreds it had. She was recently stuck in a rain storm and hit some high water and hydroplaned off the road setting off the airbags and doing 6K worth of damage. She was fine but when it was in for repair they had to replace one of the tires under the insurance and I decided to buy her a full set of Triple treads as an upgrade from the Comfort treds, mainly due to advertised hydroplaning resistance. It's my daughter you know and I feel like I need to do what I can to keep her safe. Bottom line, The body shop owner called me after I picked it up to see if I noticed the same thing he had noticed. This car drove beautifully with these new tires! Just amazing! I reminded me I needed to get my car back before the 30 days from Firestone runs out to swap out those Ecopias. On my car I will have to go back with a Bridgestone or Firestone product so I opted for the Bridgestone Serenity Plus which is their best tire. I hope they are as good as the Good Years.

I do run Blizzaks in the winter and swear by them. Hope my 2 cents helps others out there. FYI, I didn't notice a gas mileage improvement on the Ecopias which makes them even worse in my mind. The Ecopias were quiet and handled water fine however, they just have a bad road feel.

I tried the New Serenity Plus and took them off.

215/55R/16's

They had a Harmonic Noise @ around the 50-60 MPH range on dry pavement.

Just didn't want to live with that for a couple years or so.

SF

215/55R/16's

I have the Good Year Assurance 215/55/16, around 3 k , Ill be checking the wear with my tread gauge soon but the look like they are wearing well but again not to many miles on them yet,, The Firestone's (stock I assume) had 33k on them and were mostly in the red zone on my gauge ..... Almost got the Serenity Plus till I read the reviews here on site!

I have 7500 miles on my Michelin Ice 3 tires and have decided to leave them on until I find something to replace them for Summer driving.
They handle very well on my 2LT and are quiet.
I put 16" on so these are 205/55R/16.
All thru winter and loved them but for some strange reason I never encountered heavy water puddling on the hiway until a Squal hit me the other day and ..... WOW.
All of a sudden @ 50mph they just started howling. Really surprised me and I spead up and slowed down to make sure it was actually the tires.
Yes it was the tires, and the faster I went the louder it got. A loud irratating pulsing chirping singing noise.
So .... I found a negative to these what I thought were perfect winter tires.
The only other thing I don't like is that most of the Ice 3 tires are Xtra Load and that makes for a little harsher ride.
SF