Firestone Firehawk SH30 Tires

Firestone Firehawk SH30 Tires 

DESCRIPTION

The Firestone SH30 is an H-rated, all-season high performance tire designed to deliver outstanding wet performance, especially wet lateral traction (cornering), without sacrificing dry performance. It is available in 14-16 inch sizes.

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 22  
[Jun 03, 2003]
gredi
Model Reviewed: Firestone Firehawk SH30 195/65HR14

Strength:

Wet traction, appearance of tread design.

Weakness:

Noise as they aged, treadwear

Good tire for the price. Excellent wet traction, adequate dry traction. Treadwear is another story. Rotated every 6000 miles, still only got 33,209 miles before being into the wear bars. Got progressively noisy with mileage. Cupping on front even with spot on alignment. Significantly better in most respects than Eagle RSA's that were OEM on my '98 Neon R/T. In all fairness, I was not gentle with them at all.

Similar Products Used:

Goodyear Eagle RSA 185/65HR14

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
3
[Jun 17, 2002]
Doug
Model Reviewed: 1997 Accord

Strength:

good wet and dry, in this car I never found their limit

Weakness:

tread wear was rather fast and they are not the quietest thing on the road, my Gislavid Frost snow tires make about the same amount of noise

I used the 195/60 series tires rather than the 185/65 OEM size. I found the tires were great and offered far more performance than the car really needed. The handling was as good as can be expected from a family sedan, even a abeit competant one. I had no service problems with the tires, the store did not balance the properly but a quick trip to my regular mechnic fixed that. The tires have lasted their warrented 50,00 miles and do need replacement now. All in all I am satisfied with them

Similar Products Used:

just the OEM michalins which slid all over the place in the rain-VERY bad

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[May 29, 2002]
Sean
Model Reviewed: 91 celica

Strength:

Handling was great until I got through 70% of the treadwear. Then the problems with hydroplaning etc kicked in resulting in an accident

Weakness:

Treadwear was horrible. I got 25K of 50K rated tire. The Firestone dealer in Texas stated that all of the sh30's they sold came in short on treadwear. Must be something in the heat in Texas that the tires can't handle. He sold me a set of Potenza Re950's at significant discount to make up for the problem. That's when I noticed the noise difference. I thought I was having bearing problems in the rear but it turns out it was SH30's all along.

Great handling,Poor treadware, noise

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
2
[Feb 09, 2002]
kkoring
Model Reviewed: 1995 Lexus

Strength:

Good traction. Quiet at first.

Weakness:

Tread life is horrible. I had a slow leak in one of them, so I took them to the place where I bought them thinking that it was only a nail. There were HOLES in the two front tires after less than 30,000 miles! They said it was from being out of alignment, but my car was was not pulling at all and seemed to be handling fine.

Initially I was happy with these tires. They were quiet at first and the handling on wet and dry pavement was good. The more miles I put on them, the noiser they got. This is the second set I''ve had and I will not buy them again!

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
2
[Jan 14, 2002]
Yash
Model Reviewed: 1998

Strength:

Wet handing, long wearing. After 52,000 miles wet handling is still quite good. OK for small amounts of snow. If I done a better job rotating them I would have easily passed my next inspection and 60,000 miles.

Weakness:

They were quiet, then they got noisey. I would recommend rotating them front to back only, I believe crossing them and making them spin in the opposite direction is not something they do without protest. Some cupping of the tread. The first 500 miles - oh my GOD! they were so squirley I had a full time job making the car go straight. But then they settled down nicely. They cost too much at Firestone stores.

Very good value, for my car suitable sizes as standard replacement,+0, and +1 applications. Much better than my OEM Bridgestone RE92''s.

Similar Products Used:

Bridgetsone RE92''s, average performance with way too much noise.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Oct 21, 2001]
Jim

Strength:

All-around tire for dry, wet, even some snow. Very good wet handling. Performance is very good unless you always push your car to it''s limits. Reasonable price.

Weakness:

Sidewall a bit soft, so not a HIGH-performance tire. But I''m not a racer.

After over 10,000 miles, I can say that this is an excellent choice for an all-around tire for all weather conditions and winding roads. This tire goes from wet to dry with very little need to change my driving habits (I was impressed). It even handled slush and snow OK on ski trips, much better than the Dunlop D60A2s. The sidewall is a softer than the Dunlop, so my VW Golf does lean a bit more in curves...but it still tracks well. It even handled well on 150 miles of dirt roads one day in the Oregon desert. Also, they are relatively quiet! I highly recommend them. PS. These did seem slippery for the first 50 or so miles, something I did not notice with other new tires. My tire size is 195 on 14" wheels.

Similar Products Used:

Dunlop D60A2, Goodyear Eagle GT & Vector

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 14, 2001]
tony
Model Reviewed: 1994 mustang v6

Strength:

awesome wet weather traction even on a mustang.

Weakness:

had minor tire wear on the side walls.

decent tire. much better than my oem goodyear eagle ga tires. the mustang is a terrible driving car with regards to traction. the dawmn tailend always slide out. not sure about the tire qality now since i no longer have the mustang.

Similar Products Used:

None

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[May 31, 2000]
Steve
Model Reviewed: 205/60HR15

Strength:

The best tire I have ever owned on any vehicle. Unreal wet traction. Great dry condition performance. Communicates the edge of adhesion well...traction fades away progressively and gently, there are no surpirses, the tire never "breaks" traction. Good lookin' tire!

Weakness:

Nothing

Best tires I have ever owned on any of the 11 vehicles that I have had over the last 9 years. Am looking forward to the tires on my new car showing enough wear to put a set of SH30's on.

Similar Products Used:

Goodyear Eagle GA and RS-A: Both ride noisier than the SH30's. The GA was traction challenged and prone to FREQUENT flats. The RS-A have great traction in the dry and acceptable traction in the wet, but when they lose grip it is sudden and severe!

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Apr 24, 2001]
Steve Foster
Model Reviewed: 2001 tire - 97 Grand Prix GTP

Strength:

Excellent Wet weather traction, great cornering, good snow traction

Weakness:

the tires do spin under heavy acceleration from a stop, but i think this is the supercharger kicking in, and not a fault of the tires.

I bought the car (97 GTP) with the original tires on it. I test drove it on dry pavement, and they seemed ok. The next day it snowed a little (2 inches) and couldn't keep the car on the road. Read the reviews here, and picked up 4 SH30's and I am very, very happy. Buy them, you won't be dissapointed. They were pretty expensive ($157 canadian) but that is a small price to pay for my safety. I felt unsafe with the RSA's and the car feels totally different with the SH30's

Similar Products Used:

Goodyear RSA's - they were junk

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Mar 22, 2001]
Tom Langston
Model Reviewed: SH 30 Firehawk 225 60 16

Strength:

High mileage (50,000+) from a high performance tire. Excellent dry and wet handling.

Weakness:

Hard rubber compound sacrifices some initial grip. My 1997 4.6 L Thunderbird can make these P225 60 16 tires squeal under full acceleration (with Traction Control on). I could not do this with my original Goodyear GT+4 tires. The down side of the Goodyears is that they lasted only 28,000 miles.

To replace my worn out Goodyear GT+4 tires, I was loking for an all weather high performance tire that would give me abour 45-55K. I went to the Tirerack website and noticed that the SH 30 was rated #1 by consumers.
Based on this, I bought a set from an independent tire store. So far, they have performed as advertised (i.e., excellent handling, low road noise, etc.). If I get 50K out of them I will be extremely happy. Two nice features about them are choices of sidewall design ("plain" and aggresive markings on each sidewall) and a sidewall bead which helps eliminate mag wheel scrapes.

Similar Products Used:

Overall, they are better than the Goodyear GT+4 tires because of the difference in mileage (i.e., better value).

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 22  

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