I lost a tire a tire on this weekend's trip and it looks like it's time for 4 new ones. Wading through the many brands of tires, I found a Brand called Hercules. Hercules Tire is a nationwide distributor of major brands, and their Hercules brand tire is manufactured here in the US by Cooper Tire. Tire Discounters has them for $97 each.
I know, Maxxis etc etc., but I am leaning toward a brand with better distribution and nationwide availability, and a US made tire has my vote.
I would wan't to see the Made in USA indicator on the tire myself but even if it is made here, I wouldn't choose it over the M's.
After reading and experiencing the horrors of bad ST tires, I made sure I would never be sitting on the side of the road with a defective tire again by getting the Maxxiss. They have not let me down.
I doubt you'll find very many experienced people here that would go with a brand like Hercules.
I guess it breaks down to what's more important to you and I certainly respect those who wan't to buy American.
Scott, Grace and Wesly
2003 Dodge 3500 4x4, 6 speed Cummins (lightly bombed),
2004 Forest River 25RKS many, many mods.
H0NDA eu2000i
Did a bit of research and found info suggesting that all Hercules tires have been imported from china since 2004. Maybe they are made here and I just can't find any info.
Go ahead and get a set of Hercules ST tires and report back your experiences as I doubt you will find many stating that they are the equal to Maxxis. As for nationwide availablity and distribution, there are readily available to any tire shop, but of course they will always push what gives them the highest profit margin. Our local Discount Tire tried the same thing, so we ordered them from DiscountTireDirect.com and had them delivered for free. Our local Discount Tire mounted, balanced, and warranted them all for less than the inferior brand they pushed. Who knows, maybe you could start a movement for Hercules ST tires, because it sure would be nice to know there are other reliable choices for ST tires than just Maxxis.
Sorry if that comment sounded snarky, it wasn't meant that way.
I guess experience in this case would be measured by how many tire failures one has had or, whether they've had enough LOL.
FWIW, the press release only says they are celebrating doing business together with Hercules for 50 years and that (Hercules) "is a leading tire marketer of replacement tires in the USA, Canada and globally in more than 90 countries."
I didn't see where they indicated they were made here in 2010 but maybe I missed it.
Maybe I just didn’t see it but I read nothing in the linked article that states the tries are being made in the USA… it says they are headquartered here in Ohio, and marketing tires made by Cooper or a associate company… while I could be wrong, I don’t believe Cooper any longer builds ST tires in the US and they may only build them in a partnered plant today (like Cooper/Kunshan or Cooper /Chengshan)…
Love my mass produced, entry level, built by Lazy American Workers, Hornet
Yes, Hercules is the marketing company, but they have tires made for them by Cooper to sell under the Hercules brand. I have never heard of the Hercules brand before, I was hoping someone here may have had some experience with them, good or bad. I thought Cooper still manufactured in the US, but if that's not the case, then these are just more Chinese tires.
Go look at one of those Hercules tires and get the plant code off of them. Then look it up (there are sources here on the web). That will tell you exactly where they were made.
With a brand like Hercules, they may have truck tires made by one company, car tires made by another, and trailer tires made by yet a third company. So when you google this, you will find people talking about some Hercules tire other than the trailer tire and they say it is made by Cooper in the states. Probably true. But when you dig far enough and read about where people have actually purchased the trailer tires, they say they are made in China.
* This post was
edited 05/21/12 05:55am by ExRocketScientist *
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