Kelly Springfield Tires

I was at my local Canadian Tire store this evening, looking at tires. Kelly Springfield makes a tire, the Big O, if I remember correctly. I read several reviews about it and it does everything well, with the exception of heavy mud. It is a good snow and ice tire (siped), it voids mud well with wheel spin, and because of the two deep circumferential grooves it voids water well for highway driving, etc.

Canadian Tire sells this tire as a house brand (motor master). When I asked one of the parts guys (a knowledgeable guy, in my experience), he showed me their in-house tire order book. The tire is a Kelly Springfield that has been re-badged as a MotorMaster tire. I've seen Cooper do this with Dean tires as well.

My questions are:

1.Would the quality be the same? The parts guy said that they are built to the same load range, and have the same sidewall rating as a Kelly Springfield. Does anyone know anything else I should check.

2. Has anyone got first hand experience with these tires?

These are about $40/tire cheaper than a Big O in my neck of the woods.

Geoff

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/p...0189519109&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true

Geoff,

I had trouble using the link you provided to the Candian Tire website. I was unable to view the tire in question or the size.

Kelly Springfield is part of Goodyear and they build tires for a lot of people. Goodyear still builds a few private lable tires for dealers large enough to handle the product volume.

For there to be a $40 difference in price between two tires built by Goodyear, I would say they are not the same "green tire". The major difference would be in the rubber compound and how it will wear. I might also look at the mileage and temp rating (and there is another that I will have to look up tomorrow at work). Many tires in the 15" rim will have a rating number like 420AA. The number refers to approximate mileage the tire is rated for and the letters refer to temp, etc., with an AA tire being the best.

I don't know if this helps or not.

Ed