Annaite tires: worth buying?

[family wagon]

The Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers location in Utah has several lots of 8 each Annaite branded 11R22.5 tires being auctioned Tuesday. I'm in need of four drive tires and trying to decide whether to take a gamble on one of these.. both whether they'll be satisfactory, and whether I'll be able to easily re-sell the four tires I won't be using.

If history is any guide, lots of similar/same Annaite tires were sold this month in Nashville for $1100-$1300, in Houston for $1600-$1800, in Sacramento for $1400-$1600, and in Denver for $1600-$2100.

There are tread patterns 300, 366, and 660. According to www.otrusa.com these are respectively all-position, steer/all-position, and drive. Since I'd hope to use my bus in the winter (possibly lightly snowy roads) and off the pavement I guess the 660 might be a good choice for me. I'm concerned about it riding like a dump truck, however..

Does anybody have wisdom to offer on these? Anybody want to roll the dice with me and buy the other four tires? I'd be happy to strap them to a pallet and deliver them to an LTL terminal in Salt Lake at no additional cost, but I've got to imagine freight for the stack should be maybe $300.

[cadillackid]

if a lot goes for 1100 or so id think thats a good deal, but if they go for 200 or a little more per tire than thats almost tire store prices.. i dont know that brand at all
-Christopher

[cowlitzcoach]

I too have never heard of that brand of tire before.

But to be fair, there are a lot of brands I am seeing I have never seen before.

I would not be purchasing any tires unless I could verify their build date. Over the years I have seen some brand new never been mounted tires that were approaching their 5th birthday. At that point anything over $100.00 per tire is too much.

Since I can get cheap Chinese knock offs mounted and balanced for around $450.00 per tire I would subtract the cost of mounting, balancing, dumping the old tires, new stem, excise tax, and sales tax from that. Unless the price for the auction tires is substantially lower I think I would take a pass on them.

[cadillackid]

Why does date matter if tires have not been exposed to the elements ?
Of. Course I understand age if they are outside but being stored in a warehouse it seems they won't age much...
Christopher

[jazty]

I've seen the Annaite around here as much as the Sailun, both on the road and in the tire shops. My uneducated opinion is that they are about the same quality: good enough for all applications except the long distance OTR trucks.

[cadillackid]

my red bus has a brand called samson. I dont know much about them but it seems I seem them on quite a few school busses that i see out and about. mine came on my bus and are only a few years old.. no idea on miles.. I put close to 10k on them since i got the bus and havent had any issues.

-Christopher

[Booyah45828]

Humidity and temp variations can take a toll on tires as well. I don't quite follow the blank statement of anything over 6 years old is garbage. My current rears are over 6 but they were retreaded at sometime in those 6 years and are still in pretty good shape.

Do your due diligence and inspect them in person before purchasing.

I've never heard of the brand either. Around here, most stuff is Bridgestone, Michelin, Kumho, or Continental. I don't usually ever see the odd ball chinese/korean stuff.

[Versatile]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Why does date matter if tires have not been exposed to the elements ?
Of. Course I understand age if they are outside but being stored in a warehouse it seems they won't age much...
Christopher

Stored properly away from ozone they will last for years.I have sold quite a few WWII airplane tires.

Hankook are Korean tires and are very good tires. A friend with a tire shop in Ia sells all kinds of them. Prices are good also.

[cowlitzcoach]

If the tires are stored in a dry and dark warehouse and stored in racks they will last quite a while.

If they stack the tires or in a location that has big swings in temps and humidity the tires will off gas and get dried out. If the tires get stacked one on top of each other it will tend to ruin the tread. It can also make it nearly impossible to get the beads to seat. Tires need to be mounted and driven on a regular basis in order for the natural oils in the rubber to squish around to keep the rubber supple.

If the price is low enough it is worth a try. But anything more than half the price of new and I think you are starting to get into the realm of "it isn't worth the effort" zone.

[cadillackid]

great info.. I always figured that the big killer of tires by time vs weasr was UV, road acids, oils, dirt, etc.. I never realized storage environment, and esp storage technique ..

I suppose its esp important when going to a tire shop and installing a somewhat obscure tire size that (they just happened to have in stock), would be to look at the date code to verify they havent sat there for a few years.. imguessimng standard sizes of truck tires like the 225/70R19.5. and the 11R22.5 probably dont sit around long since they are widely used on many vehicles..

-Chrisrtopher

[family wagon]

Thanks for the thoughts everybody. My feelings on it were similar: for the auction to make sense it'd have to end at a substantial discount to what I was offered at retail. I figured I could go to $150 or maybe even $200 per tire (before adding the 10% auction fee) but beyond that it starts to make a lot of sense to simply roll up at a tire store, point to a set, and have it all finished two hours later.

Apparently some people don't know my first rule of buying at auction: know the retail price of the goods. Those lots of 8 tires just ended with most in the $2300-$2500 range (plus fee). That's equal to what I got quoted from an arbitrary tire shop when I phoned in as just some person off the street. I'm stunned people bid so much at auction.

[dan-fox]

Originally Posted by family wagon

I'm stunned people bid so much at auction.

I've seen stuff on Fleabay go up over MSRP many times. It is strange.

[Rameses]

Some people get competitive at auctions. They think it's a wiener measuring contest and refuse to be outbid.

[cadillackid]

or a total lack of true value.. someone might hear rumors that a brand new school bus costs $100k, so when they go bid on an auctiuon for a 12 year old bus and it runs up to 10k they may still feel like its a "deal".. since they have no real concept of what similar busses sold for.. its their first time out and they find the first bus that looks cool as heck and bid... and for things like tires.. all they hear is "commercial tires are crazy expensive".. or any other item.. so when the bdding styarts its ASSUMED that the deal they get will be "good".. and will automatically cost MUCH less than new...
-Christopher