The first thousand miles

Playing peek-a-boo with the truck from behind the building. Really, I just didn't want the work crews to see me taking shots of my own truck.

They've definitely been interesting. I got the tires mounted during a Saturday work shift on 12/15. Drove the 40 or so miles home and largely sat that weekend as I didn't have anything planned besides chores around the house. That next week, it rained more often than it didn't. Temps ranged between 43 and 60.

The tires handled very well in the wet. I felt very confident in turns and curves. My stock tires had done well, until about the 30K mark. Maybe it was psychosomatic; I had read that around that point, the tires could be downright dangerous. Many on the forums attributed the poster's remarks to driver error. However, I can attest that, upon entering an intersection at less than 10 mph coming from a stop at a red light, by back end fish-tailed out like I was an extra in the latest installment of Transporter 4. It had been a light but persistent rain for maybe an hour or so at that point. Given that I generally am a pretty conservative driver and the amount of weight I have in the back, I found it surprising that the back end broke free like that with the stock tires. Since then, I tended to drive even more conservatively in the rain.

With the new tires on, however, and the rash of wet weather we received, I intentionally reversed the trend to see if I could, this time, intentionally elicit that same response. Nothing doing. The Nittos grip the road surfaces with confidence.

On the day of my posting this update, 12/26/12, we received a bit of a wintery mix, approx. 2-3 inches of snowfall accumulation thus far now being topped with freezing rain. I went uphill, downhill, and through curves in 2WD with no issue on a quick run to McDonalds. Really, I was anxious to get out there ahead of the plows and salt trucks to see how they'd respond. No slipping whatsoever within the parking lot. I decided not to push it too much on the roadways, as there were a few sedans and coupes out being driven by drivers who ought to have opted to telecommute today. When I got back, I had hoped to tear through the parking lot, but a salt truck had started making its rounds by that point. Oh well.

First official review isn't due for another 2500 miles, but I thought it best to start compiling notes before I lose track of dates and observations.