The tow beast, henceforth to be called Fat Albert, is in need of tires. I priced them today locally. 
The best price is a Mastercraft E rated tire and they will still be over $1000 installed. Anyone ever used them before? They will be going on a truck that will be driven less than 5000 miles a year so they will age out before they wear out, but I don't want to end up blowing out cheap tires constantly either.
I ran a set of Mastercraft for 50-60k with no problems on my Civic. However they were not E range tires so YMMV.
I don't know if it's still the case, but they used to be last generation Goodyears, re-branded as Mastercraft. So they weren't bad. Last set I had were some winter tires for my Impreza, back in 2005. I was happy with them.
Mastercraft is made by Cooper.
I am in the same situation with my F250. The "cheapest" tires I can find are the Kumho Road Venture KL78's, in 235/85R16's, for about $140/tire minus any install or balancing.
I worked for a major(locally) wholesale tire sales joint for a few years, and roughly 30% of our sales were Mastercraft. By and large a decent brand, recommended them often to folks who didn't want to pay up for the premium brands.
What model tire?
I'm guessing you mean the Courser CT? I've had both the CT and the MT in 10ply E rated tires on my old dually. Love the tires wear and traction. I wasn't a fan of the CTs off road ability but they did wear nice. My current tow rig has 10 ply Treadwright Guard Dogs. Yes they are retreaded but it is a great tire. Cheap too.
The quote is for the Mastercraft Courser HTR in a 235/85-16. E rated, 10 ply.
$149.59 each.
Out the door for 6 is $1116.58.
We install Mastercraft tires as the "good" tires in the good/better/best hierarchy.
No problems. I've never had any that didn't run round and square (unlike, say, Goodyear, where you're lucky to get four where ONLY one is all over the place) and they seem to be fairly light tires. A general rule of thumb I've developed for tires is that the crappier they are, the heavier they are.
Using the truck as a tow rig, you won't hate a 10ply Courser HTR. Relatively quiet and round, won't wear as fast as the cheapy imports. Stiff carcass, tread might be a little greasy if you treat the truck like a go cart, but still good for a rig that won't see many miles.
An aside, since we're talking Mastercraft, the Courser MSR snow tire is my all time fave for a truck or SUV. Even had great luck with six of them on a Fuso. No canoe. /hijack
Look at treadwrights. Or other cold bond retreads.
We've started using the Courser tires on the trucks at work and have had good results so far.
I have Courser HTRs on my company van. They have been good to me. Good traction on wet and snow (LSD helps). They are a HUGE upgrade to the E36 M3ty Grabbers I had on there.
Was shopping for load range E replacements for the big truck a few months ago and found Primewell Valeras at the local Firestone stores. Seems to be Firestone's in house price leader. Had priced comparable Mastercrafts at an independent retailer and the Primewells came in significantly less at somewhere around $140 per corner. Got several thousand miles on them with no complaints. Check it out and see how they compare.
Jeff
Keep an eye out for brand close-outs or rebates and ask if there are any going on. $1000+ is too much to pay for an "off brand" tire with no real review or satisfaction data to find online.
I picked up 4 new Pirelli Scorpions 265/xx - 17 10 ply E rated about 3 weeks ago on sale for $950 installed at one of the big box tire places. (Jack Williams here in the NE). Granted I drove the old tires until I could see the air in them waiting for a good sale... but I did eventually find one.
Snorklewacker, I think he's buying six tires.
Otherwise, I agree. $1000 buys four premium Load-E tires including mounting, balancing and warranty.
Update:
I ended up with the Mastercraft Courser RD tires. Much better than what was on there. Ride quality is pretty good for a one ton truck. They are fairly quiet also. We'll see how they do long term. In their price range, they were the only tire available that wasn't made in China. These were actually US made. I also had them installed at a independent shop. They seem to do a better job compared to the franchise stores around here. Their price was with in $20.00 of internet pricing.
To GPS and modernbeat, yes I was buying 6 tires.
I've only experienced 2 sets of Mastercraps. No, that was not a typo. I've never driven on a tire so out of round at all times, so noisy, so absolutely horrific in rain/snow/cold/hot/dry that I wouldn't even recommend them to my worst enemy.
But YMMV.
In reply to Ranger50:
I have used various versions of the Kumho Road Ventures, including the KL78, on various vehicles and they have been among the better tires I have owned.
Moparman wrote: In reply to Ranger50: I have used various versions of the Kumho Road Ventures, including the KL78, on various vehicles and they have been among the better tires I have owned.
If I don't sell the truck, probably what I am going to go with. I don't recall ever having ANY problems with ANY Kumho's I have purchased and used.
I have had several sets of trucks running Mastercraft tires and had great luck. Trick is probably that I run load range E tires at 65# of pressure even on a half-ton truck, and people who seem to complain about them seem to be trying to run them at 32# like they are car tires. Use them like truck tires and you'll have no issues.
Around here the farm supply place has been selling Mastercraft tires since at least '91, when I bought my first set of new tires, so I'm not sure I'd call them an "off brand" but rather a not so well known brand.
Mastercraft = Cooper.
Just because they don't sponsor multi billion dollar racing series or buy lots of glossy ads and TV commercials, doesn't mean they are off brand.
Our Ram came with relatively new Mastercraft tires on it when we bought it used. I've put 10k on it since then and they still look new. They work fine in the wet and dry, and don't seem to be anything special in the snow in RWD mode. Once I shift to 4WD the truck goes well enough in the snow, so I'm not sure if it's the tires that aren't great in the snow or just the combination of a heavy front end, light rear end, and open differential.
Our truck is loaded or towing a good portion of the time we're using it, and the tires have held up well during that type of use. I don't think I'd buy the Mastercraft's again, but I'll likely run them until they're dry-rotted (I only put on about 5-6k per year) and then replace with something else.
Ranger50 wrote:Moparman wrote: In reply to Ranger50: I have used various versions of the Kumho Road Ventures, including the KL78, on various vehicles and they have been among the better tires I have owned.If I don't sell the truck, probably what I am going to go with. I don't recall ever having ANY problems with ANY Kumho's I have purchased and used.
Currently have ~25k miles on the KL78's. Great tire on the truck.
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