Anyone have any experienc with Hercules tires in general, and Hercules
Ultra Plus IV tires specifically? I had not heard of the brand. They
were presented to me as a quaility tire that are reasonably priced.
Are they an off-brand made by a major tire maker?
'97ventureowner - 03 Aug 2007 03:00 GMT
Hercules has been around a long time. They are a private label brand
tire. The garage I used to work in 15 years ago had a tire shop within
and carried Hercules tires. We sold a lot of that brand and had a lot
of satisfied customers. I used to use Hercules Polar Trax tires in the
winter and never had problems getting around. I'm not familiar with the
tires you are specifically looking for.

Signature
'97ventureowner
http://www.automotiveforums.com
Steve W. - 03 Aug 2007 09:05 GMT
> Anyone have any experienc with Hercules tires in general, and Hercules
> Ultra Plus IV tires specifically? I had not heard of the brand. They
> were presented to me as a quaility tire that are reasonably priced.
> Are they an off-brand made by a major tire maker?
Private label, used to be mostly Cooper made. Couple of local shops sell
them. Seem to be an OK tire.

Signature
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York
scott21230@gmail.com - 03 Aug 2007 17:16 GMT
Just check to make sure that they are not made in China.
'97ventureowner - 03 Aug 2007 18:05 GMT
scott21230@gmail.com Wrote:
> Just check to make sure that they are not made in China.
I believe they are still made in Ohio in the "Good Ole USA".

Signature
'97ventureowner
http://www.automotiveforums.com
John S. - 03 Aug 2007 18:28 GMT
> Anyone have any experienc with Hercules tires in general, and Hercules
> Ultra Plus IV tires specifically? I had not heard of the brand. They
> were presented to me as a quaility tire that are reasonably priced.
> Are they an off-brand made by a major tire maker?
They are a distributor of brands like signet, etc. They are not a
manufacturer. The website does not indicate which companies
manufacture Hercules tire brands.
If it were me I would buy tires from a recognized manufacturer.
Twenty years ago I would not have thought much about the origin of
products like tires. However given the recent problems with some
products including tires from China I have become increasingly
sensitive to the country of origin.
KC - 04 Aug 2007 01:25 GMT
Thanks for the advice on checking the country of origin. The tire I
was shown has "Made in the USA" molded on the sidewall.
KC - 05 Aug 2007 14:03 GMT
I found a web page to decipher DOT codes, and the code on the Hercules
tire translated to: manufactured in the 23rd week of 2007 by Cooper
Tire & Rubber Co., Albany, Georgia.
The site is
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/manufacture/index.html - this
is the look-up site for the tire codes.
On a tire, the first two letters/numbers after the "DOT" marking on
the sidewall is the plant code. You just get those two characters and
then visit the above link selecting "Tires" in the "Search In" column
and entering the two characters in the "DOT ID" field
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/TireSafety/ridesonit/brochure.html
- explains what the markings on a tire mean and which one is the
plant code, (which I already explained above), and how to determine
the date the tire was manufactured.
Mike Romain - 05 Aug 2007 15:08 GMT
> Anyone have any experienc with Hercules tires in general, and Hercules
> Ultra Plus IV tires specifically? I had not heard of the brand. They
> were presented to me as a quaility tire that are reasonably priced.
> Are they an off-brand made by a major tire maker?
We had a set of Hercules 'Terra Trac' tires on our Jeep Cherokee and
they were an excellent performing tire on and off road.
Quite frankly we were 'very' disappointed when we 'upgraded' to BFG
AT's. They 'were' one size bigger, a P235 vs a P225 but the loss of
traction from the Hercules was 'very' noticeable. We are talking at
least a 5 mph lower 'float level' where the steering starts to drift on
the highway in snow.
They also offered a good road hazard warranty on one that had a belt let
go from, well, who knows just 'what' rock caused that eh?
We would buy them again.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile...
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2115147590
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)