Writing about the
Landsail LS388 AS given
94% (175-70-14-T)
Driving on
a combination of roads for 11000
average miles
Got a pair of these on the front of my old workhorse Pug around June last year. The car's used mainly for business, carrying stock and tools, and regularly has it's load carrying abilities pushed to the limit.
Since then it's covered 11k miles of local (country roads), some town work, and 3 or 4 long distance motorway trips, including a couple fully loaded with camping gear and with a trailer attached.
Frankly, the tires were chosen because they were cheap. I didn't expect much from them but needed a couple as the old ones were getting low. I've always taken the view that ditch-finders don't find ditches unless you go looking for them, but these certainly aren't ditch-finders despite only costing about £40 each fully fitted and balanced!
Within a few miles of having them fitted I noticed that they were appreciably quieter than the old Goodyears and seemed at least as responsive. I tend not to intentionally push the grip limits on public roads but did put these "through their paces" just to get an idea of how they'd react.
Grip is plentiful for cornering and braking - they happily gave just over 90% straight-line-dry brake efficiency (measured by Tapley) before complaining and cope well with damp roads and standing water (common around these parts!). Pushed to the limit they give a nice gentle warning back through the wheel, followed by a bit of a squeal, and will regain grip easily unless you just keep pushing.
Admittedly, some of their ability with standing water will be down to the very narrow width by today's standards but that's the size I needed!
Haven't had much of a chance to try out their cold / snow / ice performance but, on the 2 or 3 icy days we've had since, I've had no problem with traction or control even on re-frozen snow "the morning after" an unexpected couple of inches.
Comfort is good, undoubtedly helped by the high (again, by today's standards) profile and noise, as mentioned earlier, has remained pleasantly low - a definite benefit when your car's not as soundproof as most are today!
The one slight downside is that they have a slightly soft compound so wear rates aren't great. That soft compound probably explains a lot of their positive characteristics but, in 11k miles, they've used up about 4mm of tread so will probably end up lasting around 18k miles total. That said, that's on the front, driven, wheels of a fairly heavy diesel that's been used to carry considerable loads around twisty local roads and on motorway at multi-lepton speeds.
As to the "would I buy again" questions - I've just replaced the rears with a pair of the same.