Linglong Crosswind Tires Review: Who Makes Crosswind Tires?
Where the rubber meets the road. That is the main concern when it comes to RV or TT tires. You want a good solid rubber meeting the road at all times. No matter the brand how good of traction you got is the most important thing when you are driving or pulling heavy weights.
Who makes Crosswind tires? Crosswind Tires is a wholly-owned sub-brand of LingLong Tires. Both are Chinese companies with the latter based in Zhaoyuan, China. Most people have not heard of this tire brand but it may be getting more popular as trade wars heat up.
To learn more about this tire company you may not have heard of, keep reading our article. It gives you the information about the company and its tires you should know. They may be unheard of but they may still be good tires. Just continue on to find out.
Linglong Crosswind 101
What are Crosswind Tires
This brand of tires come from one of the larger tire manufacturers in the world. Their reputation is not as good as you would think. The company that makes this tire makes a variety of styles to fit passenger cars, SUVs light, and medium-sized trucks.
With global testing and manufacturing facilities these tires are readily available in many different countries of the world. These facilities are supposed to be state of the art and managed by a competent team of personal that are held to the highest of standards.
The tires themselves are supposed to be made from the best rubber available providing the user with durability and high performance. Also, these tires were made with the purpose to bring a more inexpensive tire to the world market.
They are said to meet North American tire standards but at about half the cost.
What Company Makes Crosswind Tires
The Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd of China makes the Crosswind brand of tire. As stated, the reason this 40-year-old company decided to make this brand was to bring a low-cost tire to the overseas markets.
The Linglong company boasts of being one of the top 3 tire manufacturers in its home nation and one of the larger ones found in the world. It makes several brands and TBC is the distributor for Canada and America.
Also, the company has research and development facilities in Ohio and Beijing with a testing center in Europe. Despite the positive reviews some users have made across the internet, the company, not the Crosswind tire brand, do not enjoy a good reputation.
The tread on one style copies the Yokohama tire tread style yet constantly underperforms when compared to that Japanese brand. Your results with this set of tires may be different than other peoples. You may get lucky and buy a top-quality set that last you a long time.
Where are Crosswind Tires Manufactured
Along with their Zhaoyuan, China headquarters, Crosswind tires started to be made in Thailand when Linglong opened its first international manufacturing plant in 2013. Since that opening, most of the manufacturing is done in that country.
Although R & D facilities and testing centers are in America and Europe, very little manufacturing, if any at all, are done in those regions. There are a lot of internationally known and favored tire brands that have moved manufacturing to China.
Yet, those companies impose their own strict standards on their products made in that country. In other words, the specs for the tires are the same whether they were built in China or a North American plant.
The name brands make sure their reputations are not sullied simply because they found a cheaper source of labor in another country. Yet this attitude does not hold true for Chinese brand tires made by Chinese tire companies.
The attitude is a lot different and as it has been said, you get what you pay for. That means although the Chinese manufactured tires coming from Chinese companies may be cheaper, so may be the quality of the tires.
Crosswind Mud Tires Review
It is hard to find a bad review of the Crosswind mud tires. The sites that we have checked posted only good reviews which made us a little leery. These tires are supposed to look really good. One reviewer went as far as saying they had a sexy look to them.
But the worst he said about them was that you should only use them for about 30,000 miles. It seems that the tire's longevity is in question. Their stopping power may not be that great when the weather is bad, or the ground is a bit slick.
Other reviewers thought these were the best tires made this side of heaven. But when everyone speaks well of you it is time to be a little skeptical. The Linglong mud tires are built to meet North American standards so they should be a good tire.
Again, under different tests, the Crosswind tires did not perform that well. Even when they copied the Yokohama tread design to give the consumer the idea that they are just as good as that Japanese tire, the performance was less than enthusiastic.
While you may see some great reviews about Crosswind Tires, you may not be getting the whole story.
Are Crosswind Tires Any Good?
According to one testing facility, the Crosswind did not even meet half the results of the 8th place tire brand when it came to performance. That lackluster finish and test results will tell you to be careful when you buy Crosswind tires. They may or may not perform as you expect.
We say may or may not because since these tires do meet North American standards, they may still have some tires that do perform well. Just not all of them will. It is impossible to predict the results you get from Crosswind tires when you purchase them for your vehicles.
You may save money but again, you get what you pay for. The fact that Crosswind tires took 22 feet longer to stop a vehicle going 50 miles per hour, tells you that you have to be extra careful when you start braking.
What makes any tire good or bad is the quality of the engineering that is put into the tires. So far, Crosswind has not had to level engineering to make them a great tire like Michelin.
Are Crosswind Tires Safe?
That is going to be a depends question as the answers depend a lot on the day of the week, month and year the tires were made. With questionable engineering, some of the tires may be very safe to use and hold up well.
There are users who have had great experiences with Crosswind tires. Others will stay far away from them as they do not trust anything like tires that comes out of China. Standards are different in that country and you are taking a gamble by trying to shave a few dollars off the purchase price.
Performance tests have the Crosswind tire in 9th position well behind the #8 entry. These signs do not look good for those who choose to save and buy Crosswind tires. The company itself does not hold a great reputation either and that is not good.
But as we said earlier, these tires are supposed to meet North American standards so there must be some element of safety to them. Just do not put a lot of weight on the tires and watch the roads you travel down.
How Long do Crosswind Tires Last?
The figures on 3 Crosswind tire models have different mileage longevity attached to them. The HP 010 model is claimed to last 45,000 miles. Then the Crosswind A/T is said to be able to go 50,000 miles before they wear out.
Finally, the Eco Touring model is said to reach 55,000 miles before needing to be replaced. But, there have been complaints about different tires claiming one thing but lasting a lot less.
What that means is that when it comes to tires, including Crosswind, there are no guarantees. A tire slated for 60,000miles may only last 20,000. Not every tire is going to perform up to the standard or claims made.
This lack of guarantee is not limited to Crosswind or Chinese tire brands. It goes across the board. One person who used Crosswind stated that he changed his tires when they reached about 30,000. That is between 15 and 25,000 miles less than the tread was supposed to last.
The key is not to be naive about car tires and make sure you check the quality before you leave the store. You may not get what you expect and you may be a little upset by the lack of longevity your tires have.
Who Carries Crosswind Tires
TBC is supposed to be the distributor and marketer of Crosswind tires in both Canada and America. This company seems to carry a lot of unfamiliar tire brands with crosswind being just one of about 15.
In reading their about page, TBC seems to have the franchise monopoly for Crosswind and other tire brands as they have offices throughout Mexico, Central, and South America as well as Europe and the Middle East.
What TBC does is act as a wholesaler and markets the Crosswind tire to regional independent dealers. In other words, you may find them at local tire shops only. If you are lucky enough to find them at a reputable dealer then good for you.
NTB is one tire shop you can get Crosswind tires at. They have service centers located throughout the nation and you can find one nearest you through their locator service.
The strange thing about NTB is that they only list top international brands everyone has heard of in their footer section of their website. No Linglong tire company is mentioned on their main page.
Big O tire centers also carry the Crosswind tire. It is listed on their tire brand section as Crosswind with no mention of China anywhere near it. Crosswind tires are also found at Walmart.
That makes sense since that box store likes to provide its customers with the lowest prices possible and Crosswind is certainly not that expensive to buy. There are more of these independent tire dealers that sell these tires.
A little research and you can find an outlet near you.
Crosswind Tires vs Michelin
There is no comparison here. One research tester who looked at about 9 different tires for performance etc., said that the Crosswind does not come close to meeting Michelin’s tire performance or specs. He said, that if you want a tire like a Michelin, you need to buy a Michelin.
Although Michelin tires are made in China, they are not made by the same company as Crosswind tires. Nor are they made according to Linglong standards. The Michelin corporation is very protective of its long-held and hard-earned reputation so they make sure their tires are made to their specs no matter which country produces them.
The same cannot be said about Crosswind tires. Their bad reputation and the not so healthy reputation of Linglong is proven by the under performance of the Crosswind tires and other tires that company produces.
When your tire performs at half the levels of the #8 competitor in performance tests, then you know you are not getting a Michelin or even a top-quality tire.
Some Final Words
Sometimes your reputation is all you have. When that reputation is bad, no matter how good a tire you produce, it will always be seen as an inferior model. That may or may not be the case with Crosswind as its parent company does not have a good reputation and any tire it produces will seem bad.
Yet, the overall performance of the Crosswind tells everyone that you are taking a gamble that the ones you buy won’t underperform but last you a long time. You are taking your chances when you buy a low quality, inexpensive tire when you want to save a little money.
