Category: General

For drivers that need high performance and excellent offroad capability, then General Tires is a US and Canadian subsidiary of the Continental AG from Hanover, Germany.

Originally created in 1915 by a man named William O’Neil, General Tire was based out of Akron, Ohio. Strangely enough, in the midst of WWII, in 1943, the company decided to strike out and try a different venture to try and net a profit for General. This was a time when the economy in America was so horrible that the people were literally starving and even the richest conglomerates were struggling to just keep their own doors open daily. But General Tire had a vision, and the board of directors was apt to follow that idea and think ‘out of the box’ so, General made a genuinely risky move and invested into the entertainment industry by purchasing a chain of radio stations known as the “Yankee Network”. This turned out to be successful, so they quickly branched out and picked up another network, and stations in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This branch of General Tire was known as General Teleradio.

In the early 1950’s, General Tire began talks with eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and from this, RKO Radio Pictures was purchased for close to $30 million. But, General wasn’t interested in becoming a movie mogul production company, they were more interested in the television aspect of entertainment and fervently sought to expand their market by focusing on television stations and promoting their local networks, instead. They soon sold most of RKO to Desilu Productions (created by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball of ‘I Love Lucy’ fame) in the mid-1950’s. Sadly, the television business wasn’t destined to work out for General Tire; while the company itself stood for superiority, the same couldn’t be said for it’s individual stations spread across the United States. These stations were ultimately rife with unethical behavior and practices, prompting pricey licensing dispute that eventually edged RKO General out of broadcasting, and leaving General looking for a way to recoup their loss.

Changing RKO General into GenCorp in the mid-1980’s stabilized the subsidiary, and then General Tire sold itself to the German manufacturer, Continental AG not soon after, creating Continental Tire of North America, still producing to this day. The headquarters of Continental’s North American branch is stationed in South Carolina, in Lancaster County.

Sadly, Continental closed down operations in Charlotte, North Carolina and Mayfield, Kentucky, leaving many Americans unemployed and desperately seeking work – and on top of that, they announced a drastic slash in employee benefits.

Despite the setback in recent years, thanks to Continental’s recent buyout by an auto manufacturer and a group of multi-national banks (and their decisions as of late), General Tire is still a leading manufacturer of tires thanks to the tireless work of individuals in factories the world over.

General is known for their technological innovation and competitive research, and you can count on the future holding nothing but good things for this company.


General AltiMAX HP

The General AltiMAX HP tire is a high-performance, All-Season tire, engineered with the modern worries of treadwear, dependability, and comfort. To give buyers the smooth ride and better handling that they needed, the engineers at General created a Twin Cushion Silica Tread, dual slabs of different silica compounds layering the tire, with the low density mixture . . . → Read More: General AltiMAX HP

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