My recently acquired 1983 300d came with a set of almost new Firestone FR410 tires. The handling is poor and I am concerned that it may be because these tires do not have an appropriate speed rating. What are your thoughts on this? I have plenty of other things to fix on the car and would prefer not to spend a bunch of money on new tires right now, but if they are to blame I will need to consider replacing them. I live in Minnesota, so I would need to find replacements that are good in snow and ice as well as in summer weather.

not only inadequate speed rating but also load capacity ... change them out

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Get those firestones off!!! See if Luke can get you a good deal on some Kumhos-I have a set of the cheapies on my 300D, and they do really well!

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1982 300DT 190K (Diesel Purge + synthetic oil=smoothness at last!!!)
2004 Ford E-350 6.0 L PSD 227K
2006 Dodge Ram 3500 SRW HO Cummins 4X4 48RE 42K (brute force tow vehicle)
2005 Scion xB wife's rolling pop can
1993 GMC Sierra C3500 6.2 142K

Are the kumhos good in the snow? Also, is it likely that the firestones would cause bad handling?

The problem w/ Firestone is irregular/bumpy tread wear(I've had 2 sets of FR*** series do it)-I haven't had the Kumhos out in the snow(trying to avoid road salt and we also had a massive snow and ice storm here recently)but, they have a decent looking all-season tread and are the cheapest all season radials you can get-if you want serious snow/ice performance,I'd go Blizzak (but my wife's Vibe goes just fine w/ Semperits)-depends on whether you've got an extra wheel or 2 around.

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1982 300DT 190K (Diesel Purge + synthetic oil=smoothness at last!!!)
2004 Ford E-350 6.0 L PSD 227K
2006 Dodge Ram 3500 SRW HO Cummins 4X4 48RE 42K (brute force tow vehicle)
2005 Scion xB wife's rolling pop can
1993 GMC Sierra C3500 6.2 142K

I am on a limited budget, so I am first going to have an alignment done to see if that helps. If not, I will start looking at tire replacement. I find that tire prices are misleading, because the local shops charge an arm and a leg for mounting and balancing.

It's funny that you wrote that-I had the exact same concern with my 300D-I was wearing the inside out of my driver's side front tire-if you have a Tire Discounters up there in MN, they will align your Benz for free(the total for everything on mine was only about $200 w/out road hazard)

__________________
1982 300DT 190K (Diesel Purge + synthetic oil=smoothness at last!!!)
2004 Ford E-350 6.0 L PSD 227K
2006 Dodge Ram 3500 SRW HO Cummins 4X4 48RE 42K (brute force tow vehicle)
2005 Scion xB wife's rolling pop can
1993 GMC Sierra C3500 6.2 142K