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Can we talk tires for a minute? I hate mine.


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24 minutes ago, twintornados said:

...however, their tires, while "engineered" in America, some are in fact manufactured in China, best to check before you buy if that is important to you.

Used to love Cooper tires till about 10 years ago - now they are no longer American owned.  So, yes, check where your tires are made - no matter what brand you buy- is a good idea.

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20 hours ago, Sevensecondsuv said:

If you're in Maine I'd highly recommend snow tires for winter.  Even in northern IL I run them on both our primary vehicles. The difference between regular all-seasons and dedicated snow tires is eye opening. It's very comparable to the difference between 2 and 4 wheel drive. Personally I've tried the General Altimax Arctic and Continental Winter Contact SI. I'd recommend both. If you're like me and drive approximately 1500 miles/month, a set of snow tires will last at least 4-5 winters.

As for all seasons (which I only run April thru November), I find that brand/model isn't nearly as important as tread life rating. Anything greater than 60,000 mile rating requires a very hard rubber compound and traction suffers. The 70/80k mile rated tires usually suck in my experience. Personally, I've found the Cooper CS5 to be a very good value while delivering acceptable performance throughout the treadlife.

This is really the only true solution to the problem.  I am in the Mountain West - had the Michelin's on my Explorer.  Great tire for summer roadies, pulling the small RV (can up the tire pressure), good in the monsoon late summer rains, quiet - but they sucked in the snow and especially on black ice.  Started looking around at noticed something - what nearly ALL the Sheriff's Dept vehicles had - Goodyear Ultra Grip ICE WRT.  So that is what I run from Thanksgiving to Tax Day. Good luck - but my take is All Seasons are really 3 seasons.  There is simply no substitute for winter tires in severer winter weather.

 

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22 hours ago, FirefighterGeek said:

That's why I'm asking about other people's experience in terms of road noise and mileage impact.

Michelin Defender LTX M/SMichelin Defender LTX M/S

 

I believe Michelin Defenders are sold through all of the "warehouse" clubs.  I am not saying there is anything wrong with them, as a matter of fact, when you catch them on sale they are a very good value. Even though they are listed as a "mud and snow" (M/S) tire, their tread is not extremely noisy on the highway.  The long. fairly straight, deep tread s make them good in the wet and they wear like IRON !

Edited by theoldwizard
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7 minutes ago, twintornados said:

The deal with Apollo Tyre of India fell through....

Thanks - I wasn't aware of that, glad to hear, may consider them again - things in this world are always changing and changing back, hard to keep up with it all.  Who would of thought that Colorado classics like Fat Tire and Breckenridge micro beer would be foreign owned!

 

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1 minute ago, Kev-Mo said:

Thanks - I wasn't aware of that, glad to hear, may consider them again - things in this world are always changing and changing back, hard to keep up with it all.  Who would of thought that Colorado classics like Fat Tire and Breckenridge micro beer would be foreign owned!

 

I do enjoy an ice cold Fat Tire....

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2 hours ago, akirby said:

 

Not only are the models entirely different from one another, sometimes within the same model they're vastly different.   At one time there were 4 versions of the Michelin pilot mxm4 (I think that's the one).  The OEM version for Ford, the OEM version for Honda, another OEM version and the aftermarket version.   They do a lot of custom tire designs for OEMs.   One Ford engineer told us they went through at least 10, maybe 20 different versions of the Firestone firehawk tire for the Lincoln LS before they approved it.

Yes, this is the case with a lot of OEM tires. Make sure you really check the product number/code to ensure you don't have the tire for the Tesla model (for example). Good tire shops, know the difference and codes. The GT350 is a classic example of this, the tire is a Michlen XXX and they specifically came out with a Ford compound under tire XXX for Ford. I think the tread looks the same but the compound is different.

I usually do a lot of research before buying a tire so if you see multiple different versions of the tire say on tire rack for what you are looking for, then you probably will want to verify it's either specific for your model ( if that is what you want) or just the non model specific tire.

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2 minutes ago, jcartwright99 said:

Yes, this is the case with a lot of OEM tires. Make sure you really check the product number/code to ensure you don't have the tire for the Tesla model (for example). Good tire shops, know the difference and codes. The GT350 is a classic example of this, the tire is a Michlen XXX and they specifically came out with a Ford compound under tire XXX for Ford. I think the tread looks the same but the compound is different.

I usually do a lot of research before buying a tire so if you see multiple different versions of the tire say on tire rack for what you are looking for, then you probably will want to verify it's either specific for your model ( if that is what you want) or just the non model specific tire.

That’s good info and advice.

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So I got a call back from a rep at Michelin.   He made the following points, which I’ll post here in order of usefulness to me:

  1. Michelin has a money back gurantee.  If you don’t like the tires they’ll take them back at full price within (30 I think) days — INCLUDING THE MOUNTING AND BALANCING COSTS.
  2. The Defender LTX M/S is designed for SUV and Crossover applications, so it isn’t too radical a departure and for the area I live and for driving I do is definitely a recommended choice.  He does not recommend, for example, the Premier A/S even though that is usually a top choice.  
  3. His personal experience is that he doesn’t see noise complaints with thar Defender LTX, though it will likely be a bit more noise than the OEM, it shouldn’t be too noticeable... however...
  4. Michelin does do noise testing across its tire line, however as there is no industry standard for how they test or how the measure and report the result, they do not make that data public.

for me, point 1 closes the deal.  I’ll give tbose a try in a few weeks and take a long drive up to the northern end of I-95 so I can measure both milesge and noise subjectively.

It will be a few weeks, but I’ll write up what I find.

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4 minutes ago, FirefighterGeek said:

So I got a call back from a rep at Michelin.   He made the following points, which I’ll post here in order of usefulness to me:

  1. Michelin has a money back gurantee.  If you don’t like the tires they’ll take them back at full price within (30 I think) days — INCLUDING THE MOUNTING AND BALANCING COSTS.
  2. The Defender LTX M/S is designed for SUV and Crossover applications, so it isn’t too radical a departure and for the area I live and for driving I do is definitely a recommended choice.  He does not recommend, for example, the Premier A/S even though that is usually a top choice.  
  3. His personal experience is that he doesn’t see noise complaints with thar Defender LTX, though it will likely be a bit more noise than the OEM, it shouldn’t be too noticeable... however...
  4. Michelin does do noise testing across its tire line, however as there is no industry standard for how they test or how the measure and report the result, they do not make that data public.

for me, point 1 closes the deal.  I’ll give tbose a try in a few weeks and take a long drive up to the northern end of I-95 so I can measure both milesge and noise subjectively.

It will be a few weeks, but I’ll write up what I find.

Good Luck! This is a proactive approach that I can appreciate. Keep us posted on how it goes.

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