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Michelin Tires

I guess it may be just the old guy doing it the 'old' way. When radial tires first became popular there was a belief that the belts get used to traveling in one direction as they get broken in. The thought was that once broken in, that same direction of travel should be maintained to lessen the chance of belt separation. Not sure if that was fact or fiction. Doing the cross over tire change means that tires will now be running in the opposite direction (backwards) from where they were removed. I doubt this procedure would affect or in any way harm the modern tire. Also, many of today's tires are 'directional' so they should never be used in the cross over system.

Peter
 



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I've been running directional tires, winter and summer on two vehicles for 14 years on one vehicle, and around 9 years on another, rotating every 6 months, and rotating so the tires always remain on the same side of the vehicle.

My initial concern was that this wouldn't be enough to allow even tread wear across the tire (that the outsides, from when being on the front position would wear quicker) and that wear would not be evened out enough.

That concern turned out to be groundless - the tread wear could not have been more even. Each time I noticed uneven wear when the tire came off, it had vanished by the time they were removed from their new position. Note that good labelling of the tires is very important here. While I'm sure there are cases where you would need to rotate left to right as well as from to back to get even wear (like from misalignment, etc), the front to rear rotation alone, as recommended, has turned out to be all that is needed.

Note that running a directional tire on the wrong side (or backwards) will not necessarily damage the tire or its internals, but that the performance advantage of directional tires will be lost sufficiently that it might well perform even worse than the equivalent non-directional tire. Particularly when it comes to performance in the wet, where channeling away water is critical.

-Brian.;)
 






No concrete highways here that I know of. I'm guessing that concrete may be a bit harder on tire wear than asphalt. Don't know for sure though.

Peter

Yes, that is the general feeling. Save on parts but spend on tyres. Can't win them all!!
 






What can I expect from the Michelin tires on my '13 Exlporer? Seem to ride OK, but what about mileage. Local tire dealer said to look for 50-60K out of them. They get rotated every oil change.

Bob Allen

To me that is a huge joke. I guess it depends on where you like and the roads you drive. But I can tell you here in WV, you would be lucky to get 30,000. In 40 years of living here and owning all brands of tires, including several Michelin configurations I have never gotten 30K out of a set. Generally I get 20 - 25K.

I have the Michelins on my 2014 so I'll get to see how they wear. I rotate every oil change so between 4,000 and 5,000 miles.
 






I've got a 2011 XLT with Michelin Latitudes, and just turned 64,000 on them and still not down to the wear bars.

I figure I'll get at least 70k out of them. Granted, alot of my driving is country, and interstates (75%), and not a lot of stop and go like most people, but I inflate them to 40# (max is 44# on tire), and my mileage is great (24-26 mpg).
 






I've got a 2011 XLT with Michelin Latitudes, and just turned 64,000 on them and still not down to the wear bars.

I figure I'll get at least 70k out of them. Granted, alot of my driving is country, and interstates (75%), and not a lot of stop and go like most people, but I inflate them to 40# (max is 44# on tire), and my mileage is great (24-26 mpg).

Same. 60K on the factory Lattitudes.
 






The following 7 posts were moved from another thread.

I thought I might get a little cra9 for that but they were still +2/32 off the treadwear bars. The car had a ton of easy highway miles from going to my son's baseball games in Texas. We live in Topeka. There are only a couple hills between here and Larado (ha).

Just this last weekend we replaced the factory installed Michilen with the same tire. First time I can ever recall replacing the tires and not noticing that the car drove better or at least quieter. Maybe Michilen should start making transmissions because they make one heck of a tire!
 






Over 80k on original tires and still going strong.. lol, ok...

I'm not exactly sure what type Michelin tires were factory installed, but as mentioned in this forum a few times it's not uncommon for the Michelin LTX tires to reach up to 80,000 miles plus. It's probably the best overall tire made, it grips very well in rain, stops well and is a very quiet tire.
 






I'm not sure exactly what type Michelin tires were factory installed, but as mentioned in this forum a few times it's not uncommon for the Michelin LTX tires to reach up to 80,000 miles plus. It's probably the best overall tire made, it grips very well in rain, stops well and is a very quiet tire.
The 2011 Limited that blwnsmoke has came with Hankook Optimo H426. The XLT came with Michelin Latitude Tour HP's.

Peter
 






The 2011 Limited that blwnsmoke has came with Hankook Optimo H426. The XLT came with Michelin Latitude Tour HP's.

Peter

Thanks. I have not ever owned the Michelin Latitude Tour HP's, but I'm sure they are very good tires, especially having lasted 80,000 miles, assuming they rode quietly and gripped well.

The Hankook Optimo 426's are not bad tires, they are fairly quiet, but do not have the grip that the Michelin LTX's have in the rain. As far as tread life is concerned, the Hankook's seem to be at least average in tread life and will probably end up being better than average. I won't drive them down to their tread wear indicator bars, but do anticipate to get at least 40,000 miles from them.
 






Just a quick word about tires.... The brand does not equate to performance (generally). Just as Ford makes cars of varying performance abilities, so to do the tire companies. One model of Michelin tire may go 50,000 miles while another only lasts 20,000. There are trade-offs to each and it is really a personal decision which is most important to you. I HIGHLY recommend TireRack.com for tires, at least for tire research.
 






I got 50k out of my hankooks and then put on Yokohamas and got 54k out of them before changing them Saturday and putting on Pirellis. I have Michelin on my truck and although a great highway tire, there is zero traction in the snow now that I'm down half tread with 26k on them.

Not sure if the people getting 80k with still great tread life left have 18s over 20s but I just don't see anyone getting 80k plus on a 20".

As far as I know the Michelin LTX Defenders are fairly new for the 20s, so time will tell if they last like LTX's for smaller wheel sizes.

Just a quick word about tires.... The brand does not equate to performance (generally). Just as Ford makes cars of varying performance abilities, so to do the tire companies. One model of Michelin tire may go 50,000 miles while another only lasts 20,000. There are trade-offs to each and it is really a personal decision which is most important to you. I HIGHLY recommend TireRack.com for tires, at least for tire research.

Fully understand, sometimes the higher performance tires don't last that long, but what we are talking here are the Michelin LTX's and they have a history of lasting long time and performing well throughout the mileage.
 






I think the last 4-5 sets of tires I purchased have all been Michelin. One set became fairly noisy a bit sooner than I would like (3,000? miles to the wear bars) but other than that I have been very happy with all of them. My personal choice is to go for better performance and sacrifice tire life. The piece-of-mind from knowing the tires are the best at braking, etc. is worth it to me even if I never need to use them at the limit. Also, I really appreciate the improved ride and noise characteristics on our wonderful Michigan roads.
 






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