What tires are they shipping on the 2013 XLT 4wd?

[mech]

Please dont say anything that ends in - stone or - year.

 

[182RG]

How about -kook.

[sarcasm]

OMG...they are shipping them with Korean tires. That garbage....

[/sarcasm]

 

[Dan Whitaker]

How about -kook.

[sarcasm]

OMG...they are shipping them with Korean tires. That garbage....

[/sarcasm]

I'll take Hankook over Suckyear any day of the year.

 

[peterk9]

Please dont say anything that ends in - stone or - year.

I don't know for sure but I would assume they are the same ones as on the previous XLT's which I believe were the Michelin Latitude.

Peter

 

[182RG]

I don't know for sure but I would assume they are the same ones as on the previous XLT's which I believe were the Michelin Latitude.

Peter

The standard size on the 2011 were the Michelins, the 20's were Hankooks.

I have no idea what the new ones are.

 

[jw2013explorer]

The standard size on the 2011 were the Michelins, the 20's were Hankooks.

I have no idea what the new ones are.

From what I can tell on dealer website pictures, it looks like it's the same this year too.

 

[Rocketfan]

Michelin tires are all hype and marketing. Great commercials but dated materials technology. With things like tires where most of the reviews are from users with limited knowledge and sample size, you really get an Emperor's new clothes effect where perception replaces reality (e.g. Monster audio/visual cables are never worth the price difference because there is no difference in a/v quality between decent cables and Monster cables). Sorry, I have close family ties to a chemical engineer making synthetic rubber for tires and hear more about this than I really want (these ties also gave me the opportunity of trying raw chewing gum rubber, an extremely unpleasant experience)

 

[spitfisher]

Michelin tires are all hype and marketing. Great commercials but dated materials technology. With things like tires where most of the reviews are from users with limited knowledge and sample size, you really get an Emperor's new clothes effect where perception replaces reality. Sorry, I have close family ties to a chemical engineer making synthetic rubber for tires and hear more about this than I really want (these ties also gave me the opportunity of trying raw chewing gum rubber, an extremely unpleasant experience)

Dated materials? Reviews by users?

Opinion, not fact

 

[RoxyGrl]

Not a 4wd, but my 2013 Limited came with Hankooks

 

[peterk9]

Not a 4wd, but my 2013 Limited came with Hankooks

The tires only differ on the models (base, XLT, Ltd), not whether it is FWD or AWD.

Peter

 

[Gatortailale]

Since you want the XLT 4wd/Awd it would be a V6, and that gives you opton for 18 or 20 wheels. FordMomof3 got a 2013 XLT with 18 wheels and said in response to my Q on brand of tires (in her thread on 2013 order forum) that michelin's were on it. As Peter & other noted, if it's the 20's, most posts lately are the hankooks are the brand.

Happy exploring.

 

[mech]

Michelin tires are all hype and marketing. Great commercials but dated materials technology. With things like tires where most of the reviews are from users with limited knowledge and sample size, you really get an Emperor's new clothes effect where perception replaces reality (e.g. Monster audio/visual cables are never worth the price difference because there is no difference in a/v quality between decent cables and Monster cables). Sorry, I have close family ties to a chemical engineer making synthetic rubber for tires and hear more about this than I really want (these ties also gave me the opportunity of trying raw chewing gum rubber, an extremely unpleasant experience)

Raw Gum Chewer,

You sir, are categorically incorrect. I hate to upset your "close family ties" that formed your opinion, but Michelin tires are superior products to any tires Ive been exposed to. I am a mechanical engineer with an automotive specialty. I also installed and replaced many thousands of tires at a major US retailer to support my way through college. I can tell you that without a doubt, Michelin tires are more perfectly balanced out of the mold, and are consistantly the most round. Ive also observed them to get the highest mileage with the most even treadwear.

As for commercials, i dont know. I havent watched one since tivo was invented.

 

[SouthernSAR]

Raw Gum Chewer,

Lmao, epic!

 

[Spengracin]

Really, there are bad tires out there, but it all starts with the end user, rotation, correct air pressures for the vehicle and your style of driving.

 

[spitfisher]

Raw Gum Chewer,

You sir, are categorically incorrect. I hate to upset your "close family ties" that formed your opinion, but Michelin tires are superior products to any tires Ive been exposed to. I am a mechanical engineer with an automotive specialty. I also installed and replaced many thousands of tires at a major US retailer to support my way through college. I can tell you that without a doubt, Michelin tires are more perfectly balanced out of the mold, and are consistantly the most round. Ive also observed them to get the highest mileage with the most even treadwear.

As for commercials, i dont know. I havent watched one since tivo was invented.

I too can substantiate that as well, of course as someone pointed out it all starts and ends with proper care and common sense. michelins in my opinion are the finest tire you can by commercially for your car, truck or van. I've been exposed to training and testing of tires including today's most popular brands, most if not all of these tests for wear, mileage, heat, sheering, compounds, weight, sidewall deformation, load, foot print, braking, handling, noise and including gas mileage savings are standardized tests that all manufacturers are welcome to use. And some do! To be fair with my statement, there are other companies that make fine tires but as a entire suite of tires for all applications, Michelin could arguably be number one hands down.

One element that I challenge the consumer to embrace is that the gas saving mileage of michelins, over the life of the tire for the explorer for example not only are you getting a great, quiet, superior tire, but you will also save over 250 gallons of fuel compared to other brands. @ 4.00 a gallon that is $1000. This trumps the costs of the Michelin tires over other leading models (brands) by almost 10x.

I am no longer in the tire industry, and I never worked for Michelin
This is based on 70,000 miles, btw the tire is used is actually rated for 80k.

I will be replacing my 'kooks with Michelin

 

[peterk9]

I too can substantiate that as well, of course as someone pointed out it all starts and ends with proper care and common sense. michelins in my opinion are the finest tire you can by commercially for your car, truck or van. I've been exposed to training and testing of tires including today's most popular brands, most if not all of these tests for wear, mileage, heat, sheering, compounds, weight, sidewall deformation, load, foot print, braking, handling, noise and including gas mileage savings are standardized tests that all manufacturers are welcome to use. And some do! To be fair with my statement, there are other companies that make fine tires but as a entire suite of tires for all applications, Michelin could arguably be number one hands down.

One element that I challenge the consumer to embrace is that the gas saving mileage of michelins, over the life of the tire for the explorer for example not only are you getting a great, quiet, superior tire, but you will also save over 250 gallons of fuel compared to other brands. @ 4.00 a gallon that is $1000. This trumps the costs of the Michelin tires over other leading models (brands) by almost 10x.

I am no longer in the tire industry, and I never worked for Michelin
This is based on 70,000 miles, btw the tire is used is actually rated for 80k.

I will be replacing my 'kooks with Michelin

I'm not sure which particular Michelin tire, if any, you are referring to but for the Limited there is only one tire here in the OEM size and that is the Latitude Tour HP and out of 32 customer reviews, it was only given a 2.8 out of 5 in treadwear. It is shown as being $375. Overall it was given 3.7 out of 5 but that included a snow rating of 2.2. I use dedicated Winter tires so I wouldn't be concerned with that low rating.
The Yokohamas I put on mine have an overall rating of 4/5 and a treadwear rating of 3.9/5 and the same outfit has them listed at $292/tire.
I'm sure that there are many different brands out there that will do the job and do them well. I have had Bridgestone, Michelin and Toyo tires in the past and was happy with all of them.
In 49 years of driving the only brand I ever had problems with was Firestone.

Peter

 

[Alan in AZ]

I've had Michelins on my Expedition for years - they seem fine for on and light off road uses - wear pretty well, ride pretty well and have pretty good grip. I have no complaints after many sets - I'd consider other brands but have had no reason to take a risk they would be worse...

These under discussion are different sub-brand & size - so who knows- but to blast the whole company is uncalled for...

My other car is a fast sports car. I spare no expense on it. I buy the very best performing tires I can that fit it. These are Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's. Thery are one of the most advanced tires made. They are quiet, smooth are rated for over 186 MPH and grip like nothing else - just phenomenal!

Unfortunately they cost ~$1500 for a set and last no time at all (rears maybe 5000 miles if I am lucky - driven very hard) - this is typical of all "maximum" performance tires...

Michelin really knows tires, rubber compounds and all... what you actually get is always a tradeoff of Grip, Noise, Comfort, Wear/Longevity...

 

[Rocketfan]

Wow, did not realize this would be such a sensitive topic. The emperor has no clothes indeed.

All the major tire manufacturers including Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone and yes, even Hankook, "really know tires." In fact, Hankook (along with Goodyear and Yokohama) recently won a prestigious tire industry award (the Tire Technology International Award) for its products, technology investment and growth). I agree with Alan in AZ, it all ultimately comes down to a trade off of grip, noise, comfort, wear/longevity etc.

I like and rely on individual and user reviews to a certain point. However, reviews for products like these with no easily available professional reviews are really susceptible to bias that MAY have no foundation in reality (especially based on marketing, limited sample size (I got a bad unit/ complainers are louder),and country of origin (Korean/ Japanese products were thought to be cheaply made and low tech when I was younger but now, not so much).

My family source is a chemical engineer involved in the research and development of rubber compounds and the design of tires for over 20 years us and the only reason I called out Michelin is he used to laugh at the Michelin baby driving a tire commercials that touted longevity because the hard rubber compounds used for these long lasting, good wearing tires was not as safe for the baby driving the tire: a trade off issue not unique to Michelin. While he also said their synthetic rubber technology was somewhat lagging, it does not mean they make inferior or bad tires. Just trying to point out that disparaging tires because of perceived lack of quality or technology may not reflect reality. I believe tires from all of the major manufacturers are more than fine for daily use.

I have had Michelins, Bridgestones, Goodyears, Yokohamas and now Hankooks and except for some wear issues with my Michelins and Goodyears (understandable because they were high performance tires on my midlife crisis car which I drove pretty hard), I have had no issues with any of them. Of course, YMMV and no offense.

 

[spitfisher]

Wow, did not realize this would be such a sensitive topic. The emperor has no clothes indeed.

All the major tire manufacturers including Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone and yes, even Hankook, "really know tires." In fact, Hankook (along with Goodyear and Yokohama) recently won a prestigious tire industry award (the Tire Technology International Award) for its products, technology investment and growth). I agree with Alan in AZ, it all ultimately comes down to a trade off of grip, noise, comfort, wear/longevity etc.

I like and rely on individual and user reviews to a certain point. However, reviews for products like these with no easily available professional reviews are really susceptible to bias that MAY have no foundation in reality (especially based on marketing, limited sample size (I got a bad unit/ complainers are louder),and country of origin (Korean/ Japanese products were thought to be cheaply made and low tech when I was younger but now, not so much).

My family source is a chemical engineer involved in the research and development of rubber compounds and the design of tires for over 20 years us and the only reason I called out Michelin is he used to laugh at the Michelin baby driving a tire commercials that touted longevity because the hard rubber compounds used for these long lasting, good wearing tires was not as safe for the baby driving the tire: a trade off issue not unique to Michelin. While he also said their synthetic rubber technology was somewhat lagging, it does not mean they make inferior or bad tires. Just trying to point out that disparaging tires because of perceived lack of quality or technology may not reflect reality. I believe tires from all of the major manufacturers are more than fine for daily use.

I have had Michelins, Bridgestones, Goodyears, Yokohamas and now Hankooks and except for some wear issues with my Michelins and Goodyears (understandable because they were high performance tires on my midlife crisis car which I drove pretty hard), I have had no issues with any of them. Of course, YMMV and no offense.

Sounds like you changed your tune a little bit? The sensitive issue if you wish to call it, was your opinion and statements in your first post. Everyone is entitled to one, yours may have been over the top, that's all.

My college roommate has worked for Vibram for 20+ years, they are one of the largest rubber outsoles producers and manufactures in athletic shoes. He specifically works with rubber, compounds, silicone, & eva, he is a well respected scientist in his field. His company partners with the largest footwear brands in the world as well as some of the smallest specialty footwear companies.

He'll be the first one to mention that he knows nothing about footwear.

 

[Rocketfan]

Sounds like you changed your tune a little bit? The sensitive issue if you wish to call it, was your opinion and statements in your first post. Everyone is entitled to one, yours may have been over the top, that's all.

The sensitive issue appears to be about the quality of Michelins. It looks like both our statements may have been over the top (Michelin number one hands down, Michelin OEM save 250 gallons of fuel over others/ ), but that is why we have forums like this anyway. OPINIONS on this subject obviously do vary and neither of us has changed our tunes. Is there a tire forum we can retire to and really rile things up?

At least we are not talking about MFT.

Take care Spitfisher