You Gotta Love Those Michelins

[Carl n Susan]

In case you have the super duper fancy ultra heavy duty Michelin 275x65xR20 tires on your Ford and tow a trailer, plan on replacing them at 30,000 miles. Another member and I have been traveling together for the last few weeks. He lost two, on separate days, due to tread separation. Two days ago I felt something bumpy in the road and before I could do anything, I had one let go. He had 31K miles and I had 33K miles on them.

As you can see from the pictures, it threw part of a tread, which tore up the wheel well and bent the heck out of the exhaust pipe. Those exhaust pipes are tough stuff. We tried to bend the one back open a bit more but failed. We both have four new tires as we have no faith in the remaining ones. The dealer did credit me $156 for the failed tire as part of the 60K warranty.

[mlh]

Never had one go bad but I only get about 30,000 miles out of them.
Lynwood

[RonD]

It's not Just Michelin tires, all OEM tires on every car and truck are designed by the auto manufacture, or the tire specs are given to the tire manufacture, say Goodyear tires that came on the vehicle new is not the same tire you can buy at say Discount Tire, they look the same but are not the same, they will not wear, nor ride the same, I have never kept a factory OEM tire for longer than a couple years, the 30,000 mile limit sounds like a good idea

[BB_TX]

Thought it was only me. My 20" Michelin on the right rear blew with no warning when not towing the Monte, only a small utility trailer with very little load. Lots of damage. Also mid 30K miles.

[Razrbk]

That's a bummer. Just put (4) Defender LTX m/s on my TV.

[Dam Worker]

Brings back memories of Firestone tire treads coming off and destroying rigs, even had Ford Explorer's rolling and killing people. I had an older Michelin blow out two years ago destroying the rear driver side on my truck. Of course I had the Firestone delaminate and take out the driver side front of the truck. Sorry you both had tires fail, probably not a matter of if but when they will fail. Half life failure is not acceptable.

Tom Marty

[scottz]

So, what did you replace them with?

[fre1fred2]

I'm our Tire/Mold Engineering Manager at Yokohama Tire...buy YOKOHAMA'S. ok...that's my plug .

[rslopez65]

We have 60,000 miles on ours and have had no problems at all. We tow our RV about six or more months a year. We do watch our speed, tire pressure and trailer weight.

[scottz]

What did you replace them with? I've run several sets of LTX's and thought they were the best LT tire on the market.

[Carl n Susan]

Originally Posted by scottz

What did you replace them with? I've run several sets of LTX's and thought they were the best LT tire on the market.

I had been thinking that when the time came, I would look at Toyo and other alternatives. But I was on the end of an 8,000 trip and making an overnight stay in Flagstaff, AZ when the failure occurred. The choices there are limited. Discount Tires did have 4 LTX's in stock and would warranty the blown one. So I bought them.

My traveling partner replaced his with LTXs also. We were in Loveland, CO at the time. Not a lot of choice there either.

[mlh]

YOKOHAMA Boonsmill. I'll bet the sheriff is setting up radar. I live just west of Salem. A small company I worked for did some work for Yokohama over 35 years ago. Machine shop stuff. You must know a lot about tires share with us. And welcome to MOC.
Lynwood

[cpaulsen]

Replaced mine with Cooper AT3's....got 35K on them now an still have about 40% left.

[fre1fred2]

Originally Posted by mlh

YOKOHAMA Boonsmill. I'll bet the sheriff is setting up radar. I live just west of Salem. A small company I worked for did some work for Yokohama over 35 years ago. Machine shop stuff. You must know a lot about tires share with us. And welcome to MOC.
Lynwood

Lol...we have a new patrol man....luckily he's friends of ours. I've worked with several outside machine shops....maybe yours. As far as tires, I'd be happy to share information. Feel free to ask any questions. I will say from this thread that in most cases (of course not all) but most tire failures occur from road hazards (nails, screws, etc) which cause tire to run under inflated which ultimately leads to blowout, tread separation, etc

[BB_TX]

We have put a lot of miles on a lot of Michelins over many years on my trucks and DW's various cars/SUVs and this is the first and only blowout ever. Not giving up on them yet.

[scattershot]

Never had a problem with Michelins. Maybe they're making them in China now?

[twindman]

My dealer said Michelin changed the compound in tires several years ago. But they went back to the original 6-12 months ago. I usually got about 40-50K on both the truck and trailer. Never had a problem until I got a bolt or nail in one last spring with > 30,000 miles on them. Then noticed the tires weren't wearing evenly. Had axles aligned, so hope that takes care of it.
Lynwood, on the Keystone site it says your axles could be carrying > 6000 a piece, in which case you are at or a little over the tire limit, aren't you> I think they have a weight limit of 3042 each, right?
Anyway the truck tires on my newer truck has larger tires and I can't use them anymore, dang. Still have them on my Monty tho.

[fre1fred2]

Depending on which line of tire you get, compound will be different. I mean, Michelin (and all companies) use different compound for the different line of tires. On our Truck tires, each line will have a different compound dependent on wear, braking, traction, etc..(some lines will have same compound).