Michelin Defender Tires

[mdgear]

Wondering if anyone has experience with Michelin Defender tires? Our current Michelin tires are shot after only 40,000 miles (less than 3 years.) Warranty was for 70,000 miles. Michelin is willing to give us a 34% discount and wants us to switch to Michelin Defenders, which only has a 50,000 mile warranty. Wondering what others think?
Thanks

[rohrmann]

The Defender looks like the MS2, and the Michelin site says the new tire has a tougher tread compound, called Everlast. For our heavier pickups, especially if towing much, 40 to 50 thousand miles sounds much more realistic. I'm using the AT2, which has a slightly heavier tread, but that's all I'm getting from those tires, if I'm lucky.

[Drifty1]

We just put on the Defender LTX M/S tires but do not have enough miles on them to give a good report on. They have 70,000 mile warranty and are very similar to the tires I replaced. Time will tell as to what kind of wear we will get with them.

[DQDick]

Don't expect to get more than 50 out of my Goodyears, but then again I off road with my truck also.

[mlh]

Wow 40000 thousand out of a set of tires. My third set is almost shot two Michelins and the Generals that came on the truck at 77000 miles.
Lynwood

[jcurtis934]

Got about 30k on front tires before needing to change them out. Rears are still doing good at 34k miles, but they are over four years old now. Happy with the bf goodrich rugged trails that came on our f350 and will change out the rear four next spring. Trucks weigh more and work harder than a car...tire wear reflects this in my opinion. I have been looking at toyo open country tires when I change out all six, but I want to talk with several owners first before I make that leap. John

[sapest]

Not to hijack a Michelin thread, but jcurtis934, I am getting just over 60k miles from Toyo Open Country Tuff Duty's on my Chev 3500.
They like to be rotated regularly. About to buy another set.
-Steve

[c214dick]

Had almost 66000 on my previous Michelins. Good tread but starting to dry rot as they were over 6 yrs old. Just put on Defenders with 70000 mile warranty. Did you put LTs on your truck. Don't know why only 50000

[Art-n-Marge]

If you've followed my post on another subject about Michelin tires (Topic, starts with "Wow...", I think the Defender is a rebranded MS/2 which I had and had 4 of them fail.

The old MS/2 was warranted for 70,000 miles and this new Defender (same tread design) only has a 50,000 mile warranty. I'm guessing Michelin is just lowering the warranty to save their costs when trying to honor the old tire and warranty. I have a new set of tires replaced under warranty that will give me about another 3 years.

For me, I have 128,000 miles on my 10 year old truck, or 12,800 miles per year.
Since most tires only last 6 years, then I am driving too much and will no longer satisfy a tire warranty, because it will expire before then. Oh well.

[c214dick]

Art, I know from previous posts that you had problems with your Michelins and I am truely sorry for that. I am a die hard fan having them on my truck and my Explorer. They're the best.

[mdgear]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We went ahead and bought the Defenders. We'll see how much mileage we get on these new ones. Really hoping they last longer than the MS/2's
Thanks again

[rames14]

Best of luck. This is the first time that I haven't had new tires on the truck going into winter. Looks like Michelin improved the compound and reduced the warranty miles.