Is this something to be concerned with. The service manager at the dealership took pictures to send to their tire guy to get his opinion but I am concerned that we are leaving Wednesday for a camping trip 3 hrs away towing @9000 lbs. The truck sat on the dealers lot for almost a year so I don't know if they could be dry rotting already.

 

Typical AT/2 behavior. The dealer replaced my brother's Michelins under warranty at 17,000 miles because of the cracking. I drove my tires an additional 30,000 miles after I first noticed the cracks and about 5,000 miles of that was towing heavy fifth wheel and gooseneck trailers that put over 3,000 lbs on the truck. At 48,000 miles, I could have squeezed another 5-6,000 miles out of the tread but got a little nervous about the cracks along with the age of the tires. I had a 500 mile trip coming up with the 5er and didn't want to take a chance.

If you are within the 3 year/36,000 bumper to bumper warranty, your dealer should be able to replace them for you. I could have easily gotten my prorated, but even if they were cheap or free, I didn't want another set of those lousy tires.

 

My AT2's wore odd and the Sears tire manager agreed and called Michelin and got me 50% credit towards a new set. I had 40k miles so I thought that was a good deal. I got the MS2's and they were great until I wore them out.
I now on my second set of ContiTrac TR and have had great results .

 

I just picked up the truck the Wednesday before last and it only has 1000 miles on it, but like I said it sat at the dealer where they got it from for almost a year.

 

My truck looks the same. Superficial is what they told me. I'm just going to wear them out and replace them with another brand. I wouldn't be too concerned with that amount of cracking. Mine haven't gotten any worse over the last year of owning my truck.

 

I guess the big thing is everybody's comfort level is different. Many people get very excited wen they see the slightest cracking on the outside of the tire. The rubber layer that you see on the outside of the tire is cosmetic and not structural. The sun takes a toll on tires and I have seen my share of "dry rotted" tires that perform beyond all expectations for a very long time after the first cracks are noticed. The only way to really see what is going on with the tire is to dismount it and look at the inside.

You will find 100 different opinions on tire checking (cracking). All I can tell you is that I have had numerous tires over the years that cracked (tire dressings like Armor All are big culprits) and none have failed on me even under the most severe uses. The only blowout I have ever had was on a borrowed gooseneck trailer with like new tires, but I neglected to check the tire pressure. The lesson was learned that time and the first I do when I hitch up to a trailer now is check the tire pressure.

 

A local tire dealer saw this on my truck, talked to Michelin, I had new tires for free in a few hours. He thought it was a significant problem. I'd take this to a tire dealer and see what they say. My truck also sat on the dealer lot for some time.

 

The same cracks appeared on my Michelin's after the first couple heavy tows this summer. I'm at about 42k, the way they're wearing I'd say I would be able to get 70k out of them. But I'm going to use this opportunity to put the tires I want on, since the wife isn't amused with my tendency to remove otherwise fine tires.......

 

Mine are the same, took it to two different dealers and tire shops. The general response is it's normal and won't hurt anything. Cosmetic

 

Im surprised nobody here knows that the cracks actually serve a purpose. If you map out every third crack and notice the end point facing the rim, and then reverse the total number of end points you will have a 125 digit expression that can be ddivided by the total number of ridges on the outside of the inner tire wall. If you take that number and multiply it by the tire pressure (suggested) you will have a 13 digit number. If you take each number and match it to its corresponding alpha character, you will spell out "Buy Nitto Tires". i thought everyone new that.

 

There is a recall on some models of Michelins: Voluntary Safety Recall : MICHELIN LTX M/S2, MICHELIN X Radial LT2, MICHELIN Latitude Tour | Michelin Tires

Get yourself to a dealer and get them replaced if yours are on the list!!!

 

Interesting thread. We had these same tires on our Expedition and the radial cracking was far worse -- my wife took it back to costco (they were about 3 yrs old but not many miles) and they told her they were "normal" weather cracks. Now Costco had a policy where they would only inflate the tires to what the door sticker said (and they use N2). So even tho we tow a 7K trailer, we couldn't up the rear pressure to compensate and I never did like how flat they looked loaded.

So I went back down to Costco and asked for the Tire/Battery manager. I explained that if Costco would allow us to air up the tires during towing season, these cracks might not be there (ours were to the carcass, so deeper). He offered me 75% credit towards new tires...

That pissed my wife off -- while she is small in stature (5' 3") she's tough as nails and HATES being given the: "well little lady, it works this way", song and dance many auto related places treat women (she is a 3 time national champion SCCA driver, so there is that thing about having been around cars and mechanics a lot too).

Costco apologized in their reply to my wife's letter and the store manager even called. We got free new tires (just the LT2s) and a letter ironically instructing us to air up the rears for towing (they just had to get that in). That is the last set of tires we'll get from Costco (unfortunately) and my wife takes that letter in whenever she gets the tires rotated during towing season (so they'll put more N2 in).

I generally like Michelin tires, but those AT2s and/or the Costco tire policy sucked. I wonder if the recall will get broader...

 

Bought my truck as a leftover and had the same problem.Same cracks all around the bead. Took it in, they agreed and dealership replaced them around 12k miles. Can't complain about new tires at 12k!!

 

cracks are definetley superficial. I have an old chevey with super swamper tsl's. the truck set for years with a flat had a crack big enough to literally stick a finger in. I aired it back up and have driven it now and then for the past 5 years with no blow outs. I admit with the size of the crack I thought for sure the tire was done and would blow as soon as i put air to it but nothing. I dont really worry about cracks anymore.

 

Just got word today that the Michelin rep is going to replace my tires and a plus he is giving me the option to get the BFGoodrich all terrian TA KO's instead, since BFG is owned by Michelin now.