Your reported facts pretty much mirror the type I have had and use in discussing Michelin tires. I generally get 10K to 20K miles more than the warranted tread life and I replace a 4/32 of an inch which is before the wear bars show.


Every once in a while I have run across a less than stellar Michelin tire, kind of like people, but not enough to change to something lessor. The definition I use of less than stellar is something like wearing out at or before the end of the warranted tread life.

 

I know a tire lawyer. He has to defend the tire maker. After the last story (5 dead) I asked what brand he liked. "I like Michelin " he says. Your mileage may vary.

 

Dunno about on truck tires, but for car tires, I've been underwhelmed by Michelins. Other than having a long tread life, thanks to the rock hard rubber (which also had little traction), I found nothing redeeming. On the other hand, I've absolutely loved my BFG's. They run super long miles, have great grip, and best of all they're the best looking tire on the market (for trucks).

 

FYI, Michelin owns BF Goodrich. I used to have a set of Michelin LTX AT. They were great tires, but Michelin no longer markets a true AT light truck tire in North America. Thats what the BFG brand and is for.

 

I replaced my Hankooks with a set of BFG Rugged Terrains. Night and day difference. The BFG's have 30K miles on them now, they are rated for 50K miles and are still showing 8/32's of meat left on all four.

When buying Michelin's, the one tire to stay away from is the X Radial. The X Radial is a tire that Michelin makes for the clubs such as Costco, Sams, etc. It's a pretty crappy tire that simply doesn't exhibit Michelin's normal outstanding traits. You get what you pay for.

 

Therein lies the true problem with buying anything of substance from any big box vendor - Sams, Walmart, Costco and the likes. They all have special made products with name brands on them, like the Michelin X Radial.


My last two sets of Michelins were purchased at my Ford dealer as they would match whatever quote Costco gave me.


YMMV

 

I find it very interesting how everybody has such strong opinions of tires and those opinions vary greatly. As I stated in my original post, my F250 came with Conticraps and I had to pull them after about 1000 miles and the first snow storm. Sold them at my garage sale for $100. I put Michelin MS/2’s on and never looked back. I have always run those tires. With the siping they are great in snow and wet and they are quiet on the highway. I get 2+ better MPG with them and they last longer than anything else. They also smoothed out a pretty harsh ride. Unless the Hankooks prove to be bad, I will run them till they are done and move back to Michelins.

 

Agree. Tires are a very individual choice and opinions will vary as much as driving style and the vehicle they are used on.

As an example, when I was researching my Hankook AT-Ms, I saw about 10% of the reviews at Tirerack talked about "terrible in wet weather and noisy - I'm going back to BFG KOs". If you read the BFG KO reviews, you'll see about the same 10% of "terrible in wet weather and they make noise - I'm going to Revos."

Revos I know about, having run them for 20 years. Whatever other complaints someone can have about them, bad wet performance is not one of them, but guess what? About 10% of the review complaints are, "crappy in the rain".

Hence I think a lot of reviews are more about the individual drivers than their tires. Not that there aren't crappy tires out there, but I think a lot of people attempt to exceed conditions and too often drive all year like it's a sunny June day on a flat, straight highway. There is simply no tire made that will excel in all seasons and conditions.

 

The 2018 I just picked up has DynoPro HT's with a 700 rating and are quiet and seem pretty good, Max pressure of 51 which is where I will run them. My 2013 I sold had Micheliins with 40K on them from factory and 8/32" left. We shall see.

 

Well I found that letting it idle off then give it a little throttle works quite well. I have 20" Hankooks ATs that came on mine, and are holding up well on my 2015 FX4 Screw 3.5, We had very little snow last winter but they seemed to do ok with what snow and ice we did have. I think they hold very well on wet roads and heavy rain. Passible in the sandy clay mud, we don't have any gumbo around here.

 

I've had good luck with Sam's Club X Radials in the past. Really good luck. If anything, they rode a little stiffer than the regular Michelins but they were excellent tires.

And since Walmart could buy Michelin with their petty cash, I suspect that Michelin gives Sam's whatever they want.

Often times, the Dealers run specials that are hard to beat. The good thing about buying from Sam's is not just the price, but the Road Hazard Warranty is usually included and the number of Sam's Clubs throughout the USA.

OTOH, I haven't bought new tires in 6 or seven years. Keep getting new vehicles. But if I do decide to buy a new set this Spring. they will most likely be from Sam's. And, my understanding is, they'll get you anything you want.

The guys around here that advertise like they're Carny Barkers get you on the back-end. Their up-front costs look competitive but when you add in mounting, balancing and Road Hazard, there's a substantial difference.

Plus Sam's will rotate your tires for free for a time period -- 5 or 6 years???

Or at least, they used to. They're not perfect. But nobody is.

If you're strictly driving around town, on the Farm, going to Church, getting groceries..... I can see not spending the extra money for Michelins. They're expensive as hell.

But when I get on the Freeway, I ain't playing around. My F-150 runs better at 85 MPH than it does at 65 MPH. And I'm still getting near 21 MPG with my Coyote. And I'm talking long trips -- Over a thousand miles. Tires get hot on Southern Freeways when it's 95 degrees out and I'm truckin' down the road

For that reason, I go with a premium tire.

No matter what kind of car or truck you have, be it a $100k Super Duty, a Ferrari or my humble F-150, the only thing touching the pavement @ 90 MPH is your tires.

Think about it

 

This is true. Really, about the only thing on your vehicle that can go wrong and get you killed or seriously injured is your tires/wheels. My tires always end up being replaced with a good amount of tread left. Tread that could get me an extra 20K miles on dry pavement, but not so much in adverse conditions. I generally keep my vehicles around ten years, so if I pro-rate the added expense of replacing tires "early", it might end up being $500 over the life of the vehicle. Cheap insurance as far as I'm concerned.

I also got in the habit of checking the lug nuts on all my wheels at least every oil change. This after once being behind a car that lost a wheel on the freeway. I saw their wheel wobbling just as I got behind them and thought, "That's not good - I should get around them and get their attention". As soon as I finished the thought, their wheel came off and they flipped twice, landing in a grass field off the freeway. All teenage girls, and miraculously, not a one was hurt. They had all gotten out of the upside down car by the time I and the others who'd stopped got to them.

 

This isn't about the tires that Sam's or the clubs carry but specifically about the X Radial as it's designed just for the clubs to be a more affordable option to get into a well known brand name.

I buy my tires specifically from BJ's which is a club like Sam's because they also sell / honor the road hazard warranty, etc. They too sell the X Radial but they get theirs from the same place as all the other tire dealers and car dealers.

 

Why would you run them at the max pressure of 51psi? You will wear out the center tread long before the outer. I run my Falken AT's at 44psi and they are wearing nice and evenly across the width.

 

I do think that you get what you pay for in tires. You can save a buck, but you come out about the same in the end. Michelin makes some good tires, but nothing appropriate for a 4x4 truck. Someone mentioned that they own BFG now, which makes sense. The KO2 is pretty much the gold standard for AT tires. I had two sets on my Chevy Colorado and they were great highway tires, as well as off-road. I never worried too much about debris, and on more than one occasion I pulled a screw out of a tread block, but it didn't actually puncture the tire. I dislike the price on them, but I'll probably end up putting BFG's on when my Hankook's wear out.