The problem is that this Michelin tire is the ONLY viable "upgrade" over OEM, that is unless one wants noisy BFG AT's. The advantage of the BFG's is they offer an additional "E" rated size larger than the Michelin AT/2.
I guess this is going to be an issue with "E" rated duty cycle and 18" wheels. That is unless a new tire comes out, but then there will be no track record, only name recognition.
Name recognition used to work in the past but doesn't seem to hold its' own anymore.

 

Well, you guys have certainly gotten my attention. I am coming up on 15,000 miles on my LTX AT/2's in 285-75 16E. I rotate them religiously at 5,000 miles, and run 60 psi in all four all of the time (I rarely haul any heavy loads with this truck). I figure that the frequent rotation should let me get away with not using different pressures front and rear for an empty truck.

I bought five tires, and I rotate the spare in, going one click clockwise around the truck with each rotation. So I will be doing my third rotation either this weekend or next.

I am VERY happy with these tires. Wet traction is great, snow traction is great, ride is great, noise level is not great, but not bad. They seem to be wearing quite evenly. My truck does wander a bit, as it seems many Superduties do, but it's better than it was with the old tires. I replaced the ball joints with Moog and had the truck thrust aligned right before I put the Michelins on. Everything is supposedly in-spec.

The only problem I have with these tires is the price

I will let you know if any negatives develop.

 

Mine wanders a bit now too - did the Moog ball joints, swaybar bushings, shocks, tires, tie rod ends, and alignment. It did not wander with the original AT's and I am wondering if this sidewall isnt a bit soft on these AT2's. I am curious enough that we will try some different tires on the steering just to be sure and post the findings - wont be for a week of so as I am busy with some hay making on the farm!

 

I personally have never bought a set of Michelin tires, but my family has had a horrible streak of bad luck with them, from truck tires to car tires. I have read a lot of stuff about how good they are and how they wear like iron but not for my family. Before winter I will be putting a set of ProComp Extreme AT's on my truck. I have had different Cooper company tires before and have always had good experiences.

 

My story may shed a little light on this.

Got the new ones in Nov '07. Included an alignment check just to make sure. They were siped at the dealer.

I had 8k miles on my freshly rotated LTX A/T2. No problems in regular street driving, and they held up well in the snow... but...

I took off on an 8,000 mile vacation towing a 14K 5th wheel. I check pressures about every 2-3 days when towing, so the pressure never varied more than a pound or two. During the ride I noticed the tread was wearing poorly, but only the rears.

The tread was wearing past the wear bars on the outsides as iff under inflated, and the tread was falling off in chunks. It started fairly subtle, but was dramatically deteriorating over the last couple thousand miles.

I took it to the dealer and they were stumped. Since all the wear is on the rears, and the tires were falling apart, they feel that the high torque on the rears with the heavy load was tearing the tires apart. They didn't know why the outsides were wearing like they were.

They have agreed to replace them with something else, so now I get to research that (another thread, of course)!

Hope this helps!

 

What does that mean, "they were siped at the dealer"?

 

I have LTX AT/2 in LT285/55-R20E. They wear well, ride great and are nice and quiet. I really like them but only have about 5K on them so far.

 

Sorry, should have said "tire dealer"!

The installers did the siping on the tires. You can see the chunks coming off the tires along the cuts from the sipe.

 

Thanks. I guess I don't understand why and how a tire dealer would sipe new tires. Can you enlighten me?

 

A lot of tire dealers push tire siping (usually $10-$15 dollars per tire)when you buy new tires. Their sales pitch is that you get better grip on wet and snowy roads. They also claim that the additional siping will allow the tires to run cooler, resulting in longer mileage.

When I was working for a tire shop (35yrs ago) they had "tire truing" (think of an inflated tire on a lathe) which basically made the tire circular, at that point in time. They were also introducing siping.

Being young, I "tested" these concepts on my cars. The "truing" was a bogus procedure, as tires change with temperature and load.
Siping did help with wet roads and snow and ice. But with high horsepower application the tread would chuck off. I also found that the additional siping caused accelerated wear.

When I bought my new Toyo AT's, the person mounting the tires tried to sell me on "siping" my new tires. When I told him no way, he attempted to continue the sales pitch. About this time, the owner/manager stepped in. He informed his newest eager employee that I knew what I wanted and didn't want (we have know each other for years) and that they have been having problems with siped tires chunking on PSD's.

Take it for what it's worth.

 

Thanks for the info, c.f.

One thing I found attractive about the Michelins as opposed to the BFG AT's I was also looking at was the amount of siping in its stock form. I figured it would be very good on snow. As it turns out, it was.

 

After a couple weeks, the new BFG tires didn't seem to be riding very well either. Started to develop a little bit of a shake in the front end, not much, but more than I'd expect from brand new tires after only two weeks. So last Wednesday I took my truck to the dealer (not the tire shop) to have it aligned and tires balanced. They performed a full alignment, front and rear, balanced and rotated the tires. So far it rides great, better than it did after they were originally installed and better than any of the two sets of A/T2s. Maybe tire shop didn't do a very good job on the original alignment or balancing. Don't know, only time will tell on this set.

 

Anyone have any updates on these tires?

 

I have a friend that was told the exact same thing about some Toyos he bought, that the truck just had too much torque. His tires wore incredibly fast while towing so the shop replaced them. I think it's BS though because there are plenty of trucks with torque that don't wear through tires like that. The 7.3L with a chip, the 6.8, the 6.0 all have a lot of torque, and the new 6.4L has even more. To think a typical tire cannot live on the rear end of a truck seems ridiculous to me.

 

This weekend I was going to replace my tires with this exact tire on my 04 F350. It just turned 41k and I noticed that my right front tire sidewall has some cuts and nicks in it. They are the OEM tires that came with the truck when I bought it new-BFG's. I pull a 14.5k fifthwheel so I need E-rated tire. Now I dont know what tire to buy,what about Silent Armours? Has anyone had any luck with them? I am wanting to bump up ine size to a 285 vs 265. Need suggestions fast............