The Defenders are the most quiet rated in their class on Tire rack... The CC's "look" more loud to me. .02. Wet traction? I just hydroplane right through it! .02.
25 Honda Pilot tire recs
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Seriously, I could spin both the energy savers and the defenders on a quick, wet start. Been a long time since I've had other than Michelin tires so I'm no expert on relative grip.
I've now got 29k on the OE Primacy tires that came on my Accord. The are indeed, imo, garbage.
They tramline on grooved pavement so badly that you will feel like you're taking your life in your hands in bad weather. The wet traction is terrible. The dry traction is terrible.
The ride quality is good on perfect pavement where every tire is also good. On choppy stuff, they are harsh. Now, some of that is surely just the puzzling decision by Honda to fit 40 series rubber to a "touring" model.
And true to OEM form, the tires are built for 1) mpg and 2) treadlife, and 3) quiet. They are indeed quiet and efficient. And these will probably go past 50k miles at the current rate.
But who cares if a tire lasts 50k miles if you despise them for every single one of those miles?
I really want to drop down to 18s or 17s and get rid of these overweight porky 33# OEM wheels and the comically underperforming Primacy tires they wear. My research suggests I could drop as much as TWELVE POUNDS PER WHEEL with common aftermarket wheels in a more sensible size.
A prior vehicle gave 4mpg better when I want to smaller wheels with higher profile tires. I'm hoping I can somewhat repeat that experiment again.
Another perfect description of Michelin Primacy tires.I agree. My biggest complaint was wet grip. They would literally break loose on sprinkler spray from a planter in the center divider in the middle of the road way. They were that bad!
Interesting. My Tacoma has primacy tires on them. It’s a highway tire on a truck and I prefer a mild all terrain. The rubber is soft and I’ve gouged a few spots while taking it off pavement.
As much as my own vanity doesn’t like these tires on a truck:
- they balance pretty well. I just had them rebalanced at 16k miles. They are at half tread
- their wet traction has been pretty good for me??
- they have been very quiet
- being soft rubber, they steer well. They definitely “roll under” when pushed, but it’s a truck.
- they seem harsh over bumps and cracks.
265/65 r18, 5300 lb curb weight, have an additional 500 pounds in skids, bumper, racks.
As I’ve posted elsewhere, Nokian outpost nAT, dueler ascent AT, possibly something like Nitto terragrappler, or Yokohama g018 have my eye. Or the continental AT, which has been a great tire, but I’d like to try something different.
As much as my own vanity doesn’t like these tires on a truck:
- they balance pretty well. I just had them rebalanced at 16k miles. They are at half tread
- their wet traction has been pretty good for me??
- they have been very quiet
- being soft rubber, they steer well. They definitely “roll under” when pushed, but it’s a truck.
- they seem harsh over bumps and cracks.
265/65 r18, 5300 lb curb weight, have an additional 500 pounds in skids, bumper, racks.
As I’ve posted elsewhere, Nokian outpost nAT, dueler ascent AT, possibly something like Nitto terragrappler, or Yokohama g018 have my eye. Or the continental AT, which has been a great tire, but I’d like to try something different.
There are several Primacy tires. In Tacoma sizing, you might have the Primacy LTX or the Primacy XC.
On my Accord, the tires are Primacy MXM4 and are the OEM tire.
SO while I'm using "primacy" as shorthand for my tires, there are several Primacy models from MIchelin that would likely give very different performance.
The main flaw of these tires is that they are OEM spec. In my experience, every tire shipped on a new vehicle (in general) is optimized for low rolling resistance and quiet and readily gives up traction to achieve it.
These tires cannot put down the car's power on clean dry pavement before 40mph. They just spin. And they're worse in anything wet or snow.
I'm a fan of Michelin tires generally. But not these.
Check out the Cooper Road+Trail also. Tests very well at TR, looks great, when I tried the Renegade (I don't drive it much) they were quiet, and rode better than the previous tires it had (Falken Wildpeak HT stock, Pirelli Scorpion AT, Falken WildPeak AT Trail). The AT Trail was pretty good, wore evenly and did stay quiet the whole time. The other 2 sets were a different story.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/nokian-outpost-apt-or-cooper-discoverer-road-trail-for-16-renegade-trailhawk.395294/
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Cooper and other brands that don't advertise heavily can have some real hidden gems in the lineup.
WHen I managed the USAF missile complex truck fleet in the mid-2000s, we put Cooper STs on (with the wishbone treadblocks) because those SuperDuty's would drive 100+ miles on gravel roads and many other truck tires would either shed chunks of rubber or just burn through them super fast. We got 25-30k miles from the Coopers, which was very good service for that application.
The toughest gravel road tire I've ever seen was the Toyo M55. I think it's probably the single toughest tire I've ever seen in terms puncture resistance and treadwear. But they are crazy heavy and expensive.
For example, in the 265/70r18 size I used on my GX, the M55 has a 124 load index and weighs 57#. The Michelin Defenders I run are only load index 116 and weigh 40# each in the same size. I don't need anything nearly is tough or load capable as the M55 for my uses, so I chose quiet and MPG over brute capability.
WHen I managed the USAF missile complex truck fleet in the mid-2000s, we put Cooper STs on (with the wishbone treadblocks) because those SuperDuty's would drive 100+ miles on gravel roads and many other truck tires would either shed chunks of rubber or just burn through them super fast. We got 25-30k miles from the Coopers, which was very good service for that application.
The toughest gravel road tire I've ever seen was the Toyo M55. I think it's probably the single toughest tire I've ever seen in terms puncture resistance and treadwear. But they are crazy heavy and expensive.
For example, in the 265/70r18 size I used on my GX, the M55 has a 124 load index and weighs 57#. The Michelin Defenders I run are only load index 116 and weigh 40# each in the same size. I don't need anything nearly is tough or load capable as the M55 for my uses, so I chose quiet and MPG over brute capability.
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