Chinese Michelin LTX clones

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Originally Posted By: Doog
Too bad you guys don't know the difference between China and Korea.

Originally established in 1942 as Heung-A Tire, Nexen Tire has over 60 years of tradition as a respected leader in the tire industry. Acknowledged as Korea’s first tire company, we first began car tire production in 1956.


I believe this was already discussed earlier in this thread.

Originally Posted By: Doog


Btw...Michelin is a French Company...

Michelin (/ˈmɪʃəlɪn/ or /ˈmɪtʃəlɪn/; French pronunciation: [miʃ'lɛ̃]; full name: SCA Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone.[2] In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) tyre brands.


Is there a point to that information? Michelin being French is no secret...
 
Nankang is a Taiwanese tire maker, Sunny is their co-label. Maxxis/CST and Kenda are starting to break through in the car/truck tire market even though their forte is bike tires - I know Honda uses Kenda spares on most US-built Accords.
 
nexen also has some really junky tires. Equivalent to 80's goodyears.

you have to recommend an actual tire model like many people have said until blue in the face.

Even GOOD manufacturers like michelin make DUD oem tires.

But some dont have any good tires... like primewell.
 
Originally Posted By: bigjl
Nankang are Korean and are actually not bad.


No, they are Taiwanese. I'd say they are close to Chinese in quality but have less chance of being fake or counterfeit.

Actually, I had a set of Chinese Winstar Phaser R23 about 8 years ago and it was night and day better than the Goodyear Invictor (not Integrity, even worse) on the Corolla. It did well up to about 90mph, is T rated, with 400 UTQG, and lasted about 60k miles, at a very low price too.

Last I heard Michelin bought them out.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Doog
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Thanks Rand, that led me to find another shameless knock-off:

NEXEN Roadian HT-LTR:
Roadian_HT.jpg


And the Concours Radial A/S:
Concours-tire-AS.jpg



Too bad you guys don't know the difference between China and Korea.

Originally established in 1942 as Heung-A Tire, Nexen Tire has over 60 years of tradition as a respected leader in the tire industry. Acknowledged as Korea’s first tire company, we first began car tire production in 1956.

Btw...Michelin is a French Company...

Michelin (/ˈmɪʃəlɪn/ or /ˈmɪtʃəlɪn/; French pronunciation: [miʃ'lɛ̃]; full name: SCA Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone.[2] In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) tyre brands.


Where did I say Nexen was Chinese? I said the tires on my coworkers truck were Chinese, not the Nexen's. My comment about the Nexens were that they were shameless Michelin clones, which they are.
 
Two off brand tires here getting pretty good reviews would be Nexen and Kenda.

In fact, the Kenda K17 sold by Belle Tire and some Indies (made in Taiwan) seems to hold up better than I thought. Quite a few people have them around me (co workers, neighbors, buddy's beater cavalier) have good things to say about them....only issue I've heard so far is that they wear Kumbo style..
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: Taildragger
Copying a tread design/look is not copying the tire.


What would you call it then, complimentary imitation?
smirk.gif




I would be more than willing to bet that the actual construction is very different. The copied tread design/look is to deceive people into thinking it is the same tire. What do you think?
 
To be honest these trend patterns are so generic that you cannot tell a Michelin from a Continental, or a Goodyear from a Hankook or Kumho, or a Fuzion from a Dunlop.

Unless the name is close also, like an intentional misspell, I'd not accuse a tire of being a clone or copy.
 
Originally Posted By: Taildragger
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: Taildragger
Copying a tread design/look is not copying the tire.


What would you call it then, complimentary imitation?
smirk.gif




I would be more than willing to bet that the actual construction is very different. The copied tread design/look is to deceive people into thinking it is the same tire. What do you think?


I think you have a good point
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
To be honest these trend patterns are so generic that you cannot tell a Michelin from a Continental, or a Goodyear from a Hankook or Kumho, or a Fuzion from a Dunlop.

Unless the name is close also, like an intentional misspell, I'd not accuse a tire of being a clone or copy.


+1
 
If these are true clones of the Michelin tire in materials and constuction, which I doubt, then the guy got a good deal on new tires for his truck.
If these merely look like the LTX, which is likely, then the guy got screwed.
He'll find out over time.
The moral of this story is that one should only buy tires for which one can find reliable objective tests as well as plenty of user reviews.
Buying an unknown brand puts one in the position of doing the testing and providing a user review.
Not a place I want to be in when spending my money on a set of tires that my family and me will rely upon for safe transport in all kinds of weather.
Parting with money for a set of tires that may prove unsatifactory in use as well as being short lived is false economy, regardless of how cheap they might have been.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
If these are true clones of the Michelin tire in materials and constuction, which I doubt, then the guy got a good deal on new tires for his truck.
If these merely look like the LTX, which is likely, then the guy got screwed.
He'll find out over time.
The moral of this story is that one should only buy tires for which one can find reliable objective tests as well as plenty of user reviews.
Buying an unknown brand puts one in the position of doing the testing and providing a user review.
Not a place I want to be in when spending my money on a set of tires that my family and me will rely upon for safe transport in all kinds of weather.
Parting with money for a set of tires that may prove unsatifactory in use as well as being short lived is false economy, regardless of how cheap they might have been.


My issue is that I think he got screwed by the mechanic who wanted to make more money off his customer by selling him Chinese tires with more markup vs a Michelin, Bridgestone.....etc. at market value with a much narrower margin.

He didn't know he was getting Chinese tires.
 
You mean that you don't think the mechanic mounted a set of Chinese tires out of the goodness of his heart?
I've had shops try to sell me unknown tires in the past.
The best answer is "No thanks".
It may be time for your buddy to find a new mechanic.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
You mean that you don't think the mechanic mounted a set of Chinese tires out of the goodness of his heart?
I've had shops try to sell me unknown tires in the past.
The best answer is "No thanks".
It may be time for your buddy to find a new mechanic.


BINGO! And that is the discussion we had after he found out what he had purchased and how little the price difference was between what he ended up with versus something like and LTX M/S2.
 
Did you ever find out what the brand of these Chinese knock-offs are? I can't believe that the mechanic charged $800 for them, for that price he could have got a brand name decent quality tire.

I am planning on replacing my summer tires on my Truck with LTX MS/2's in the spring. They are very pricey (around $1200-$1300 pers set in my size), but I am willing to pay for the quality.

Many people just shop by price and don't know or care about brand or country of origin. Plus truck tires are so big and expensive now, sometimes people just can't afford the top names. My wife's cousin was bragging about the deal she got on her tires for her Mazada. They were a cheap chinese knock off tire, but she thought they were great.
 
Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
Did you ever find out what the brand of these Chinese knock-offs are? I can't believe that the mechanic charged $800 for them, for that price he could have got a brand name decent quality tire.

I am planning on replacing my summer tires on my Truck with LTX MS/2's in the spring. They are very pricey (around $1200-$1300 pers set in my size), but I am willing to pay for the quality.

Many people just shop by price and don't know or care about brand or country of origin. Plus truck tires are so big and expensive now, sometimes people just can't afford the top names. My wife's cousin was bragging about the deal she got on her tires for her Mazada. They were a cheap chinese knock off tire, but she thought they were great.


No, I completely forgot. I'll check tomorrow, assuming his truck is there
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
Did you ever find out what the brand of these Chinese knock-offs are? I can't believe that the mechanic charged $800 for them, for that price he could have got a brand name decent quality tire.

I am planning on replacing my summer tires on my Truck with LTX MS/2's in the spring. They are very pricey (around $1200-$1300 pers set in my size), but I am willing to pay for the quality.

Many people just shop by price and don't know or care about brand or country of origin. Plus truck tires are so big and expensive now, sometimes people just can't afford the top names. My wife's cousin was bragging about the deal she got on her tires for her Mazada. They were a cheap chinese knock off tire, but she thought they were great.


They were "IRONMAN" Radial A/P:

hercules-ironman-radial-ap_lg.jpg


Proudly made in China.

Looks like they are actually made by Hercules....
21.gif
 
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