Michelin car vs. truck tires: cracking

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No, I have to get the tires inspected first. Hopefully, I'll have time to address that this next week. I will certainly post an update.
 
I got my tires inspected yesterday. I did suspect it will be classified as cosmetic only, and it was. Apparently, Michelin has a numerical scale to grade ozone damage to a tire, and mine was still on the lower half of the scale. Blacks Tire in Fayetteville did the inspection and were very friendly. He said the Michelin man (ha) told him that I could go to a different place and have them inspected, for a "second opinion" (I won't), or I could monitor them for 6 months and carry it back to Blacks for a re-look. One of the main reasons, though, to get these looked at was to see if there was an issue with a certain batch of tires at the factory, and there apparently isn't. So I'll just keep my eye on them and see if it gets any worse.
 
I have seen this happen also, to two two different Michelin sets of tires. I believe one was the X Radial and the other was a minivan tire, can't think of the name. This was in the past five years and neither tire had any protectant put on them ever. I really like Michelin tires and have the Primacy on my car right now, but it does make me wonder.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Currently running 4 new sets of LTX M/S2's and will be watching them closely now. Almost every truck we own has them on it or will soon. The sets replaced had about 2 years and 60k + miles on them, absolutely no sidewall deterioration. Park in any potentially corrosive environments? Ozone? Chlorine?
Interesting. I've pretty much decided on these for my truck at the end of summer. According to tirerack.com, they are very good tires. I'm getting about 24k miles currently out of my 10 ply tires on my sierra diesel (bridgestone duravis, and then Toyo open country), so I'm hoping for significantly more with the michelins.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim 5
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Currently running 4 new sets of LTX M/S2's and will be watching them closely now. Almost every truck we own has them on it or will soon. The sets replaced had about 2 years and 60k + miles on them, absolutely no sidewall deterioration. Park in any potentially corrosive environments? Ozone? Chlorine?
Interesting. I've pretty much decided on these for my truck at the end of summer. According to tirerack.com, they are very good tires. I'm getting about 24k miles currently out of my 10 ply tires on my sierra diesel (bridgestone duravis, and then Toyo open country), so I'm hoping for significantly more with the michelins.
Our fleet Savana's ship with Bridgestones. They last less than 30k miles, usually closer to 20k! The last gen LTX MS regularly exceed 60k miles!!! At that mileage they are worth 3 Bridgestones. Plus they do not dramatically change traction, noise or ride quality as they age out. The new LTX MS2's are supposed to be even better. You'll love them.
 
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I've had a set of Michelin tires (made by Michelin for the Sears Roadhandler line) develop excessive sidewall cracks within a few years. I drove them like a Bandit though. My 2003 Ford E-250 came with LTX M/S from the factory (load Range E) and developed excessive cracks within a year. Now it has been 9 years and the cracks are still there, and have spread to the shoulder/tread area. I've had my BFG All-Terrains for over 2 years and so far so good. Badyear tires will wear out before anything happens to the sidewall.
 
I've also noticed this sort of thing going on a lot, especially with tires on cars owned by retirees. Some of these older folks can get those cracks in their Michelins in less than two years. I don't know what does it, but it makes me wonder if frequently sitting parked for several days at a time or running with low inflation pressure could be contributing factors.
 
Originally Posted By: yonyon
I've also noticed this sort of thing going on a lot, especially with tires on cars owned by retirees. Some of these older folks can get those cracks in their Michelins in less than two years. I don't know what does it, but it makes me wonder if frequently sitting parked for several days at a time or running with low inflation pressure could be contributing factors.
What is going on here is that the antioxidants (AO's) migrate around the tire by the flexing of the tire. No flexing, no movement of AO's. The AO's slow the aging process down.
 
Quote:
Our fleet Savana's ship with Bridgestones. They last less than 30k miles, usually closer to 20k!
There are many different Bridgestone Dueler tire models for a van. Some are excellent high mileage tires, and some are cheap mediocre tires. You need to tell which model they are.
 
I just bought a '94 Lincoln Mark VIII, and it had Michelin Primacy MXV4's on it. Unsure of the age. I noticed a bit of cracking on the sidewalls, but chalked it up as cosmetic and figured they'd be replaced shortly anyway, as there wasn't much tread left. I ended up replacing them much sooner than I had wanted to, as the left-rear obviously had bad cracking on the inside sidewall... leading to a blowout (thankfully not violent) on the highway.
 
Originally Posted By: Jakob_1992
I just bought a '94 Lincoln Mark VIII, and it had Michelin Primacy MXV4's on it. Unsure of the age. I noticed a bit of cracking on the sidewalls, but chalked it up as cosmetic and figured they'd be replaced shortly anyway, as there wasn't much tread left. I ended up replacing them much sooner than I had wanted to, as the left-rear obviously had bad cracking on the inside sidewall... leading to a blowout (thankfully not violent) on the highway.
If you take the time to look, there are date codes on tires...
 
Originally Posted By: Ken2
Quote:
Our fleet Savana's ship with Bridgestones. They last less than 30k miles, usually closer to 20k!
There are many different Bridgestone Dueler tire models for a van. Some are excellent high mileage tires, and some are cheap mediocre tires. You need to tell which model they are.
They were always V-Steel Rib 255's. Load range E. They ride terrible, are poor in the rain, and don't last at all.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
There are a few up in the Raleigh area, which is one-and-a-half hours away. If we had one in Fayetteville, I'd try one.
And being a Bitog member, I'll say that once you tried a DT, you would find it difficult to buy tires elsewhere. Can only assume the Fayetteville market size is the limiting factor at this point. As for the topic, I'll need to keep a eye on the sidewall of my Primacy MXV4's, haven't noticed any issue at this point. It's good to have DT around to handle any possible issues, in my dealings with them they've always been more than fair.
 
Originally Posted By: sayjac
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
There are a few up in the Raleigh area, which is one-and-a-half hours away. If we had one in Fayetteville, I'd try one.
And being a Bitog member, I'll say that once you tried a DT, you would find it difficult to buy tires elsewhere. Can only assume the Fayetteville market size is the limiting factor at this point.
Heck, even Salisbury has one (a DT). Fayetteville is the 5th largest city in the state, with over 200,000 people. I'm really surprised we don't have one. I will say that I've had excellent experience with the nationwide dealers from which I have bought tires, and DT is never good enough on prices to warrant a two hour trip for tires. But if a DT came to town, I'd try it nonetheless.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Heck, even Salisbury has one (a DT). Fayetteville is the 5th largest city in the state, with over 200,000 people. I'm really surprised we don't have one.
Yes I'm familiar with the Salisbury DT store. I'd say that the thinking there is that store is the northeast most store of the Charlotte Metro region area stores. And it's only ~15 miles from the Concord/Kannapolis store, and no smaller population wise than say Denver or Knightdale which also have a store. But, Hickory has a single DT store as does Columbia SC. So I have a suggestion, much as you contacted Michelin here, you should contact Discount Tire and lobby for a DT store in the Fayetteville area making all the points you made here. Who knows, they might consider it.
 
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