Michelin Defender LTX M/S ~3,000 mile review.

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: 4WD
We hunt in the marsh where an A/T is a street tire ... nobody has Michelin unless you count BFG.


Yeah, I'm not sure why Michelin even tries to compete in the A/T market. I guess they offer their LTX A/T2 only for people who can't bring themselves to buy any other brand. The BFG A/T KO and KO2 are truly excellent A/T tires -- the top of the ladder I reckon.


You kinda made the point though. Michelin does quite well in the A/T market through their BFG arm.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: 4WD
We hunt in the marsh where an A/T is a street tire ... nobody has Michelin unless you count BFG.


Yeah, I'm not sure why Michelin even tries to compete in the A/T market. I guess they offer their LTX A/T2 only for people who can't bring themselves to buy any other brand. The BFG A/T KO and KO2 are truly excellent A/T tires -- the top of the ladder I reckon.


You kinda made the point though. Michelin does quite well in the A/T market through their BFG arm.


When I said "Michelin", I meant the Michelin brand itself. I think the market for the Michelin LTX A/T2 is very limited, given the position their BFG brand holds in the market. Between the two brands, Michelin's Defender LTX M/S owns the highway tread market (the Long Trail T/A Tour has never been a strong tire), and the BFG A/T KO2 owns the A/T market. It surprises me that Michelin continues to make an A/T tire that competes with the BFG A/T.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
When I said "Michelin", I meant the Michelin brand itself. I think the market for the Michelin LTX A/T2 is very limited, given the position their BFG brand holds in the market. Between the two brands, Michelin's Defender LTX M/S owns the highway tread market (the Long Trail T/A Tour has never been a strong tire), and the BFG A/T KO2 owns the A/T market. It surprises me that Michelin continues to make an A/T tire that competes with the BFG A/T.


Some people like the Michelin name and will always buy Michelin. Plus, since that brand is known for being expensive, they don't have to worry about losing money because people will pay the higher prices.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
When I said "Michelin", I meant the Michelin brand itself. I think the market for the Michelin LTX A/T2 is very limited, given the position their BFG brand holds in the market. Between the two brands, Michelin's Defender LTX M/S owns the highway tread market (the Long Trail T/A Tour has never been a strong tire), and the BFG A/T KO2 owns the A/T market. It surprises me that Michelin continues to make an A/T tire that competes with the BFG A/T.


Some people like the Michelin name and will always buy Michelin. Plus, since that brand is known for being expensive, they don't have to worry about losing money because people will pay the higher prices.


Pretty much this I would say. I think it is obvious Michelin spends more money on R&D for their multi-surface tires like the LTX M/S family than they do on any form of real A/T offering under the Michelin moniker. Hence the A/T2 and its predecessor being rather unremarkable.

On the other hand, they spend, I would posit, a fair deal of money on developing and improving A/T offerings under the BFG brand as this is likely that brand's biggest market.

Michelin is able to make more money this way.

 

[HangFire]

Corrections are part of what makes this site great. I see SO MANY Tire Rack reviews of people complaining about their OEM tires... on vehicles I know never had that tire. Like my former Primacy MXV4 (an average tire, really) trashed by people who "owned it" a decade before it was introduced... they had an earlier model Primacy. While they may have a right to consumer rage, they are muddying the waters for those of us who don't care about brand, but want to research what really is a good tire (and what is not).

Brand bashing IMHO is much more of a problem on this site than brand loyalty. Nothing seems to bring out the brand-bashers than mentioning the M-word.

And Gumbo is its own class of mud, with it's own class of tire to handle it. No one (reasonable) expects a highway style M&S tire to run in Gumbo. Just mentioning it in a discussion of SUV tires made for the occasional horse or boat trailer towing, means the poster is stretching things.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: HangFire
Corrections are part of what makes this site great. I see SO MANY Tire Rack reviews of people complaining about their OEM tires... on vehicles I know never had that tire. Like my former Primacy MXV4 (an average tire, really) trashed by people who "owned it" a decade before it was introduced... they had an earlier model Primacy. While they may have a right to consumer rage, they are muddying the waters for those of us who don't care about brand, but want to research what really is a good tire (and what is not).

Brand bashing IMHO is much more of a problem on this site than brand loyalty. Nothing seems to bring out the brand-bashers than mentioning the M-word.

And Gumbo is its own class of mud, with it's own class of tire to handle it. No one (reasonable) expects a highway style M&S tire to run in Gumbo. Just mentioning it in a discussion of SUV tires made for the occasional horse or boat trailer towing, means the poster is stretching things.


Very well said. I don't think any reasonable person even considers LTX MS2 for deep mud, do they?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: HangFire
Corrections are part of what makes this site great. I see SO MANY Tire Rack reviews of people complaining about their OEM tires... on vehicles I know never had that tire. Like my former Primacy MXV4 (an average tire, really) trashed by people who "owned it" a decade before it was introduced... they had an earlier model Primacy. While they may have a right to consumer rage, they are muddying the waters for those of us who don't care about brand, but want to research what really is a good tire (and what is not).

Brand bashing IMHO is much more of a problem on this site than brand loyalty. Nothing seems to bring out the brand-bashers than mentioning the M-word.

And Gumbo is its own class of mud, with it's own class of tire to handle it. No one (reasonable) expects a highway style M&S tire to run in Gumbo. Just mentioning it in a discussion of SUV tires made for the occasional horse or boat trailer towing, means the poster is stretching things.

 

[Bighorn2500]

Well I made the appointment for 8am Friday morning to get a set of Michelin Defender LTX M/S installed on the wife's Jeep. Found Discount Tire is offering an in-store $70 pre-paid Visa rebate from 2/1/17-2/11/17, called up Belle Tire and asked if they'd match or beat the best price I found after the rebate. Belle came in $5 below the best price I found saving me about $85.

 

[Balrog006]

Originally Posted By: Bighorn2500
Well I made the appointment for 8am Friday morning to get a set of Michelin Defender LTX M/S installed on the wife's Jeep. Found Discount Tire is offering an in-store $70 pre-paid Visa rebate from 2/1/17-2/11/17, called up Belle Tire and asked if they'd match or beat the best price I found after the rebate. Belle came in $5 below the best price I found saving me about $85.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted By: Bighorn2500
Well I made the appointment for 8am Friday morning to get a set of Michelin Defender LTX M/S installed on the wife's Jeep. Found Discount Tire is offering an in-store $70 pre-paid Visa rebate from 2/1/17-2/11/17, called up Belle Tire and asked if they'd match or beat the best price I found after the rebate. Belle came in $5 below the best price I found saving me about $85.


That's a great deal. When I bought mine Michelin had a $70 rebate as well as a $70 Discount tire rebate if you put it on a car care one credit card. I had the tires installed while I was home in Michigan but elected to go with Discount tire over Belle Tire due to the availability of Discount tire ships here in Florida where the truck is 90% of the time. Hopefully your wife likes them on her Jeep. With nearly 6,000 miles on mine now I still am delighted that I chose these tires instead of purchasing another set of more aggressive AT tires.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Follow up review after 2 years 20k------->Click here!!!!!