Mr. Mark,
don't give up on the Michelins. My dealer was having a terrible time finding "fresh" tires for me too. It appears that the Michelin XRV tires are currently in short supply (at least in my 235/80R22.5 size). He first told me (about 2 weeks ago) there was a 6 week backorder on XRV from Michelin. So, logic says they are back in production. My dealer located the 6 I had installed today. 4 are 5 weeks old, 2 are 6 weeks old. We have a trip planned in a couple weeks so choose not to wait for anything fresher. I think the ones I got are perfectly acceptable.