Tires - To Sipe or Not to Sipe Toyo M154s
Hey gang,
I'm leaning a certain direction, but I'm interested in your opinions without the influence of my research.
Normally, I would not consider siping in favor of buying the right tire for the job and letting the engineers of the manufacturer decide how much or little siping to add.
But this is one case where I would consider it. Read on to find out why.
The Rig:
2004 Winnebago Journey 34H DP on a Freightliner Chassis
GVWR - About 28,000 lbs
OEM Tires:
Michelin XRV 255/80R 22.5
Replacement Tires:
Toyo M154 265/75R 22.5
(The last set of these went 10 years and looked like new, inside and out, with 10,000 miles on them)
Driving conditions:
Mostly Oregon and western states
Wet, dry. Hot summers. Rarely snow, but possible.
Unlike the Defender LTX M/S tires on the wife's Highlander, these particular Michelins have a very poor reputation for early sidewall cracking and such. And... as "luck" would have it, they must have worked a deal with Freightliner in order to get their own, proprietary tire size for these rigs.
The similarly-sized, Toyo M154s are known to be one of 2 preferred replacements for the way-overpriced Michelins. Toyo considers them All-Position commercial tires. "Recommended" for steers in long-haul, regional and urban. "Suitable" for drives in regional and urban, but for trailer when it comes to long-haul. Makes sense to me. I usually see more aggressive tread on the commercial drives around here. Of course... tires like those would be louder than these Toyos.
The tread patterns are very similar, but I noticed what almost appears to be aftermarket siping in photos of the Michelins and Michelin does brag on the siping in their description.
The Toyos have already been installed by Les Schwab Tires. They still performs the siping service. Since they were installed so recently, they want $113 total to remove, sipe and replace all 6. Definitely not doing that for profit. Especially since the rubber alone weighs almost a hundred pounds. I would require they still warranty the tires in writing.
Note: I was able to resize the Toyo photo, no problem. But I keep running into a stretching issue with the Michelen. It's a 3x2 aspect ratio. Resizing to 600x400 or 300x200 should work, but it doesn't. It stretches it really wide. So for now, you're stuck scrolling to read. Sorry.
I'm leaning a certain direction, but I'm interested in your opinions without the influence of my research.
Normally, I would not consider siping in favor of buying the right tire for the job and letting the engineers of the manufacturer decide how much or little siping to add.
But this is one case where I would consider it. Read on to find out why.
The Rig:
2004 Winnebago Journey 34H DP on a Freightliner Chassis
GVWR - About 28,000 lbs
OEM Tires:
Michelin XRV 255/80R 22.5
Replacement Tires:
Toyo M154 265/75R 22.5
(The last set of these went 10 years and looked like new, inside and out, with 10,000 miles on them)
Driving conditions:
Mostly Oregon and western states
Wet, dry. Hot summers. Rarely snow, but possible.
Unlike the Defender LTX M/S tires on the wife's Highlander, these particular Michelins have a very poor reputation for early sidewall cracking and such. And... as "luck" would have it, they must have worked a deal with Freightliner in order to get their own, proprietary tire size for these rigs.
The similarly-sized, Toyo M154s are known to be one of 2 preferred replacements for the way-overpriced Michelins. Toyo considers them All-Position commercial tires. "Recommended" for steers in long-haul, regional and urban. "Suitable" for drives in regional and urban, but for trailer when it comes to long-haul. Makes sense to me. I usually see more aggressive tread on the commercial drives around here. Of course... tires like those would be louder than these Toyos.
The tread patterns are very similar, but I noticed what almost appears to be aftermarket siping in photos of the Michelins and Michelin does brag on the siping in their description.
The Toyos have already been installed by Les Schwab Tires. They still performs the siping service. Since they were installed so recently, they want $113 total to remove, sipe and replace all 6. Definitely not doing that for profit. Especially since the rubber alone weighs almost a hundred pounds. I would require they still warranty the tires in writing.
Note: I was able to resize the Toyo photo, no problem. But I keep running into a stretching issue with the Michelen. It's a 3x2 aspect ratio. Resizing to 600x400 or 300x200 should work, but it doesn't. It stretches it really wide. So for now, you're stuck scrolling to read. Sorry.
