Tow vehicle tire trauma.....

[cdlaine]

Yep...this a.m. ...greater Phoenix metroplex. Planned on
camping this weekend , but, now need to get remaining tires
replaced... camp site cancelled.

4 years old, Michelin LTX M/S 245/75/R16... side wall blow out.
Not towing when it happened. Had drying out of side wall...was
trying to stretch life cycle of tires before replacing. I chose
poorly. New tires this week.

..don't be like me. 😮

Will replace with same. Lately, the RV'ing thing has been performing
significant wallet biopsies... more then "the cost of doing business".
I need a break from things breaking . :B

Charles

[OFDPOS]

LOL a lot of info there to take in 😉

Hopefully either owner of the property or the owners of the two vehicles had insurance !

[jerem0621]

Geeze Ben.. You make my $98.00 POS Huffy blush!

[Hannibal]

Wow! Interesting pics! We have two Treks. Mine is a Gary Fisher Rumblefish 29'er. Her's is a Lush.

[BenK]

Oh...here is a partial picture of the bike rack that holds 6.5 bicycles...boy am
I bored with this $#@$ cold...


The boys fixing mom...'cuz she opens presents before the party...so showed them
HOW2 with plywood and screws every 2 inches...over driven to be recessed into the wood...worked GREAT !!!

TinasXmasPresent boysfixingtinaspresent tinapresent


Freezing, not a normal thing in the SF Bayarea...why gloves. Made a
propane (5 gal tank) on wheels with dual radiant headed heater...haven't needed it since...

The next am on my morning ride...came across a cypress tree that fell
due to the ice on it...crushed these two the week before Xmas...Weird
for us out here to wake up to 30*F weather...I do have waterproof and
insulated footies/etc

Pics about 4 days later...as the street was impassible...filled with
the tree limbs/etc


ForzenTree smashedtrucksuv

[coolbreeze01]

Over 4,000 miles on the Bontrager's on my Trek Comfort :C

[BenK]

Have 6.5 bicycles and mix which one is ridden...normally 10-20 miles each day,
rain or shine...but not this week...danged head/chest cold has me hanging around
the house...

These are now on that Trek 1000

ContiGater

The Trek 1000 after getting doored and rebuilt with a plastic fork

Trek1000

Had Michelin Pro4 Service Course Tires before those Lithions and might go back
to them once the Gaters wear out, but the Gaters are sure gripped as teh Pro's
but not as light.

Got my Trek 1000 down to about 17lb bike, but since getting doored...insurance
paid for most of the $6.5K for the new plastic Trek Madone 6.5. So the Trek 1000
is my daily and one I'll lock up and go inside to shop...not the Madone...it will
always be in line of sight. Have the Madone down to just under 16lbs
but not weighed yet.

Decided to make a single speed and ended up making 2 of them. A speedster and gave
that to GF's son. This is my single speed and is a Coastie (rear coaster brake)
and iron frame

Coastie singlespeed Cruiser

This was bought new in 1996 and is a Trek 8000 MTB, over sized tires at 2.5" x 26"
Up at SF's 3rd lake fed from HechHechie down here to the SF Bayarea.

MTB Trek8000

[Hannibal]

Those MIchelin Lithions tread look like they've never seen pavement. I used to wear out bicycle tires before they had a chance to dry rot when I road a bike to school. They can be had for $15.

[BenK]

Brian...before was a BFG KO/AT guy and had several sets on my K5 and Silverado...until
they started to blister between tread ribs...to finally not hold PSI
K5 went to commercial class when I switched both axles to 1 ton
GM 14 bolt rear and Dana 60 front

Talked to my tire dealers and they both called in the local area rep...and last time
found that Michelin then owned them.

He said warranty two times...to then say won't anymore and would discount a set
of Michelin LTX-AT's

Bought them for both my Silverado and years later for my Sub when the OEM Firestones
lost their ability to hold air

The Silverado had about 6 sets and my Sub had 5 sets. Mixed between LTX-AT and LTX-MS

Didn't know much about the date code metrics...even though worked my way through
college and one was as a tire monkey. So never took notice till the news and this
portal started to discuss date codes

Havine over 11 sets of Michelin LTX series on two vehicles over a +couple
decades provided much actual experience. Do note that I'm really, really tough
on my tires and vehicles. More so with my trucks

Check how my setups handle empty, loaded and hooked up...but when hooked up I
don't get it sideways purposely...check them with PSI's I like, which is towards
the rated high end

But also note that the alloys on my Suburban are 10" wide bead to bead with
LT265/75R16E's. On purpose for 'that' kind of performance I want for my TV. For
serious off roading...OEM steel wheels with LT255/85r16E's, which are 6.5" wide
bead to bead and that is for the type of performance I want for that purpose

As for the last tire image...it from my road bicycle after getting doored...that
destroyed my fork/tire and messed up my chest. +$800 bucks worth to my 30 year old
road bike.

My speedo says just under 60 MPH when going down some local hills...think a bit
less, but after checking out my crumpled bike waiting for the cops...noticed that
the tires (front and rear) were cracked. So took pictures for these types of
discussions.

Association is that they are the same OEM and same experience with bicycle and
auto tires. They were about 1 year old...NEVER left outside over nite,
always garaged on a rack with no load on them over nite, 303 on all of
my tires (one of those Michelin area reps said warranty denied if they
found anything other than 303 was used). Sidewall says max PSI of
around 119 PSI and aired them up to 110 PSI


biketire cycletire bicycletire



I now have Conti Gater's on that Trek 1000 road bike and Bontrager's on my
Trek Madone 6.5

The Conti Gaters are stored on the same bike rack, in the same garage
and ridden on the same roads (albeit less miles now that I have a
2nd road bike) and they show ZERO cracking and actually perform much
better than the Michelin 23mm X 700mm's

Ride one of my MTB's when it is wet out there...road bikes do not
perform well enough for me when the pavement is wet...and...they
can't go as fast as my road bikes...even going down hill...to meters me...

[cdlaine]

Brian....

With this replacement set I wrote the date codes down on the
receipt...2 with 43/15 and 2 with 44/15. I learned to request
the "freshest" born on dating here on the forum. The original
set I purchased at Sam's Club (2011)... pulled the warranty, 2
listings for "what is covered" 8 listings for what is "not
covered". I used Sam's to save money but was not pleased with
the service (not sure the "service manager" had started to
shave)... decided not to go back. Just wanted to get back to
RV'ing...opted not to "fight-the-good-fight".

Sure do long for the days when I didn't have to know about dot
codes and tire side-wall construction. IIRC my Dad went years
on "re-treads"...ah , the good ol' days...when all 5 boys would
pile in the open bed of the pick-up truck and swallow gnats on
road trips. :C

Ken... I don't shine the tires, but frequent baths.

Charles

[ken56]

I am wondering if any of you who have had tires go bad use tire dressings of any type. Make the side walls all shiny by putting chemicals with petroleum distillates in them IMO is not a good idea. The only thing I have ever used on mine is 303 UV protectant. No sign of cracking so far coming up on 4 yr old tires. I have kept them covered when parked too. These are China bombs too, Akuret brand and they have near 20k miles on them. I may be pushing my luck with them but I keep a close eye on them too. I will be needing to replace them soon so reading about others experiences with brands is helpful

Oops. these (Akuret) are on the trailer of course, not my TV. Goodyear Wrangles on the TV with so far no complaints. 40k and just over 2yrs old and no signs of cracking side walls and wearing well.

[Hannibal]

I've had good luck with Michelins over the years but, I usually wear tires out before the four year mark rolls around. Always check the date code on the tires before you buy. The Continentals that came on my F250 lasted 70k and about 3 years. They were perfectly balanced. The Firestone TransForce HT's on it now are wearing well but they don't balance as well as the Michelins or Continentals.

[OFDPOS]

CDlaine
When you bought the first set (had the blow out ) no warranty from where you bought if they are only 4 years old? Did you by chance know what the tire date was on them ??
I bought all new tires on our MH when I called to set up the appointment the tire shop said they had to order them, sooo assumed they were fairly new ! Was reading here about tires and got me curious about mine. Went out and sure enough they were 6-7 months old when they were first put on my MH. I was a little pissed to say the least.
Went back to the tire shop and had a little talk with the manager , he said don't worry the tires are warrantied for 6 years 70,000 miles. I may go back and have another talk with him and have him put that in writing and sign it !

BenK
Too bad in all those pictures you didn't snap the tire date code would have been curious to know how old they were ? I noticed the time stamp on your pictures has 2006, 2008 and 2009 then the last picture is of a completely different tire... Again curious on the date codes vs time as well.

RoyF :
On warranty coverage -- I had a year-old Continental pickup-tire (load range E) fail not long ago. Dealer said that truck tires are not covered by any kind of warranty. I did try to argue. (Replaced by a Michelin!!)
Should have argued straight up to the tire Manufacturer. Dealer is full of it ! Besides the dealer didn't make the tires, what would he know 😉

Had a 1992 GMC 2W with the stock Michelins 3 years old less than 24K on tires, right rear blew out and boy was that fun getting stopped in a 4 lane freeway being in the #3 lane .. Michelin would not have a have thing to do with any assistance , coarse didn't expect any being 2nd owner, just thought a try to see.
A friend had Michelins on his TT same time 1992 3 years old and had 3 of the 4 blow out on the back side of a trip to Branson headed back home.. He swore off Michelins after that back then..

[Greene728]

cdlaine wrote:
Well Scott.. no justifiable reason other then to say that
many/most of the truck owners that I have spoken with here in
the Phoenix region site similar results regardless of
brand. I have not been convinced that the problem lies with
the tire manufacture process/content. It seems more likely
that the trade offs that have been made to provide comfortable
ride, load ratings, speed ratings, number and make up of
side wall plys etc. play a more important role then brand. In
the region I live in, environmental conditions (sun) and
road surface conditions (marginal) are also factors. Since I
drive like a Nun it is not likely I'm to blame. 🙂

Being a creature of habit, and, wondering if the "forum" reporting
of premature failure is of statistical significance, and, if switching
to comparable brands would yield better results (already similar
results with Bridgestone and Goodyear). I decided to stay with
tires within the same spec range of the o.e.m. tires that came with
my truck.

I am not a tire expert. A change in brand name at this time seemed
more based on "just trying something else" then reasoned thought.
When I initially purchased the Michelin's they were the darlings of the forum...
much love for the logo, except for "cost". The tide has turned. We shall
see if I sink or swim. I wouldn't advise anyone to do as I've
done as every application is different.

Charles

I understand. I guess just my way of thinking would be that what happened could have caused serious injury or even death. And not that that couldn't happen with any other tire manufacturer, cause Lord knows it can, I just couldn't have gone back with the same brand. I would have had to at least tried another reputable brand. I sure wish you the best with these and I'm very glad that it worked out for you!

[time2roll]

cdlaine wrote:
Will replace with same.

Are you joking?

https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/tires/wrangler-all-terrain-adventure?cta=BBCardTireName

[45Ricochet]

beergardens wrote:

Greene728 wrote:
I am confused. I mean zero disrespect when I ask this. But why in the world would you go back with the same brand that only lasted 4 years, exhibited significant sidewall cracking, and caused you a massive and complete sidewall blow out?
This is a known issue (sidewall dry rot) with Michelins. I myself would have given another reputable manufacturer a try had this same event happened to me. Cooper, Toyo, etc. all have just as good (and in many cases better) a rating and generally cheaper price tag. Again, just curious as to why?

I have to speak up as a lifelong Michelin fan here. Working in the auto industry for decades, I observed many quality traits of Michelin tires. They took far less weight to balance than any other brand of tire. Once balanced, they were pretty much balanced for life. (Try that with a Goodyear). They never ever separated or caused a pull or perceived alignment problem. It's pretty obvious that their quality has slipped but they do still exhibit some of the good qualities that many tire manufacturers have not been able to master. I sure wouldn't write them off just yet.

Well here's another fine example running on the MH side. Yes 2 year old 20K mile $500 tire going boom destroying a few items along the way. He was lucky it wasn't a steering axle tire.