Replacing Tires on my GMC

[captbru]

My tow vehicle is a 2017 GMC 2500HD. The original tires are Firestone
LT225/75R17, they only have 23000 miles. I have rotated these tires at every oil change approx. every 5000 miles. All four tires have worn fairly equal. They need to be replace as the tread on all tires now minimal.

What would be a good choice for replacement tires? I'm towing a Keystone Cougar Lite Fifth wheel model 26rls. Empty weight about 6800lbs loaded about 8300.

[tomman58]

I have always used Michelin Defender LTX M/S on my GMC diesels. I never have had a problem with them. I have had a broken belt on 2 of the tires that came with the trucks. I haul a 40'TT all over this country and have put 100s of thousand miles on them w2ith no problem and yes I get mine at Costco.
The one rule I have for my tires is a every oil change I rotate and BALANCE. If you do not balance these big baloneys they will turn on you.

[Cummins12V98]

mapguy, what mileage you gettin outa 5 tires?

[mapguy]

Grit dog wrote:
5 tire rotation doesn't get you any more miles per tire or miles per dollar unless you're literally banking on the value of that cheap factory spare tire. It does do a good job of complicating tire rotations though.
The one upside is if you have a 1 wheel peel vehicle and can't keep from wearing the right rear tire more than the other rear tire. Then a 5 tire technically makes a bit more sense and cents.

Not using the cheap spare. Sold it with the wheel. Have a matching wheel and tire.

[Grit_dog]

5 tire rotation doesn't get you any more miles per tire or miles per dollar unless you're literally banking on the value of that cheap factory spare tire. It does do a good job of complicating tire rotations though.
The one upside is if you have a 1 wheel peel vehicle and can't keep from wearing the right rear tire more than the other rear tire. Then a 5 tire technically makes a bit more sense and cents.

[mapguy]

ktmrfs wrote:

mapguy wrote:

captbru wrote:
I rotate the tires at every oil change since new, I have the dealer due the oil changes right around 5000 miles.

I run the rear tires at 80PSI and the front at 75PSI.

Have about 5000 towing miles with the fifth wheel and then a few hundred miles with a utility trailer.

No lead foot while towing the fifth wheel on the Interstate I set the cruise at 62 or 63, never over 65 except to pass if needed. Then back to the set speed. On back roads I due the posted speed limit. When not towing I due the speed limit or no more than 75 on the Interstate if the posted limit is 70.

Hope this answers your questions. I'm just looking for a good set of tires, not what did you due wrong to cause the tires to wear down.

Thank you to the ones that answered, looks like Michelin is the way to go.

At those inflation levels running empty is like using 24 grit sandpaper on the tires. You will see excessive center wear on all 4 tires.

Are you running tires that match the door frame sticker on the truck? if so run the fronts at the inflation level indicated on the sticker. There is no need to go above the door frame sticker on the front tires as you cannot load them enough to need anywhere near max inflation.

If you truly want to get maximum mileage out of your tires -inflation must be set to match actual load. This means when running empty the rear inflation levels must be dropped to a lower level.

As far as excessive wear with high inflation and low load, That pretty much went away with the advent of radial ply tires.

I always have run both our trucks near max and never had excessive center wear, very even wear. And between them that's almost 300K miles. On my cars I run at high end of recomended inflation, mostly because of my driving style and again never had excessive center tread wear. And I'm running my trailer tires LRE at 80psi, when load inflation says 60 is enough and no center wear.

Sorry, but my tread measurement tool does not agree and it shows the same center wear patterns on bias or radial tires.

The guys at the Discount Tire store I use are usually amazed that my front/rear wear is consistent. Their experience is that rears always wearing out faster than fronts for the large percentage of customers.

I also use a 5 tire rotation regime as it nets more miles before replacement. I never run all the way to the wear bars due to the rain we have in the Puget Sound.

[BigToe]

parkmanaa wrote:
You won't be sorry for going with the Michelin Defender LTX tires. Have used Michelin for more years than I care to remember, on cars, trucks, motorhomes and have NEVER had one failure. It's the only brand I buy, and insist my family does the same.

Funny how so many people blame the tire when they have a blowout. That poor tire may have been encountering everything the highway can throw at it for many, many thousands of miles, but if it should blow out, albiet years later, it's the manufacturer's fault. Never that piece of steel or 4x4 you hit many miles back, that weakened the tire. Always the manufacturer.

I had three (3) blowouts in one brand and model of tire.

Where there is smoke, there is fire.

One brand AND model of tire.

I still drive on the brand, but not that particular model of tire anymore. Not sure why it took me 3 times to learn my lesson. I guess I felt like you did... had to have been something else... a pressure issue, a valve stem issue, a temperature issue, a road hazard issue... something, but surely, the tire itself could not possibly, barring outside factors, be intrinsically at fault.

So I'd repair the mess and mount another tire, of the identical model and brand, to match the remaining tires, and bam, it happened again.

Just a coincidence.

Bam, it happened again.

Perhaps just a fluke

BAM, it happened again.

Ok now wait a minute, something's wrong here. Why is it in 40 years of driving, I've never had a blow out, but with this particular model and brand of tire, I've had three blow outs? Turns out, I wasn't the only one having the problem. Thousands of people throughout the USA were having the same issues with the same model and brand of tire.

The manufacture of this tire discontinued that model of tire, and replaced it with a different design casing and tread. I haven't had any issues with newer design.

Having this hindsight, I pay very close attention when I both read and personally see similar experiences with the same model and brand of tire.

Back on the topic of this thread, the brand is Michelin, and the model was LTX, and the purchase location was Costco. Personally seeing the aftermath one experience, and then reading the aftermath of another person's identical experience, gets my attention now.

This isn't a matter of "blame the manufacturer", this is a matter of paying attention to trends... something that I wish I had done prior to mounting the same brand and model of tire for the third time, after already experiencing two blow outs, because the third blowout did the most expensive damage that I still haven't fully had repaired yet.

This also isn't a matter of not liking Michelin tires. I run Michelin drive tires on my medium duty truck, as well as on my wife's SUV. Over the decades, I've purchased and run Michelin tires, especially when the car manufacturer issued Michelin tires as OEM equipment. Then I'll endeavor to buy the exact same tire when it comes time for replacement.

The concern that I expressed in this thread was narrowly focused to a specific model of Michelin (the LTX M/S) sold at a particular large retailer (Costco). When several people report the same issues (I've heard of similar stories elsewhere) about that particular tire sold at that particular large volume retailer, it raises the eyebrows.

[ktmrfs]

mapguy wrote:

captbru wrote:
I rotate the tires at every oil change since new, I have the dealer due the oil changes right around 5000 miles.

I run the rear tires at 80PSI and the front at 75PSI.

Have about 5000 towing miles with the fifth wheel and then a few hundred miles with a utility trailer.

No lead foot while towing the fifth wheel on the Interstate I set the cruise at 62 or 63, never over 65 except to pass if needed. Then back to the set speed. On back roads I due the posted speed limit. When not towing I due the speed limit or no more than 75 on the Interstate if the posted limit is 70.

Hope this answers your questions. I'm just looking for a good set of tires, not what did you due wrong to cause the tires to wear down.

Thank you to the ones that answered, looks like Michelin is the way to go.

At those inflation levels running empty is like using 24 grit sandpaper on the tires. You will see excessive center wear on all 4 tires.

Are you running tires that match the door frame sticker on the truck? if so run the fronts at the inflation level indicated on the sticker. There is no need to go above the door frame sticker on the front tires as you cannot load them enough to need anywhere near max inflation.

If you truly want to get maximum mileage out of your tires -inflation must be set to match actual load. This means when running empty the rear inflation levels must be dropped to a lower level.

As far as excessive wear with high inflation and low load, That pretty much went away with the advent of radial ply tires.

I always have run both our trucks near max and never had excessive center wear, very even wear. And between them that's almost 300K miles. On my cars I run at high end of recomended inflation, mostly because of my driving style and again never had excessive center tread wear. And I'm running my trailer tires LRE at 80psi, when load inflation says 60 is enough and no center wear.

[ktmrfs]

Charlie D. wrote:

captbru wrote:
They checked for any warranty from Firestone, because there original tires nothing.

That's not what the manual I posted earlier said. I have found tire dealers in general do not like to prorate tires. I have even been asked "did you buy them here?" The manual I referenced has the phone number for the manufacturers. That sometimes doesn't help. BFGoodrich told me to take to a different dealer and gave me the name of who to contact. When I went to their place of business and said i was referred to them by BFG the owner said " You have got to be kidding me. I don;t handle their brand of tires."

Discount tire has pro rated many tire sets for me for not meeting mileage guarantee that I bought from them. And the prorate is based on the tire selling price not retail, and they don't require to buy the same tire. I've prorated continentals, Michelin, Bridgestone against another tire I wanted.

On my Trucks I generally get around 60-70% of rated tread life so basically get a 30-40% discount against new tires.

On my cars same thing, maybe we are hard drivers but we seldom get more than 70% of rated life, again Discount tire honors the tread wear warranty with discount on another set of tires.

Neighbor that tows a lot does the same with Discount.

[parkmanaa]

You won't be sorry for going with the Michelin Defender LTX tires. Have used Michelin for more years than I care to remember, on cars, trucks, motorhomes and have NEVER had one failure. It's the only brand I buy, and insist my family does the same.

Funny how so many people blame the tire when they have a blowout. That poor tire may have been encountering everything the highway can throw at it for many, many thousands of miles, but if it should blow out, albiet years later, it's the manufacturer's fault. Never that piece of steel or 4x4 you hit many miles back, that weakened the tire. Always the manufacturer.

[Charlie_D_]

captbru wrote:
They checked for any warranty from Firestone, because there original tires nothing.

That's not what the manual I posted earlier said. I have found tire dealers in general do not like to prorate tires. I have even been asked "did you buy them here?" The manual I referenced has the phone number for the manufacturers. That sometimes doesn't help. BFGoodrich told me to take to a different dealer and gave me the name of who to contact. When I went to their place of business and said i was referred to them by BFG the owner said " You have got to be kidding me. I don;t handle their brand of tires."

[captbru]

Ok thanks for the constructive replys. Decided on the Michelin Defenders, Discount tries had the best price.

They checked for any warranty from Firestone, because there original tires nothing.

All have a good and safe Fourth

[larry_barnhart]

We have bought defenders for a GMC acadia and 2 sets of defenders for our dually 2 WD chebby truck. Drove to wash st in december 2 winters from Az. Bad road winter conditions both times and never spun a tire. Lots of michelin tires have had crack issues for years including MH's. We have had none. The 1st set was rated for 70K on the truck be replaced them at 50L. Nice even wear but tread was getting thin. I don't try to exend the miles because of towing. 50K was the warranty on the 2nd set. Nothing like fresh tires.
Still waiting for a tire issue for us. Been driving for 62 years 'LUCKY'
chevman

[mapguy]

captbru wrote:
I rotate the tires at every oil change since new, I have the dealer due the oil changes right around 5000 miles.

I run the rear tires at 80PSI and the front at 75PSI.

Have about 5000 towing miles with the fifth wheel and then a few hundred miles with a utility trailer.

No lead foot while towing the fifth wheel on the Interstate I set the cruise at 62 or 63, never over 65 except to pass if needed. Then back to the set speed. On back roads I due the posted speed limit. When not towing I due the speed limit or no more than 75 on the Interstate if the posted limit is 70.

Hope this answers your questions. I'm just looking for a good set of tires, not what did you due wrong to cause the tires to wear down.

Thank you to the ones that answered, looks like Michelin is the way to go.

At those inflation levels running empty is like using 24 grit sandpaper on the tires. You will see excessive center wear on all 4 tires.

Are you running tires that match the door frame sticker on the truck? if so run the fronts at the inflation level indicated on the sticker. There is no need to go above the door frame sticker on the front tires as you cannot load them enough to need anywhere near max inflation.

If you truly want to get maximum mileage out of your tires -inflation must be set to match actual load. This means when running empty the rear inflation levels must be dropped to a lower level.

[Cummins12V98]

downtheroad wrote:
Michelin®
Defender LTX M/S

Shop around for price....I went with Costco.

I used to buy all my vehicle tires from Costco but checked Discount Tire once and they kicked Costco's AZZ. Been buying from Discount since.

[ksss]

I agree with the above for what it is worth. I never got the Michelin myth, the tires don't live up to the hype in my very unscientific and regionalized experience. It is great that some guys like them, but I don't see hardly anyone run them in my area as a replacement tire. That said, I don't live in Florida. We have frozen water on the roads and about billion metric tons of white stuff on the roads and it ain't Coke. Check out Cooper ( decent tire), Nitto (really like them), and even Falcon which has become a popular AT tire out here. I have one set on a older ZR2 and so far pretty impressive, especially for the money.