My 4 Michelin 245/75r 16 tires are cracking around the rims and a dime size piece of tire is missing from side wall on 2 tires. The web "tire rack" recommends 235/75R 16. I pull a 27 foot 5th wheel severl times during summer. Only off payment in a few upland camp sites. Any recommendtions on the size and load range to get. also is the michelin worth the extra $100 per tire if they only last 4 years and have 75% of tread left?
Just an FYI, Michelin and Goodyear buy the cheapest carbon black made for their tires.
Cooper and Kelly buy the best.
Spdloader
A Cooper and Kelly is not in same league as a Michelin tire as they are some of the finest tires out there. The problem described here is usually due to time and improper inflation which cause tires to flex too much or because they are overloaded. (tire capacity increases with pressure) Try running near or max pressure in rear tires when towing and problem should not return. Goodyear is not a "bad" tire either.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
Kelly is Goodyear - or more correctly, I should say Goodyear owns Kelly-Springfield. Furthermore, they often make Goodyear tires at the Kelly-Springfield plant in Fayetteville, NC. So why would I expect Kelly Tires to use better carbon black than Goodyear? Or for that matter, what possible difference is their in carbon black? And finally, I thought most tire manufacturers were moving away from carbon black to other materials to improve (decrease) rolling resistance.
Ed
It is a balancing act. If you make rubber a bit softer to roll/flex easier then it tends to wear a bit faster. Beside tires are a smaller part of the MPG equation than car design itself is and no magic tire is going to help MPG a lot on a 3 ton SUV.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
I can't debate the specifics of it, other than the carbon black is responsible for the durometer, (hardness/softness which translates to grip/longevity) but it is a fact that Goodyear and Michelin both buy the cheapest (lowest quality) "ingredients" to make their tires. That is a fact, take it for what it's worth. From personal experience I've never owned a set of Goodyears that got over
20 to 25K miles, and I have seen quite a few dry rotted Michelins unsold still on the shelf. My brother is an engineer for Cabot Corp, who is the supplier of carbon black to most of the tire industry in the US, and that's straight out of his mouth. He also affirmed your comment about tire companies starting to get away from carbon black, but it hasn't happened in the mainstream yet. I was a bigger naysayer than you when I first learned of it. I really liked the Eagle NCT and the Wrangler R/T, but time has shown me different.I'll stick with my Cooper tires.
Spdloader
I've never bought any Cooper Brand Tires, but Father bought MasterCraft tires for his last Ranger (MasterCraft is one of Cooper's brands). They are POS tires. They literally ruined the way the truck drove and rode. BUT, to make up for being crappy, they are lasting forever. So the truck has driven poorly for a long time. My Father was always good for this. Like you, he disliked Goodyear tires (he always claimed they were too soft). So whenever it came time to buy replacement tires for his trucks, he always got something like Multi-Mile (Kelly Spring Field / Goodyear Brand) or MasterCraft (Cooper Brand). Invariably the truck drove like crap with the cheap tires - but hey did last as long or longer than higher priced tires. So he suffered with poor handling and a lousy ride for a long time. I have had very good luck with Michelin Tires. The worst ones I have had were Cross-Terrains on a Ford Expedition. The wore well, but they were noisy. When I sold the Expedition they were still on the vehicle with over 50,000 miles. They looked like they would last another 50k miles.
Ed
I got about 60 K out of a set of Goodyears that came on wifes 2000 Cherokee and they still had some usable tread on them (I do not wear them down to wear bar before I replace them and discard tires that others might still use) and they wore even and had no issues other than not best tire on ice. BFG's is a tire I had issues with. I went through 4 sets of them (tire warranty replacements) on my heavy burb and everyone started to come apart around 35K or so even though they had good tread still. (belt failure or rubber cracking and it was not for low pressure either) I switched to Michelins 7 years ago on it and tires still look great after 30K miles with tons of tread and even wear (it is not driven much except for long trips) My daughter has Goodyear tires on her car (Aledgro I think) and they look like new after 10K but then I am not surprized because I put them on wife Cherokee 20K about and they llok great too and track well on wet and slick pavement. I would buy them again without a second thought. BTW I got close to 80K miles out of a set of Michelin 10 ply truck tires on a old jeep truck until after 17 years the rubber was finally getting hard and starting to crack a little and a belt failed too. They still had about 30% tread left.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
Which SUV (Mall terrain vehicle) weighs 6,000 lbs? Just curious.
Ford Excursion, GMC Suburban, Hummer H2....
Most of the full sized ones with a full tank of gas a a few people it them and some even more. Also there is no fullsize SUV with a oil burner that even comes close to weighing under 6000 lbs.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
I have a old 89 4x4 burb and carries around 260 lbs of fuel not counting the extra weight of the factory oversized tank. As it sits with full tank of gas, dual batteries, A/C, rear heater, 3 row seating, trailer package, etc, it scaled a little over 5900 lbs when it was new shortly after I bought it without a driver or passangers and it is a 1500 too.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
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