Re: Tire Brands
Reply #52 –
My understanding is that the tire has oils and waxes included into the carcass during construction that release during high load use, the Michelin's are reported to have 300k miles life in use.
As we barely flex lightly loaded tires designed for high miles and heavier loads would you not think that more cracking might appear versus maybe other brands made to run less total miles under loads.
Go with me here.
Based on the lower than max commercial miles and lower than commercial loads versus OTR trucks that the tires were designed for the argueably better ride and steering qualities the Michelin's advantages seem to have been partially offset by the low miles, light loading cracks caused my the carcass not releasing enough oils and waxes as the use was way off the design idea that the tires were made for.
I hope/understand that the later model Michelin's resist the poor appearance cracked sidewalk issues better.
Remember the Michelin tires carcass was warranted for multiple retreading and/or 7 years/700,000 use.
As an observation from an high volume multi store FMCA tire dealers manager when he looked at the cracked sidewalls on mt traded in low hours/miles Michelin XZA-2's "I have not seen this much cracking on these tires before and we sold/sell thousands of these."
To me it's not necessarily the tires "bad" , it's that the use cycle we put them though is not what they used to be made for, the high mile heavy load OTR trucker who wants to best life, lowest noise, best steering most retreading possible.
As I said I hope the ZXA-3+ and above design and construction incorporates more side wall cracking waxes and oils to better resist cracking than it seems the previous models many here experienced from new.
So maybe some of the other brands release more of their oils and waxes quicker with less miles as their design might not be as optimized as Michelin's are for the ultimate miles and retreading capabilities for the fiscally conservative OTR owners.
That the Michelin tires seem to have a observed rep for better riding, better steering, lower noise to go with it is a plus.
The deficit, at least on the older tire models, for the misuse was the cracking that appeared.
My commercial dealer mentioned using my cracked tires for yard trailers until they needed retreading.
He mentioned the cracks were optical not load or safety related as far as he could tell.
Topic: Tire Brands