Re: READY TO PURCHASE FULL SET OF TIRES FOR OUR 2007 NIMBUS 336
Reply #13 –
No question it seems that commercial line haul tires are made to be driven continuously. Seems the Michelin's rubber formula as well as others are designed to release an agent during use to lessen side wall cracking.
Our seven year old xza-2's did exhibit a fair amount of sidewall cracking from our low use not releasing enough of the built in agent to lessen this.
My large volume tire shop was going to resell our traded in -2's on local use truck trailers. He thought that they would still pass yard inspection and be useable.
As our use of truck tires is a tiny fraction of the industries volume their motivation to address our low release of the crack lessening agent may or may not be very high. Only time will tell whether using our xza-3+'s will result in cracking.
Or did Michelin change their design to help?
The Michelin original "x" steel carcass thinner sidewall tire design does seem to have a distinct road feel to them. When I was in the rv biz I drove countless coaches to test them and I now remember not looking on purpose to see what tires were on the individual coach before the drive. The Michelin's were noticeable back long ago. No idea if this applies currently as much