Perfect off-highway tire = LTX? What?

Local tire guy tried to talk me into these but no, didn’t look tough enough for the truck. Went with Toyo AT2s. Good tire but began hearing good things about the Michelins. Wife’s Suburban goes through tires like Patton’s “crap through a goose”. Me thinks I’ll be putting these on the Suburban pretty soon. Thanks for the review.
 

blubullett

New member
I had them on my work truck. They had the best wet pavement traction of any highway tire I have ever had and pretty good tread life. I did have two blowouts before I scrapped the set. The blowouts happened with around 30% tread left. Not sure on how many miles I had on them.
 

sargeek

Adventurer
They are awesome tires, and deserve some respect. I can't tell you how many ranching trucks (one ton dodge, ford, and chevy) with these tires on them in Colorado. I would also state that most of these ranchers put more off road miles on their trucks through out the year than most of the expo members do, doing real work with them in all conditions. For most ranchers its not an option to get out in the storms, but a requirement to feed cattle daily through out the winter.

I run BFG KO on the majority on my current 4x4's, but have run the LTX in the past. I like the looks of the A/T and they have not let me down. The LTX desererve a lot of respect.
 

gwittman

Adventurer
I run 31" Michelin LTX M/S tires for my street tires and like them a lot for that. I am on my second set now and got around 90K miles out of the first set. They still had tread on them but I felt uncomfortable driving in heavy rain with them. I switch to 33" BFG KM2 tires when I go off-road. I have never tried the LTX tires off-road much but did almost get stuck in some light mud in Kansas on the home farm one time with them. I have not tried airing them down but I can't imagine they would be as good off-road as my MTs. I ran BFG AT tires since around 1978 and liked them a lot. Around 2003 I decided to try MT tires for off-road use and really noticed the improvement. I will probably eventually go back to an AT type tire so I don't have to have two sets of tires. MT tires are definitely not something I want to drive on all the time. I don't doubt what you have said here but I still have a hard time thinking a LTX tires will do everything a good AT tire does.
 

Happy Joe

Apprentice Geezer
For decades I ran medium (12.50 section width) BFG mud tires , the 35s had slightly better performance, off road, than the 33s. On road performance was comparable, longevity was very good, while the traction was only moderate it was much better, all around, off road, than any AT tire that I have used. (for great traction off road I favor a dedicated, off road only, soft compound (extremely short road life) mud tire).
I favor 3 ply sidewalls, at a minimum..

When i have enough wear on the, near worthless, set of AT tires currently on the DD (daily driver) to justify getting rid of them; BFG mud tires will likely go back on it.
...Tried switching tires for off road use; too much trouble; unless you are doing competitive off roading, IMO.... the off road & camping vehicle (Rubicon) wears mud tires.

"Almost stuck"; isn't... it just makes me a bit leery.

Enjoy!
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
For some reason, lots of folks think tire traction is simple, thus they can "intuitively" understand what works best. Hence folks with 13" wide MT big chunky swampers on their 5,000lb rigs.

The reality is that traction, especially on variable surfaces is not simple. Its a complex mix of contact pressure, mechanical keying, rubber properties, air pressure, etc.

The truth is that mud tires have poor traction on everything but mud. At least compared to an AT tire. Lots of void space done not make for better traction on most surfaces! Instead there is a fine balance that results in the best mechanical keying. Of course this is somewhat obvious by the naming scheme. If the MT was good all-around, it wouldn't be sold exclusively for mud!

The same goes for mega wide tires. Unless you need flotating on deep sand, you will get better traction (and often better ride) choosing a tire that is the right width for the weight, and airing down. At 4,000lb per axle, that is around 11", it goes down proportionally from there. Though on hard surfaces going down to 10" is likely better.

Regardless of the science involved, folks like the look of aggressive MTs, and mega wide sizes. Thus confirmation bias lends it hand to the percieved superiority.

If you need soft/deep mud traction then you need MT type tires. For everything else a quality AT will ride better, quieter, wear longer, and provide better mixed surface traction.
 

Buliwyf

Viking with a Hammer
Winter is wet around here. Snow tires are not an option for any truck off pavement. They just turn into muddy slicks.

On road, lol, a good MT works fine in snow. Way better than a rain or snow tire does in mud.
 

jadmt

ignore button user
FYI - Consumer reports has these as their #1 rated All-Terrain Truck tire. They get top ratings for winter snow and ice, as well as rolling resistance.
well that tells me they probably sux. I have 0 faith in anything CR reports. In my experience the stuff they rate poorly has done very well and the stuff they rate as top does poorly lol.
 

Ole Chipper

Member
Last tire I would ever buy again is Michelin. This tire let go while just sitting in the yard, just blew up with no warning. Thank God I wasn't driving at the time cause that would have been a disaster. Don't believe those stupid reports.
Had a second Michelin blow out while driving my van. Beat the crap out of the fender tore off the mud flap and fender liner, but lucky it was at low speed. So no accident just damage to the vehicle. DON'T BUY Michelin tires.
 

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jeep-N-montero

Expedition Leader
Last tire I would ever buy again is Michelin. This tire let go while just sitting in the yard, just blew up with no warning. Thank God I wasn't driving at the time cause that would have been a disaster. Don't believe those stupid reports.
Had a second Michelin blow out while driving my van. Beat the crap out of the fender tore off the mud flap and fender liner, but lucky it was at low speed. So no accident just damage to the vehicle. DON'T BUY Michelin tires.

Unless you post pictures showing that they are indeed Michelin tires and can show this happened within the normal life of the tire by providing date codes, you are just some random schmoe who joined a forum to badmouth a good tire.
 

jeep-N-montero

Expedition Leader
Our Montero came with the Defender M/S tires when we bought it and are amazing in the snow and rain, if they made them in a 33x10.50 I would still run them but am switching to the ko2's. The in-laws also have them on their Escape and were caught in a bad snow storm coming back from Colorado, it was that storm that caused all of those avalanches along I-70 and they never slid off anywhere and even helped a few who had.
 

WyoCherokee

Adventurer
In keeping with your sentence "The thing is, everyone who disagrees with the title of this post has every valid counterpoint and argument " i have to disagree with your conclusion for off highway uses. These tires came on my 2012 Ram when i bought it. Since they were brand new, i decided to just run them through their paces. Now dont get me wrong, michelin makes great on -road tires. First test...April Snow storm. 8 inches of wet april snow. My old truck (same crewcab shortbed diesel 6 speed, same size tires Big O At's at the same pressures) did not need 4wd to get out of the driveway. These tires.....one wheel wonder. 2nd test with these tires was to hook on to my camper and head up outlaw canyon which is a red dirt /rock/ gravel road. Having towed this camper up this road before with my old truck(exact truck just 5 years older)and Big O At's, i felt it a good comparison. These tires required use of 4wd to keep forward momentum. my old Big O's did not. 3rd test. Summer mountain traffic up 4th of July. rock and gravel roads. Constant spinning out, sidewall chunking now evident. 4th test. summer rain storms: tires would hydroplane like nobodies business, and would lose traction, causing the dreaded Ram Traction control/ABS malfunction. Needless to say, these handle great on dry pavement, and are super quiet. i will be buying a second set of rims and a true- all terrain for everything aside from road trips
 

Wilbah

Adventurer
WyoCherokee did the trucks have any difference in weight or gear? I've had exactly the opposite experience with them. Not saying you didnt, just wondering if weight could have explained some of the difference. But maybe some other difference explains it- footprint of your old tires vs footprint of the Michelin's or something else. Just odd that it's so different for some.
 

Ole Chipper

Member
OK here yeah go.

The date code isn't an issue because it happened a while ago. So you can't base an argument of old tires "now". The point is they had great tread and blew their guts out for no reason. I own several older rigs that sit over time and have NEVER had such an issue in over 50 years. Let alone twice with the same manufacture. Some other tires are 10 years old and no issues. Just the Michelins.

Not sure about your stupid comment about joining a forum to badmouth a tire. You don't really think that was my reason for posting this? Just passing along my experience so others don't make a serious mistake, IMHO. Thanks for the warm welcome. Don't assume all new members are idiots.

Do have a almost new Michelin off the van you can have, still on the rim. If you love those tires use them, good luck.
 

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