Michelin Tires

[Kenneth Brewer]

Lew,

Lewpopp,

If you do it, also check the DOT dates and make sure your not getting old stuff.

I have bought many tires, or so it seemed; 3 sets over the 19 years we had our Bluebird FC. I agree with Truk4u; the price seems good, but there may be a reason: the tires may have been in the warehouse for a few years, and if so, if you don't see mini-cracking ('rot') when they are mounted, you probably will, surprisingly quickly, and you will be tempted to assess them as 'not too bad'. I have had 2 inside tire blowouts in this way. Just be sure they are adequately 'new', please.

Take care.

[lewpopp]

As a matter of fact, I did discuss the build date of the tire with the tire man and he assured me these would be fresh tires with an age of 90 days or less on them

As for the wieghts and measures troopers coming to Spearchuckker, when they arrive, you'll see the place clear out like turning the light on massive swarms of cockroaches. Dale, don't you know that the majority of the members are on the lamb from the feds?

I will call today to see what he found out. Damn, I am between a hard place and a rock as to wether I should change rubber now or not. You know me, I don't want to spend the Lewbucks.

[Darl-Wilson]

Lew,

If you do it, also check the DOT dates and make sure your not getting old stuff.

Go to this site for a John Stossel video report on the above. Good post Tom. This is very important for all of us.

Darl

[Ray Davis]

Interesting report. Kind of contradicts what evidently was said at the SV and Pahrump rallies this year by two different tire makers? If I heard correctly, they said ties were good for 10 years, as long as there was no visible cracking. This report is more along the 6 year line that I'd always heard.

Ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Six years and both manufacturers will no longer provide any warranty coverage.

Both said that is six years from installation.

Both said if they are tne years old, regardless of the installation date they will not provide warranty coverage. Michelin provided a set of photos to compare the sidewall cracking to and gave specific guidance as to the tire condition. The worst condition shown called for replacement.

What I cam to understand was as long as you are within six years of the installation date, but not greater than 10 years from the date of manufacture both companies consider the tires OK as long as sidewall cracking is less than the limit depicted by Michelin. After the 6th or 10th year the tires were not warranted and any age between the two requires the tires to be routinely inspected.

I couldn't make the link work. It said I was trying to get a link that no longer exists.

[Kenneth Brewer]

Interesting report. Kind of contradicts what evidently was said at the SV and Pahrump rallies this year by two different tire makers? If I heard correctly, they said ties were good for 10 years, as long as there was no visible cracking. This report is more along the 6 year line that I'd always heard.

Ray

Tire manufacturers aren't in the business of storing tires. And tire dealers aren't in the business (successfully) throwing out inventory. I would think a tire a year old or so is fine, but the problem is if you don't check you won't know. And I think most business try to clear the oldest stock first. Please view that video Darl-Wilson posted the link to. There is a reason why you are hearing a number of us warn you. You won't see 'visible cracking' on an old tire until after it has been mounted and you drive away; in my case, in less than a month, when I went to clean and polish the rims, and I said "What the f....?". Take the benefit of these responses, even though it's free. It is right on the money.

[Ray Davis]

I did indeed watch the video, which prompted my earlier question. Jon, I guess I misunderstood, but there seems to be a long distance between "providing warranty", and dangerous, as per the video link. The video link indicated tires should be replaced at 6 years of age, but also cited that they found tires as old as 12 years being sold as brand new at name-brand stores.


Ray

[Darl-Wilson]

Six years and both manufacturers will no longer provide any warranty coverage.

Both said that is six years from installation.

Both said if they are tne years old, regardless of the installation date they will not provide warranty coverage. Michelin provided a set of photos to compare the sidewall cracking to and gave specific guidance as to the tire condition. The worst condition shown called for replacement.

What I cam to understand was as long as you are within six years of the installation date, but not greater than 10 years from the date of manufacture both companies consider the tires OK as long as sidewall cracking is less than the limit depicted by Michelin. After the 6th or 10th year the tires were not warranted and any age between the two requires the tires to be routinely inspected.

I couldn't make the link work. It said I was trying to get a link that no longer exists.

Cut and paste this Jon. http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897 Link still works.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Darl,

Thanks for the link. One thought that I had while I was watching the video was related to how the people maintain their cars, and specifically their tire pressures.

Back in the days of bias ply tires you could see when a tire was under inflated. With radials being the standard today the pressure needs to be very low before the tire takes on the appearance of being under inflated. I don't remember if it was the Goodyear or Michelin guy that said if a tire is run with the pressure down by 20% it has to be considered trash.

I was very surprised to learn that. He was very clear that driving with an underinflated tire damages the tire beyond repair, so how many of the tire failures attributed to age including on our buses are the result of low tire pressure.

[Will Garner]

The tire seminar was one of the few seminars I was able to get to in Sevierville - to much time spent looking for and watching the installation of two new converters/chargers for my domestic batteries. I do recall the Goodyear repreresentative clearly stating in Goodyear's opinion running tires 20% low on air would result in their considering them trash.

I put almost 7,000 miles on our coach from 29 May to 2 July. Tire pressures were checked, and adjusted as necessary, multiple times each day. When I checked them at a stop in western Arizona (106 degrees of dry heat with no cloud cover so it was not that bad!) I found the tires to actually be about 3-4 pounds over their maximum rated pressures. Air was released to get back in the correct range. I did wonder what percentage of pressure over the recommended maximum pressure over what time frame would result in the same conclusion - trash.