Michelin Tires

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I would be curious to know what part of the country you are typically in?

It's funny how we all experience a brand differently. I had four sets of Michelins on my Honda Accord, towed behind our motorhome, over 220,000 miles towed and road, nary a crack. I have Michelins on my Jeep, 24k miles, nary a crack, and the aforementioned tires on my coach, another 24k miles, look like new.

And all my tires have been dressed regularly contra to most tire makers recommendations.

The only pattern I see is that we have had two totally different experiences, like so many have with brands of coaches, towed vehicles, and computer vendors.

Sorry your experience has been so poor.  :-[
 
California.  Mild weather, not much rain.  Tires on sunward side  always covered when in storage but we don't put it in storage often.
 
Mine are oem so about 6 years old. Notable cracks on all exposed tires. We usually stay where it's warm including  S FL in the winter.  This results from an older rubber formulation that is inadequately protected against uv damage most likely.

Ernie
 
When talking about where our coaches are mainly used, I am sure many already know this but sitting in one spot for extended periods of time is the worse thing to do to a tire.  Ozone and UV are hard on tires so the manufacturers combat this by using an "carbon absorbant" component.  Pretty much all manufacturers use the same thing.  This black carbon absorbant is sacrificial meaning it is used up, this is the reason why tires turn that grayish color/tint after a while.  The black carbon can sluff of on its own but it is generally best to merely wash the tires with normal soap and water.  This black carbon needs to be replenished on the surface of the tire which is where driving comes into play.  The heat associated with the tires flexing going down the road is what brings the next layer of black carbon absorbant to the surface to protect the tire.  Letting the tire sit for extended periods of time and not cleaning nor flexing that tire is detrimental to the tire and greatly diminishes the life of a tire.

Mike.
 
we put about 26,000miles on our original Michelin tires changed because they were 7plus years old. no cracks, looked new, short trips during summer, and one long one to Florida . otherwise stays inside on rugs. that's why we put them back on. hope the new ones last as long as the old ones do.
 
Ours were 6 years old when we pulled them off in May. The cracks were so deep a repair shop refused to inflate them. I shopped around and found non-Michelins for about $1,300 less than the FMCA price for Michelins. We'll see what happens in 6 years.
 
I just bought a 2011 Fleetwood with 8,000 miles on it and it's been stored indors. It has Michelin  22.5 tires with no visible cracking and very little wear. How many years should they last assuming it doesn't sit for long periods or time? I will never wear them out with milage!
 
7-10 years. Somewhere at or beyond age 7 you need to consider the risk of extensive body damage from at blowout. Might not happen, but if it does, the risk of major damage to the coach from pieces of tire is substantial. More is at stake here than the tire.
 
Hi Tremor... If you don't wear them out (few RVers do), you should seriously look at replacing them when they're six to seven years old - even if they "look" fine. The reason is, the chemicals in the rubber that holds the tires together become less effective with age - even though the tires may appear to be fine. I know that's a hard pill to swallow, because they certainly aren't cheap (believe me, I know), but if you have a blowout, the damage from the slinging steel-belted shrapnel can do thousands of dollars in damage to fiberglass body parts, holding tanks etc. (not to mention control problems if it's a front tire).

Kev
 
tremor said:
I just bought a 2011 Fleetwood with 8,000 miles on it and it's been stored indors. It has Michelin  22.5 tires with no visible cracking and very little wear. How many years should they last assuming it doesn't sit for long periods or time? I will never wear them out with milage!
Click to expand...


You should be good till at least 2018 ! ;)  Keep them covered from hard sunshine !
 
Thanks you guys. It is being stored under cover and I kind of expected 7 years! I replace my boat trailer tires every 3 years and that one really hurts by not so hard on the wallet.
 
Two weeks ago I replaced my Michelin 24570R19.5 XRV tires with the same.
Removed tires were made 5th week of 2004; 11 1/2 years old.

They had very, very minor cracking near the bead; where you expect to see
it on radial tires.  Treads were worn evenly, and tires appeared to be in very
good condition.
Only reason I replaced them is because of age.  I typically replace Michelin
RV tires at 10 years, but let these run a little longer.  Have run Michelins on
several different types of vehicles and have yet to experience the horrendous
sidewall cracking I read about on this forum.
 
Have run Michelins on several different types of vehicles and have yet to experience the horrendous
sidewall cracking I read about on this forum.
Click to expand...

Cracking may or may not occur - nobody seems to understand all the factors involved that cause surface cracks on the sidewall. Michelins seems more prone to it than other brands, but surface cracks in the sidewall are not necessarily a sign of failure anyway. The Michelin RV Tire Guide gives advice on when to consider cracking to be dangerous.

The aging issue is more complex than just cracking and a tire may appear fine on the outside but still have severely weakened sidewall structure or a tread area that is separating from the body. Sometimes these incipient problems can be spotted if the tire is dismounted and viewed from the inside, but not always.

It is certainly possible to have a tire last 10 years and I've seen other reports of 11-12 years. The point that we try to make here is that the risk of a major failure grows substantially with each passing year, and that risk involves more than just an inconvenient flat tire.  An analogy might be 70 year old men running the Boston Marathon. There are surely some 70-year-olds who can do that, but if a large and randomly selected group  70 year old men ran the Marathon, many of them would fail to complete it and some of them would fail catastrophically, e.g. have a heart attack and die. Merely looking at them at the starting line won't tell you much about which will survive and which will die.
 
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