Does the tire brand really matter?

I'm with rollin coal on the Yokos. Two complete sets on two trucks and one trailer. The only ones that wore ok were the trailer tires. Never again. Not even a lawn mower tire if they make them.

I have not been impressed with drive recaps and will not be buying any more, or having casings capped with drive tread. So far the "survivors" are the Bandag Roadtek caps that were on my truck when I bought it in Feb. They were about 75% then, looking like I'll get about 200k out of them plus whatever the previous owner ran, unless I hit the lotto or something and trash them before they're wore out. One or two is out of round enough to give centramatics a run for their money. I'm just tired of screwing with them. The ones I tried on my son's truck have been a lot worse. However, part of that falls on the driver who is not as diligent as I'd like him to be about checking tire pressure.

Not the same story on the trailer tires tho. I have gotten good life out of Michelin XT1 custom mold caps. About $130 otd plus casing. They last half as long as virgins for 1/3 the price. I've only had one blowout on both trailers, a sidewall popped when I was backing straight into my parking space at home. That one was an outside tire and could have been an old curb bruise letting go. Maybe not since it was a left side tire. Of course loaded on a Sunday LOL.

A note about Chinese tires. Nothing good to report about Sailun steers. Stay away from those. I bought one on my son's truck in a pinch once and the dealer I bought my truck from put two on pre-delivery. They didn't make 20k miles before the casings were getting all jacked up. My new trailer came with one on the left front outside and it's already starting to look crazy, while the other seven are wearing perfectly.

 

Michelin's... nothing but. Only lost one in 7 years, due to a bolt puncture. Make sure the tire shop does a good job mounting them, and you have a good three-axle alignment. A very slightly bent rim can tear up a tire too.

Yup, you get what you pay for, and IMO you can pay out thousands in fuel to save a few bucks on a tire that will ensure you keep on paying out thousands in fuel that you don't have to, year after year.

Learn about rolling resistance...

http://www.michelintruck.com/michelintruck/toolbox/FuelSavcalculator.jsp

 

To further add to this ... There is another member around here who made and posted an Excel format file that lists WHERE tires are made. If you care about hiring a fellow American or Canadian rather than firing them to save yourself enough for a few extra cheeseburgers just remember who has a job where you are delivering to that will buy the product on your truck.

For some reason I can't upload .xls ... but I'm sure I downloaded it from here ...

 

From the factory: XZA3+ steers, replaced about 140k. Prolly woulda got more if I'd been diligent about tire pressure. Keeping the new ones at 115.
XDA2 drives, 240k now and getting pretty thin. Guess I should check tread depth, but cross grooves are starting to disappear and starting to notice loss of traction, sometimes, in weather. Only one flat repair. About 6 months ago I cross rotated them because they were starting to get that high ridge at the front of the lugs. But then they started wearing funny and quickly, so 6-8 weeks later I rotated back.

Trailer is a diff. story. Got it used with a mishmash of tires...none matching. Winter 2012-13 the trailer started eating tires. In pairs, I switched to Michelin Smart way recaps. Every week or two I blew a tire. Spring came around and I did brakes, bags and shocks. Had bearings, bushings and alignment checked by Utility... all good. Still eating tires.
In September, out of desperation, I put 4 virgin Michelin X Line Energy Ts on the pass. side. Problem went away on that side and gained .3 mpgs. Winter blend fuel went into service before I got the other 4 matching virgins on. So I haven't seen another mpg increase yet, but I'm hopeful. And they're all wearing wonderfully.

 

In a WORD....Michelin......

 

Yokohama = good.
Yoko Ono = do not want

 

Also, many people over look this in the longevity of their tires:

1. Failure to rotate
2. Failure to check tire pressure

Those would be the two most important.

Other big factors, jack rabbit acceleration from low speeds and hard braking. The more highway the better, as you have less scrubbing. But all in all, if you can, rotate your new drivers around 35-50k miles. Monitor accordingly, you would be surprised how much you can extend the life by rotating them. I used to be a tire tech years ago.

 

That is all we run as well. Gas hauling tears up tires, and nothing compares to Michelin.

 

Yep. Tire-pressure not only can eat up a tire, but can also kill your fuel economy (spongy tires make great traction, but wear a tire fast).

Since I got my truck I've had three sets of drives. One set was recaps from my carrier (michelin casings), and didn't last as long as the money paid. The next set was Yokohoma's and loved them. I blew two tires in a month right near the end of their lives, and replaced the rear axle with brand new Michelins (Yokohomas weren't in stock). Eventually had all 8 new/relatively new. They were okay, but had wear problems that I never had with Yokohamas. Most recently last year I replaced all ten tires on my tractor with Yokohamas. One tire started wearing bad almost from the start. Wasn't an air issue, but the tread wasn't wearing even. Should wear was much more pronounced. As it went down, it began cupping. Was forced to change it. Chose a retread that was similar tread height. Right steer tire then developed what appeared to be a broken band, as the center tread line in one 10" section wore very fast but the rest of the tire stayed good. Changed it for a Samson.

Not sure what my next set will be. Still have a lot of tread to go on the 7 remaining Yokohamas on the drives. But, will probably look into another option. I figure I have another 1.5-2 years to go otherwise at the rate they're decreasing. Which would put me near 300k for the life of the tires (had them 13mo so far).

My friend purchased chinese steers at a shop in Colorado when he blew a drive tire (conveniently before the exit for the tire shop), and decided due to tread depth, put his old steers on the drive axle, and purchase two brand new chinese brand steer tires and kept one drive as a spare. The steers lasted him about 60k before he had to dump them. Horrible wear. Uneven. Like the rubber wasn't consistent all the way around the tire. Was a huge waste of money for him. But, the Samson I have now is chinese, so I'll see how it runs. $335 at TA plus installation minus the casing).

 

With all that uneven wear are you sure you don't have suspension problems? Worn bearings or bushings or something bent? You keep replacing tires but evidentially haven't fixed the original problem.