Steer tires, re-visited.....Question?

I always ran the 560's on my trucks and never had a problem with them. They are my steer tire of choice (when I had a choice). I have a friend who went with Michelin's a couple years back because of the "deal" he got through a company he was with. Within a month he told them to take them off and put new 560's on. He runs a gas tanker now, 300 miles a day tops, and has had the same set of 560's on for 2 years.

 

We don't sell tires at our shop, so I can't recommend one brand or model over the other one. I would take "CB" recommendations with a grain of salt, everyone will have their opinion. Start at the various manufactures websites. You need a general Regional tire. Look for one that is off/on road, not a line-haul or long haul tire. With new tires get an alignment, install new shocks. When it comes to tires, one of the secrets to get maximum life is to maintain tire pressure. If the tire calls for 105 psi, then keep the tires at 105!!! Check your tire pressure once a week. It is normal for tires to lose a few psi in a couple of weeks.

 

I've run the 590 plus the last couple times on my truck, maybe I shouldn't since I am pretty much short haul. The previous set, the truck was out of alignment and I didn't realize it, wore the shoulder off the passenger side tire before I caught it. I've got 590's on it right now, got about 40,000 on them and still looking decent. It tried to wear the shoulder off a little this time a little, but I caught it and swapped the tires around and seems to be doing ok. I'm hoping to get 75,000 out of them. The OTR guys will probably laugh at that number, but my truck is short haul, tight turns, gravel, loaded heavy, all the bad stuff you can do to a tire. I run 110 psi in them.

The other truck had a set of Freestars (Chinese made) on it when we bought it, looked fairly decent, so I left them on to see how they'd do. Put probably 35,000 on them, still had plenty of tread, but I was servicing it one day and noticed a knot about the size of my thumb where the sidewall meets the tread. Got them changed, where the knot was, there was a void in the rubber inside the tire about the size of a golf ball, the steel was visible and rusting. Our tire guy said he'd never seen anything like that. Hate to think what could have happened if I wouldn't have noticed that thing. So don't consider getting Freestars even if they're giving them away.

Replaced them with Firestone 507's, supposed to be a regional tire. Seem to be ok, only had them for about 10,000. The decoupling groove isn't quite as tight as the 590, and seems like it picks up and throws rocks.

My opinion is that its not as much about the brand or number, but about keeping your truck in good mechanical shape, aligned, good shocks, tie rod ends, etc. and proper air pressure.

 

We had put on top of the line Michelin's as steer tires. At 36000 miles we had to take them off. We had a really bad shimmy. Hubby and his mechanical team-who are aces, went over the truck with a blasted microscope to find the shimmy. Had Kenworth do an alignment. Still the blasted shimmy. Last thing-try taking off the Mich's. Yup, it was the tires. Hubby put the #### Mich's on the back. Put new Toyo's on as steering tires. Truck drives like a dream. No shimmy. Talked to a tire specialist-he has been hearing same about Mich's as steering tires from lots of folks. Blasted Mich's cost hubby 1100 bucks. Whatever you do, don't put Michelin's as your steering tires!

 

I'm working on replacing my Michelin steers as well - they came with the truck. So far I've got a front axle hop that I can't get rid of, and that's before and after I had all 10 spin balanced. I'll be going with Firestone's to match my new drives, and I appreciate the input on the Michelin's - that's cements my opinion of them - not worth the money.

 

cliochannel, shimmy with michelins? no mention of balancing?

We run all michelins on steers. No problems after going thru 3 sets of steers(obviously as they wore out, not due to bad tires)