Tires

[busterw]

I’m due for tires on my 15 LTZ. I’m looking for a street type tread, not an all terrain. I’ve been running Michelins and the tread life sux. Great wet traction and ride but the life is horrible. 30k miles on this set. Can anyone recommend something with great life, wet traction and ride quality?

Thanks for any recommendations!

 

[wjburken]

I’m due for tires on my 15 LTZ. I’m looking for a street type tread, not an all terrain. I’ve been running Michelins and the tread life sux. Great wet traction and ride but the life is horrible. 30k miles on this set. Can anyone recommend something with great life, wet traction and ride quality?

Thanks for any recommendations!

I’ve had very good luck with Bridgestone Dueller H/L Alenzas. Have averaged 85K+ on a set.

Lots of differing opinions on this topic, but Michelin’s are by far the most recommended tire in this forum so surprised to hear you have had poor luck with them.

https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/tire-choices.114296/#post-1374205

 

[busterw]

The Dueller is what my truck came with and the wet traction was horrible. I would be interested to hear what Michelin people love. Mine are Premier LT X.

 

[BlackYukon]

The Dueller is what my truck came with and the wet traction was horrible. I would be interested to hear what Michelin people love. Mine are Premier LT X.

The Michelin Defender LTX is held to a pretty high regard, I don't have any personal experience with them but had heard nothing but good things about them.

 

[busterw]

I’ve got the Defender LTX on my wife’s 4runner. They seem to be pretty highly regarded here based on previous threads. I believe I’ll go with them. I will say again, the life of the Premiers suck.

Thanks everyone!

 

[sealandsky]

The Dueller is what my truck came with and the wet traction was horrible. I would be interested to hear what Michelin people love. Mine are Premier LT X.

I'd stick with what you have and deal with the short life.

 

[busterw]

Negative. not spending nearly $1,100 on a set of tires to barely last 30k miles.

I'd stick with what you have and deal with the short life.

 

[DWTahoe]

I also agree Michelin's are not what they are hyped up to be. They are probably a decent tire but not for the increased price. They seem to handle the road and weather well but I have yet to have a set that lasted. I never got more than 20k miles on a set, which doesn't work for me. 2 sets on the wifes car, replaced under tread life warranty and another on a SUV I had. Or I'm just unlucky....which is also possible.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I don't know what model of Michelin tires you have on your truck, but I've never heard of anyone getting less than 50k miles out of the Michelin Defender LTX model. Most folks get 60k-70k and beyond with the Michelin Defender LTX. And, the Michelin Defender LTX tire is quiet, handles very well, and it was not slowed down by anything that a NH winter could throw at it.

 

[busterw]

I have been running the Michelin Premier. I just ordered a set of the Defender LTXs based on recommendations here and on different tire sites. So, hopefully they'll be good.

I don't know what model of Michelin tires you have on your truck, but I've never heard of anyone getting less than 50k miles out of the Michelin Defender LTX model. Most folks get 60k-70k and beyond with the Michelin Defender LTX. And, the Michelin Defender LTX tire is quiet, handles very well, and it was not slowed down by anything that a NH winter could throw at it.

 

[massivespl]

If your only getting 20-30k miles out of your tires there’s something wrong. Almost everyone gets 50k+ miles unless you haul trailers all the time and really put those tires to work. Michelin tires are good all the way down to the wear bars. So if you replace them early your wasting money.

What I do is buy tires. Use them 1-2seasons and then sell the tires for half price and buy new tires. I get brand new tires and only have to spend half the money as long as I sell my old tires

 

[sealandsky]

Negative. not spending nearly $1,100 on a set of tires to barely last 30k miles.

My Bridgestone Alenza's just turned over 18K miles and won't make 20K.

 

[sealandsky]

I also agree Michelin's are not what they are hyped up to be. They are probably a decent tire but not for the increased price. They seem to handle the road and weather well but I have yet to have a set that lasted. I never got more than 20k miles on a set, which doesn't work for me. 2 sets on the wifes car, replaced under tread life warranty and another on a SUV I had. Or I'm just unlucky....which is also possible.

The Michelin Defender and especially the Premier have a pretty soft compound. Soft = better traction and ride = shorter life. Anyone buying these tires should understand this. I'll be buying a set of Premiers soon and accept the fact that they won't last me a full two years.

 

[busterw]

The Alenza is just a horrible tire. I think I got 25k miles out of mine and they were totally shot. Plus, the wet traction is pathetic at best.

My Bridgestone Alenza's just turned over 18K miles and won't make 20K.

 

[Danny3737]

You are 100% correct. The softer the compound, the quieter and smoother the ride. My number one reason for buying them for all my cars ( especially my kids ) is a softer compound equates to a shorter stopping distance, especially in bad weather. You can’t put a price on safety. I’ve never had a set go less than 40K miles.

The Michelin Defender and especially the Premier have a pretty soft compound. Soft = better traction and ride = shorter life. Anyone buying these tires should understand this. I'll be buying a set of Premiers soon and accept the fact that they won't last me a full two years.

 

[wjburken]

Man, I just don't get it. I believe every one of you guys with what you are saying you are getting for wear out of your tires, but something doesn't make sense that there would be such a wide disparity in this area. As an engineer, this is driving me nuts as I believe there has to be something we are missing that is causing these differing outcomes. My personal experience is that the Bridgestone Dueler Alenza H/L's give me 85K+ of wear. I also read here where folks are getting similar wear out of their Michelin Defenders. That is why I am just baffled when I also read that folks are only getting 20K to 30K of wear out of what is supposedly the same tire. So I did some looking. Tire Rack has a few different options for tires shown for my 2013 Denali XL with the H/L Alenza name with different Load, Speed, Treadwear, Traction and Treadwear ratings. I wonder if this is contributing to the different experiences of folks because folks all have Alenza's but different performance ratings.

Dueler H/L Alenza Plus - 111H - UTQG: 800 A A - ECO-Product (whatever that means)
Dueler H/L Alenza - 111H - UTQG: 600 A B
Dueler H/L Alenza - 111S - UTQG: 700 B B (what I have been buying and is listed as OEM)
Dueler H/L Alenza - 113T - UTQG: 600 A A

Here is the link to what I ordered the last two times and what was on my 2013 when we bought it in July of 2019.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...eModel=Dueler+H/L+Alenza&partnum=755SR0HLALNZ

For Michelin this is what I found for the LTX line of tires shown on Tire Rack for my 2013 Denali XL
LTX A/T 2 - 113T - UTQG: 500 A B
Defender LTX M/S - 113T - UTQG: 800 A A
LTX M/S2 - 113H - UTQG: 720 A A - Green X (whatever that means)

I know that I may push the life a little so instead of 85K, maybe I should say I get 75K+ of good thread life and then another 10K of life because I might push it a little.
My wife also does most of the driving and her commute is mainly highway so that may contribute to out experiences. She is also not an aggressive driver, usually.
I rotate the tires every other oil change (7000-8000 miles) and maintain the tire pressure regularly. Not saying others don't, just explaining what is happening on our vehicle.

Like I said, there has to be something that can explain the different experiences folks are having.

 

[busterw]

Well the Defender is supposedly a longer lasting tire than the Premier. The Premier is my current set that I'm replacing with the Defender LTX M/S. The Premiers I got 30k miles out of. I rotate tires every oil change and maintain 38psi of pressure all around. Now, I will admit that I don't drive like my grandma so I will attribute some lower mileage to my driving style. Also, my driving is about 50/50 around town and highway which will also contribute to a lower mileage.

 

[swathdiver]

Man, I just don't get it. I believe every one of you guys with what you are saying you are getting for wear out of your tires, but something doesn't make sense that there would be such a wide disparity in this area. As an engineer, this is driving me nuts as I believe there has to be something we are missing that is causing these differing outcomes. My personal experience is that the Bridgestone Dueler Alenza H/L's give me 85K+ of wear. I also read here where folks are getting similar wear out of their Michelin Defenders. That is why I am just baffled when I also read that folks are only getting 20K to 30K of wear out of what is supposedly the same tire. So I did some looking. Tire Rack has a few different options for tires shown for my 2013 Denali XL with the H/L Alenza name with different Load, Speed, Treadwear, Traction and Treadwear ratings. I wonder if this is contributing to the different experiences of folks because folks all have Alenza's but different performance ratings.

Dueler H/L Alenza Plus - 111H - UTQG: 800 A A - ECO-Product (whatever that means)
Dueler H/L Alenza - 111H - UTQG: 600 A B
Dueler H/L Alenza - 111S - UTQG: 700 B B (what I have been buying and is listed as OEM)
Dueler H/L Alenza - 113T - UTQG: 600 A A

Here is the link to what I ordered the last two times and what was on my 2013 when we bought it in July of 2019.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Dueler+H/L+Alenza&partnum=755SR0HLALNZ

For Michelin this is what I found for the LTX line of tires shown on Tire Rack for my 2013 Denali XL
LTX A/T 2 - 113T - UTQG: 500 A B
Defender LTX M/S - 113T - UTQG: 800 A A
LTX M/S2 - 113H - UTQG: 720 A A - Green X (whatever that means)

I know that I may push the life a little so instead of 85K, maybe I should say I get 75K+ of good thread life and then another 10K of life because I might push it a little.
My wife also does most of the driving and her commute is mainly highway so that may contribute to out experiences. She is also not an aggressive driver, usually.
I rotate the tires every other oil change (7000-8000 miles) and maintain the tire pressure regularly. Not saying others don't, just explaining what is happening on our vehicle.

Like I said, there has to be something that can explain the different experiences folks are having.

Seen lots of folks denigrate their tires when their alignment being out of whack was the culprit. Failure to rotate and keep them properly inflated kills them quicker too. Properly inflated to them means keeping the light off on the dash, not actually keeping them at proper setting.

 

[drakon543]

proper tire inflation driving habits and condition of the vehicle including proper alignment all play a factor. if you have one person who drives it like they stole it most of the time your going to see serious differences in tread life. regardless if the op is seeing a significant lack of tread life first he should have the vehicle checked over for any problems. if there's no problems there maybe a change in driving habits could help. you dont have to be doing smokey burnouts to be losing tread life.

 

[BlackYukon]

Like others have said, there's allot of factors that go into getting the life out of your tires. I'v got around 20k Miles on my current set of Nitto's and they still have at least another 40-45K of life left.

I rotate them every 5K miles, make sure they are inflated to the right psi once a month, and get my alignment checked once a year. Kind of a basic system that doesn't require much work, but it has always worked for me in terms of getting the life out of tires.