Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives New Michelins

Not Michelin’s but I put a set of Toyo CTs on my F250 yesterday. Cheapest name brand tire I could find in my size. They’re more aggressive than they looked online but Toyo calls them a hybrid AT/MT tire and I think I’m going to like them. I’ve only got about 100 miles on them but they aren’t noisy so far and we’re far better than the old Goodyear ATs on the slick red clay mud getting down to the fishing hole last night.

The CT has been out for awhile. I've never used them, but they seem like an updated M55 which I have had really good luck with.

Sounds like excessive sidewall flex, that can affect handling. And different tread patterns can sometimes follow rain grooves really bad.

They might have good traction in nasty stuff but I'm betting they aren't that good on slick hard roads. They have almost no siping and that's what grabs the snow. They also say they're a 50k tire so they'll have hard rubber. Soft rubber is more sticky on snow. They advertise them as an offroad tire but you drive a lot more onroad than off.

I've never seen an AT or MT tire with soft compound when it is actually cold out. If so, they'd wear extremely fast the rest of the year especially in hot regions of the country.

Dedicated snow tires in comparison, have soft compounds. Like the eraser on a pencil, even when it is frigid outside. That along with additives in the rubber and siping help with traction. You aren't going to have that level of traction with any all-season tire.

XPS looks like a knockoff of the M55.

A dedicated snow tire usually won't last much longer than maybe 30k but if you drive much on slick roads, they're worth the money. I read an article a while back about all seasons. Someone did some extensive research on them and found that they don't work any better than regular highway tires. The rubber's too hard for good traction. The fancy tread designs don't do much other than sell tires.
Last winter we went to Albuquerque for Christmas and then to Portland and Seattle in Feb. We have a Toyota Highlander AWD. It has the original tires and we were looking at some nasty roads so I got some real studded snow tires. The Alb. trip wasn't bad but when we went to OR and WA, we got caught in that nasty storm that closed all the highways for days. Our intended route, I-84, was closed and hundreds of trucks lined the highway for miles. To get over the mountains, we had to take a long detour over White Pass, near Mt St. Helens. It was the only road open anywhere. The snow tires worked beautifully. In many places, we were the only thing moving. I-5 north of Portland was unplowed and a real mess but we just zipped along, having the whole freeway almost to ourselves..

It does. A little more conservative maybe. With Michelins rubber, I bet it'd be a good tire.

I should add to my OP about the Michelin Agilas. I talked about how unstable they are with a load but they're just as bad empty. Going down the road at 60 with an empty pickup, you'd better keep a grip on the wheel. They'll follow any grove or bump. They're very tiring on longer trips as you have to correct them constantly.

Like Armstrong Steering in the days of yore.

Yep, duratracs on a diesel are ugly.

I tried Duratracs on my 1 ton RAM diesel. Only tire that got a flat on the RAM and not much better than the Firestone HTs that came on it in the snow. Took them off and put them on my plow truck just to wear them out. Does ok until they get in deep snow or icy conditions. Chains are a prerequisite to help them out.

I stopped atCostco three days ago.Wanted to put P rated tires on my 2004Tacoma for an easier ride.Guy said it was no problem and quoted me $888 plus Installation fee of $20/tire for Michelins. Think I will wait.

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These, I know something about. I ran them on my 1991 Dodge diesel, that I bought new. I sold it with just over 500,000 miles on it.....these were on it for over 480,000 miles. Dad ran these on his 93 Dodge for over 300,000 miles, also. The only flat, between us, in 20 years, was a railroad spike that went through one of dad's new tires. (That Michelin replaced for free). I ran XTR's in the winter, and the XPS highway tread in the summer. The XTRs would last about 60-65,000 miles and the highway tread about 10,000 miles more. I'd get them recapped, and put about another 35,000 miles on them. So.....about 100,000/casing. BTW, these are steel cased tires, meaning the sidewalls are steel belted. They stay round, wear VERY even, and only need rebalanced if you throw a weight. BY FAR, my favorite tire of all time....but, to my disappointment, they are only available in 16" tires. My 2006 Dodge is 17". Otherwise, there is no other tire I would buy (providing they haven't changed anything about the tire).

And yes, they are a very hard compound, and not good on ice or packed snow. Everything else, they were stellar!

Andy3