Perfect off-highway tire = LTX? What?

[Wherever I May Roam]

Though it won't happen for me this coming year for the Alcan, I have a mild-safari A7 on which I have the Defenders for this purpose.



I don't personally see much degradation by any stretch whatsoever with LTs over Ps. I would err to LT all year long.

Would love to see this A7 build - Alcan would be a lot of fun to do, maybe once I'm more comfortable as a driver and shade tree mechanic
My thinking of LTs comes down to balance of durability pay off vs mpg hit I would take getting to Dempster. However, in this exact scenario, few hundred bucks extra spent on gas won't matter, especially if having to do tire repairs/changover on a side of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. Also, the rig is a 20year old Montero and those don't have much power to spare so I've been avoiding adding any unnecessary weight - it's not a "wheeler" per se but a long distance cruiser that was upgraded to emphasize its best qualities. (and it is great at it).

 

[Wherever I May Roam]

If you'll be driving dirt roads then LT is a must.

Case in point: I'm a member of a Sheriff's Search and Rescue team. Our SAR vehicles are all shod with LT tires. A few days ago we were called out on a search in a very remote area. The Sheriff's deputy accompanying us was driving a new Ford Expedition still wearing its OEM "P" rated tires. A rock went clean through the tread of his passenger side rear tire within 10 miles after we left pavement. None of the vehicles with LT tires had a problem.

This exact thing happened to me but I chalked it up to driving too quickly at regular road tire pressure, and on a much rougher road than usual. I understand LT's have a much stronger sidewall, however I can't find any concrete information regarding the tread/bottom tire part strength..

Either way, I got my answer - thank you all.

 

[MontySquareo]

I run E rated tires on my Montero, and while it does struggle a little bit getting up to speed (all Monteros do) I still get 17 mpg (if I stay on the highway) and have never gotten a flat while offroading, exept for once when I hit a sharp tree root that was in the sand.

 

[calicamper]

Michelin tires are definitely king in cooler climates. Hot places they wear fast. BFG is the hotter climate alternative to Michelin they both come out of the same shop per say. BFG typically uses a harder rubber compound that doesn’t burn off on 130 degree highways👍
I run both. The cars have special Michelins pilots on the SLK and EV efficiency somethings on the plugin hybrid. The Expedition I ditched the oem junk at 15,000 after skidding all over a wet highway put the new BFG Trail Terrain on it, massive difference!!! Like I had to use 4x4 with rear locker to get to a cabin in the snow and the next week on the BFGs 2whl drive easily in more snow!

 

[MontySquareo]

Michelin tires are definitely king in cooler climates. Hot places they wear fast. BFG is the hotter climate alternative to Michelin they both come out of the same shop per say. BFG typically uses a harder rubber compound that doesn’t burn off on 130 degree highways👍
I run both. The cars have special Michelins pilots on the SLK and EV efficiency somethings on the plugin hybrid. The Expedition I ditched the oem junk at 15,000 after skidding all over a wet highway put the new BFG Trail Terrain on it, massive difference!!! Like I had to use 4x4 with rear locker to get to a cabin in the snow and the next week on the BFGs 2whl drive easily in more snow!

I've had good luck with michelins in Arizona. My dad's car has some Lt Michelin tires and they've lasted 8 years and nearly 100,000 miles. We did have a set on a suburban that wore fast though

 

[deserteagle56]

This exact thing happened to me but I chalked it up to driving too quickly at regular road tire pressure, and on a much rougher road than usual. I understand LT's have a much stronger sidewall, however I can't find any concrete information regarding the tread/bottom tire part strength..

Either way, I got my answer - thank you all.

Extra plies in the tread area make a big difference as far as protection from rock breaks. Here's a shot of the construction of the LT-E tires I run on my 4x4 van:


All too many tires have only 4 or 5 plies in the tread and they don't hold up as well on rocky roads. Tires with 7 plies in the tread/3 in the sidewall are heavy and will cost you some fuel mileage, but they are durable!

 

[dman93]

Extra plies in the tread area make a big difference as far as protection from rock breaks. Here's a shot of the construction of the LT-E tires I run on my 4x4 van:
View attachment 796992

All too many tires have only 4 or 5 plies in the tread and they don't hold up as well on rocky roads. Tires with 7 plies in the tread/3 in the sidewall are heavy and will cost you some fuel mileage, but they are durable!

Interesting that adds up to 10, which is the ply RATING of a Load Range E tire. Not the actual number of plies, which is usually much less.

 

[ricoisme26]

Curious if anyone has experience with the Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 model? Looking for tires for my truck, want to go LT275/70R18, replacing my P-metric 275/65R18s, and not finding the original LTX M/S in that size, only the newer (I assume) M/S2.

Are they as good as the original? Possibly better(blasphemy) than the originals?

 

[Pskhaat]

Curious if anyone has experience with the Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 model? Looking for tires for my truck, want to go LT275/70R18, replacing my P-metric 275/65R18s, and not finding the original LTX M/S in that size, only the newer (I assume) M/S2.

Are they as good as the original? Possibly better(blasphemy) than the originals?

The original MS2, non-DEFENDER admittedly they were some with which I had some problems, UV splitting in the crown. They have a slightly different more jagged block pattern. I was less impressed with these; I ain't a tire engineer but just seems like less biting edges.


Then the DEFENDER MS (not 2). I really liked these and primarily the compound which never seems to get too hard even in the coldest of temperatures.

Finally, the new MS2. Total amateur guess here but the side tread looks to be lots more rubber compound and the blocks don't immediately appear to have as much void. Appears also the side lugs took some inspiration from the "AT". I bet it'd be a fine tire, but I have several more years left on the defender ms for now to consider these.

 

[Pskhaat]

Moab in LTXMS. We laugh at how they do just as well.

 

[STREGA]

Just put on a set of LTX MS/2’s on the 2500 Ram Bighorn a few weeks ago, so not enough time yet to give a real accurate assessment of their performance. But so far I’m super impressed with them on their Highway performance which included 400 miles of towing a 27’ travel trailer on some really crappie road surfaces. They haven’t seen any dirt yet so no opinion on their off-road worthiness at this time.

I too had to do some soul searching and admit to myself that I really didn’t need the Falken Wildpeaks after all. The reality is that most of my driving will be on paved surfaces so my tire choice needed to reflect that. It didn’t hurt that the tread life expectancy was higher with the Michelin’s than the Falkens either and they were about $250.00 cheaper for the set to boot. Tires have gotten expensive, talk about sticker shock 😵‍💫

 

[ricoisme26]

Just put on a set of LTX MS/2’s on the 2500 Ram Bighorn a few weeks ago, so not enough time yet to give a real accurate assessment of their performance. But so far I’m super impressed with them on their Highway performance which included 400 miles of towing a 27’ travel trailer on some really crappie road surfaces. They haven’t seen any dirt yet so no opinion on their off-road worthiness at this time.

I too had to do some soul searching and admit to myself that I really didn’t need the Falken Wildpeaks after all. The reality is that most of my driving will be on paved surfaces so my tire choice needed to reflect that. It didn’t hurt that the tread life expectancy was higher with the Michelin’s than the Falkens either and they were about $250.00 cheaper for the set to boot. Tires have gotten expensive, talk about sticker shock 😵‍💫

Ironically I was planning to buy a set of LTX M/S2's and ended up getting another set of Falken Wildpeaks. No trouble admitting most of my driving is on paved roads, I was just planning up moving up sizes from stock and Tire Rack happened to have the Wildpeaks on sale cheaper than the Michelin's in the size I wanted.

Will I regret not getting the Michelin's like I had planned? Time will tell, I figure there will be plenty of more tires purchased by me in the future so I can always buy them next time around.

 

[Moyshe Kapoyer]

I had them on my F150, they were a great tire. I would have went with them on my Tundra, but they don't make them in a P rated tire fo rmy size.

 

[STREGA]

Ironically I was planning to buy a set of LTX M/S2's and ended up getting another set of Falken Wildpeaks. No trouble admitting most of my driving is on paved roads, I was just planning up moving up sizes from stock and Tire Rack happened to have the Wildpeaks on sale cheaper than the Michelin's in the size I wanted.

Will I regret not getting the Michelin's like I had planned? Time will tell, I figure there will be plenty of more tires purchased by me in the future so I can always buy them next time around.

Up until a month before purchasing the Michelin’s I was set on getting the Falkens ever since I bought the truck almost 2 years ago. When they came out with the R/T version I knew that was the tire that was going on the Big Horn.

But….

Last Saturday I finally retired at almost 68 years of age and I’m starting to have to spend money 💰 from a retired person point of view. I need to now make more practical decisions on how to get the “biggest bang” for the dollar spent. The fact that the LTX MS/2 was $250 less for the set and have the potential to go 5K more miles than the Falkens was the deciding factor to go with the Michelin’s. The timing of needing new tires at the same time I was retiring came into play in my decision, if I had purchase tires 6 months earlier there would be Falkens on my truck.

 

[ricoisme26]

Up until a month before purchasing the Michelin’s I was set on getting the Falkens ever since I bought the truck almost 2 years ago. When they came out with the R/T version I knew that was the tire that was going on the Big Horn.

But….

Last Saturday I finally retired at almost 68 years of age and I’m starting to have to spend money 💰 from a retired person point of view. I need to now make more practical decisions on how to get the “biggest bang” for the dollar spent. The fact that the LTX MS/2 was $250 less for the set and have the potential to go 5K more miles than the Falkens was the deciding factor to go with the Michelin’s. The timing of needing new tires at the same time I was retiring came into play in my decision, if I had purchase tires 6 months earlier there would be Falkens on my truck.

You likely made the right choice, IMO, if budget friendly is a concern. My current Wildpeak AT3Ws are a P rate tire and I have about 30k miles on them and only 4/32nds of tread left. I've heard some debate that LT rate ones wear better and with my move to a larger tire LTs were my only option, but I'm not going to hold my breath and expect 50k+ miles from this set either. Michelin's on the other hand are well documented to exceed their tread life warranty by many miles and I would have expected them to last a long long time if I had purchased them.

Hope you enjoy your new tires and they meet all your needs