I want to share some information and knowledge I have gained from 4 years and 60k miles of use. I've found it tough to get real world information and reviews on the different tire options for larger expedition vehicles. I am posting this here in hopes that it will save some folks the same troubles I have had. I have had two sets of Conti MPT 81's and now a set of Michelin XForceZL's. I ran the first of Conti's for 30k miles. I ran the second set for around 25k miles. We are on around 4k miles with the new Michelins. The Michelin is a far better tire for our needs, but they required some work to get dialed in. I'd be hard pressed to go back to the Conti's. All military tires can and will benefit from the process outlined below.
My rig:
2021 Ford F-550 crew cab 203"
6.7 Powerstroke
4.88 gears
Tire Size: 365/80r20
19,500 GVW rating
Fiberglass/Carbon habitat fabricated by my team and I @drakeboatworks
Weight:
-Front axle weight 6000lbs
-Rear axle weight 10,200lbs
Kelderman Air suspension front and rear
Tire Size: 365/80r20
Hutchinson 3 piece forged aluminum wheels with internal beadlock.
Internal Tire pressure and temp monitoring system.
Ill start with information on the Conti's. I ran both sets of these as is from continental with centramatic balancers. They needed constant rotation. I would try for every 3k, but in reality that stretched to 5k at times. Every tire was different in terms of wear and man are they loud. We are usually doing 75-77mph on the highway. Ride was OK at points between tire wearing in and needing rotating. My reason for choosing them in the first place was because of price and availability. They are a good chunk cheaper than the Michelin and Goodyear + my local tire shop could get them. I was never fully satisfied with them.
Cold air pressures
Front 55psi
Rear 82psi
Pressure and temp at 75mph and 80° temp
Front: 65psi 135-145°
Rear: 97 psi 170-180°
I finally got my hands on the new Michelin X Force ZL's this spring. My hope was to solve the complaints I had with the Conti's:
-Loud
-Variable wear pattern
-short lifespan
-less than desirable ride quality.
I cannot comment on long term wear yet, but I can tell you the ride quality and road noise is exponentially better with the Michelin's.
I initially set them up same as the Conti's. Straight from michelin onto my wheels and on the truck with the centramatic balancers. I replaced most of the wear items in the front end and got an alignment at the same time. My truck was at just under 100K miles.
The ride and noise was good anywhere outside of 55-67mph. In that range there was a lot of shimmy. I quickly realized the tires were out of round and run out was not good.
Enter Stazworks. Upon realizing that the tires needed some help I reached out to Stazworks in Wisconsin. We were headed west from our home in South Carolina and planned to make a pit stop to try and get the Michelins sorted. John and his crew fit us in on short notice to work around our travel schedule.
I will say this. If you are having these troubles with any military tire or want to avoid these troubles. CALL STAZWORKS! They are more knowledgeable and capable than anyone I have come across by a long shot.
Michelin X Force ZL 365/80r20
Cold air pressures
Front 37psi
Rear 82psi
Pressure and temp at 75mph and 80° temp
Front: 50psi 128-138°
Rear: 97 psi 150-160°
Used Michelin weight guide and bumped up a little for over 68mph use.
The Michelins are running around 20 degrees less than the Conti's with less air pressure in the front.
We spent the day at Stazworks in Wisconsin getting the Michelins dialed in. They are super knowledgeable and do things the right way. We did the following in this order.
1. Shaved the tires into round.
2. Road force dynamic balance.
3. Patch weighted the tires on the inside of the tire. You can use 1/2 the weight that you’d need on the rim on the 335 and 1/3 of the weight on the 365 because of the distance from the rim. It also allows to you weight the tire left/right/or center as needed vs just edge of rim.
4. Re mounted the tires. Back on the road force balancer. Add a very small amount of sticky weight to rim to get them perfectly balanced.
5. Ditched the centramatic balancers I had. Side note on the Centramatics. I was told by an old timer at the semi-truck alignment shop that the media inside the centramatics can get caught on the edges where the sections of the tube slide into each other. This causes random wear on random lugs on the tire. I can confirm seeing this my Conti's.
It was pretty wild to see how out of round they are new.
The Michelins are exponentially quieter and ride far better. By a looooong shot. It’s just one notch louder than my 2500 with 35 recon grapplers. We haven’t shut up about how much better they are since we left Wisconsin. As far as I am concerned this is the best way to near perfection. I cannot begin to explain how much better the ride and noise is with the Michelin's after Stazworks had their way with them.
What I would recommend:
Option 1: Stazworks stocks and/or can get their hands on the conti's, michelins, and goodyears. In a perfect world I’d take the truck there and have them do the whole deal.
Option 2: You can get 95% perfection by ordering them and having them shave and patch weight them before they ship them. They will mount the tires and do everything they did to mine except the last step of the sticky weights on your rim. As an example. I had one tire that was calling for 30oz of weight on rim after the shaving. We put 10oz of weight in tire patches on the inside of the tire. After we remounted it only needed one 2oz weight on the rim to get perfection.
I don’t have any experience with the Goodyears, but asked a ton a questions to compare the three.
Sound level. Quietest to loudest.
1. Goodyear
2. Michelin
3. Conti
Runout/roundness from factory. Best to worst.
1. Conti
2. Michelin
3. Goodyear.
Tread life. Best to worst.
1. Goodyear
2. Michelin
3. Conti.
Price. Highest to low.
1. Goodyear.
2. Michelin
3. Conti.
Availability. Hardest to easiest to find.
1. Goodyear
2. Michelin
3. Conti.
I hope this helps some folks. I needed this information four years ago.
My rig:
2021 Ford F-550 crew cab 203"
6.7 Powerstroke
4.88 gears
Tire Size: 365/80r20
19,500 GVW rating
Fiberglass/Carbon habitat fabricated by my team and I @drakeboatworks
Weight:
-Front axle weight 6000lbs
-Rear axle weight 10,200lbs
Kelderman Air suspension front and rear
Tire Size: 365/80r20
Hutchinson 3 piece forged aluminum wheels with internal beadlock.
Internal Tire pressure and temp monitoring system.
Ill start with information on the Conti's. I ran both sets of these as is from continental with centramatic balancers. They needed constant rotation. I would try for every 3k, but in reality that stretched to 5k at times. Every tire was different in terms of wear and man are they loud. We are usually doing 75-77mph on the highway. Ride was OK at points between tire wearing in and needing rotating. My reason for choosing them in the first place was because of price and availability. They are a good chunk cheaper than the Michelin and Goodyear + my local tire shop could get them. I was never fully satisfied with them.
Cold air pressures
Front 55psi
Rear 82psi
Pressure and temp at 75mph and 80° temp
Front: 65psi 135-145°
Rear: 97 psi 170-180°
I finally got my hands on the new Michelin X Force ZL's this spring. My hope was to solve the complaints I had with the Conti's:
-Loud
-Variable wear pattern
-short lifespan
-less than desirable ride quality.
I cannot comment on long term wear yet, but I can tell you the ride quality and road noise is exponentially better with the Michelin's.
I initially set them up same as the Conti's. Straight from michelin onto my wheels and on the truck with the centramatic balancers. I replaced most of the wear items in the front end and got an alignment at the same time. My truck was at just under 100K miles.
The ride and noise was good anywhere outside of 55-67mph. In that range there was a lot of shimmy. I quickly realized the tires were out of round and run out was not good.
Enter Stazworks. Upon realizing that the tires needed some help I reached out to Stazworks in Wisconsin. We were headed west from our home in South Carolina and planned to make a pit stop to try and get the Michelins sorted. John and his crew fit us in on short notice to work around our travel schedule.
I will say this. If you are having these troubles with any military tire or want to avoid these troubles. CALL STAZWORKS! They are more knowledgeable and capable than anyone I have come across by a long shot.
Michelin X Force ZL 365/80r20
Cold air pressures
Front 37psi
Rear 82psi
Pressure and temp at 75mph and 80° temp
Front: 50psi 128-138°
Rear: 97 psi 150-160°
Used Michelin weight guide and bumped up a little for over 68mph use.
The Michelins are running around 20 degrees less than the Conti's with less air pressure in the front.
We spent the day at Stazworks in Wisconsin getting the Michelins dialed in. They are super knowledgeable and do things the right way. We did the following in this order.
1. Shaved the tires into round.
2. Road force dynamic balance.
3. Patch weighted the tires on the inside of the tire. You can use 1/2 the weight that you’d need on the rim on the 335 and 1/3 of the weight on the 365 because of the distance from the rim. It also allows to you weight the tire left/right/or center as needed vs just edge of rim.
4. Re mounted the tires. Back on the road force balancer. Add a very small amount of sticky weight to rim to get them perfectly balanced.
5. Ditched the centramatic balancers I had. Side note on the Centramatics. I was told by an old timer at the semi-truck alignment shop that the media inside the centramatics can get caught on the edges where the sections of the tube slide into each other. This causes random wear on random lugs on the tire. I can confirm seeing this my Conti's.
It was pretty wild to see how out of round they are new.
The Michelins are exponentially quieter and ride far better. By a looooong shot. It’s just one notch louder than my 2500 with 35 recon grapplers. We haven’t shut up about how much better they are since we left Wisconsin. As far as I am concerned this is the best way to near perfection. I cannot begin to explain how much better the ride and noise is with the Michelin's after Stazworks had their way with them.
What I would recommend:
Option 1: Stazworks stocks and/or can get their hands on the conti's, michelins, and goodyears. In a perfect world I’d take the truck there and have them do the whole deal.
Option 2: You can get 95% perfection by ordering them and having them shave and patch weight them before they ship them. They will mount the tires and do everything they did to mine except the last step of the sticky weights on your rim. As an example. I had one tire that was calling for 30oz of weight on rim after the shaving. We put 10oz of weight in tire patches on the inside of the tire. After we remounted it only needed one 2oz weight on the rim to get perfection.
I don’t have any experience with the Goodyears, but asked a ton a questions to compare the three.
Sound level. Quietest to loudest.
1. Goodyear
2. Michelin
3. Conti
Runout/roundness from factory. Best to worst.
1. Conti
2. Michelin
3. Goodyear.
Tread life. Best to worst.
1. Goodyear
2. Michelin
3. Conti.
Price. Highest to low.
1. Goodyear.
2. Michelin
3. Conti.
Availability. Hardest to easiest to find.
1. Goodyear
2. Michelin
3. Conti.
I hope this helps some folks. I needed this information four years ago.
