In keeping with your sentence "The thing is, everyone who disagrees with the title of this post has every valid counterpoint and argument " i have to disagree with your conclusion for off highway uses. These tires came on my 2012 Ram when i bought it. Since they were brand new, i decided to just run them through their paces. Now dont get me wrong, michelin makes great on -road tires. First test...April Snow storm. 8 inches of wet april snow. My old truck (same crewcab shortbed diesel 6 speed, same size tires Big O At's at the same pressures) did not need 4wd to get out of the driveway. These tires.....one wheel wonder. 2nd test with these tires was to hook on to my camper and head up outlaw canyon which is a red dirt /rock/ gravel road. Having towed this camper up this road before with my old truck(exact truck just 5 years older)and Big O At's, i felt it a good comparison. These tires required use of 4wd to keep forward momentum. my old Big O's did not. 3rd test. Summer mountain traffic up 4th of July. rock and gravel roads. Constant spinning out, sidewall chunking now evident. 4th test. summer rain storms: tires would hydroplane like nobodies business, and would lose traction, causing the dreaded Ram Traction control/ABS malfunction. Needless to say, these handle great on dry pavement, and are super quiet. i will be buying a second set of rims and a true- all terrain for everything aside from road trips
Seriously, though, I think the original issue was running at highway speeds in hot weather with old tires that raised the date code concerns. But, in reality, you have a valid point for off road travel, also.
