Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 17:48:46 -0700
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Tires again..specifically Michelin
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
If you have this brand tire on your van you may want to check them for
tread separations. Take the wheels off and roll them along a flat
floor...If it wobbles or tips over...look more closely..In my experience,
every single time I have done that with a pair of Michelins, I have found a
bulge in at least one....
I again found 2 of the 4 tires on my "other" van had nasty bulges and
even steel cord exposed in the tread on one of them, despite have great
looking tread depth and unchecked sidewalls...This time they were Latitude
X-Ice, snow tires in 225 70 R15 size with a 1765lb load rating. I don't
have the build date at hand...They're probably older, but no other brand
tire I have had, even really old ones, so consistently dies, like these
seem to always do....Sure, one should always check the build date on any
used tire before you drive on it....right!...How many of the folks blasting
along on the 6-lane freeways beside you have done THAT, do you think?
This makes it almost 100%: of every 4 tire set of used Michelin's I
have found at least one nasty bulge on the treads...and I have had, in the
past few years, about 10 sets of wheels with Michelin tires come my way on
various vehicles...mostly on Vanagon rims.
This time it is an AWD GM Safari I've got for work and off season
driving. This van has a similar drive line to the Syncro...viscous
coupling ...so now I have to go buy 4 new tires (or 8, if I get street
treads and snow treads, too) remember, on an AWD drive vehicle, tires need
to be identical circumference, so you can't just replace one or two...gotta
be a matched set.....
.I noticed a vibration when I went onto a smooth section of Interstate, so
I pulled the wheels to re-balance the tires (I do my own balancing) and as
I rolled one around the shop it tipped over..."Oh no, not another one!" I
said to myself..."Stupid! You should know better than to try run any
Michelins by now" but I didn't have the cash to buy new tires, so I put
them on, after a close look at their condition (they looked great) and
hoped....The street tires with this van were worn AND had bulges I could
see without even trying, too (3 out of four on the street treads)....So of
the 8 Michelins with this van only 3 were safe...
I can assure you all that I won't be buying any Michelin tires for
either my Vanagon or this GM Safari 'syncro wanna be'...or any other
vehicle in my fleet...
|