Flying Rubber

[POPPASMURF]

We had a great 4 day weekend of camping & fishing/boating. Trip home turned sour-we blew the inside dual. No damage other than the tread peeled off the casing. So we spent a liesurely drive home at 30 mph. I swore at Michelin XRV until I took the time to check the DOT date. With my red face hanging out-they were the original equipment on our 1998 Luxor. I'm bending over now as the local tire shop is sticking $4,500 for a set of six installed. We're getting a set of XZE, see how it goes. I've got the chrome steel valve stems and I'd rather keep them than have some cheap Made in Cxxxx piece of work installed. Small town sometimes- not a great deal of choice. I'm also going with the ceramic Dyna-Beads for balancing. We'll see how that works out as well. I told him I would not accept any tires older than one year. He whined and said he doesn't know what the Michelin warehouse will send him. This site was informative on that score.

[bdpreece]

Not an expert on this but I think I read here somewhere where the valve stems need to use a different core if you use the bead balancing.

[FleetMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdpreece Not an expert on this but I think I read here somewhere where the valve stems need to use a different core if you use the bead balancing.

I'm not familiar with Dyna Beads but EQUAL does require the valve stem core with the built in screen to prevent a bead from sticking in the core when checking pressures and causing an air leak.

[38 Special]

Quote:

Originally Posted by POPPASMURF I told him I would not accept any tires older than one year. He whined and said he doesn't know what the Michelin warehouse will send him.

Accept them, just ask them to prorate the price for the useable time left, figuring a 5 year or 6 year life.

[POPPASMURF]

Well the deed is done-6 new ZXE Michelin-ooow did it hurt. As to the valve stems-I don't need to change them with using the ceramic beads as the beads don't bother valve stem operation. Took the bus for a quick spin and is it ever nice to have new rubber. All is smooth with the world. Buggers didn't put any padding on the concrete floor when thry operated on my polished front rims. I now have some scratches to buff out. I think they take the batteries out of their hearing aids for complaints. Bonus-DOT tire dates are 35th and 45th weeks of 2010- I didn't have a fight on that one. I would have won the battle but lost the war I think as Michelin only had 6 ZXE in the warehouse- I really would have turned blue holding my breath for alternatives. Interesting-the local Fountain Tire (Goodyear) store didn't even try to quote Goodyear- he went straight to Michelin warehouse to source tires. Is there a message here? I insisted they leave the old chrome steel valve stems in rather than the made in China crapola- they didn't argue much-though I would have liked fresh quality stems. Now we can travel rather worry free and terrorize the southern US states come winter time. Oh oh-tornado watch just announced- we don't ever get tornadoes; or at least didn't used to.

[Gary RVRoamer]

Your tire guy should be happy - he charged you top dollar and then some for those tires and didn't give you a break on the install or balancing either. And already 10-11 months old too. They (Michelin) do make a decent tire, though.

I like my Continentals at $460 apiece installed. And that's for a larger size than your Luxor uses.

[Mr_D]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer Your tire guy should be happy - he charged you top dollar and then some for those tires and didn't give you a break on the install or balancing either. And already 10-11 months old too. They (Michelin) do make a decent tire, though. I like my Continentals at $460 apiece installed. And that's for a larger size than your Luxor uses.

I agree!! In Sept last year I had 6 new Michelins installed, 2 - 305/70 22.5's in the front and 4 - 275/70 22.5's in the rear, out the door was just over $3,200 AND they didn't scratch my Alcoa's!!
The fronts are dated 3010 so they were just a few weeks old when I got them.
I tried to go with Continentals and the showed 305/70's on their site, but they hadn't yet made any.