Well trucks projects I started yesterday on a down day from work didn’t quite go as planned. Ooi….. but at least I’m starting on stuff that’s been sitting in the garage all summer long. Updates on that shortly. But first things first…..
Road tank needs new shoes…… bad!
like I’m down to the last little bits of tread I can squeeze out of these tires. Michelin DEFENDER LTX tires. Installed 2/9/2022 per the work order. I’m actually surprised looking back to see how many miles I got. Truck had 162,500 on the odometer when these were installed. As of right now the trucks at 189,507. So I’ve gotten 27,007 miles out of the defenders. Not terrible use out of them especially given that the mountain roads that lead in and out of town eat tires like nobody’s business. Lol. I don’t know anyone up here that gets more than 30K-ish out of a set of tires, except for a handful of older clients that I detail for that legitimately only drive once a week or so and only go off the mountain once a month. Now had I been religious about rotating my tires like I normally am at every oil change, and had I kept the air pressures in them at a constant even setup then I probably could have gotten 30k out of these tires.
This is my first set of defenders. They came very well recommended from everyone hear and a couple shops I chatted with before buying. Despite the tread wear they performed fantastically in every driving condition I’ve thrown at them including the storms that brought 10 feet of snow to our town in just 10 days. Almost everyday in that storm, caltrans and sheriffs department had R3 chain requirements in place which meant even 4x4 and AWD equipped vehicles needed to chain up to be on the road. I have never had a set of chains big enough to fit any tire I’ve run on this rig and even those days I never had issues in the snow on the defenders. So 5 star review on traction for these tires. Also never got stopped for not having chains on…..
I wanted to go back to the LTX A/T2 Michelins. I’ve had two sets of them in different sizes, one set on my OEM Denali 17 inch wheels. And another set on my 20s in a two size bigger than stock LT rating. Absolutely loved both sets of the all terrains. But everywhere across the country they’re out of stock right now in the 275/60 series I’ve decided to stick with. Bummed cuz I never had any reservations about going anywhere on those tires and kinda wanted that extra insurance that those tries sorta gave. Most venders said 30-60 days before they’d be ins rock again. But since I needed tires now I went with the defender again. Plus we’re looking at potential weather this weekend and I’m not gonna chance it even if it ends up being rain. So defenders again it came to.
But this time around I went with the XL load rated 275/60R20 defender LTX M/S2 as I found a company online that had them in stock. Getting them delivered here was a nightmare between the tire seller not getting my space unit number in the original shipping info and FEDEX screwing up the deliveries. Sad cuz FEDEX used to be really awesome but I’ve noticed in the last couple years they have always created hassle and issues with stuff being shipped via them. Maybe it’s just another lame Big Bear thing. Lol.
Anyways got two here Friday, and the other two miraculously showed up today. Got ‘em scrubbed clean and the first two have a nice thick coat of water proof tire coating installed on them. Second two currently have coatings drying on them now. I absolutely love this stuff I found about two years back. Dura-shine from Dura-coatings. I use their professional grade ceramic coatings as well for my detailing business and I can say that their products are top notch. Coating goes on and I’ve seen it last 8-9 months on my tires despite the manufacturer saying it’ll only last 6. Pretty good product life in my opinion. Once it’s cured on it’s totally dry to the touch. No greasy mess if you accidentally brush up against it. And no fling off ever down the side of the truck. Dust will stick a little bit around the edges but that’s kinda just how it goes when the edges of the dirt sink into a dirt road surface when I drive them occasionally for work. Whenever I wash the truck I just scrub tires with soap from my foam cannon, rinse and dry and the tire coating just cleans right up. Love this stuff.
Managed to accidentally curb rash my two passenger side tires last summer at a clients house. DOH! Trying to avoid that with the new tires lol. As you can see in these photos the inner edges of tread on the tires are just about at the wear bars with the outer edges not much above the wear bars…..
