Ribbed Michelin LTX M/S vs plain- any real difference? (1 Viewer)

[Number6]

I got two unmounted of the above with my LC. All 5 on the truck have the ribs in the side wall. One of the unmounted skins is identical, the other one has plain sidewalls with a slightly different tread pattern. Both tires are in very good condition, no dry rot, plenty of tread. I've thinking about grabbing a pair of stock alloys and mounting them.

Would there be no difference between them in use or performance?

 

[GregLCA]

I got two unmounted of the above with my LC. All 5 on the truck have the ribs in the side wall. One of the unmounted skins is identical, the other one has plain sidewalls with a slightly different tread pattern. Both tires are in very good condition, no dry rot, plenty of tread. I've thinking about grabbing a pair of stock alloys and mounting them.

Would there be no difference between them in use or performance?

Do you know how to locate the manufacturing date from the tire sidewall? I'm guessing that some of those are either a lot newer or a lot older than the rest.

-G

 

[Number6]

I'll take a look. Further study indicated both have a 114 load rating and the plain one has an H (130 MPH) speed rating while the ribbed is S (112 MPH) speed rated.

I'll have to be clued in on the date code.

 

[Dwight S]

The ribbed sidewall are older. I replaced two a couple of years ago and the new ones are smooth. I recently replaced the older two ribbed ones too. The new are smooth.

 

[Number6]

Well as I said they're all in good shape, so I'd have 7. You can now do a 5-tire rotation with radials, so with 7 I could have a lot of miles if I introduce a loose rim to the spare location when rotating. The Michelin site says these go for $270 each- I doubt that's the street price, but the street price isn't exactly insignificant.

@Dwight S One thing that's interesting. New LTX have an S rating according to Michelin, my smooth one has an H. Offered in multiple speed ranges

 

[GregLCA]

I'll take a look. Further study indicated both have a 114 load rating and the plain one has an H (130 MPH) speed rating while the ribbed is S (112 MPH) speed rated.

I'll have to be clued in on the date code.

Find a 4-digit number melted into the sidewall then use this:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11



-G

 

[Number6]

@GregLCA

Plain- 2805 (06/05)
Ribbed 4707 (11/07)

 

[GregLCA]

@GregLCA

Plain- 2805 (06/05)
Ribbed 4707 (11/07)

Man.....those are some old shoes you've got there!!

-G

 

[Number6]

@GregLCA Yeah, but they're clean! I read on Tire Rack site in 2000 they had to change the date coding as tires go 10+ years.

This truck was sold to the 2nd owner in 2008 (I think) at 196K. I now have 260K on it. If he put new skins on it soon after he bought it, the age may be just right though. When I bought it, I calculated about 60K on the tires (just out of warranty...)

 

[dnp]

Most don't recommend using 8-10 year old tires. In fact, many tire shops won't even mount tires that old.

I guess it really depends on how you you'll be using the turck.

 

[bctlex]

Well as I said they're all in good shape, so I'd have 7. You can now do a 5-tire rotation with radials, so with 7 I could have a lot of miles if I introduce a loose rim to the spare location when rotating. The Michelin site says these go for $270 each- I doubt that's the street price, but the street price isn't exactly insignificant.

@Dwight S

I cant comment on the age, but when I bought my sequoia, it had LTX M/S. Definitely not cheap, but IMHO, its an awesome tire for on-road all around weather. Very smooth, quite, and last very long time. I think between the previous owner and us, we put about 80K miles before they were replaced by a set of LTX M/S2. It was still in good condition. It probably can go 10-15K miles before really need to be replaced, but I had a baby coming, and I didnt want to deal with replacing new tires when I need to focus on replacing diaper haha...

 

[Number6]

How will I use the truck? Nothing heavy duty right now, like expeditioning,. mudding or rock crawling. Maybe a Forest Service road here in Appalachia (if I won't get shot by dope growers and meth heads), slinging some gravel on roads with washouts, and travel semi-fearlessly in the snow when desired/needed. I hear the MTX gets a lot of kudos for snow. We do a fair amount of ancestor worship so there will some dirt roads and cross-pasture running as well.

Took it out on Wildcat Road in Anderson County- the next one over from me, The road comes out of a Kentucky River bottom and crawls up along the deep ravine along Wildcat Creek for few miles. Adequate gravel, many crosswise washouts thanks to our recent Biblical rains- some wide and deep. The type of road I'm most like to be off road on for the near future. The LC did quite nicely.

I'll check the date codes on what the truck is shod with right now. I won't be surprised if they match with the ribbed one. I'm leaning toward finding a stock rim for the ribbed and tossing the plain.