Michelin Options

[Derphound01]

This is a question more regarding my Edge, but I figured I would ask here because you guys are pretty smart about these things.

My Edge AWD is due for tires. Historically I have run the Michelin LTX M/S2 on it and love them. I deal with the occasional washed out road or winter storm or muddy trail with what I do. Costco no longer stocks those, but they do have the new CrossClimate 2. It is also M+S rated with the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake.

I need a tire that is aggressive enough for mud tracks and snow. Do you guys have any experience with the CrossClimate 2 and if so what do you think? Would it fit what I need or should I try to find a NOS set of the LTXs?

 

[Swamprat]

I need a tire that is aggressive enough for mud tracks and snow. Do you guys have any experience with the CrossClimate 2 and if so what do you think? Would it fit what I need or should I try to find a NOS set of the LTXs?

I'm running Michelin Defender II on my 2011 Lincoln MKZ AWD. Worked great last winter here in New York, 80,000 mile tread wear, Handle good enough for me, quiet on the highway.

 

[KevinVarnes]

I wasn't going to chime in since it wasn't the question you asked, but since Swamprat posted I will too. I'll +2 on the Defender II tires. I have them on our daily drivers (Thunderbird and Saturn wagon) and they are pretty good. They handle snow well and I usually get 70k-80K miles out of them. They run quiet. I recommended them to another guy here at work and he put them on his 2014(ish) Explorer and loves them as well. They aren't summer ultra high performance tires, but they are pretty capable. It seems like Costco dialed back their tire selection a few years ago and I know they don't carry the Defender.

 

[Kidd-7]

I’ve been running Toyo tires on my explorers and like them, but I don’t deal with adverse weather. Just the occasional heavy rain.

 

[theterminator93]

Just replaced the Yokohama Avid Ascent GTs on the wife's Energi. They're surprisingly grippy in the winter weather for an all-season. I'd imagine slush/snow would be roughly equivalent to your driving conditions, but YMMV (literally). Mileage was disappointing though; only got about 45k out of them.

 

[Derphound01]

I should also note that I like to stick with Michelin. I have Hagerty insurance and they give me a $100 rebate for each set I buy.

I have the Defenders on the Fusion and love them. The non-LTX Defenders aren't aggressive enough for what I need. The Defender LTX is just the old M/S2 with a new name.

It seems like Costco dialed back their tire selection a few years ago and I know they don't carry the Defender.

They have. They still include road hazard and nitrogen for free though so it's worth it.

 

[MadMikeyL]

FYI the nitrogen filled tire thing is a total scam. This is one of those “race cars use it so it must be good for my car too” BS things, just like drilled/slotted rotors.

Nitrogen filled tires was started by NASCAR teams. Their reason for doing it is that pure nitrogen has less of a pressure change with the change in temperature. So when the tires are hot as hell from going 200mph and you slow down for some caution laps, the tires cool down, your pressure drops, and for the first lap or 2 once they start again, your car doesn’t handle as well. By inflating them with pure nitrogen, the pressures don’t drop as much on the caution laps, and they have an advantage for those couple laps. First off, obviously you aren’t driving your Edge at 200mph. Secondly, street tires and race slicks are designed and constructed very differently, and one of those differences has to do with shedding heat. Slicks are designed to keep the heat in so they stay sticky. Street tires are designed to shed the heat so they don’t wear out too fast. Hence the maximum tire temperature you could achieve on a street tire is nowhere near as hot as the racing tire, so any effect is further diminished. Thirdly NASCAR teams mount the tires on the rims, then pull a vacuum on them to evacuate all air, and then inflate them with 100% pure nitrogen. Costco isn’t doing that, they are just using the tank of nitrogen to fill them, but there is already atmospheric pressure in the tire, meaning it isn’t pure nitrogen anymore. Fourth, even the tanks of nitrogen they are using aren’t pure nitrogen. A nitrogen cylinder is typically about 90-95% nitrogen. You can get 99%+ pure nitrogen tanks, but it costs about 10x as much, which is no problem for race teams with unlimited budgets, but I can guarantee you that Costco is just buying the cheapest nitrogen cylinders they can find. And finally, the fucking air all around you is already 78% nitrogen! So given that you added 2 bars of 90% nitrogen to a container that already had 1 bar of atmospheric pressure (78% nitrogen), with a little math we can see it is really just a question of whether the tires have 78% nitrogen, or 85% nitrogen.

If they aren’t charging anything for it, then whatever, but don’t think for a second that there is any advantage to it whatsoever. Just fill the tires with regular compressed air to the pressure recommended on the door tag. Sorry for the rant, but nitrogen filled tires on mall-crawling SUVs to me is no better than shady shops selling “summer and winter air” to unsuspecting old ladies.

 

[Derphound01]

TL,DR.

I know and I agree. It's free though at Costco so I ain't mad.

Also looking at Costco vs. Discount, the tires and install are the same price at both places. You also get free R&B either way. However Costco gives you the road hazard for free while Discount charges you essentially the price of one extra tire for it.

 

[Kurt K]

I like Costco for the convenience of the free tire rotations. I know other places offer free rotations, but I can't grocery shop at most places.

 

[Jae 'Bird]

FYI the nitrogen filled tire thing is a total scam. This is one of those “race cars use it so it must be good for my car too” BS things, just like drilled/slotted rotors.

Nitrogen filled tires was started by NASCAR teams.........

I can't tell you how much I agree with you, the number of people that don't even realize that the air is majority nitrogen blows my minds, I would rather people actually keep their tires at the proper tire pressure than care about what types of gasses are going in

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

My mom has a 15 Edge Titanium, I believe she’s running Pirelli Scorpion tires and she seems to like them, otherwise she’d complain about them to me.

 

[Derphound01]

My mom has a 15 Edge Titanium, I believe she’s running Pirelli Scorpion tires and she seems to like them, otherwise she’d complain about them to me.

Does she have the regular Scorpions or the Scorpion WeatherActives? The standard ones are not winter rated and that's a dealbreaker for me. I'm up in West Virginia a lot during the winter and need that traction.

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

Does she have the regular Scorpions or the Scorpion WeatherActives? The standard ones are not winter rated and that's a dealbreaker for me. I'm up in West Virginia a lot during the winter and need that traction.

I think they’re regular Scorpions, I’m in Mass, and they seem to go good in snow, but hers is AWD.

 

[Grog6]

If you have access to a compressor with a dryer, like for a paint booth, that's as good as nitrogen. It's the water in the air, humidity, that makes the difference. Water changes volume 1600x from 0-100C, so a drop of water makes a huge difference. Nitrogen is a scam, but out of a bottle it's dry.

 

[Derphound01]

I have a dryer on my compressor for this exact reason. That and for prolonging the life spans of my air tools.

 

[Irv]

My parents have the Michelin CrossClimate 2 from Costco on their Escape. They seem to be good tires, but I can't tell you a damn thing about how they perform in mud and snow. They're noticeably quieter than the Continental ContiProContact though.

 

[Jae 'Bird]

I don't have any personal experience with them, but up here in the great white north, I hear lots of people use the cross climate 2 and they say good things about them, and they like the all weather (including winter) performance, I know Costco here carries them so I'd imagine its the same there, and I would doubt you see the kinda winter weather we get in Alberta, on average, our winter temp is about -4° F and during cold snaps we get down to -40° F and sometimes even lower

 

[Kidd-7]

You keep that cold.

 

[Jae 'Bird]

Haha oh yeah you would never see those kinda temps in NC, why do you think so many Canadians go south for holidays in the winter