jmezo

Ok Ive had the Michelin Cross Terrains now for 5K mi and I still dont know if I love or hate them.

Handling.... Love em, alot!
Ride noise over concrete.... Hate em.
Looks..... Love em.
Ride over very small bumps.... ( bouncy ) hate em.
Ride over large bumps.... Love em ( I think suspension at work).
Rougher ride than Bridgstone HT ( suspension problems later in life?), dont know.
I just dont know about these tires. Could anyone try something else beside bridgstone, Goodyear or Michelin CT.

spinteews

have a picture of them tires?? i want to change my stock tires now... but i'd rather wait till the wear out then switch over to them michelin...

mooretorque

Spinteews, if you go to TireRack.com, you can see a nice pix plus buyer's reviews of the Michelin CT. As far as wearing the Goodyears a little further, couple things to keep in mind. Will generally vilified around here (and at every other RX forum I look in on), they are adequate. Reasonably quiet, reasonable wet weather traction. For that matter, they even did fine when we had 2 icestorms here in Arkansas last Christmas/New Year's with some light snow mixed in and had 26k miles on them at the time. But I don't go offroad at all (wife's car, after all) and we never had any real snow to deal with, either. BUT because they have really pretty good tread life, you could be driving them for a long time. The rality is taht you are driving on tires almost for free since they only cost about $55 apiece (!!!!!) from TireRack. So it's not as if you are wasting a lot of money if you go ahead and replace them.

Jmezo, I don't think the stiffer sidewalls will lead to increased suspension wear. Admittedly, I have no data to suport that other than Michelin's advertising that they designed the CT specifically for the car-based SUVs. Which generally don't go offroad much (less than 5% is the commonly published figure) and have less robust suspension components. But, like you, only about 5k on the Michelins so we'll have to wait and see. Experience mostly positive though. All tires/tread patterns are tradeoffs between noise on different pavement types, ride, dry handling, wet handling and tread life. I can live with Michelin's compromises.

RXKen

Something I just noticed in comparing the Goodyear Integritys to the Michelin Cross Terrains is that the Goodyear's have a max pressure of 44psi and the Cross Terrain's have 35 max psi (seems kinda low as a "max"). What PSI do most Cross Terrain owners run their tires at?

Also the treadwear number was higher for the Cross Terrain, although they don't come with the 50,000 mile warranty that the Goodyear's do. The Cross Terrains also had a deeper tread.

Cost difference though was $59 vs. $124 per tire, or over twice as expensive.

MikeK

RXKen:
Your review of the ride differences (between GY and Mich) is "Right On"! I can agree with each observation. BTW, I keep mine at 30psi.