Not Again ! Darn @#$% Michelin tires

Destroked 450

Well-known Member
Location
Harned, Ky
Baled hay till 9:00 pm, likened about 5 acres finishing.
They where calling for a chance of rain so I brought the tractor and baler back to the barn for just in case.
Went out this morning to find the left back tire flat again!

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These Michelin Agra-Rib radials are 7 years old with over 50% tread. 3 years ago I started having flats due to cracks in the side walls.
I've had 2 flats on the right side and this is the 4th flat on the left.
One more flat repair and I'll have spent as much on repairs as the tire cost new.
This is getting ridicules, no more Michelin tractor tires for me.
 
Some of the auto and pickup tires were recalled, because of the sidewall cracks.
Get the small serial numbers off them, maybe some compensation or replacement
available. (You probably don't want more of the same though)
 
I put Michelin tires on a car before and from then on I was at the tire shop all the time with a flat. Sometimes they couldn't even find the leak. Eventually tore the tires up from them going flat suddenly when I couldn't get off the road. Replace them with another brand and problems went away.
 
I had just the opposite experience.

Got a set of Michelins, and the flats/low tires stopped!

I have no explanation, the old tires were constantly picking up small screws, nails. Nothing changed but the tires, still ran the same route to and from work, and everywhere else I went, but quit picking up punctures.

I've had no problems with Michelins, my preferred brand.
 
Never used Michelin tractor tires, but that is the only tire my vehicles will ever see. They ride well, wear well, & have good traction in all conditions.
 
I've been using Michelin tires on my SUV and pickup for years. Typically get 90,000 + miles with perhaps an occasional flat due to nail or screw.
 
Doesn't matter what brand you use tires all get weather cracks now a day's. After the first flat due to sidewall cracks and a tube ins't installed it's all on you.
 
we sell and service tires of several brands ---Michelin are the bottom of the barrel---just make people feel better due to they cost more
 
(quoted from post at 09:47:48 05/26/18) Never used Michelin tractor tires, but that is the only tire my vehicles will ever see. They ride well, wear well, & have good traction in all conditions.

Yep, what CV said.
 
I have had mixed results with Michelin on my little car. Have
to remember though, many styles and grades in
all brands. Even Wrangler jeans have over 40 different models.
 
At 5 years old / 4500 hours Michelin warranted my agribibs
due to cracks and gave me 77% pro-rating against another
set.

Dealer warned me not to let the be aired down too low or they
would fail.
 
Like someone else mentioned put in a tube, or add some tire sealer. If you add the sealer might not be able to put in a tube, because of the slimy sealer. Stan
 
If you do not have fluid or a tube in the tire I would recommend "real" tire sealant. Not slime or fix-a-flat. Maybe some types of slime. I use a Leak sealer that I get in a five gallon bucket form JD. Part number TY15833 list price $109. Put half the bucket in each tire. Pump them up and drive around. They may leak the first day or so but after that your good to go for a long time.

This sealer is not sticky. It is water soluble. Meaning when you want to replace the tires just wash it off the rim with a garden hose and cold water.

I have two sets of Continental Tires that look like your Michelins. The tread is like iron and is not worn much at all. The side walls started to crack internally. They would pinch the tubes and leak. I hated to replace tires with 75% tread. So I took the tubes out and mounted the tires tubeless. This is on a JD 4440 that is our TMR tractor. This was 10 years ago and I have not had a flat since. Might have to add air once or twice each year but not often.

I also have a JD 4020 that I use to bush hog with. The front and back tires are loaded with thorns/sticks/etc. They look like a pin cushion. I mounted them tubeless with the sealer over 15 years ago. I got tired of the tires being flat all the time when it set. On them I put a five gallon bucket in each rear tire and split a bucket between the front tires. I know this was $300 of sealer but any tires that I would have put n the tractor would have picked up the junk and leaked. This way I just keep on driving with the old "HARD" tires.
 

Michelin truck tires are garbage. We bought (50) 385-22.5-s that had a propensity to blow out. Michelin would do nothing. Said it was our fault. Prior to this realization, I put LTX-AT E rated tires on a Ranger that carried a camper top and a 20lb payload. The Ranger was used daily, the tread looked like new, but the sidewalls were full of cracks within 4 years. Unfortunately I put the same tires on my 2500HD before I realized what was happening. The Chevy is a garage queen with no miles. All I can do is swap those tires onto another vehicle and run them until the sidewalls crack. Michelin recalled LT tires for the same problem but they deny responsibility because the recalled tires are not the same size I purchased. Never again will I buy a Michelin tire.
 
(quoted from post at 10:19:57 05/26/18) I'd put tubes in them.

Had radial tubes put in when they where first mounted, my dealer recommended it because they where having issues with Michelin's leaking thru the sidewalls, they where also loaded but after the second flat on each tire I had them leave the fluid out, thought there might be a possibility the fluid could have something to do with it.
Each time there's been a flat there's a crack in the sidewall that has pinched the tube, they would boot the sidewall and patch or replace the tube. This morning they found another crack in the sidewall but where able to patch the tube, that saved me $90.
I've had Michelin's on cars and pickups and had service from them.
Run a few sets on some semi's and didn't like them, they wore good getting the most miles of any tire I ever ran, but got terrible traction in bad weather, once they where half worn they seemed to get really hard, on wet roads I've had the steer axle skid while turning and more than once had the rears break lose spinning and nearly cause a jackknife situation.
I ran a set of Armstrongs for 18 years without a flat, have a set of 8 year old Firestones and a set of 9 year old Alliances with no flats.
This set of Michelins are 7 years old and have had 6 flats in the last 3 years, don't want the buy a set of tires just yet but at the moment one more flat will probably push me over the edge, especially if that left tire goes flat a 5th time.

Got the rest of the hay baled here on the home farm, ready to move to the MIL's place but their calling for late evening rain the next 5 days, think I'll wait a few days, have some fence mending to do anyway before moving cows to another pasture.
Always a job to do on a farm.
 
Destroked I spent 22 years selling and installing rears. These guys are telling you to use some sorta fix a
flat. Don't waste your dollars. It is not gonna work on sidewall cracking. Been there -- seen it many
times. The only thing its gonna do is make a mess your tire man has to clean up. Michelin had a great program
here. You need to be using Michelin tubes with Michelin rears. They are a different rubber compositon. Their
field service man always wanted to know about any problems anyone had with rears. He was very helpful with
any warentee work, almost as good as Firestone. You might contact Michelin directly. You might have a dealer
problem. Unfortunately I have been out of the tire business for 12 years and I do not remember the contact
numbers. Good luck with your tire problems.
 
I have always found Michelin tires to be long lived. The only problems I have had is they do leak down if dry rotted. A tube will take care of that. I have had other makes that either wore fast or became square. (cupped). Never had that with Michelins. Of course maybe the other makes did not last long enough for the sidewalls to crack.
My misfortune is that they stopped making 14 inch tires because of SUV rollovers or so I was told. It is difficult getting quality long lived 14 inch tires now for out 96 Tacoma.
 
Put michelins on a little sports car..in the early 90s...tread was at 25% in 10k miles. Granted I drove 4 miles of dirt/sand to get to asphalt, they should have lasted longer.
 
I just read in the paper this morning that it appears there was likely a second shooter in the Bobby Kennedy
assassination. There has been a 50-year cover up of the evidence. Meanwhile, Michelin continues to produce
crappy tires yet they are arguably the most successful tire manufacturer on the planet. Conspiracy never
sleeps. Yet JD Power and Associates would argue that they make a quality product. Here ya go .......
2017 Best Tire Manufacturers
 
Are those tires tube type or tubeless? If you have stress cracks on the inside causing leaks or wearing a hole in the tube it may be due to under-inflation at one time or
the other.

I have seen issues like this before and replacement of the tire was the only way to stop the problem

Michelin makes a great tire but their marketing is also better than other companies.

However I have vulcanized a lot of Michelin tires due to side wall cracks.
 
I would cut or grind a skive in the damaged area, fill it with cusion gum rubber and cook it with a spotter. Then apply a vulcanize quality re-enforcement boot over
the area inside the tire.

maybe this link will help. The only difference between the video and the work that I did; is the shop were i worked was too tight to buy the extruder gun for rubber
fill. I had to do it by hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzSDTuC9aIY


P.S> there is a product on the market called A B compound from Rema, that is a cold vulcanizing product used for off road vehicles. I have used ot for many sidewall
and tread repairs. It works great but most people dont understand the main rule of vulcanizing; cleanliness.
 
Well WGM, some of the comments made by YT'ers related to their cars and trucks ..... I guess there is a possibility Michelin rates at the top of the four categories in that car and truck survey and then at the bottom of ag tires, but somehow I doubt it. Part of the conspiracy to trick you of course, my uncle's neighbor's boss told him that Michelin pays JD Power under the table, how's that for proof of a conspiracy? If you have time, do some Googling on Ag tires yourself, I'm sure something will pop up. I might go looking myself.
 
Ha-Ha. How true Pete! back in 2005, the week after the US Formula 1 Grand Prix race at Indianapolis, while watching six cars with Bridgestone tires run practice laps for the entire duration of the race, Michael Shoemacher won the race while 14 Michelin shod cars, including Michael's little brother Ralf st in their garages afraid to run their cars and have their tires fail like happened to several racers in practice, Anyhow, my new 2006 Volvo S40 I ordered showed up at the dealer, sitting on four new Michelin tirez, told the sales lady I liked the car, hated the tires, CHANGE THEM TO ANYTHING except more Michelin or Good Years. Told her why. She said $500 to swap wheels & tires, said I'd bring my jack and tools and do it myself, I'd even pick the donor car. She got mad, I got Madder! After 72,000 miles I did put four new Bridgestone tires on the car. The Michelin tires had poor traction, wet or dry, forget about snow, I'll NEVER have another Michelin tire again. They were loud, flat spotted, rumbled, Over-priced foreign junk! Car was built in Ghent, Belgium, tires somewhere in Europe, probably France.
 
I used to own a Zetor 3340 and it came new with an air compressor mounted on it. Air line & chuck came with it. Handy as all get-out. Don't know why more tractors don't come that way. Never had a flat on the tractor but helped in a dozen other ways.
 
Hi the agribibs on my Valtra started to do the same with good treads on, both fronts and back. I put a couple boots in the fronts with thick natural rubber tubes and
they lasted a few more years, I just changed them for new BKT's that match the rear part worn tires in the michelin size for ratio's 2 weeks ago when 1 went flat again with a new split. the bad back one had a tube
fitted to when it started leaking . after it started puncturing the tube every couple months in a different spot to where I put a boot in, and fixed the tube. I finally clued in when I was starting to get mad pumping fluid that I need and fixing it during cold Canadian winters .


When the tire is off go round inside with a light you can likely see where the next place to go bad is starting to show it will be a mark in the
inside of the wall in the same kinda position as a previous repair .

My local tire shop I buy supplies from sold me a couple boxes of patches about 3x6" or something like that for about $20 to cover the rough spot instead of expensive boots. I patched
everything that looked suspicious, and it solved the problem for a long while on that tire.

I ended up lucky a friend had a match to the best tire the other side, so I swapped my bad tire and rim for his good one when he put wider tires
and rims on his Valtra . I've heard of lots of guys have the same problem with Michelin's and I'm going to BKT's on the rears when I have to.
Regards Robert
 

Rolled up 10 acres of hay yesterday finishing that location and brought the tractor and baler back to my MIL's place in preparation to move to the next farm which is only a couple miles from my house, this will finish up the first cutting.

Went there this morning to find the left back tire going flat again! This makes the 5th time that tire has gone flat! @#%*$$!

My 5000 has a power steering leak under the radiator which is a bit of a job to work on, so I'm going to rob a tire and wheel from it to finish up the hay and then decide what I'm going to do about these junky Michelins.
 
Best tires I've ever ran. Wouldn't buy anything else & haven't for the last 52 years.
 

Apparently your referring to car and pickup tires, not rear tractor tires.
Michelin car tires are some of the best, their rear tractor tires are some of the worst.

I've had their car and pickup tires and really liked them.
I've ran their commercial truck tires on semi's, got good wear but poor traction from them.
I'll never own another set of their POS tractor tires.
 
(quoted from post at 11:25:53 06/20/18)
Apparently your referring to car and pickup tires, not rear tractor tires.
Michelin car tires are some of the best, their rear tractor tires are some of the worst.

I've had their car and pickup tires and really liked them.
I've ran their commercial truck tires on semi's, got good wear but poor traction from them.
I'll never own another set of their POS tractor tires.
ot it!
 

Follow up on the Michelin tire problem.

Ended up swapping the tires and wheels from the 5000 onto the 6610 and installed the Michelins on the 5000. No more flats on the 6610 but not much tread ether.
Later when we got the 500 in the shop to fix the power steering line we broke the left tire down to see why it had went flat again.
Found another crack in the side wall and a pinched tube, installed another boot and patched the tube again.
Couple of weeks ago the right tire went flat again, after some research I ordered two Firestone severe duty made in USA radial tubes and a couple boxes of 3x6 radial patches.
We pulled the tire off giving it a good look over, ended patching three more spots in the side wall, split the old tube and rapped it around to new one as a liner, put the tire and tubes back on and aired them up, next we pulled the left tire back off and did the same thing ending up adding nine more patches to the sides of that tire to go along with the five already there, rapped the old tube around the new one and put that tire and tube back on.
Haven't used the tractor yet but hopefully we won't have any flats for a while.
Next year we'll be looking for new tires to go on the 6610 again, I can assure you it won't be Michelins.
 

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