Is Michelin coming out with 15" e rated ST tire ??

[MOS]

I think I have read that Michelin is coming out with a 15" e rated ST tire .
Is that true or BS ??
If so when ?
thanks

[Rocinante]

If so I'd certainly love to know about them - really soon.

As of now the best Michelin tire I've been able to find for 15" rims: http://www.michelinman.com/US/en/tir.../15/109/T.html

We're planning to mount a set these on our International Signature 27FB on Friday. We've heard enough good reports about the 15" Michelin LTX M/S2 tires Airstreams in our weight range that we're going for it ourselves. These new tires have a slightly increased weight rating (109 vs. 108), though they are clearly not E-rated tires.

[MOS]

What is the weight limit for the 109?

[Rocinante]

Per the Michelin website, the rating for each of the Michelin Defender LTX M/S 235/75R15 235/75R15/XL 109T tire is 2,271 pounds @50psi.

De-rated by 10% for trailer use (there are dissertations about this all across the Forum), the rating would be 2,064. Multiply that by 4 to get 8,256 total capacity.

Here's the link that provided the weight capacity info: http://www.michelinman.com/US/en/tir...tail-sku-table

[RAH]

let us know how it goes with the 15" Michelin Defender. I have the Michelin LTX (15) on my AS, and I just put the Michelin Defenders on my truck. I don't know when I will replace all 4 AS tires, but it will be good to have a report on the Defender to see if that is an option in the future.

[subfan1]

I would also be interested for our 20 Flying Cloud. They need to increase the weight rating for us single axles.

[franklyfrank]

Originally Posted by MOS

I think I have read that Michelin is coming out with a 15" e rated ST tire .
Is that true or BS ??
If so when ?
thanks

They don't need to and they are not. They have a tire perfectly suitable for that market. Lot of smart people already have them on their Airstreams.

[AtomicNo13]

Yes but as Michelin will tell you...
Mounting an LT tire on a travel trailer is a misapplication and voids the warranty of the tire.
michelin sent me a letter stating their official policy and position. Many say something to the effect that Airstream offers these as standard... its Airstream's decision not the component manufacturers......
I'm not trying to start a war, just sharing factual information right from the source. This smart person tried them.and literally ripped the sidewall at the bead while backing his tripleaxle on 2 different sets. Ive had failures of the sidewall as well. This cost me.tens of thousands of dollars on repairs... a well maintained st tire has cost me zero on failure repair. I.fulltime and cover 20-50 thousand miles a year.

[Dingo Girl]

Originally Posted by AtomicNo13

Yes but as Michelin will tell you...
Mounting an LT tire on a travel trailer is a misapplication and voids the warranty of the tire.
michelin sent me a letter stating their official policy and position. Many say something to the effect that Airstream offers these as standard... its Airstream's decision not the component manufacturers......
I'm not trying to start a war, just sharing factual information right from the source.

Facts are nice.

[Rocinante]

If Rocinante had 16" wheels, we might go with the Michelin Ribs vs. ST tires, despite the price - in part because Michelin approves of them for trailer use. However, we wanted to find a solution that let us keep our 15" wheels and got us away from ST tires.

Andrew T's (CanAm RV) extensive positive experience putting the Michelin LTX M/S2 tires on lots of twin-axle Airstreams, as well as many others here who shared glowing reports of their experiences, have convinced us to give this a try.

We're not super worried about tire warranties, BTW. In our experience, especially with good tires, a puncture of some kind is the most common tire failure. The only thing that covers this is a 3rd party road hazard warranty, which DT has agreed to sell us. So if the tires work well, we're set. If they don't, we'll deal with that.

Meanwhile, we've seen many reports here of ST tires doing unfortunate things for no particularly good reason that wound up causing fairly expensive damage to the trailer. We'd like to avoid that.

While we realize that nothing posted in this forum represents a statistically significant sample, based on that input we've decided to go with the Michelin Defender LTX M/S 235/75R15 235/75R15/XL 109T tires. Same manufacturer, same size, and slightly better weight rating than the tires folks here have been using for years on 25-27 model International trailers with good results. Wish us luck. We'll share our statistically insignificant experiences here as well.

BTW, based on AtomicNo13's story and the weight ratings of these tires, we'd avoid putting them on triple-axle trailers. Further, we would not use these tires on a heavier double-axle trailer (e.g. Classic, Land Yacht, etc.) For triple axles and those heavier double-axle units we'd probably just bite the bullet to go with 16" wheels and, most likely, Michelin Ribs.

Last but not least, we're not telling anybody to try anything we've decided to try. Do what you want with your trailer; we won't be offended if you make different choices.

[senioryakker]

Good info, Atomic No.13. Makes me feel better with sticking with ST tires, but love the Michelins on my TV.

[xrvr]

Originally Posted by AtomicNo13

Yes but as Michelin will tell you...
Mounting an LT tire on a travel trailer is a misapplication and voids the warranty of the tire.
michelin sent me a letter stating their official policy and position. Many say something to the effect that Airstream offers these as standard... its Airstream's decision not the component manufacturers......
I'm not trying to start a war, just sharing factual information right from the source. This smart person tried them.and literally ripped the sidewall at the bead while backing his tripleaxle on 2 different sets. Ive had failures of the sidewall as well. This cost me.tens of thousands of dollars on repairs... a well maintained st tire has cost me zero on failure repair. I.fulltime and cover 20-50 thousand miles a year.

And yet my tire dealer gave me a road hazard warranty and the usual tire warranty. He knew it was for a tt.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by AtomicNo13

Yes but as Michelin will tell you...
Mounting an LT tire on a travel trailer is a misapplication and voids the warranty of the tire.
michelin sent me a letter stating their official policy and position. Many say something to the effect that Airstream offers these as standard... its Airstream's decision not the component manufacturers......
I'm not trying to start a war, just sharing factual information right from the source. This smart person tried them.and literally ripped the sidewall at the bead while backing his tripleaxle on 2 different sets. Ive had failures of the sidewall as well. This cost me.tens of thousands of dollars on repairs... a well maintained st tire has cost me zero on failure repair. I.fulltime and cover 20-50 thousand miles a year.

Which Michelin LT tire were you running when you had these failures?

[gr.austin]

Only tires with a "P" in the tire size need to be de-rated the ten percent. LT tires 16"+ are better than the trailer tires. Also the imbalance of the trailer needs to be considered. So have 15-20% additional capacity for this imbalance is just good safety.

Happy Streaming.....

[Rocinante]

Just for the sake of clarity, per a call I just made to Michelin, the Michelin Defender LTX M/S 235/75R15 235/75R15/XL 109T is not a P-metric tire. That is, there is no "P" in the size. It is what they referred to as a "euro-metric" tire.

According to Tire Rack, however, it doesn't really matter. You still have to de-rate to put these tires on a trailer. The figure they use is 9% vs. the 10% we usually see quoted here. Either way, these tires have plenty of capacity for our trailer's GVWR even though, based on CAT scale visits in the past, we don't expect us to hit that anytime soon.

I'm sure this has been cited before, but just for completeness: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiret...jsp?techid=219

[switz]

Actually a tri-axle has a much lower weight per tire than most other models. Take the 11,500 GVW of the Classic 34 and divide by 6 and the math shows 1,916 pounds per tire versus the 2,500 pounds per tire number of the 31 Classic. Since the tongue weight will decrease the tire load, the 15" Michelins are suitable even at their derated capacity.

[AtomicNo13]

Indeed but ever watch a triaxle back into a spot?
I literally ripped off a Michelin.... not popped a bead but tore the sidewall of a 16" ms2.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Just for the sake of clarity, per a call I just made to Michelin, the Michelin Defender LTX M/S 235/75R15 235/75R15/XL 109T is not a P-metric tire. That is, there is no "P" in the size. It is what they referred to as a "euro-metric" tire.

According to Tire Rack, however, it doesn't really matter. You still have to de-rate to put these tires on a trailer. The figure they use is 9% vs. the 10% we usually see quoted here.

I posted something recently about the regulation on derating passenger tires for use on trailers by dividing sidewalk capacity by 1.1 which actually is effectively a 9% reduction, not 10%. I questioned whether the person writing the spec mistakenly applied the reverse function of markups to this derating procedure (if you need to make a 10% profit you would MULTIPLY your price by 1.1 and that would give you a full 10%). To reduce by a full 10% you would actually multiply the capacity by .9, but I have to assume the spec is what it is.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by switz

Actually a tri-axle has a much lower weight per tire than most other models. Take the 11,500 GVW of the Classic 34 and divide by 6 and the math shows 1,916 pounds per tire versus the 2,500 pounds per tire number of the 31 Classic. Since the tongue weight will decrease the tire load, the 15" Michelins are suitable even at their derated capacity.

I don't think it's a weight question but the severe forces on the sidewalls in hard turns (especially backing in to a spot) for those triaxles.

[tjdonahoe]

I sure like my 225/75/16 e michelins, and I am not worried about the sidewall,on my 31 classic there is 8700 lbs on the 2 axles...