2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Tires

[Heavy Metal]

Some time ago I posted about a pull to the right that I have been fighting from day one. At the time I had just installed adjustable ball joints to correct the camber difference that the truck has always had. Caster was set to 3. 8-right and 3. 3-left. With those settings, and the camber equal on both sides, the truck should have driven straight. Actually it should have a slight drift to the left on a perfectly flat surface. Instead it still pulled HARD to the right. On the advice of another member, I put the front axle on jackstands, started the engine and watched for a power steering pull. There was none. I rotated, then cross-rotated the tires and even swapped the tires around on the rims such that the outside edge was now the inside edge. No matter what was done the truck still pulled to the right. Having covered everything that I could think of as well as what was suggested, I finally gave up on it. A couple of months ago, I had the tires (Michelin LTX M/S) replaced with Goodyear MTR's. Low and behold the truck drove straight-actually it pulls gently to the left in the left lane which is consistant with the alignment settings. Apparently, it was the tires after all. I have a second set of factory alloys, identical to the ones that came with the truck, which allows me to alternate tires for higway or off road use. These have LTX M/S tires on them. I just put them on the truck yesterday as I am about to be doing alot of travelling and don't want to wear out my MTR's. Again the truck pulls hard to the right. I switched sides-still pulls to the right. In fact I did everthing to them that I did with the old set with the exception of swapping them on the rims. Obviously, Michelin LTX tires pull to the right. What defies logic, however, is that they do it no matter where the are on the truck, or how they are oriented. It doesn't make sense to me that if a tire is causing a pull to the right and is moved to the left side, the truck still pulls to the right. But that seems to be the case with two different sets of tires on two different sets of rims. Someone please explain this to me.



Bryan



BTW Before someone says it's another anti-American conspiracy by those damn frenchies-I've already thought of that.

 

[athompson]

That was my experience as well

The stock Michelins always pulled to the right. It was most noticable when traction was low (most of the time with those tires). When I put the MT/Rs on, the pull went away totally. They even wear better the the Michelins were. I have less wear on the MT/Rs after 14,000 miles than I had on the Michelins after 4,000 miles.

 

[CFAR]

Michelin LTX M/S



Are these the street type or the more aggressive All Terrains.



I remember the truck came with either or. A friend of mine had the AT's and his pulled hard to the right. Mine came with the street type tread, and didn't. His didn't wander (probably because it pulled so hard to the right) and mine wandered like a drunk sailor. So as far as I'm concerned, you are extremely lucky if you don't have a steering problem.

 

[RustyJC]

That's ironic! My wife's 2000 4x2 Durango had developed a pull to the right with the OEM Michelins. It was realigned, checked at the dealer, etc. , and no improvement - until I replaced the OEM Michelins with a new set of Michelin LTX M/S. Now it tracks straight again. That's right, the LTX M/S Michelins cured the pulling problem!



Go figger, I guess!!



Rusty

 

[mberry]

Originally posted by CFAR

Michelin LTX M/S



Are these the street type or the more aggressive All Terrains.



I remember the truck came with either or. A friend of mine had the AT's and his pulled hard to the right. Mine came with the street type tread, and didn't. His didn't wander (probably because it pulled so hard to the right) and mine wandered like a drunk sailor. So as far as I'm concerned, you are extremely lucky if you don't have a steering problem.

CFAR,



These would be the very slightly more aggressive tread, but IMHO, still a street tire. I have had both on my truck and have not had a pulling problem unless the tire pressure was way off from front to rear.



Do me a favor, get me a pastrami sandwich from the TOGO's near the Automall please?

 

[Heavy Metal]

CFAR,



mberry is correct, the two tires offered at the time were LTX M/S and LTX A/S with the M/S being the more "aggressive" of the two.



mberry,



I agree with you about them both being street tires-I get stuck on wet grass with mine.

 

[mberry]

Heavy Metal,



The only reason I replaced my A/S with M/S is that they are really good in the snow and ice. I know I'm not going to make the 60K miles "warranty" on them. Anyone ever read the fine print on the warranty info from Michelin? Practically impossible to comply with the terms for warranty.



However, my next set of tires is going to be Bridgestone A/T REVO's.

 

[CFAR]

Just curious if the slightly more agressive tire was the problem. I've seen a lot of pulls to the right posts.



Hot pastrami with lots of mustard. The only Hot pastrami I've had that was better was in NYC.

 

[JohnE]

Bridgestone Revo is a super tire and priced slightly better than Michelin around here.



The heavy haulers/towers seem to prefer the Toyo M55 series.



I had a set of Goodyear Wrangler RT/S that were very out of round. I even took them to a Goodyear tire shop for a check and rebalance. They rebalanced them and passed the roundness, but no better. I put on another set of RT/S (got them very cheap) and they held balance for the past 50k miles. Winter traction is really bad now that the siping is gone, so I'm shopping.

 

[parcher]

The phenomenon is due to the radial construction. The belts are laid diagonally across the tire, think of these as screw threads. Just the same way flipping a nut over does not make it left hand thread, changing the direction of rotation has no effect on the radial tire pull. I am willing to bet the problem is in just one of the tires. What happens when the drive wheels are swapped for the steer wheels?

 

[PaulG]

i have a set of cooper discoveries m/s on my truck awesome tire, heard they were the best for plowing and figured they must be good then and i'm not dissapointed at all.

 

[WadePatton]

hmmmmmmmm

My 4x2 truck has 265 A/S's on it. No pull.

Mom's 4x4 truck has 265 M/S's on it. No pull.

Mom's 4x4 truck had 245 A/S's on it. No pull.

Dad's 4x4 truck has 265 A/T's on it. No pull, but has wobble.



There's another factor there. Don't know what it is, but I'm glad you got yours fixed.



I want some Revo's for the 4x2.