Michelin Tires, Cross Terrain or LTX?

In the past, I have had several sets of LTX M/S tires on my Explorers
and agree with everyone who says they are a great tire. I am planning
to replace the original Goodrich tires soon on my '05 as they have
gotten so noisy they are bugging me. Question is whether I should
consider the Cross Terrains since Michelin says this tire is designed
for SUV's. Anyone had experience with them and can comment?

"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
...
> In the past, I have had several sets of LTX M/S tires on my Explorers
> and agree with everyone who says they are a great tire. I am planning
> to replace the original Goodrich tires soon on my '05 as they have
> gotten so noisy they are bugging me. Question is whether I should
> consider the Cross Terrains since Michelin says this tire is designed
> for SUV's. Anyone had experience with them and can comment?

www.TireRack.com has all the comments and comparisons you could ever
possibly want.

Thanks for the reply - I've looked at the information in tire rack and
they seem to slightly favor the Cross Terrain. I'm looking for some
first hand information from Explorer drivers here.

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:20:18 -0700, "Andy Barkl"
> wrote:

>"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
.. .
>> In the past, I have had several sets of LTX M/S tires on my Explorers
>> and agree with everyone who says they are a great tire. I am planning
>> to replace the original Goodrich tires soon on my '05 as they have
>> gotten so noisy they are bugging me. Question is whether I should
>> consider the Cross Terrains since Michelin says this tire is designed
>> for SUV's. Anyone had experience with them and can comment?
>
>www.TireRack.com has all the comments and comparisons you could ever
>possibly want.
>

I had the LTX and really liked them. Sears put them on during the Firestone
recall.

I really did like the tires and was getting very good tread wear. At about
50K miles, the tire started cupping and made road noise. But they still had
good tread on them.

I took them back to Sears and they gave me an allowance on each tire, so I
put LTXs back on. I like the tire.

Not sure what caused the cupping. I replaced shocks and aligned front end
when I put on new LTXs.
"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
...
In the past, I have had several sets of LTX M/S tires on my Explorers
and agree with everyone who says they are a great tire. I am planning
to replace the original Goodrich tires soon on my '05 as they have
gotten so noisy they are bugging me. Question is whether I should
consider the Cross Terrains since Michelin says this tire is designed
for SUV's. Anyone had experience with them and can comment?

LTX/MS might be the best tired I've ever owned. I had the Sears version
(LC-SOMETHING) on my '99 Explorer after the Flintstone recall. They were the
best tires I've ever owned. So when the second set of Bridgestones went on
my current 2003 Mountaineer at about 45,000 miles (not terrible here in the
hills of Pittsburgh where 30,000 is EXCELLENT out of any tire), I installed
LTX-MS. I would NOT get the Cross-Terrain as they don't seem as rugged or
durable. Just my eyeball opinion though.

Anyway, the original tires (I sold the vehicle to a friend with about 35000
miles on the tires) went over 50,000 miles here in Pittsburgh which is
unheard of. Unheard of.

"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
...
> In the past, I have had several sets of LTX M/S tires on my Explorers
> and agree with everyone who says they are a great tire. I am planning
> to replace the original Goodrich tires soon on my '05 as they have
> gotten so noisy they are bugging me. Question is whether I should
> consider the Cross Terrains since Michelin says this tire is designed
> for SUV's. Anyone had experience with them and can comment?

"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the reply - I've looked at the information in tire rack and
> they seem to slightly favor the Cross Terrain. I'm looking for some
> first hand information from Explorer drivers here.

You can find reports only from Explorer owners at TireRack.com. I have the
LTX M/S and wouldn't settle for anything less. My brother's has the Cross
Terrain and they are quieter but not as "truck-tire" looking.

I've been following this thread with a lot of interest because my '03 is
ready for some replacement tires. I had a '94 Eddie Bauer that came with the
OE Firestones and the day I installed my first pair of LTX's, I thought I
just got a new truck. No more wandering, no more weird vibrations, no more
fearing for my life! However, I always wondered about the Cross Terrains.

What is the primary difference between these two treads? From the comment
below, it sounds like they might be a quieter tire. That was the only thing
(aside from the price!) that I didn't like about the LTX's....the tire
noise. It wasn't THAT bad, but as an audiofile, I didn't like the sound of
the tires competing with some of my quieter music. Any help or info you guys
can offer would be appreciated as I need to get a new set of tires before a
Thanksgiving trip to Tenn.

dave


"Andy Barkl" > wrote in message
...
> "Big Shoe" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Thanks for the reply - I've looked at the information in tire rack and
>> they seem to slightly favor the Cross Terrain. I'm looking for some
>> first hand information from Explorer drivers here.
>
> You can find reports only from Explorer owners at TireRack.com. I have the
> LTX M/S and wouldn't settle for anything less. My brother's has the Cross
> Terrain and they are quieter but not as "truck-tire" looking.
>

Big Shoe wrote:
> In the past, I have had several sets of LTX M/S tires on my Explorers
> and agree with everyone who says they are a great tire. I am planning
> to replace the original Goodrich tires soon on my '05 as they have
> gotten so noisy they are bugging me. Question is whether I should
> consider the Cross Terrains since Michelin says this tire is designed
> for SUV's. Anyone had experience with them and can comment?
>
I put the Cross Terrains on my 02-F150 , nice smooth ride and very
quiet, grips the road in rain.
A few months later it was time to replace the tires on our 99 EB, so I
went with the Cross Terrains for the Explorer too. Just got back from
the Smokies and it handled great - This is the fourth set of tires on
the Explorer (129,000 miles on it)...............So far these are the
best tires.......got the best price at Walmart special order. Got the
set for the truck at Tires Plus, but the price went up and had to go
shopping.
Here is my experience on the Explorer tires.
1st set was original Firestones (very quiet tire and handled well)
These were recalled.
2nd set was Bridgestone Duelers, (worse tires I ever owned) noisy after
15,000 miles, was so glad to get rid of them and thought I had found the
solution with >
Continental SUVs - nice quiet tire for about 20,000 miles, drove them
until they reached 50K and then
Michelin Cross Terrains., so far I have around 6000 on them and they
are still as smooth and noise free as day one.

Enough said, I could go on.............

Thanks to the group for the feedback. There were so many favorable
comments, here and in Tire Rack, about both tires that I concluded
they are both excellent tires. I went for the LTX, bought at Costco
with a $60 discount in effect. Got rid of the terrible tire noise I
was getting from the Goodrich original tires.

On Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:46:40 GMT, yarrrrrgh
> wrote:

>On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:07:15 -0700, "Andy Barkl"
> wrote:
>
>>"Big Shoe" > wrote in message
. ..
>>> Thanks for the reply - I've looked at the information in tire rack and
>>> they seem to slightly favor the Cross Terrain. I'm looking for some
>>> first hand information from Explorer drivers here.
>>
>>You can find reports only from Explorer owners at TireRack.com. I have the
>>LTX M/S and wouldn't settle for anything less. My brother's has the Cross
>>Terrain and they are quieter but not as "truck-tire" looking.
>>
>
>As Andy said...
>" I have the LTX M/S and wouldn't settle for anything less."
>
>MASSIVE difference in ride quality, longevity, and handling.
>And "noiseless," AFA truck tires go!! (at least IMO)
>
>Plus, they will stand up to much heavier loads IF you need to
>haul/pull anything. (Mine are C rated IIRC)
>
>Best of luck with your decision!