Are original equipment tires really that bad

[RvReno]

Bought my truck brand new April 2019 and tires are down to 4/32. We have rolled 32,000 miles, a sold 10K of those miles towing our travel trailer, the balance being mostly freeway without the trailer. Tires are Michelin LTX MS2, which when bought new have a 70,000 warranty.

Seems to me the Michelin are awful, I didn’t’ even get 50% of the expected mileage! They almost always get great reviews, how is that posible? Then I read original equipment tires are not the same, even through they have the same model.

So, are OE tires really that bad?

Thanks in advance

[J Maguire]

OE tires are the same tires sold off the rack at the tire store, I don't believe there's a qualitative difference. What does make tires wear sooner is poor air pressure oversight and lack of rotation. Furthermore, it's common for those who live in very hot environments like Reno, Las Vegas and Phoenix to expect premature tire wear and degradation. However, these tires come with pro-ration warranties so you should get some money back for the miles you didn't
get and can place it toward a new pair of tires from the same manufacturer. Michelin makes some of the most advanced tires on the market. Cheers!

[RvReno]

OE tires are the same tires sold off the rack at the tire store, I don't believe there's a qualitative difference. What does make tires wear sooner is poor air pressure oversight and lack of rotation. Furthermore, it's common for those who live in very hot environments like Reno, Las Vegas and Phoenix to expect premature tire wear and degradation. However, these tires come with pro-ration warranties so you should get some money back for the miles you didn't
get and can place it toward a new pair of tires from the same manufacturer. Michelin makes some of the most advanced tires on the market. Cheers!

Thanks J - half of the warranty tread life seems crazy. This is my first heavy trailer so I really do not know what to expect. On my cars and SUV's I usually see 80% or better. Half really seems low...

[Cajun Couple]

Only 30K miles on my OEM Michelins LTX AT2's. Fronts are wearing a little on the edges but the rear's on my dually still look new. Have about 6 to 7K miles towing on some of the worse roads in the nation. Will probably replace them at 50K miles. No flats or balance problems with these tires and very comfortable for daily driving.

[larry0071]

The rears will wear much faster as trailer load goes up. If you run a particular tire on an empty truck and then again on a truck with a 14,000 lb trailer attached, you will see a massive change in tire life. That is just how life works out, your doing a lot more "work" with the trailer on the truck. Pulling much harder to start out, pushing more in all turns, pulling at the rubber much more for breaking, heat generation and dispersion during rolling, flexing and deforming of the tread blocks under load during all aspects of use... The tire are simply doing a ton more work. All of this equates to increased tire wear. It's also why your Honda Accord tires last years and then start to dry rot and your tow rig tires do not.

[Bamaman]

Best thing you can do is rotate tires on any tow vehicle. My F250 eats tires on the rear ends if I'm towing any trailers. The diesel engine is so strong (with a tuner) that it literally spins the tires from any dead stop. I've gotten 30K miles on one set of tires and 40K on the next set (not towing.) My last set of tires were Michelins, and the fronts would have been good for 60K+ had I not run over something.

I also have a new 2020 F150 that has 20" Michelins. I'm hearing many people online getting 60-70K miles out of them in everyday driving.

[RvReno]

Thanks all. At the end of the day, the best explination I heard was from the delaership service writer. He said treadlife warranty is a customer retention program, not really a warranty. That changed my thinking about the warranty all together and it makes much more sense. I then told him, in this case the customer retention program had the exact opposite effect, it left a bad taste. The sevice writer called Michelin who then set me up with a 25% discount for the next set. Customer retained for at least one more set...

[el Rojo]

I got 37,000 on my OEM's on a Chevy dually. Michelin MS2's.