We bought eight new drive tires yesterday. Once ready to swap eight dual drive tires for four Michelin super singles (Michelin X One), we ended up going once again with dual drives. The reason was simple. Michelin could not deliver the X One tires.
We ordered them weeks in advance but no tires came. Our tire dealer of choice (McMahon Tire, Inc., Fort Wayne, Indiana) worked out a sweet deal that would enable us to trade in our Alcoa Dura-Bright wheels on new Dura-Brights for the X One tires. But inquiries to Michelin from the dealer fell on deaf ears and no X One tires were delivered.
When we bought the truck two years ago we passed on super singles because of replacement tire availability concerns. That concern eased as we saw them become more available. But with the economic downturn now in progress, that seems to have changed. Inventories are being cut. Production is being cut. Products that are out of the mainstream are less likely to be stocked.
We would have liked to have a brand new set of X One tires on our truck but Michelin proved to us that they cannot deliver them when needed. That's a disappointment. We will look at X One tires the next time around. That will be a while. The Michelins we replaced performed well. With 330,000 miles on them, 6/32" of tread depth remained.
On a related note, our dealer told us that B.F. Goodrich (owned by Michelin) has stopped making truck tires of any kind until the end of the year. That decision was made a few weeks or months ago. My guess is that with fewer trucks on the road and less miles being driven, the demand for truck tires has declined.
We ordered them weeks in advance but no tires came. Our tire dealer of choice (McMahon Tire, Inc., Fort Wayne, Indiana) worked out a sweet deal that would enable us to trade in our Alcoa Dura-Bright wheels on new Dura-Brights for the X One tires. But inquiries to Michelin from the dealer fell on deaf ears and no X One tires were delivered.
When we bought the truck two years ago we passed on super singles because of replacement tire availability concerns. That concern eased as we saw them become more available. But with the economic downturn now in progress, that seems to have changed. Inventories are being cut. Production is being cut. Products that are out of the mainstream are less likely to be stocked.
We would have liked to have a brand new set of X One tires on our truck but Michelin proved to us that they cannot deliver them when needed. That's a disappointment. We will look at X One tires the next time around. That will be a while. The Michelins we replaced performed well. With 330,000 miles on them, 6/32" of tread depth remained.
On a related note, our dealer told us that B.F. Goodrich (owned by Michelin) has stopped making truck tires of any kind until the end of the year. That decision was made a few weeks or months ago. My guess is that with fewer trucks on the road and less miles being driven, the demand for truck tires has declined.
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