I have Michelin LTX M/S 235/75R15's on my Dodge Dakota. Truck has 98,500 miles and the tires are 3 years old and have 55,000 miles on them. They have always provided a good smooth and quiet ride quality, and good traction on wet and dry roads. This is a 2 wheel drive truck and I have never taken it off-road or done any heavy hauling with it.
My tires "look" to have a little less than half the tread left, and are probably close to the 4/32" tread replacement benchmark. The last couple of months I have noticed a bumpy ride quality, at about 30-40 MPH which is especially noticeable when driving at those speeds in city traffic. The ride quality from 40 on up to cruising speed at 60 to 70 MPH is bumpy too, just not as easily felt at those speeds.
Question is, will aging tires that still appear to have usable tread left cause a rougher ride the older they get? I feel this as a vibration in the floor pan/gas pedal area where my foot rests while driving and in the steering wheel. All the suspension components are either new or relatively new or they still are in good shape. I keep it in alignment with a 3 yr alignment policy, and I have a lifetime rotation and balance policy. When they only need rotation I do it here at home every 6,000 miles at alternating oil changes. I just had them re-balanced a few weeks ago and I shadowed the tech while he did it so I know the tires all balanced out to zero.
Sorry for a long post but how long can I realistically expect to run a set of these LTX's? There are a few good deals on new tires out there now and I'll replace them if need be. I hope my fellow BITOG'ers can help me not buy tires if I really don't need them. This was my first set of Michelins and despite all this trouble now I was really impressed with the way they wore and lasted this far.
Thanks for any help you guys here can offer.
My tires "look" to have a little less than half the tread left, and are probably close to the 4/32" tread replacement benchmark. The last couple of months I have noticed a bumpy ride quality, at about 30-40 MPH which is especially noticeable when driving at those speeds in city traffic. The ride quality from 40 on up to cruising speed at 60 to 70 MPH is bumpy too, just not as easily felt at those speeds.
Question is, will aging tires that still appear to have usable tread left cause a rougher ride the older they get? I feel this as a vibration in the floor pan/gas pedal area where my foot rests while driving and in the steering wheel. All the suspension components are either new or relatively new or they still are in good shape. I keep it in alignment with a 3 yr alignment policy, and I have a lifetime rotation and balance policy. When they only need rotation I do it here at home every 6,000 miles at alternating oil changes. I just had them re-balanced a few weeks ago and I shadowed the tech while he did it so I know the tires all balanced out to zero.
Sorry for a long post but how long can I realistically expect to run a set of these LTX's? There are a few good deals on new tires out there now and I'll replace them if need be. I hope my fellow BITOG'ers can help me not buy tires if I really don't need them. This was my first set of Michelins and despite all this trouble now I was really impressed with the way they wore and lasted this far.
Thanks for any help you guys here can offer.