In my opinion, tires are the most important parts of a vehicle. Without tires, you can’t move to get from point A to point B. Also, if you have crappy tires, you could easily end up blowing a tire, rolling over and dying in a fiery death. That would totally suck!
Being a generally cheap person, I never appreciated the importance of high quality tires til later on in life. Luckily, I never came near to having a fiery death but I did spin out once or twice thanks to poor tires. After a few mishaps with bad tires, I vowed to get better tires and maintain them properly.
As far as all-season tires go, I’ve only ever been confident with the Michelin brand. I’ve had Michelin tires on most of my vehicles for all of my adult life. Specifically, I have always gone with and highly recommend the Michelin Defender LTX M/S which you can easily find on Amazon.
All Season vs Winter Tires
If you know anything about tires, then you know the “M/S” in Defender LTX M/S stands for Mud/Snow. Your first inclination is to believe that these tires are rated to drive in varying degrees of winter weather since it says “snow.” You would actually be wrong.
According to Goodyear, the Mud/Snow label has been used for many years but it does not necessarily mean that a tire meets the minimum performance criteria to pass the legal snow grip threshold. A tire with an M/S label may do fine in reasonably light snow, but will start to falter once the snow gets deeper and heavier.
All actual winter tires are made of a rubber compound that remains flexible in extremely cold weather while all-season tires are more rigid no matter the temperature. The flexibility of winter tires allows it to better grip the snowy and icy roads that occur during the winter. The Defender LTX M/S tires unfortunately do not have this capability.
If you’re curious as to what my recommendation is for a set of outstanding and long-lasting winter tires, read my short review.
Defender LTX M/S Features
Evertread™ Compound
The Evertread™ compound that the Defender LTX M/S is made of is extremely resistant to wear and tear. Michelin went out of its way to make sure the compound even stands up to heavy loads and severe weather conditions. It is supposedly 10% more effective in extremely poor driving conditions.
MaxTouch Construction™
MaxTouch Construction™ promotes the even distribution of the entire tire surface to the road. This helps prolong tread life, decrease vibration, lower noise, and reduce harshness. Over the life of the tire, you can expect to save 65 gallons of fuel.
High Uniform Tire Quality Grades
The Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) system grades the quality of a tire using three categories:
- Treadwear- rough score of tire longevity (the higher the better)
- Temperature- resistance to heat and ability to dissipate heat (A is highest, C is lowest)
- Traction-approximate stopping grip (AA is best, C is worst)
The Defender LTX M/S was graded with treadwear being 800, Temperature being A, and Traction being AA. These are all outstanding marks overall.
Why I Like The Tire
70,000 Mile Warranty
What’s not to love about a high mileage warranty? With a warranty of 70,000 miles, you know that Michelin will stand behind its tire quality.
Quiet Ride
I’m not a very particular driver so it’s hard for me to tell if a tire is good at braking, cornering, or riding in general. If a set of tires makes my truck go forward/backward and left/right, I’m for happy for the most part. When it’s comes to noise though, I can definitely tell the difference with these tires. The reason I know is because I find myself not having to raise my voice as much when talking to other passengers or when I’m talking on my bluetooth.
Light Snow Compatible
It rarely snows in my part of Texas, but when it does, it’s usually a very light snow. When it also snows, Texas drivers lose their minds on the road! It’s really a scary sight. It’s most due to drivers having ill-equipped tires for the snow. With the Defender’s, you can have some peace of mind know that it can handle the task if it does ever occur.
What I Don’t Like The Tire
Price
Depending on the size of your tire, the Defenders do cost a little more than your average tire. At the same time, I do understand that quality of this tire far outweighs its cost. I know I’ll be getting the best bang for my buck.
Video Review
This is a very brief overview video of the Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires:
Final Thoughts
I have noticed that lesser quality tires wear out faster, causing you to buy them more often. This leads to more money out of your pocket and putting your safety more at risk. The Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires are an excellent investment for your truck. They are long-lasting and very resistant to harsh driving conditions. For the current price and additional reviews, check them out on Amazon where you can order them and ship them to your nearest tire installer.