Which Tires??

WayneH-ClassC

Advanced Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2024
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31
Location
Florida
I have a 2001 PW Excel RD on Dodge B3500 chassis and I have to buy tires. What size are most using, 225s or 245s? I am torn between the Michelin LTX and the Agilis CrossClimate? Which tire do you think is best and why? Hard choice as they are both expensive but I also want to help with the 'wandering' problem. I have put on the rear wheel spacers, put on Monroe Shocks and Alignment to PW specs. I have the Helwig Rear Sway Bar on order and should have it around the first part of March. It is already driving better. Thanks in advance!
 
I just put on the agelis after installing spacers, sway bar, new rear leaf spring bushings and add a leaf, and alignment on 2001 dodge pleasure way excel. Only 1 trip so far, no wind yet, but tires are noticeably better. 70-75 mph without issue
 
So you went with the CrossClimates? Which item made the biggest difference? I am told it will be the Rear Sway Bar. Thanks!
 
Yes, went with cross climate, biggest difference was new rear leaf bushings and add a leaf to rear.
 
I’ve also thought about replacing rear air bags with Sumo springs but haven’t researched enough.
 
LTX isn't one specific tire..there's about a dozen different tires in the LTX line.

No experience with the CrossClimates myself, though the reviews on Michelin's site aren't great. Not horrible, but not great either. The LTX AT has been my go-to truck tire for about 20 years, though admittedly they're not a great off road tire. Decent traction, and hold up well enough on smooth dirt road, but I tend to start chunking them up pretty quick in rocky areas here in the southwest deserts.
 
We have had experience with some of the Michelin options during our time with our Roadtrek 190 on a 2007 Chevy van that we bought new.


We put Agilis Cross Climates on it about 3 years ago after our mid 2010s installed MS2, older version than now, aged out. Really liked those MS2s but they first changed them to Defenders, which looked to be similar and then discontinued them for the trucks.


You will find lots or Agilis reviews on this forum that are very positive and ours is one of them. Close to tracking and handling of the old MS2s.


In the beginning the Agilis required higher pressure to give the best handling compared to our go to on all other brands of 65/80 psi which I found odd because Michelin touted stronger sidewalls which seems counter to that. Over time, however, they started to get wandery at highway speeds and I found I needed to drop the tire pressure to get the handling back. It kept needing lower and lower pressures over the 3 years until we were approaching 50/65 pressures and that made me nervous because something was going haywire with tires, probably the casing.


Michelin ignored repeated inquiries and never answered with anything but diversions so I finally decided to give up on them and get different tires for the van.


By now Michelin had introduced a new version of the MS1 and then later the MS2 which had basically the same tread pattern as the older version. Even though they have same load capacity and better temperature rating compared to the Agilis, Michelin still doesn't recommend them for the 1 ton trucks. We put them on the van late last fall and only got about 300+ miles on them in one long trip on curvy, rough, varying speed roads and freeways. With our old standard pressures they handled perfectly and made the van feel like it did with older version MS2s. On that trip they also seemed to show a 10+% increase in fuel economy. They also ran nice and cool like the old MS2s did compared the considerably hotter Agilis.



The only downside, maybe for some folks, is the the MS2 are 5 rib highway tread, and not the 4 rib semi-offroad tread on the Agilis. I do know that the similar tread on old MS2s did great in rain and fine on wet grass and such, but we never got into deep mud or sand much. We never got stuck with them though.


Looking at all the pix of highway tires and offroad ones the 5 rib vs 4 seems to be nearly universal, so maybe the continuous center rib adds more directional stability, especially as they wear. Possible.
 

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