kutscher

I finally purchased Michelin CrossTerrains black walls, but am not sure which side to have placed on the outside. I do not think it really matters, but the michelin is written differently on each side. One side has block letters and the other has italics. I assume the "special rubber" is on both sides (dumb question). Does anyone have an opiton?
Thanks in adance.

parula

What is special rubber?

Lexmexico

Kindly put the white lettering on the inside. I have seen someone do just the opposite and it is quite hideous (unless you think of your Lexus as a Jeep).

kutscher

My crossterrains are blackwall on both sides. I put the italic letters on the outside due to one tire having italics on both sides and the rest not.

The 'special rubber' , well I am not 100% sure. I was told by one of our tire stores (sears??) that the sidewall has a special type of rubber to make it shine more, as to not require any type of armorall products. (probably a bunch of crap?)
Thanks

e

Lexmexico

We have that speical rubber here in Mexico, but it seems to burn off. Fortunately, my Cross-Terrains come with 5 ply protection (by law) rather than the 3 I would have had in the states. One the layers is a special nylon.

kutscher

All installed, and its good I did this now. I had probably 2000K left on my Brigstones, but could not wait with the michelins in my garage. This was good since my alignment was slightly off and the insides of my fronts were worn almost all the way to the "cords"/

The crossterrains thus far are nice, slightly stiffer ride, but I may need to play with the pressure to find the perfect ride.

Thanks

Petrie2001

what size tires did you get?
peter.

kutscher

235/70/16. And no problems with the size. The ride is quite different and the look is better.

super_star

What do you mean by quite different... Is the ride just as smooth as the stock tires or is it a bit on the rough side? If you have a picture of your rx300 would love to see.

kutscher

The ride is different?? Well it seems smoother and rougher. There is much less float and bounch vs. the stock tires but more stiffness around corners etc.. if that makes sense??
I have been holding off on the digital camera, but the inlaws will be here, so I will have my father-in-law take a picture or two. Possibly the GS and RX together.

super_star

Thanks kutscher for the info, thinking about doing the same with the tire upgrade. Can't wait to see those pics.

mikey00

One more thing about the Cross Terrain size. 235 CT's at Tire Rack are cheaper than 225 CT's but the 235's only have a treadwear rating of 420 and the 225's have a rating of 700. This means a 225 should last 1.6 times as long as a 235.

gp1200x

You are right!!!! I never caught that and it is not on the tire. That is very unusual to have that large of a difference in a tire line. It also doesn't explain how these tires will live up to 65K when the others have a 700 rating. That explains the cheaper price. Now either they reduced the treadheight or the tire compound is not the same as the other sizes to come up with that treadwear value. Which would question the tires performance if this was not the size used in the testing. Either way they scammed the public in my opinion. I assumed the treadwear would have been almost identical to a 225 size and thought the 235s were simply on sale when I bough them. Not true....everbody's a con these days...even Michelin now. They probably did this to compete with other manufacturers prices since 235-70-16 is a popular size on many SUVs.

mikey00

I am also suprised at Michelin for doing this. The Tirerack web site clearly lists the specs. However, if you go to the Michelin website and read the fine print at the bottom of the CT specs, you find that all OE sizes are only treadwear 420 rated. If you look at the 235 size you will see a very small "F" next to it indicating they were OE on Ford.
I almost went for the 235's when I purchased for the cheaper price. I guess what kept me from doing this was I had a brand new 225 spare and didn't want to buy 5 235's or ride around with a spare smaller than my 4 main tires. I guess you get what you pay for.

gp1200x

Thanks for telling us about this. When I originally shopped on tirerack I only looked at the 225 specs for all the brands and was tempted to choose the CX. When this web site showed the 235s would fit and then tirerack had them on sale for $97, it was a no brainer I thought. I never went back to check the treadwear since I always assumed that it would be very close or the same for all sizes of a specific model. I guess the buyer nowadays must always assume there is a reason for a cheaper price. So Michelin and others are cutting corners to save themselves and the car manufacturers some bucks on each new car tire. This still ticks me off.