[Archived]

Is Michelin going to issue a recall? 2 or 3 of these sidewall separations would be cause for grave concern but it seems there have been many more than that. Is it going to take a bus crash to see a change?

Everyone out there with 365’s please inspect you tires frequently!

Doug

[Lee]

After having a slew of 18 inch tires ( 10 or 12) come apart on my 1 ton dually welding trucks years ago all under 2 years old, haven’t bought a Michelin since. Tire store and Michelin didn’t and wouldn’t help with warranty. Said it was rough oilfield roads that caused it. Tread separation was the culprit them. Went to Bridgestone and never had a problem, At least with he thread problem.

[Jon P.]

Have replaced 2 365’s in the last 3yrs with the same problem. Both on tag. Caught them before actual tread separation. Both were less than 2 yrs old. Last one replaced at Jeff’s last month. Geo.

[Bob]

Our tires are dated 2014. Prevost changed out the two steer tires under warranty that have a 2015 date code as the previous were ‘out of round’.

Do you see the separation? Or, do you have to pull on it? I’ll go out to the coach early next week for my twice weekly check (flush toilets, etc.).

Thanks,

Mark

[Doug]

Will advise what is going to happen, Michelin will be out Tuesday to inspect the tire…Look at the outside of the tire and you will see a “bulge” also look at the first groove in the tires and you can see a differance….Then you are not pulling the tires apart to see this, simply putting a couple fingers on it…

[Will]

Checked the 365’s today (Steer and Tag) and all look good. No separation at all that I could tell. I used my super-duper powerful LED flashlight that comes with the Liberty.

The steers are dated 3315 and 3415.

I noticed that the tags (original) are dated 3413 and 0314, so one is a little older than the other.

Mark

[Joe]

Follow up, Michelin was out yesterday and is giving 75% credit for the tire. They are having me ship the tire back to the factory for them to check over.

[Craig]

Apparently Michelin is taking product integrity, performance, and safety seriously. Great to hear!

[John]

Michelin should step up to the plate and inspect any and all road failures on 365 tires. Every Prevost manufactured in last 10 years have 4– 365’s.

It’s there tire exclusively …so the blame game is on their door step.

When you’re hearing about side wall failures over and over something is happening on 365s tires.

The only service we as a consumer can practice is visual inspection with pressure checks prior to travel.

CENTRAMATIC balancers are a proven add on eliminating loss of balance weights. With this balancer all rotating parts of every wheel are balanced for the life of each tire.

IMHO on Centramatic….money well spent !

AL

[Archived]

I talked to my local authorized Michelin dealer and he said there was no recall notice so he didn’t think it necessary to inspect them any more than I would do in a pre-travel check. It was a truck place and he said he didn’t really deal with buses.

My question is does Michelin really hear about all the 365s that are having trouble? Or is Jeff an isolated case for Michelin? And if they did see a pattern, would they be on the offensive and send out a warning?

[AL]

As owners of the tires we have the initial responsibility for determining if we have a tire issue. We alone can make an inspection before we begin to drive and we alone are responsible for insuring the tire pressures are what they need to be.

Having said that however, if we have any question a qualified dealer is our agent if we feel we have a question or need confirmation a tire is fit for use.

On several occasions I have had the opportunity to see tires that had some indication of an issue, ranging from what appeared to be cracks following the grooves in the tread, sidewall bulges, or an unusual wear pattern. I have also heard tires on trucks making some slapping or thumping noises that might have been indicators or potential tread separation. Every example of something unusual needs to be investigated.

Michelin does take their tires very seriously and having spent an afternoon at their facility doing forensics on tire failures it is clear they have the ability to properly diagnose a cause for a failure. It is amazing how attention to detail in the examination of a failed tire can prove a nick in the inner liner at the bead of a tire can lead to a tread separation while the casing is still holding air.

I saw the tire Jeff is discussing and it is clear to me something has not only caused the split in the tread and sidewall but what is also puzzling is there is a very unusual tread wear pattern that may or may not have been related. The field representatives are highly skilled at diagnosing claims and the fact they have agreed to stand behind the tire and offer compensation indicates they have recognized something that goes beyond their understanding and feel there is great value in getting that tire back to Michelin.

But unless or until Michelin decides the cause and what to do we still should carry the burden of inspecting our tires before every trip. These were tafg axle tires which means they were lightly loaded and not getting anywhere near the forces on them as the steers which makes this particular situation one we should follow.

[Archived]

It’s been on the POG and Prevost XL Owners Facebook pages so it’s not just an isolated instance. Donnie Myers claims he’s been warning people about it for years.

[Archived]

They are looking very hard at what is happening…My rep said that he doesnt know of any tires that blew out/or went flat as a result of this issue….even if that is the case so far, inspection before you drive is very important.

[Dick]

I guess you get what you pay for. Not!

[Tony]

Jon, Jeff, For those of us that don’t have your technical experience or knowledge can you give us a sense of what were looking for? I get all the nromal stuff like cracks and tears etc.. but I don’t think I could recognize thread wear etc. I take my coach to a tour operator generally before every big trip and they look it over… I will check with them if they have had any issues.

Bill