Motoring Discussion > Michelin Cross Climates Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Bobby Replies: 15
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New Tue 11 Apr 17 15:14 
 Michelin Cross Climates - Bobby
Now that we have had the first winter since these came out, any users on here want to give their feedback on winter use of these tyres?
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New Tue 11 Apr 17 15:31 
 Michelin Cross Climates - Old Navy
Having had a one day light dusting of snow this winter I think I can manage on standard tyres.
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New Tue 11 Apr 17 18:08 
 Michelin Cross Climates - martin aston
With masterful timing I changed all four tyres to CCs a couple of weeks ago. So can't comment on cold weather performance but they certainly are quiet.
Fuel consuption may have worsened a bit but this is solely based on the onboard computer which hasn't been reset for months and, prior to the tyre change, had sat at 45.1 average for weeks. its now dropped to 45 - even though its all been motorway and warming weather. They are extra load grade so I assume they will tend to be firm but thevride is fine.
Price-wise they were much the same as other premium tyres at about £75 each all in. However Micheilin are superseding these with the CC+ and the cheapest of these I could find were £90 plus! Hopefully they will come down.
There is no advice on Michelin site as to whether there are any issues in mixing both variants, say in event of a puncture. The man in a trilby has recommended the CCs but has no specific info on mixing both types other than not to do so on same axle.
I live in the mild South but make at least a couple of winter trips to Yorkshire and Scotland and have hit heavy snow in the past so hopefully they will be ideal for my needs. Time will tell.
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New Tue 11 Apr 17 18:32 
 Michelin Cross Climates - Manatee
You might consider upping the pressures a bit. Contrary to intuition, extra load tyres need more rather than less pressure to get them to the right shape, or so I have been told.
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New Tue 11 Apr 17 20:28 
 Michelin Cross Climate - martin aston
Manatee, thanks for the suggestion.
I googled this after your mail and views are mixed. Some say, leave alone, others to add quite a bit of pressure.
The most authorative looking view is a Michelin expert writing on another forum and he says that Michelin do not recommend pressures and defer to the manufacturers. My car manual says nothing about XL tyres let alone CCs.
What I think I will do is set the tyres to the manufacturer fully laden figure (33 against 30) and see if it makes a difference. i am surprised that there is no proper guidance given how much is online about tyres but 10% increase isn't extreme.
Incidentally the fitters put 30 in the nearside and 32 in the offside. Unbelievable.
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New Tue 11 Apr 17 20:45 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Bill Payer
>> The most authorative looking view is a Michelin expert writing on another forum and he
>> says that Michelin do not recommend pressures and defer to the manufacturers.

I asked Michelin via their website and they told me the same. I went back and said that doesn't make sense because for any given "normal" pressure, XL tyres have a slightly lower load capacity than non-XL. I've never seen a reason for this, but seen it suggested that the heavier sidewalls generate more heat. No idea if that's the correct reason.

When I queried further with Michelin they sent me a substantial book of tyres and pressures - didn't mention Cross-Climates. Muppets.
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New Wed 12 Apr 17 13:37 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Slightlyfatdirector
I have the CrossClimate tyres on the V70 but it was such a mild winter down here in the south east that I can't say if I benefited from their 'deep-winter' prowess.

Having said that, it was just good peace of mind that I had something capable "just in case".

Certainly their grip - especially when accelerating hard from rest - is better than the factory fit tyres which did used to scrabble a bit, and they are less prone to aqua-planing too - even when well worn.

I fitted them in November 2015 and have done 26,000 miles in that time.

There is still 2.5mm of tread on the fronts and 4.5mm on the rears. For a heavy front wheel drive car I think that's pretty good.

I queried their speed rating as it was lower than on the tyres I had for my car's tyre size; being V rated not W rated..

They replied as follows:
"Technically you can come down the speed rating in a Winter tyre. V = 149 mph approx and W = 168 mph approx."

Overall I am happy with them and would get them next time too.
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New Wed 12 Apr 17 15:15 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Duncan
I recently fitted four new tyres to my E Class.

As is my wont, I did quite a bit of research and a lot of pondering. Eventually I bought Avon ZV7. They scored A in the wet weather handling and were the cheapest tyre to do so. National tyres had the best price.

www.blackcircles.com/order/tyres/search

I did consider Cross Climates, but I thought they were too expensive, for no discernible benefit.
Last edited by: Duncan on Wed 12 Apr 17 at 15:16
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New Wed 12 Apr 17 16:04 
 Michelin Cross Climate - CGNorwich
Wondering is it will ever rain again here in Norfolk. Should I fit slicks?
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New Wed 12 Apr 17 16:06 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Manatee
Depends how much you want it to rain. Probably surer than a rain dance.
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New Thu 13 Apr 17 17:02 
 Michelin Cross Climate - martin aston
Here is an update on the need for higher tyre pressure issue for CCs. I asked Honda as my car manufacturer but they were useless, their central helpdesk simply referred me to the dealer who I have no faith in for advice such as this.

So a bit more internet digging found tables of load index against psi/bar to give you the tyre load capacity in kg. There are separate tables for standard and XL tyres.

What I did was to take the manufacturer's recommended tyre pressure for my old standard 91 rated tyres and read off the load capacity in kg. Next I went to the XL table and read off the required pressure to achieve the same load index for my new 94 rated tyres. The difference was only 0.1 bar increase. I assume this means that I am not utilising the (unneeded) extra load capacity but neither am I underinflating the tyre to below the manufacurers recommended load capacity.

I have no expertise in this so I am not recommending my approach to others but can anyone with more tech knowledge see a flaw in what I've done?

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New Thu 13 Apr 17 18:00 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Hard Cheese
For a given tyre size/profile the difference in pressure between 91 and 94 would be negligible if not zero, which is what you have demonstrated. As I recall I fitted XL tyres to a Mondeo a few years ago, something like 88 to 93 and the pressures were unchanged.

Also both our BMWs have tyre pressure charts inside the driver's door shut that give the pressures for different tyre options and on the M135i the 245/35-18s as fitted to the rear can be 88Y or 92Y at the same pressure.
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New Thu 13 Apr 17 22:08 
 Michelin Cross Climate - martin aston
HC thanks. In my figures the difference is only 5% and, given all the variables, I agree its negligible but I will give it a try.

Looking at your figures, moving up from a standard 88 to standard 92 within a tyre type and keeping the pressures the same, increases the load capacity by around 15%. No doubt this is within BMW tolerances and they will try to keep the info on the door shut as simple as possible. Incidentally moving from a standard 88 to an XL 92 would actually give the same load capacity for a given pressure - confirming your Mondeo experience.

i can't link to the tables but if anyone wants to check them out then they are available in a pistonheads discussion, just search "tyre weight rating and xl".

I am happy to be put right if I am misapplying this info.
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New Thu 13 Apr 17 23:28 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Bill Payer
>> What I did was to take the manufacturer's recommended tyre pressure for my old standard
>> 91 rated tyres and read off the load capacity in kg. Next I went to
>> the XL table and read off the required pressure to achieve the same load index
>> for my new 94 rated tyres. The difference was only 0.1 bar increase. I assume
>> this means that I am not utilising the (unneeded) extra load capacity but neither am
>> I underinflating the tyre to below the manufacurers recommended load capacity.
>>
I used the tables on Pistonheads too, and did the same comparison as you. The conclusion I came to is that really the tyre pressures on the CrossClimates should be increased (in your example by 0.1 bar) so the load capacity matches the non-XL.

However, as you point out, the difference is small, and is probably well within the margins of error of tyre pressure gauges and normal tyre pressure variations over time etc. So neither here nor there in everyday use.

The extra load capacity of XL tyres only comes into play at high pressures - XL tyres are constructed to wthstand higher pressures and, at those higher pressures, can carry more load.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Thu 13 Apr 17 at 23:29
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New Fri 14 Apr 17 08:34 
 Michelin Cross Climate - Hard Cheese
This is a good feature:

www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/reinforced-tyres-advantages-and-disadvantages
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New Fri 14 Apr 17 09:48 
 Michelin Cross Climate - tyrednemotional
...as reference guide for the motorhome motorcaravan campervan, I tend to use the Continental Technical Databook, latest version available here:

tinyurl.com/XLtyrepressures

The separate car tyre inflation tables from page 105 onwards (one for standard tyres, one for XL) seem to indicate an increase in pressure (give or take a little across the board for all tyres) of around 0.3 bar (4+psi) for a given load.

(just to add some more confusion!)
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