The 20 inch Wheel experiment



I'm now at 32k miles on the tires and they are getting really noisy. I had them rotated and the tire shop said the tires are cupping and wearing unevenly. Today I had them "road force" balanced and the tires on the driver's side (front and rear) were both really out. The shop remounted them and put the biggest offenders on the rear axle and told me to stop rotating the tires. It's definitely better with less vibration, but I'm thinking this is the end for this set of tires.
Definitely better wear 20k vs 32k miles and the Michelins had a much better ride (and were quieter) until last month. I will stay with the 20" wheels although I may increase the time between wheel rotations to every 7,500 miles.
I'm debating getting another set of the CrossClimate2 tires, or going back the the Nokian All weather tires that I used to run on my 2013 GL. Funny enough, I decided to try something different because I hated how noisy the Nokian tires got towards the end of their lifespan. I could never reach the tire warranty mileage before the noise drove me to replace them. Seems these Michelins exhibit similar behavior.
Enkei XM-6, 20" wheels still look great





