Michelin LTX A/T 2 Reviews: 2024 Real-Life Road Test

LTX A/T2 has been one of Michelin’s most reputed attempts to cater to on-road drivers who travel occasionally on off-road gravel roads. Indeed, the tire’s simple yet sleek design, typical of the brand, leaves quite an impression on critics and devoted fans alike. However, whether they work well across diverse driving challenges is an issue that our COR Wheels team aims to address.

Scroll through our tire review for a more detailed sum-up of our findings.

Michelin LTX A/T 2 Specifications & Features

Michelin LTX AT2 tires are developed to satisfy the traveling needs of modern commercial and recreational pickups, SUVs, and vans. Their ambitious combinations of year-round durability, traction, and on-road handling are achieved through the following feature highlights:

• Advanced rubber compounds (molded into independent tread blocks) feature notched blocks and Michelin Biting Edges to create more grip on wet grass, snow, gravel, mud, and dirt.
• The Advanced MaxTouch Technology manifests strong, unique footprint shapes to boost the tire’s lifespan and even treadwear.
• Comfort Control Technology introduces computer-optimized precision manufacturing and design to keep tread noises and vibrations at a minimum, ensuring riding comfort.
• Internal steel belts (2 or 3, depending on manufacturing locations and Load Range/Load Rating) to foster puncture resistance and long-lasting operations.

Michelin LTX A/T 2 review & Performance Test Results

As a part of our 2023 COR Wheels Tire Test, the 235/65R17 tire size version of Michelin LTX A/T 2 was evaluated on the 2022 Honda CR-V through its June-July run for Summer evaluations and another testing period around January for Winter assessments.

1. Dry Performance: 8.6/10

Dry Traction: 8.9/10

Michelin LTX A/T/2 left little room for complaints in this regard, bonding in a breezy, effortless embrace with dry asphalt pavements. Starters at 40 to 45 MPH were clearly a non-issue, judging by how the car easily pumped itself forward despite our rather leisurely approach. 

Better yet, basic roadblock negotiations and occasional skids towards different directions mid-way only choked out a few brief shakes that got trampled down quickly – a great competitive edge if you want to load extra weights of more than 500 lbs. 

The gradual addition of 50 to 100 lbs after every 30 minutes also barely deterred Honda’s composure, even grinding down the contact patch in more assuring manners when marching on dense, cobblestone paths.

While speed changes worked well with Michelin LTX A/T 2, it is the braking forces that you need to pay more attention to. Harder braking upon lane merges lurked our positions forward dramatically, even leading to erratic stutters when sweeping through gentle curves.

Corner Stability: 8.4/10

LTX A/T2 retained pretty good footings navigating through wide-radius, gentle corners. Its center ribs were not exactly solid but balanced flex and footholds well, ensuring our approach angles stayed within safe territories while hugging the liners in close alignments down to the last points of corner exits.

Nevertheless, we must admit that the lack of cornering-focused features stripped the tire of much confidence compared to some rivals. As such, you must still watch out for possible oversteering during deep dives into early apexes, carousels, or off-camber bends.

Steering Response: 8.4/10

Tire pressure around 50 to 55 PSI (preferably 55 for front tires and 50 for rear) seemed like the best condition for these tires to deliver punctual responses. 

Straight-line and cornering alike, LTX A/T2 fell in close steps behind each and every input, with decent observations towards minimal changes mid-way (e.g., slightly angled veers to cope with unexpected slippery on drying puddles). You rarely have to worry about muted feedback or, worse, extended delays. 

Unfortunately, straying from the golden 50-55 range put our car in more erratic, unpredictable steering stutters than expected. Sure, the contact points were still fully established – hence no reason to worry about actual collision danger – but the constant forceful applications on your steering wheel will end up being extremely exhausting after 1.5 hours or more.

2. Wet Performance: 8.4/10

Wet Traction: 8.4/10

The tire did a decent job on shallow puddles or drying slippery paths post-rain. Sure, you will still notice the pronounced skitters around the edges, but Michelin LTX A/T2 knew how to utilize the well-placed notched blocks to its advantage in grip maintenance. Cornering attempts at carousels were not half-bad, given tame, predictable accelerations, and we even managed to afford late brakings from tight angles without plummeting.

On another note, the paths would turn into racing slicks if the stagnant water rose above the 5-inch benchmark. Deep-water highway curves or chicanes with multiple zigzag entries did not sit well with our Honda, either.

Hydroplaning Resistance: 8.4/10

Overall, Michelin LTX A/T 2 still managed a safe place on the upper half of the list, thanks to the extra bites manifested by the notched blocks. Water seeped through easily but slipped off just as fast – hence our car’s effortless endeavors whisking its way through 2-3 inches of water with strong and low-key inputs alike.

Still, you will notice significant hydroplaning increases in deeper, colder water (usually in ambient temperatures below 32 degrees F). The heavy water dragging under the contact patch also happened more frequently on inclines, even during and after very drizzling light rain.

3. Off-road Performance: 7.4/10

Dirt Traction: 7.9/10

The tire composed itself well on loose dirt. 

As most tire features were still tailored for regular driving, you might observe occasional drifting symptoms of unpredictable patterns on slightly thicker gravel roads. Still, Michelin LTX A/T2 compensated for that oversight with quick recovery and quite impressive plowing movements after the car’s momentum was established. Provided no abrupt accelerations, there should be no problem handling basic steering situations and even occasional tight corners.

Higher speed limits beyond 55 MPH, unfortunately, were still beyond the tire’s operation scope. Hard-packed dirt also needed to be tackled from cautious angles and with as few dynamic inputs as possible.

Rock Traction: 7.6/10

Our car was at peak behavior on scree slopes, filled mostly with small pebbles and loose gravel dirt that were pretty easy to manage at low speeds. Though the tendency to choke off stones happened at much shorter intervals with higher rates (45 MPH and above) on these terrains, it rarely compromised Honda’s otherwise consistent marches on most straight-line paths.

We started encountering real troubles with denser rock-concentrated paths, such as rock crawling or gardens; each tire placement had to be done strategically the longer we rode. You will likely get used to it with enough expertise, but novices may find themselves burnt out after only half an hour.

Sand Traction: 7.3/10

Even soft coastal sands already sent the car downright fluttering. Hence, we had to strike very carefully on thicker dunes and tried not to overstep the boundaries when applying alternating speed changes at critical zigzag carousels. 

The great news is that the tires eventually familiarized themselves with the sand patterns after a while (guarantee they experienced little to no change). Or else, you can air it down to about 20-22 PSI to enjoy a floating sense. Plus, heavy drags or burnout symptoms due to concentrated pressure are only few and far between.

Mud Traction: 6.9/10

It was not entirely unrideable, but we could hardly find any stellar competitive edge to highlight here: LTX A/T 2 kept tripping on thin air, took half a minute to shake off sticky marsh patches, and downright fumbled at wide road corners covered with deep puddles. 

Your best bet is to keep things civilized at 35 MPH and avoid tight crooks at all costs. Also, judging by how a mere 500-lb trailer already caused frequent sidewall protests for us, you should keep extra loading at the minimum. 

4. Winter/Snow Performance: 7.5/10

Light Snow Traction: 8/10

LTX A/T 2 made quite convenient connections with soft powder snow –  slightly better than on off-road dirt – and kept its footings in predictable manners when we engaged in non-spirited divings around sweeping curves or wide-margin lane changes. 

However, due to the clear absence of punctual sharpness upon sloped, angled surfaces and skid corrections, the tire was still pushed to the list’s near bottom. You should only use it as a snow tire in moderate winter conditions.

Deep Snow Traction: 7.6/10

Snow volumes beyond 4 inches took LTX A/T2 longer to process, causing significant delays between our inputs and steering responses at early apexes or complex chicanes. 

Snow-covered highways will be even more challenging for you, as the tread and sidewalls struggled to adapt to new lean angles and veering directions whenever we changed or merged lanes. Snow chains only supported our car to a certain extent and could not help the tire regain its lost dry confidence.

Ice Traction: 7/10

Slippage and violent coughs were frequent at any driving rate beyond 40 MPH. Thus, any slightest signal of powered driving, such as correction skids, intentional oversteer, or late apex, would be downright deadly on moderate/high-traffic roads.

On a brighter note, LTX A/T2 still outperformed a few competitors on our list, thanks to the tamer burnout drifting around the flanks. Your extended trips on ice (beyond 2.5 hours) will also not exhaust the sidewalls or crumble the tire’s internal cold resistance as with other models we have tested, hence the more stable and consistent footings.

5. Comfort: 8.4/10

Ride Quality: 8.5/10

Cushioned and well-mannered, LTX A/T 2 rarely got out of line even on its worst behaviors. Our rides around extremely rugged terrains such as construction-site roads, tarmacs, or cobblestone pavements only resulted in controllable side-to-side shakes. 

Higher-speed endeavors (especially on highways at 70 to 85 MPH) were not exactly bumpless but far from intrusive, either – a pretty ideal choice if your demands for riding comfort are not too strict.

Noise: 8.4/10

You should not expect a noiseless ride on mud, sand, rock, or gravel roads with a on-road AT tire. Traveling on ice or deep snowy terrains also generated more squeaking noises than we would have liked.

Fortunately, LTX A/T2 will still play much in your favor if you mostly engage in non-challenging daily driving situations. Better yet, if no accelerations or hard brakings occur, these noises will whiten themselves to merge completely into the background.

6. Treadwear and Durability: 8.2/10

The tire admittedly had to sacrifice quite a lot of optimized internal composure to boost the tire’s on- and off-road flex, so we were unsurprised by the faint indicators of fatigue after the seventh day of testing.

But for people mostly traveling on on-road terrains and rarely entering off-road gravel surfaces, this tread wear is quite sufficient. Not to mention, the 60,000-mile/6-year warranty is also very assuring.

Michelin LTX AT 2 Pros & Cons

Conclusion

The LTX A/T 2 made it to the Top 15 on-road AT tires on the marketplace with predictable and reliable grip maintenance across most non-challenging terrains – although we would love to see more improvements with its wet and off-road confidence.

To conclude this Michelin LTX AT 2 tire review, it would be best to use this all-terrain tire for dry on-road surfaces, moderate snow depths (occasional ice is acceptable), and light off-road dirt and gravel textures.