[Bottomland4x4]

Well after talking with my friend who has sold commercial tires for the last 12 years, I decided to try Yokohama tires on the front. He sells both Michelin and Yokohama and for my purpose he recommended the Yokohama. He told me they would ride as good, and if not he would swap them out for Michelin and I would only owe the difference. He knows that the tires will age out way before they wear out, and with that he said there is no use to buy the Michelin tires. He had both brands in stock.
He put those on 3/20, I left out on 3/21 for a trip to Florida. I can honestly say they ride as good as the Michelin tires that were on there and are a little smoother. The Michelin were date coded 2011, so that may be why. But after driving 1600 miles round trip, think my rear Michelin tires are out of balance, they ride rough compared to the Yokohama front tires. My rear tires are only couple year old Michelin, but when they were installed they were balanced with hammer on wheel weights and look like crap. I wonder if they are out of balance. These new front tires were balanced with equal, I may have the rear done.
I will post up any updates and how the tires hold up. Thanks for the comments. One other thing I noticed was the Yokohama tires had a wider footprint than the Michelin. The Michelin sidewalls were really round and curved, whereas the Yokohama were more 90 degree.