Tires

[dandick66]

On 7/17/2020 at 5:54 AM, Hotrod said:

The xza2 is a long haul highway tire and I think the most energy efficient of the bunch. 
 

The xze is a regional tire. Great if you have a ups truck. 
 

The Toyo is a truck tire. I would not use it for the steer axle.

I’m not sure about the other Michelin’s.  I’m on my second set of xza2’s and like their performance . I had an issue with them getting side wall cracks but Michelin adjusted them at 50k miles and 6.5 years for about half price so they stand behind their products . 
 

The michelin xza2 needs about 5psi less air pressure than the Toyo so it rides better and is easier to inflate with coach air than the toyo.  The Michelin’s xza2 have all had perfect wear patterns on over 80k miles and 16 tires . Can’t say that about gy670s that came on the coach. 

I imagine that the Michelin costs a couple hundred more than a toyo, but is more energy efficient and rides better. 

 

The Toyo M144s are steer tires, but can be used for drive axle, too.  They are holding up fine on my coach.

[Guest Cruzbill]

I was told by Les Schwab dealer in Junction City Or; Its not so much the date on the sidewall as it is the 'in service' date; the date the tire is installed on the coach. Now to be reasonable, I would try to get tires with sidewall dates within a year of your planned install date, but is there a hard and fast rule? Not to my knowledge

 https://www.rvtiresafety.net/

[Dr4Film]

11 hours ago, Bruce B said:

While we are talking tires, what is the maximum age of a new tire you will purchase?  

For my coach they need to be have a DOT Code within  3-4 months of installation. However for my car I just replaced 5 year old Michelin Premier Tires which didn't last as long as they suggested (60K mile tire which lasted only 40K) with four Cooper C5 Grand Touring tires which are an 80K tire. Three were DOT Code 0717 and one was 0920. However those tires get used a lot both when driving and towing so the age doesn't bother me.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Dr4Film

[Bob Nodine]

19 hours ago, Dr4Film said:

For my coach they need to be have a DOT Code within  3-4 months of installation. However for my car I just replaced 5 year old Michelin Premier Tires which didn't last as long as they suggested (60K mile tire which lasted only 40K) with four Cooper C5 Grand Touring tires which are an 80K tire. Three were DOT Code 0717 and one was 0920. However those tires get used a lot both when driving and towing so the age doesn't bother me.

Richard,

Do you know the actual rolling miles on the tires? If you tow it behind the coach then the rolling miles could be quite a bit more than the odometer reading. Also, when a vehicle is towed behind a motorhome strange wear patterns can sometimes occur.  For example, we use to tow a Honda CRV and towing would cause the rear tires to scallop on the outside edge of the tire. I had to maintain a rigorous rotation schedule only on the two rear tires from side to side. The front tires were not affected. If I did not maintain the rotation the tires would scallop to the point that the noise inside the vehicle was unbearable. I did some research and one source claimed that because the vehicle was being towed the rear tires would skew out causing the outer edges to wear. I had a four wheel alignment done and that did not help. Had a specialty shop change the factory setting on the rear and still did not help. To rub salt in the wound when the rear tires would start making the unbearable noise we had to purchase four new tires because the vehicle was 4 wheel drive with vehicle stability and if the rear tires had a different rotational speed than the front due increase diameter the stability control would go haywire. I spent a small fortune for tires on the vehicle.

 

[Dr4Film]

29 minutes ago, Bob Nodine said:

Richard,

Do you know the actual rolling miles on the tires? If you tow it behind the coach then the rolling miles could be quite a bit more than the odometer reading. Also, when a vehicle is towed behind a motorhome strange wear patterns can sometimes occur.

Bob,

You are correct! I totally forgot to add in any towed mileage so I did a rough calculation of all of our trips since installing the tires 5 years ago.  It comes to another 20500 miles or more so I guess the Michelin tires did perform as expected and more. I wore them down to almost the minimum amount considered legal, 2/32. They did wear perfectly even without showing any wear problems which I am happy about.