Saw this listing for new Asian manufactured tires in Los Angeles. Made by Transking, they are $285 or $1710 a set of 6 with NO tax. New manufacture dates, 100,000 mile normal wear warranty. The 295/75 22.5 size is the same size I have on our rig. Tread pattern in the photo looks low noise. Seems like a great deal for those looking to replace an old set.
Anyone can order these tires for around $175/each with a quantity order. Expect this company ordered a lot and need to get rid of some.
Just passing this along with no recommendations, connections or information about this offer other than this Craigslist post below.
Big RiG Tires (NeW) (http://sacramento.craigslist.org/pts/3694080837.html)
Pierce
Interesting ad... They show two different tread patterns but they don't say which corresponds to which size, perhaps it is obvious to those familiar with big rig tires in general. The ad does say that they are 16 ply and DOT certified. I would certainly consider this as an option more seriously if they would show pictures of the various markings on the side of the tire like the ratings and date code. Still, I would probably be too reluctant to take a chance on these unknowns with something as precious as our coach (too much blood sweat, and tears), but certainly the price is attractive. Certainly worth a look when budgets are tight...
Don
Don,
Important considerations. DOT certified means that they will be required to have all the same information, load, ply rating, pressures, dating as any other tire sold in the U.S. They will also be subject to recall if any defects are found. The Asian markets are very competitive and a work year of over 2000 hours with low wages insures that the prices but not necessarily quality will be low. When I had a boat built there, the workers toiled 14 hours a day and got a full weekend off once every 3 months.
This is a big reason that Western Europe with a work year of 1300 to 1500 hours along with high wages is struggling so much now, competing against a much less expensive but yet comparable product quality wise.
I will give the L.A. tire advertiser a call tomorrow and post further information and photos if I find out anything.
Pierce
JMHO, with the Global economy there are alot of good tires out there today, the rest of the world manages to roll on good tires we here in the US have never heard of. For one thing the 2 big players in the tire business have HUGE advertising budjets which have to be covered in the price of the tires. However as far as the warranty goes, they can say whatever, but if there is no stocking dealer network so much for the warranty coverage 1000 miles from where they where purchased. With all that said when i put tires on my coach about a year ago I got prices as high as $4500.00 for 6 Michalins, I told my tire dealer that was not going to happen, he did some digging got me 6 Ohtsu(i had never heard of them ) 295/75 22.5s load range H for $1700.00 tax tag and tip OTD, all 6 balanced + $300.00 for the old ones. All has been good they do what tires do hold air, ride good, and go down the road. I'm sure they to will do what my old Continentals did (rot away before the wear out).
Does the Michelin XZE last 100,000 miles? I had hoped to be the first coach owner ever to wear out a set of tires before they rot out! :)) ...I'll never make it that far though. I've put over 10,000 miles on them in a year but they're way outdated ...no weather cracks or dry rot yet so I thought I'd just run them as far as I can.
Maybe I need new glasses ? but do I see a change in the tread on the middle picture. It is too the left of centre and in line with the mould join. Looks like a definite hiccup in the tread design that maybe is or is not a defect, thereby making them rejects-hence the price. I am sure someone on the Forum worked in the tyre industry and can answer/see what I am reffering too. (or am I really in need of new ones?)
JMO
John h
Found this noteworthy and maybe someone might enjoy reading about tires etc.
Tires are talked about quite a bit since tires are a big expense, only second to fuel burned. Just to be curious, I went on the Michelin commercial tire site to see how many tires are made. Michelin makes 29 different steer tires (all position), 23 drive, and 13 trailer tires in various sizes. I looked up 11R-22.5 and found they make 5 different all position tires. If you have a 4sped manual, a 6-71, 8V-71 or 6V-92TA, you don't really have enough power to take advantage of drive tires-and drive tires are typically more noisy. If you have an engine with over 400hp and either an Allison or multi spd transmission, then a drive tire would work for you.
Just to give you an idea of the 5 tires I found:
-XZA-1 first generation over the road all position tire-good tire, cheaper then the next tire
-XZA3+ 3rd generation over the road all position tire that is fuel efficient. Great tire, but has thinner side walls that don't like to be banged against the curb or go over curbs.
-XZE2 regional tire that is rated to 75mph. This is the tire I use-has reinforced side walls, but won't get much more then 80,000 miles of life out of them. Most of us would run out of time before miles anyway.
-XZU3 regional transit bus tire-very strong sidewalls and can carry more weight then the normal 11-22.5. But only a 62mph rating.
-XZY3 aggressive tread on/off road tire with 65mph rating. Great for logging and dump truck.
My point-as I've said many times before-tires are much more then big round rubber things that support the bus. They are the only contact with the road for traction. Since most buses are underpowered, braking is the main concern. El cheapo Chinese and Russian tires look good on the outside, but who knows how they perform? You can bet that the name brand tires like B.F.Goodrich, Bridgestone, Firestone, Goodyear, Michelin,
Sumitomo, Yokohama, etc do extensive testing on their tires. Both brakes and tires are not areas to be cheap with.
FWIW
Dave M
Something I have wondered about. If you put new tires on your car you usually get charged a disposal fee. If you put new tires on your coach because they are "timed out" the dealer buys them for $300 or whatever. You changed because of concern about tire issues and yet the old carcasses will be recycled, retreaded, and then put back on the road.
Makes one wonder, doesn't it?
Nitehawk, I once worked safety for a trucking company and we used retreads all the time on both trailers a drive axles. I at this point in time recall that we ever had an accidents or other incident that we could attribute to a bad retread. If I recall the retreader ( Bandag ) came by the shop and picked up every carcass we had and then delivered new retreads. Do they still retread tires ? Don't think that I would put retreads on a MH but apparently the truckers are not afraid to.
Just my mental wanderings.
Gary B
Thanks Gary. My father drove semis for a living and for some reason he intensely disliked them. Don't know why, but almost every time he saw a tire "snake" along the highway he would usually say something about "those damn retreads"
Not uncommon for the dealer to charge the fee for disposal, however they will most likely sell them to a poor trucker or farmer for use, or send in for retread.
Nothing new, same ole, same ole. $ $ Not :o
Dave M
And it is precisely this that makes me suspicious about the maxim "thou shalt replace thy tires at a certain age regardless". The carcasses go for years and years and wear out, get sent in, inspected by hand, and if passed, retreaded. And if they fail, it's the recap that comes off more often than the original sidewall failing. So if the sidewalls and the rest of the carcass aren't to be trusted beyond say 5 or 7 years, why is there such a thing aO retreads? I figure that if the sides aren't checked or bulged, it's holding air, and is otherwise holding up, then the date code means not so much. Obviously a tire isn't going to live as long in LA or Florida as in say Oregon. But UV damage to rubber is visible. So I don't really care if my tires are 10 years old or brand spanking new. They get inspected, both sides and tread, they get checked for pressure, and lugnuts get checked, as part of each and every predrive check no matter how young or old they are. I'm a newbie to Foretravel but have been driving class C CDL for a couple decades now, golly where does the time go...so this check-your-tires thing got drummed into me a long time ago.
Most of those "gators" are NOT from retreads. They are from tires that blew from being overloaded and/or under pressurized, not because they were retread tires.
Roland
When we purchased our coach the tires were ten years old, weather checked rotted and basically crap. I had some work done at at the dealer in Knoxville before I brought the coach to a local shop to have new rubber put on. The mechanic that worked on the coach asked if he could have my old tires for use on his farm equipment. I said sure as I then did not have to pay a disposal fee. The old rubber was so bad that the bead separated from one tire when the mechanic removed it from the rim. Another tire, inside rear, was totally flat. Don't know what the mechanic used them for but as far as I am concerned those tires were only good for the shredder.
Roland
^ Boy oh boy you aren't kidding! Those tires were toast long before you took them over, sounds like. The ones that came to me are 8 yrs old, but unchecked and unrotten. But I've already got a masonjar set aside for new rubber for the inevitable day they're ready for their trip to the Great Campsite in the Sky.
We used retreads on all the municipal service heavy trucks but only on the drive axels never on the front. Only exception was fire and police dept vehicles. Never had a failure and the operators often overloaded the trucks.
Keith
DOT regulations allow retreads ONLY on drive tires. According to regs you are not supposed to use retreads on steers. That always kinda bothered me a bit guess that is why I never used retreads. Some folks swear by them though.
Roland
retreads seem to not like heat, especially in summer, under inflated, over weight. Lots of trailers running around on retreads still and first run carcasses are in demand for drive tire retreads.
BANDAG still going strong in IOWA, they wear like iron, since tread can be made very hard without a carcass to worry about, and then glued on
On a motorhome - I would stay away - fiberglass work is expensive if one let losose.
You know what your car can look like in seconds if a tire chain breaks on the highway. Imagine what a fiberglass motorhome would look like if a retread came apart. Plus, when it lets go, the tire with steel belts flailing about may not be far behind. The floor cracking from the tire sitting at the top of the fender well would look minor in comparison.
Pierce
I'm not sure that it would be any different than a blowout on a regular tire. Had a blowout on my fiver and it did quite a bit of damage and it was not a retread. Tread seperation on a retread is not as common as folks believe. I know that every time someone sees a gator on the road they think retread, but that is not the case. The pieces of the tire I blew on my fiver looked just like all the other gators I have seen on the road. I don't run retreads but that might be a mental thing. Like I said in a previous post, my brother ran retreads on his big truck and never had an issue. He was using his own tires however, not sure that made a difference or not.
Roland
Clearly tire problems are reduced by keeping the psi up to recommended pressure, as usual there are considerations requiring more pressure to keep heat down & undercontrol.
Everyone knows the big killer for a tire is simply HEAT, caused by low pressure.
That said, you can overload a tire. when normal max psi is not enough.
Ever see a tire that failed from over pressure ?? Very unlikely unless your dealing with the idiot.
Dave M
Roland, you might want to ask Gary Omel about that. He had a blow out on the front passenger tire. It put a hole in his floor right behind the passenger seat big enough to put my arm in.
Big blowout turns into new head lights (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=15954.0)
And don't forget Gerard's Left front blowout (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=13575.0)
I still am amazed those guys were able to control the coaches!
A blowout on a coach or fiver does a lot of damage. I don't think it makes a lot of difference wether the tire is a retread or not. But i still will not run retreads. On a big truck it is not as disastrous. I had a blowout on my front tire when I was driving big trucks. Was going 65 mph when the front tire blew, was grossing around 70,000 lbs at the time. Did not panic and was able to bring the rig to a stop with no issues. No damage to the truck. Had that been an RV would have been a different story as far as damage goes. The way these coaches handle I don't think stopping would be an issue as long as one does not panic and make any quick moves take everything slow and easy. Damage caused by the tire is another thing altogether. Don't think that fibre glass and flying tire remnants make for a good combination.
Roland
Tires age. There's no getting around it. Even without age cracks, the rubber gets harder and harder with age, reducing traction. Want a test? Press on a new tire with a dime. Then do the same with your 10 year old tire. Convinced? I thought so.
Of course, there's no doubt. But there are too many variables to say that after X amount of time they're unsafe and need replacing. So just like all my other rolling stock, the round black things will get checked over before every jaunt, and when it comes time to replace 'em, my wallet will cry out in pain... no retreads or el cheapos for me!
Yes, couldn't agree more. My previous motorhome had a blowout of the driver side outside rear. Of course that's right where all of the tanks and complete coach electrical system is located. I was going southbound on the 5, just north of Grants Pass, OR. When I felt the tire go, all I saw in the mirror was foam and fiberglass flying. It completely shredded the two most important cabinets, severed the gas filler, and wiped out the whole plumbing system, including the black. It was a smell I'll never forget. The poor tow truck driver had to lay in it to get the tire off. Luckily the Oregon Department of Environmental Protection (if there is such a thing) was not behind me, they probably wouldn't have been too happy.
I guess once you have an experience like this, you don't take chances with tires. Not only did it delay that trip, it was in the shop for about six months. The insurance company couldn't figure out how there could have been that much damage. They tried to tell me that the reason why the damage were so extensive is because I did not empty the tanks before driving, that motorhomes are not made to drive with full tanks. They quickly lost that argument.
Retreads make sense and (cents) in some commercial applications.
At the risk of making everyone nervous, most commercial aircraft run retreads and pay for them by the landing!! Most urban bus tires are leased by the mile.
That said, I still prefer virgins on the coach but would run retreads on the rear if the carcass was certified by a retread shop I trust. Many fleets "recycle" their own tires with Michelin or Bandag retread shops. Since I've been out of the tire business for almost 10 years, don't know any shops that well anymore.
I am not a tire guy , I am a tire buyer . The reason I run around this great country in our Foretravel for the pure enjoyment of it . I buy some things for the lower price , but tires are for me something that have got to be the best for safety .I will always buy Michelin till something comes along that is proven to be better . Yes they cost a lot , but so did my Foretravel . For me , not liking the cash layout is not my main mover .Be safe , stay alive etc. Brad Metzger
Agree......a couple extra hundred of dollars is worth the peace of mind! I've spent more on a good bottle of wine!