I've found a 2000 U320 that's been sitting in a climate controlled storage unit in the Seattle area. Enthusiast owned and sounds like it's had all the maintenance and care you could ask for in a rig that's not used much.
The owner has only put 4k miles on the Michelin tires over the last 10 years. I know the general rule of thumb is 7 years with these tires so...would you even chance it? Or do you drive it straight to the tire shop after closing the deal? I'm usually a stickler when it comes to tires but MAN it's a hard pill to swallow when there's no visible cracking/wear/etc...
I'm hoping to get out there and see it in person in a few weeks.
At a minimum, I would drive it straight to a knowledgable tire shop for an inspection that would probably involve pulling at least one tire off the rim.
Then you can decide on your next step.
Rich
It would be a priority for me.
Adjust your offer accordingly
I'm with Frank. Ten years is way beyond changeout time. I just replaced seven year old tires on mine.
jor
Read Michelin's web site
I had front blow out on 7 YO Michelin No visual inspection can detect rusted steel inside tire casing Adjust offer to reflect is good advise You can expect increase maintenance for the first year or two for any coach that's been not used very often.
Also have a knowledgeable person inspect the coach lots of threads here on the forum about prepurchase inspection. Pay attention to both kids battery age and the refrigerator.
When I bought my coach in 2015 it had Michelin tires that looked good, but were about 5 years old. I read that they typically would make it for at least 7 years and maybe good for longer.
The second year we were on our way back from Ft Myers heading to Arkansas on I10 in the panhandle. When BANG , what was that?
Yep a Zipper type blow out on the inside of the outside tire. I called for road service to replace tire and then followed the service truck back to the shop and replaced the other 5 tires. I just didn't trust them.
It is a hard pill to swallow to replace "like new" tires, but the cost if you have a blow out can be way more expensive than the $3k it takes to put tires on your coach.
DWMYH as has been said before.
I looked at a coach with Michelin tires that had sat for about 18 months, no idea of the tire pressures. I asked a Michelin tech guy about flat spots from sitting. He suggested that it could be a problem and suggested replacing them. Of course he was promoting tires. 6 years is a common life expectancy for tires. Some owners try to go for longer. Risk goes up. If you drive 6,000 miles a year budget 10ยข a mile for tires and replace them every six years.
At 10 years old replacing the tires should be considered in the price asked and your offer..
FWIW my front blowout caused over 6000 in body damage besides having to buy six new tires
These two statements are contradictory. I would wonder what else they'd "cheapened out on" regarding maintenance.
Garage queens aren't a good thing in RVs.
Replace 10 year old tires even if they have sat on a shelf for 10 years!
It is illegal in most if not all states to drive on tires over ten years old. State troopers can bench you if they really looked that closely. These rules are in place to not only protect you, but the others on the road that might be impacted by such decisions.
Safety first. No doubt about replacing the tires. I reduced the asking price of my coach to account for the condition of the 7-8 year old tires.
I agree with Michelle. 10 year old tires would make me question the sellers comment about up to do date maintenance. Tires are elementary maintenance items to us.
We replaced our tires when we bought it 5 years ago. We are replacing them again this year.
What Brett said. Years ago I bought a coach in Tampa, FL. Flew out to see and inspect it, bought it and had them put new Michelins on it. Flew back out a week later, got to the dealer in a rain storm. Saw the brand new Michelins and thought I was all good to go. Got home and looked at the DOT codes, 10 years old! I called the dealer and he said no problem, just bring it back. No way was I driving back 1500 miles on those old tires. After a month of back and forth they had a local to me dealer replace them at their cost.
I even called Michelin and talked with their RV specialist. He said Michelin's policy is if they have been in a warehouse they are as good as new. But he said there was no way he'd accept them!
Don't take a chance.
Tires are a never ending subject. Got to love it.. if they have Been in operation there entire life they would be in better shape than sitting. They are past there recommended replacement life. They are subject to failure if operated. That being said I would operate at extremely slow speed and recheck pressures on ten mile intervals. On the way to the tire shop. The amount of damage a blown tire can cause on ANYTHING is not worth the repair cost. I've been involved with many hi speed tire failures and most cost money for other damage. I ran my 2005 date code tires 120 miles this summer knowing who was going to be responsible if they failed. Heat/ low pressure causes hi temperatures and tire fail at above 140 degs. Old tires fail cold too. Yes they look good till they don't. Hard to put the genie back in the bottle. Don't forget who will be driving, they too are important.
I spent 2400$ on Toyo 177 H tires. Can't even have the fender painted for less. Cheap insurance. IMO
Scott
I'm with Scott, you don't want a blow-out. I had blow-out on a SOB coach was out side right duel fortunately I was able to fix damage back to factory OEM but it took me 2 weeks to do the fix. My coach tires age out next year so there will be 6 next casings put on before we head to Q next December.
Chris
I would also look very closely at the date on the house and chassis batteries.
This is a coach I would highly recommend having professionally inspected since the owner doesn't understand tire age issues.
Tires don't wear out, they date out.
I feel your pain, went through it too.
Les Swab gave me $100.00 each trade, for local trucks. Cost me $2300.00 OTD for Toyo's. The peace of mind was worth it.
Chris
Replace them !
I tried to stretch the Michelins on our previous coach "just one more trip". It was always garaged on epoxy coated concete floor. Left San Diego, almost made it to Reno, heard a muffled thump, but didn't really feel anything. Did the walk around at the next fuel stop, and sure enough, passenger side inside tire, sidewall blow out. Very lucky it wasn't a front. They were 8 years old with about 20,000 miles.
Don't take it a chance, too dangerous. Replace them.
Remember on ANY tire position blow out, RV or car, it's full throttle for a moment to counteract drag that can pull vehicle to side, never hit brake at first.
I would absolutely replace them because they are Michelins, the ultimate tire for exploding on an RV. My 2007 production Bridgestones look great and continue to perform well but will be replaced before I use the RV again. Due to the pandemic and buying a new 45' Hatteras yacht the poor foretravel has been stored indoors the whole year with almost no use. I take it out every three months or so and get it up to temperature on a 10-15 mile highway run. I'm long past due replacing them but the boat and the pandemic changed my mode of travel and time spent camping at music festivals.
Whoa! Was responsible for maintenance on trucks operating in all lower 48 states. Never heard of any laws relating to running 10+ year old tires. Would love to know your attribution for any laws relating to this. Since we are an interstate carrier we operate under Federal DOT regs and not any individual state. Visual inspection for no excessive damage and/or unusual wear, by a qualified technician, and tread depth based on wheel position were the only qualifying factors.
Agree with most opinions regarding replacing tires by a certain age but this is based on my personal feelings and not on any laws that require me to do this.
Steve
So I may have learned something today. My previous knowledge on tire age was from the local discount tire who wouldn't touch a flat on an old trailer tire that was 10 years old. He told me the law is 10 years and he cannot work on one nor could I legally drive one that old.
Personally I don't really care if he was incorrect because I completely agree that no one should regularly drive on a tire that old. It is not just their life and property they risk. If you loose control and cause an accident and someone gets hurt, does it really matter?
After reading for a for a short while I agree that there is not a federal law governing the age of a tire. I have not and will not search state laws.
I also found a great read in tires. See attached.
Regardless of brand, over 7 years old = elevated potential for catastrophic failure. Let alone the damage to your coach, imagine rolling down the interstate one hand on the wheel, boom front tire fails at 60+ MPH ON SUNDAY AT 2 in the afternoon. Humm, at the very least a major PITA. Tires every 6-7 years are cheap piece of mind. JMHO, as always DWMYFG.
To Post # 22
Absolutely agree with with the statement about tires.
Changing subjects:
I am often confused by the abbreviations, it took me some time to figure out that DW is one's respective wife.
We should have a translation list of abbreviations for Newbies like me who are not that well versed in colloquial expressions.
I assume that IMHO means " in my humble opinion"
Nobody who uses that phrase ( and I have used it frequently without "humble") actually believes that his opinion is not spot on.
I am afraid to ask what DWMYFG stands for.
If I get censored for irrelevant postings I promise to do better.
Regards
Klaus
Do what makes you feel good
DEMYFG came by way of Brad Metzger's late brother Dave
Maybe this can serve as a convincer.
This is a quality, light truck tire, 13-years-old. It has a TOTAL of four miles of use. At 2/10 of a mile, the tread was completely lost and the tire was flat.
At a maximum of 10 MPH, this was an expensive and annoying inconvenience. But nobody was hurt, and it was all fixed with a credit card. You do not want this with an RV at 70MPH.
For me it will be buy good tires, use a tire pressure monitoring system, put as many miles as I can and trade them in for half price at five years old and repeat process. Too cheap to change out if you think about it. IMO
Scott
Thanks guys... I think I already knew the answer when I posted this and just needed someone (or 20 of you :D ) to hammer it home.
Working out a reasonable offer for these things is a challenge all of it's own!
No matter how old your tires are, I think a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) is essential. They will never eliminate all blowouts, but notice here posts that mention something like "I heard something and stopped at the next exit and * rear tire was blown". Undoubtedly, some of these were caused by overheating from a leaking tire that would have been known prior to the blowout if a TPMS were installed. You never know when a tire might pick up a nail, etc.
Agreed. I have a 6-sensor unit on our 5th wheel right now and hope to repurpose it for the FT. I want to have a second tpms system for the toad too but haven't figured out if I can daisy chain two repeaters yet or not. I'll need to tap the hive for collective knowledge on that too at some point
Most of the TPMS systems should be able to add more sensors to also get your toad covered. What system do you have on your 5th?
I don't think you need worry. IMNSHO, I've been trying to set a record for irrelevant asides ever since I joined and yours was on point.
Art
On topic. I blew a right front tire on my previous rig because of age on my way to the tire store. Not fun. I'm currently changing our two front tires on the bikes because of age, and throwing away two mint looking tires that came on spare rims but are as hard as rocks because of age, and my trailer needs a new pair of tires, again because of age. But the trailer can wait until we receive our vaccinations.
Tires are the MOST important!
On these coaches they don't wear out, they age out. It's just not worth the risk! As far as the cost goes ......... you just have to bite the bullet. My 2 cents!
I had my tire dealer check my 5 year old non-Michelin tires on my sob years ago. Made it almost 100 miles before an outside dual blew, doing enough damage to be remembered 20 years later.
I change my Michelins at 5 years or first sign of sidewall checking.
On another tack, I bought an in mounted spare for Alaska last year. At what point in time should I chuck it? All seven tires were made in 2018.
I'm sensing a theme here, that Michelin tires have a whole lot of problems!
I have toyos all round with 70+ thousand miles on the back and 30+ thousand on the stears, so this season I will spring for new rears.
My rear tires are at least 9 years old as they were on it when I bought the coach 9 years ago, I have used Michelin on pickups when they made tires for Sears. Last set I had were at 74k when I sold the truck. When I was still working for a living I had toyos on my welding truck, that's right, no problems.
My spare is in the compartment and I don't ever intend to chuck it. But it's a Michelin :-\ :-\
I've had two flats on the U300 and two on the 4107. None came apart. I even drove across two states with a vibration on a rear duel before I figured it out but the second one was outside Hoover Dam in 110 degree heat. I had to change it in the lane as there was no shoulder. Still remember that one. These were on the 4107. The U300 flats were low speed.
The almost new Michelin on our 406D came apart with a bang and in a big way at 65
Bridgestone/Firestone recommend no more than 15 years on a casing that is being used for recapping. (this was from Bridgestone site)
On the other hand, a forum member drove all the way across Mexico with only one tire on the rear right side. Why?
Pierce
Here's another example of bad 10 year old tires. I took these pics of a 40'+ Newmar Essex with a tag at a truck collision shop here in Biloxi in 2016. The owner had just bought the coach and was told the tires looked good. He should have inspected to see they were 10 years old and ready to blow!
He was traveling on I-10 from Florida to Colorado in July when the right front tire let go. The coach went off the highway just before crossing the Tchouticabouffa bridge and he could have ended up in the river!
Andy the shop foreman told me it was probably going to be about $30,000 in damages up front. You can see the entry steps torn off and there was a lot damage underneath. They put a tire on it to get it off the highway and then over to Southern Tire for a brand new set of Michelins. Ouch!
Jerry
Jerry,
I just had to look up that river name because I thought you had misspelled something. Sure enough, you were right on. I guess I have crossed that river many times on I-10 but never noticed the name.
By the way, how do the locals pronounce it?
Richard
Richard,
Pronouncing some of the names for streets, towns, rivers, etc around this part of the country can be a lot of fun like Biloxi or Pascagoula!
I've always heard it pronounced as Shoot-ti-ca-buff or Shoot-ti-ca buffa river. Say it real fast and it's easy!
It's an English attempt of a Native American name for the river kind of like Tchoupitoulas (Chop-a toolas) street in New Orleans!
Jerry
Here's a great video on how to pronounce places in Louisiana English from Christophe Landry, Ph.D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ5PZAGzbP8
And ask someone who never left Houston to pronounce Houma. It ain't the same!
FWIW This is the damage a 12 inch tire can do when the lug bolts come out.
Torque wrench. Every time you drive it for the first week.
Remove all paint on the back of the wheel and the drum .Any place that contacts should be metal, no paint. Dont fore get Under the lug nuts..
"I even called Michelin and talked with their RV specialist. He said Michelin's policy is if they have been in a warehouse they are as good as new."
I documented my Michelin tire failure in an early posting so won't go into that again. My real issue had to do with their customer service and unwillingness to stand behind their product. I have three years left on these tires and I will switch to another brand. It is all about peace of mind.
I always check the date codes on tires I'm about to have mounted. High volume tire centers don't have popular tires on the racks very long. Whoever sells you tires will want to use their oldest stock first. I found that motorcycle tires were most likely to sit on a shelf the longest. Dealers have tried to sell me 5 year old tires and were surprised that I even inquired.
Seems as tho that all of the booms have been Michelins.
Same here , I've been in business 40yrs. . The only tires that blew were visually good Michelins. And 3 blew in the same 100 miles. Forcing tow and 6 new tires.( on my Dad's P 30 . )
Nice try but this ain't my first rodeo partner. If they were painted rims I'd use a single flute counter sink to remove the still soft paint from the seat. No, this goes into the same bin as the 1/4" by 4" lag bolt I found in the rear bike tire at the OxBow campground*. When I robbed a lug bolt from each of the other 3 wheels to get home they all had that too-tight crack when they broke free.
*That was 2014 and replacing that plugged tire is next on my list of things to do.