It's been time for new tires for a few miles so checked them all out and had a set of 295/75R22.5 LingLong F816E+ tires installed. They are regional highway, EPA Smart Way verified, all position tires. The price was the same for the long haul tire but most RV manufactures recommend regional tires and for our use where we go off the pavement a lot, they were the choice. Load range G or H are the same price so I chose H with a 6610 lb capacity at 120 psi. The speed rating for the LingLong 22.5 tires is M not L so they are good to 81 mph instead of 75. The owner said most truckers are happy at 105 psi so that's what is in them now.
Our Coopers were also regional tires so the sidewalls don't have the radial bulge and are a bit stiffer. Driving home, the ride seems to be about the same but at 75 mph, there is not the slightest vibration that was present in the Coopers.
LingLong makes over a dozen models with their name and dozens of other brands. Their plants are in China and Thailand. While their passenger tires get just fair ratings in the U.S., the Europeans rank them very highly in testing against the big name brands.
After a little negotiating, I paid $300/tire out the door including all taxes, mounting, tire disposal, etc. The seller offers almost any brand and buys by the container load.
Tire Details | Linglong Americas, Inc. (http://www.linglongtire.com/tbr-tires/f816e/)
Will do a review after our summer trips.
Pierce
Not a bad looking tire. Not to many bad tires out there today, it they are sold in the US they have to meet safety standards.
I'm pretty sure that my current tires are made by LingLong , Samson, Advance etc. I am happy with them at about 22K on them .
I will be selling 2 take offs next week as I down size to 9R, G LR. Sailun .
I know very little about those. And I don't doubt they are fine.
BUT, That name. Couldn't they have called it something else based on the market they are selling them in. LingLong sounds like a condition you go to the Dr. to have fixed or to a plastic surgeon to have added.
Look forward to your report after a few miles.
Orientals seem to have different ideas when it comes to "Brand Names". Perhaps "LingLong" is just an unfortunate english translation of a perfectly suitable tire company name. It's happened before:
24 Unfortunate (Yet Real) Chinese Business Names – TechEBlog (https://www.techeblog.com/24-unfortunate-yet-real-chinese-business-names/)
Personally, I would much rather have
Cosmo MuchoMacho Big Kats on our coach. That's a name that I could say with pride! b^.^d
Cosmo Tires (https://www.cosmotires.com/category/truck-bus)
Pierce.
Given the weight of your coach 105 seems overinflated at least according to Michelin that is.
Pierce likes to run his tires at higher than "chart" pressures. He is a long-time proponent of inflating to the max load COLD sidewall pressure. No harm in that (other than possibly a harsh ride). Each to their own!
Examples below:
Tire pressure recommendations (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=41844.msg418142#msg418142)
Tire pressure recommendations (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=41844.msg418216#msg418216)
Spokane area advice for buying 295/75R-22.5 and have Safe-T-Plus installed (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=40929.msg407673#msg407673)
I tend to run at the top of the tire pressure sidewall recommendation. Our new H rated tires are only good for the 6610 lb maximum per tire at 120 psi (cold). When summer comes and we happen to be in a hurry, I will make sure the tires are inflated to 120 psi cold when driving fast in hot weather. Please read my post and view the attachment from a month ago. Tire pressure recommendations (https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=41844.msg418216#msg418216)
Pierce
Wouldn't a road hazard blow out be more catastrophic at 120 Lbs than it would be at 80. Or not ?
Louder boom but no more catastrophic, maybe more time to pull off the road and not destroy the rim.
Lower pressure means more tire surface touching the road at any one time, creating more flexing and more heat. Tires running at high temperature are more likely to suffer impact damage or tread separation/sidewall blow out.
I've had a zipper blowout and it makes no difference if you have 80 or 120 psi, in a tiny fraction of a second, the tire is in pieces and the wheel is on the ground. With a glass coach, wheel damage may be the least of the damage.
The lower the pressure, the lower the weight capacity of the tire is.
Don't think there are any bus companies, fire departments, etc that don't max the pressure against the sidewall numbers. As I said in my older post, we checked pressure once a week on service day and maxed them. 100 psi on the 10.00-20 and 110 psi on 11.00-20
It's worked for me since the 1960s.
Pierce
Recently headed discussion of tires with the member here. You know who you are! Not going to say his name. But, somehow, I have an issue with tires from china. Do I want tires from India or Afghanistan or some other place I don't know but I do know that I like my toyos they're made in japan, and are good tires. I don't know how much more they are versus Chinese tires. I guess when it comes time to replace I'll find out. Think I'm going to stick with the toyos. Mine are the ones that are rated for 120. Usually I run them about 95 but on the last trip I bumped them up to about 105 and the ride was a little harsher. On the road they got up to around 125 psi.
The ride felt kind of harsh. And that was after changing out the shocks. I think I like them better when they were at 95 PSI.
Tires are expensive for sure. The Chinese tires are cheaper for sure. The other member that has Chinese tires likes his just fine. I'm still going to stick with the Japanese toyos. To each his own.
A greal number of toyo tyres for N America are made in Georgia with some specific models made in Japan.
JohnH
Tires. What a mess. Of course we alll would like to buy a made in USA tire .But then we have tires like the Goodyear trailer tire garbage. Cooper failures. Dayton, Firestone etc.
The Data says that the US tire makers have a lot more issues than the Chinese builders .
Then do a search for" RV tire blow out ". 98 % of the incidents are the fancy, expensive Michelins. I could not find a single tire failure report for the Samson or the Sailun tire. I want a safe tire that is a fair price.
And we have people that wonder why the tire manufacturers have a load /pressure chart..
Buy what you like. Put air in.
What does Foretravel put on the new Coaches ?
Michelin - they don't specify which specific tire is used on each model.
See the specs sheet for each model:
FORETRAVEL (https://www.foretravel.com)
Having been in trucking as an owner-operator. I have had to deal with tires on a much more regular basis than rv owners. Inside the data for blow outs was further data that shows that nearly all blowouts (in the +90% range as I recall) are caused by under inflation. Not build quality, Not overloading. And the old tale of retreads being involved in most blow outs was shown to be false as well. Retreads got a bad rap because a lot of folks were buying them and not maintaining them.
Under inflation is a big big issue with rv owners because they only occasionally use their rv's and are very lackadaisical when it comes to pre-trip inspection of tire pressure.
I never had a blow out in 10 years of owning a truck. The only tire issue I ever had was with belt slippage on Michelin steer tires. That's why I will never use Michelin. They have probably fixed the issue, But for years Michelin routinely blamed their belt slippage on the drivers and were always the most expensive yet most problematic. Again, This was years ago and perhaps Michelin has changed their quality. They certainly haven't changed their high pricing.
Forum rules prevent me from saying why I try to not buy Chinese stuff when there are alternatives.
Tire pressure recommendations has much to do with tire failures. Both the tire company and vehicle manufacture are anxious to provide a nice soft ride in order to sell their product in a very competitive world. In the case of the Ford Explorer and Firestone tires, Ford recommended 26 psi for the tires. Air is never automatically added to tires. Rather, it escapes and according to the NHTSA, lack of pressure maintenance is one of the leading causes of tire failure. I can't imagine any utility vehicle having a recommended pressure of 26 psi. It would seem 36 psi would be more appropriate. And naturally, many Firestone tires failed with a high fatality rate. This caused Ford to change tire brands and go to an independent rear suspension on the Explorer.
In the search for new tires for your coach, the NHTSA provides easily available information for what brands and models have recalls/complaints/etc at the present time. So, just go to Check for Recalls: Vehicle, Car Seat, Tire, Equipment | NHTSA (https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls) and enter the brand name of your tire in question and the models will appear.
Just because a tire brand had high rate of failures in the past does not mean it still does. Michelin's XRV series had a very high rate of failures around 2014. Was this because of a faulty design/manufacturing or because of low pressure recommendations?
My feeling is that many people would rather trade a softer ride with accompanying lower pressures for safety with a firmer ride. When we were driving to meet with clients in Germany, if traffic allowed, our cars were always maxed out at over 140 mph. Not all Autobahn routes were 3 lanes in each direction so some did have potholes. At this speed, there was no possibility of a good outcome from a failed tire so tire pressures were closely checked all the time.
Pierce
x2 on the under inflation causing most of the tire issues. Just my 2 cents worth, I'll take a little rougher ride with higher inflation( which if some one didn't tell you you would never know), than use my tires for shock absorbers ( lower pressures) which also builds heat. And as we all know heat and rubber don't play well together.
When I was running Michelin's. I was (as were most) running max sidewall rec pressure. But my ride was extremely harsh.
So I called Michelin Inc. And had a nice chat with corp tech. The first thing they asked. How much pressure and what does your truck weigh fully loaded? I told him max allowable PSI and my weight. He said why are you running such high pressure? Well, Because that's what everyone says you are supposed to do.
He said don't listen to them. He explained that there is no set amount of PSI for a given tire beyond that required to hold the bead to the wheel. He went on to say that the only reason a tire has air above the bead set amount is to hold up the load that it is presented with. In other words. If you had a Jeep that was running our rv tires. 10-15 PSI would be all that you needed and the tire would not suffer for it. He also said that contrary to most lines of thought. Your tire is part of the suspension system and will just add more beating to your bushings from more inflation than is required to carry the load presented. Bottom line. I reduced my 8 drive tires from max allowed psi down to 75 based on the loaded weight of under 20,000 lbs. FedEx runs light.
Which of course circles back to the load charts. If it says to run 95 and your max allowable is 120. There is no technical reason to run 120 and not 95. One of course can run 120 when only 95 is required. But that is just personal preference and not physics.
Fine and dandy on nice smooth freeways. When you start hitting massive potholes, or speed bumps (topes) in Mexico, I would hate to be your sidewalls. I blew out 4 tires on my tow car until I found out I should be loading them to the sidewall stated rating.
Twig, It simply depends on one's personal acceptance or aversion of risk. There actually is a happy median.
The number of pot holes I have hit in our coach is such an infinitesimally small number compared to the total miles driven. I just don't worry about it to the point of wanting to drive on rock hard tires. I simply inflate to the load chart recommendation.
As I said. It's a personal preference and there is no right or wrong answer.
It will be interesting to read the report on how those Linglongs perform for Pierce.
I have 18k on mine and taking them off while I can sell them for almost the replacement cost. I like them just fine . Simply too much tire for my 9000# front end.
I've "crowned" some tires in the past half century just as I've destroyed sidewalls with too much heat due to lackadaisical tire maintenance. I was driving the Studebaker as delivered, getting to know the car when I locked up all four wheels in traffic. My tire pressure gauge read 36 PSI on all four tires, and after doing the reading and determining that the front-rear pressure difference is 6 PSI, and making a wild assed guess, I set the pressures at 30PSI front and 24 PSI rear. I can still lock up the rears, but now I'm not driving around on 4 erasers.