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Topic: Tires (Read 11354 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Tires

Reply #20 –
Phoenix Tire almost always has brand new Michelin take off tires with date codes within the past year and a half at a deep discount. They had 13 of them in stock when I bought mine. I think I paid $450 mounted and balanced for a $600 tire if I remember correctly (?) I wrote about it on the forum at the time. Maybe you're not going through Phoenix but other readers could benefit from this information. The date code meant nothing to me because it was going to be a spare tire anyway... Oh who am I kidding, the date code would have meant nothing to me no matter what. :)

Re: Tires

Reply #21 –
I have Firestone F591 H rated, 16 ply tires.  Had them installed a couple of months ago, just under $500 each mounted and balanced out the door.  I am happy with them so far, around 4000 miles on them.

Bought them from Southern Tire Mart in Florida, but they have shop all over the south.

Re: Tires

Reply #22 –
Quote from: stevec22 –
Bought them from Southern Tire Mart in Florida, but they have shop all over the south.
Bought two Bridgestones from them last October and checked out right at $600 per TTL. (sic) I have relaxed my grip on the wheel a bit. Really had good service in the bay from Southern Tire Mart. Paul

Re: Tires

Reply #23 –
I have Toyo's as steer and Firestone on duals. Wanted Toyos all around but could not get them at time. Love Toyos and have had them on my 7 series BMW for many years. MUCH better road holding and wet driving than Mich'
JohnH

Re: Tires

Reply #24 –
You are comparing your OTR toyo's to current Xza-3+ or their energy x replacements?

Toyo, Bridgestone, Goodyear and Firestones went to the thick sidewall design for flat tire runouts.

Two choices on the tech.  Thick sidewalls hold the tire up with no air.

Or the Michelin design where the sidewall shreds and the tire/rim come down on the tread area allowing no flip flop loss of steering control.

The Michelin thinner sidewall and no overlapping carcass belts have no,hard spot where the carcass overlaps which is visible on the sidewallls as a crease and self steers better.

Had long conversations with all the tire guys long ago.

Yes it's more money.  That's nice,  the original FMCA advantage program only offered Michelins for a reason.

Customer demand....

Re: Tires

Reply #25 –
I'll take the thicker sidewall construction anytime. Nothing worse than on winding roads or crosswinds the mal de mer feeling the flexy sidewalls have, especially if not up at max pressure.

Pierce

Re: Tires

Reply #26 –
6000+  Foretravels new disagreed as did cm fore when he told me they had tested multiples of every tire made when the unihome was introduced and like the Europeans did they built the suspension system and settings around the tires.

From the horses mouth.  I was there in OCT 1987.  In  Nac.

You may not feel the difference but I have and can.

Some of my observations are related to the now legally defensible looser front wheel bearing adjustments.

Mine were preloaded.  Zero dead spot.  Now .001-.003 and a slight dead spot.

The Michelins design includes a self correcting edge sipes to bring the  coach back to straight. 

The others do not.

Wheel bearings are now looser by legality requirements.

If you could drive the coach from the bottom of the steering wheel on a long demo ride I sold more motorhome for a higher profit.

Same as foretravel as a factory, 

The tires accentuated the already superior ride and handling the eight air bag and Koni shocks delivered.

My two cents.

Re: Tires

Reply #27 –
FMCA offers a couple brands. Not just michelin. All the hoopla over them being designed to do "xxxxxxx" does not sway my decision to never run michelins on any rv I own. They explode often and with expensive consequences. My current non michelins will be replaced with even cheaper non michelins that I hopefully will be able to wear out in 10 years!

Re: Tires

Reply #28 –
Funny you mention the beads. I have not seen them but years ago I was

at a tire store and there was a trucker there getting new tires. He had a

plastic bag full of golf balls and put a certain number  in each tire before it was

mounted. He said it kept them in balance. Guess he knew what he was doing??

Carter-

Re: Tires

Reply #29 –
Got our Toyos at T.M. tire in Chicago,have known the owner for over 40 years,he swears by the
Beads.he even removed the old weights tires run great.

Stated this on previous post but I still think some of the minute steering problems we have are
From worn torque rod bushings.Every time your suspension goes up or down the rods move, I
Found this out when redoing mine,had to lower and raise coach to get bolts out.

Re: Tires

Reply #30 –
My personal opinion (which means hoot to most I guess) is that today tyres are fairly equal across most makes and all this crap about one make being much better/safer etc than all the rest is just that!
I look (as cashflash bob said) at trucks etc at fuel stops just to see what these guys like and now it is all over the place including offshore makes so that does not help me.
I would imagine that just as other manufacturers do they get a special pricing for volume and this was the motivating thing for CM Fore. I cannot see them building a few coach's then changing tyres to see which gives the better drive. This is all done by engineering people prior to final build. Input by a large manufacturer like Michelin wouls sway most.
Europe for many years used Pirelli on new cars and now use others. reason for Pirreli was that they are softer rubber and your car used to "stick" to the road making you think the road holding is superb.
I can guarantee that FMCA does NOT think that Michelin are better than all others for your Motorhome it is that Michelin are willing to give members a break on the over priced cost and other makers are not. I see Continental now are also "prefered" so how does that work in the equation? Gather CM forgot to look at them too!
No, Bob it is all marketing and you cannot get me to believe anything else sorry and I will merrily move on down the highway with my Toyos on front.
Oh by the way FMCA I guess does not care about the lives of its Canadian members as they do not allow us to buy thru' the Michelin Program. If these tyres are so much safer surely FMCA would open it to us (still would not use it mind you)
JMHO
JohnH

Re: Tires

Reply #31 –
Quote from: Dave and Nancy Abel –
Howdy gracerace, 
  That's a good price!  I'm wonderin' if you had Gs or Hs installed?
Thanks for sharing, Dave A


They are 'G' rated. We talked about H's, but we didn't feel the coach is that heavy. If it was a U320, maybe that would have been a possibility.
H's were not that much more. I don't remember the quote.

Re: Tires

Reply #32 –
Quote from: John Haygarth –
Oh by the way FMCA I guess does not care about the lives of its Canadian members as they do not allow us to buy thru' the Michelin Program. If these tyres are so much safer surely FMCA would open it to us (still would not use it mind you)
JMHO
JohnH

Suspect the "what divisions of Michelin offer the program" was strictly a Michelin decision. FMCA is quite aware of members on both sides of the border.

Re: Tires

Reply #33 –
If I were looking to buy steer tires, the tread pattern plays a role in whether that design are easily damaged under normal use. This is what a local tire expert told me.

Re: Tires

Reply #34 –
Quote from: Chuck Pearson –
Whoa.  That's a deal.  Did you have some kind of prior association with them, or was this a deal you walked in and negotiated? 
We have bought quite a bit of stuff from our local dealer over the years.Tires, wheels etc., because we have a few collector cars.Nothing like a business would buy.
I just talked to the manager. One tid bit is, a mutual friend to the manager,who works for a large company who buys a lot from them, called and got the brother in law price before I went in $3200.00 OTD. I just talked nice, asked for his best shot, $2100.00 exchange is what he gave me. I would have sold the tires on craigslist, but it was snowing already, didn't want to mess with it. Probably could have gotten $150.00-$200.00 ea.
He also told me the Michelin's we had looked great, but I talked him into selling us new tires, because I have seen so much damage when tires come apart. Both customers coaches, and my own. 10 years fronts, 7 years back, was just pushing it for me, no matter how good they looked.
He had some other off brands I never heard of, even cheaper. A couple were H's. But because of the lighter weight of our coach, we both agreed G's would be fine.

Re: Tires

Reply #35 –
Quote from: RvTrvlr –
FMCA offers a couple brands. Not just michelin. All the hoopla over them being designed to do "xxxxxxx" does not sway my decision to never run michelins on any rv I own. They explode often and with expensive consequences. My current non michelins will be replaced with even cheaper non michelins that I hopefully will be able to wear out in 10 years!
A lot of factors are involved in tire failures. The rated load printed on the tire is only at the specified pressure. Pillow soft pressures together with summer heat and pot holes shorten tire life. Don't ever let air out of a tire in hot weather. Winter storage without raising pressures and taking some of the load off the tires also contribute to the chances of a failure.

How do you engineer a truck front beam axle, rigid axle or solid axle around a particular brand of tire? Another wives tale.

Yes, tires in Europe have to be specified according to the top speed of the vehicle. As the speed goes up, so does the tire weight plus the compound is much softer and stickier. No, they don't last as long.

Pierce

Re: Tires

Reply #36 –
Lots of good info. Almost every blown up tire I had in 15 years in high line Rv sales management had, upon inspection, rusted cord belts visible on the inside.

Non dry air...

Use the coach air output after raising your D2 pressure to 110-130 on and off.

No cute little compressors unless you have an air dryer after it...

Country coach had Les Schwab mount up double sets of everything available to test their first IFS coaches with the proviso that CC would order their production tires from them.

Foretravel did the same thing in Nac.

We could have a labor consuming tire test if anyone wanted.

Did this several times on my lot with older coaches

Lots of volume in those days to use for testing.  1988 I sold 41 used. 59 new.

Be safe. 

Caster and camber I think were the settings done for the specific tires.

Shocks were set at 1/2 turn originally and most were reset to 1 1/2 turns.  At least in my store after a bit of driving.

FSD's are a component here I feel.

Had many spirited discussions with highly opinionated owners about tires 30 years ago,  which is good.

Re: Tires

Reply #37 –
We had a spare, canvas wrapped, on the roof when we bought the coach. Since I've blown a spare that scared the pucky out of me, I took it down and threw it away.

Re: Tires

Reply #38 –
Quote from: wolfe10 –
Suspect the "what divisions of Michelin offer the program" was strictly a Michelin decision. FMCA is quite aware of members on both sides of the border.


Exactly my point Brett, this was not an FMCA decision based on "better tyres" but a marketing issue by Michelin, that was my point on Bobs comment about CM picking that make over others equally as good.
JohnH

Re: Tires

Reply #39 –
I am very happy with my Michelins.