Motorhome Tires

Topic: Motorhome Tires (Read 3762 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #25 – January 18, 2020, 12:06:14 am

The Chinese car market is larger than the market in the U.S. with 20 percent of the world's vehicles and a third of the passenger cars made in the world. Mercedes among others has a factory there, some of our Buicks come from there and the Chinese own Volvo. I think it absurd to think they somehow make poor tires to fit to their cars. The huge tires on my Case tractor as well as some of our car tires are also from China. They have all given excellent service.

Uniroyal and General Tire are owned by Continental Tire, a German company and maker of our Conti Airbags. Firestone Tire and Rubber is owned by Bridgestone so our airbag choices are either Japanese or German.

Pierce

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #26 – January 18, 2020, 09:42:21 am

Slight correction: Michelin has owned Uniroyal since 1989.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/23/business/michelin-to-acquire-uniroyal-goodrich.html

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #27 – January 18, 2020, 10:07:26 am

Knowing a lot of forum members dislike Michelin tires, I'll put in a plug for them, I have been very happy with our 5 year old Michelin XZE tires. After 40,000 plus miles and 5 years, no cracks or wear visible, smooth ride and trouble free. Too much $$$? Maybe? But I will always purchase a name brand and I won't chance a off brand tire that has questionable quality controls during manufacture.

A defective tire can show up with any manufacturer, the more tires they produce the greater number of possible problems. A lot of factors to consider. Go with the tire manufacturer that YOU have confidence in and if you have had a good experience with them in the past, then the more reason to stick with that company.

I prefer BF Goodrich tires also, have had good luck with them in the past on truck tires.

Good luck with your choice.....

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #28 – January 18, 2020, 10:21:01 am

Quote from: wolfe10 – January 18, 2020, 09:42:21 am

Slight correction: Michelin has owned Uniroyal since 1989.

To those who are concerned about "Where It's Made", and as an item of possible future interest to other tire buyers:

The Uniroyal RS20 tires on our coach were manufactured in the Michelin Tire Plant, Tuscaloosa, AL.

Which also happens to be the exact same factory as BF Goodrich Tuscaloosa Manufacturing

Small world...

PS: Most RV tires that are "Made in The USA" have a stamp or mark on the sidewall that advertises this fact.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #29 – January 18, 2020, 10:29:59 am

Yup, Michelin has owned both since 1989 (see article link above) .

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #30 – January 18, 2020, 10:48:20 am

Quote from: wolfe10 – January 18, 2020, 09:42:21 am

Slight correction: Michelin has owned Uniroyal since 1989.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/23/business/michelin-to-acquire-uniroyal-goodrich.html

Yes, quite correct.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #31 – January 22, 2020, 06:37:16 pm

Has anyone used the FMCA and/or Prevost Community (via Dupree Unlimited) Michelin Tire Discount Programs? Anyone have an idea of how much can actually be "saved" via the programs? Trying to identify the true cost of the tires, mounting & balancing via the discount programs vs. buying outright from a dealer. I am unable to price tires w/o submitting an order through the dealer with no commitment to (<3 mo) DOT age. Also, I am unable to locate a dealer that has the 275/80RX22.5 H rated (66205) tires (with date code 3 months or less). Dealers are saying Michelin tracks tire their inventory at the dealer level and moves tires around (between warehouse and dealers) based on orders (as I understand it). I don't want to buy 1 yr old tires... I am stuck.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #32 – January 22, 2020, 08:03:25 pm

Contact OTRUSA tires online and see what they offer with regard to price, shipping and date of manufacture. I had really good luck with them.
If you can R&R your wheels and tires and take them to a tire place nearby they will mount your new ones for a small price. I paid $20.00 each and supplied the balance beads from Amazon.
I specified a manufacture date of no more than three months and what they shipped were about thirty days old. See my reply #19.

OTRUSA.COM - Wholesale discount tires

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #33 – January 23, 2020, 10:30:55 am

T-Man, somehow I missed "absorbing" the information you provided in your earlier reply (#19). I will give them a call. Thanks for everyone's thoughts. Great forum.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #34 – January 23, 2020, 01:29:26 pm

Working on getting quotes to purchase Michelin X Multi Energy Z (h rated) STEER tires for the front and 4 Michelin X Multi Energy D (h rated) for the rear. Does it make sense to buy steer tires for all 6 positions or put Z's on the front axle and D's on the rear axle? OTRUSA tires online wanted more money than my local dealer.

Walt

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #35 – January 23, 2020, 03:35:46 pm

Steer tires all around!

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #36 – January 23, 2020, 04:09:11 pm

Quote from: wolfe10 – January 23, 2020, 03:35:46 pm

Steer tires all around!

Ditto.......what the smart man said

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #37 – January 23, 2020, 06:14:32 pm

My previous statement "OTRUSA tires online wanted more money than my local dealer" in reply #34 was incorrect. The pricing between OTRUSA and my local dealer was THE SAME as OTRUSA quotes with FET tax included. My mistake.

Found my wk50 2019 Michelin X-Line Energy Z (66205) tires. Apparently, there are two Michelin advantage program(s) (Michelin Fleet or Michelin Associate - $6/tire difference).

Thanks everyone for your help. You are a great group of folks willing to share your knowledge and experience. I hope to be able to do the same one day.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #38 – January 23, 2020, 11:04:54 pm

My understanding is that Michelin is the only tire maker with straight across steel cord belts in its inner core.

Remember the billboards years ago showing the Michelin Man and pictures of the tires core?

Years and years of Michelin "x"

The design has a different safety design in that the sidewalls shred and the rim comes straight down on the tread belt and does not flop around.

Other tires told me long ago that they went to a stiffer sidewall to keep the tire from flopping around in a pressure loss.

I appraised countless coaches as a Foretravel Sales manager and after a while I played a game with myself and did not look at the coaches tires prior to my drive.

Now remember this is in my local so cal freeway area with choppy freeways and medium condition side roads.

The other brands were very close to each other. The Toyo's seemed to be among the smoothest riding.

The Michelin's were more precise in their steering and turning. Noticeable.

Never was wrong about saying .michelin and then finding something else. Never.

Take it for what it's worth but if I had a nice highline used coach that was worth retail and had worn or older tires I would invest Foretravels money out of my budget and my commission to put new Michelin's on the coach regardless of brand.

Always made more money in the deal in my mind to put new tires, new batteries on every coach I resold

Long ago info. May not be important now.

I can tell you my Xza-3+ require me to have to use the brakes more than when it had Xza-2's. Much lower rolling resistance.

Steers and turns great. Rides nice on crummy roads.

IF you live where there are nice smooth roads the differences may be less pronounced.

The higher load capacity for the "h" rated version allows me and others to run 10 pounds less pressure per the same load.

Much better on bad roads to me.

We were in a competitive environment as every top brand was sold within a few hundred yards.

As we were not as pretty it had to drive and ride perfectly

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #39 – January 23, 2020, 11:30:52 pm

Uniroyal RS20 from Walmart.com. $325 shipped to my door times 6. Love them. Owned by Michelin.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #40 – January 24, 2020, 04:48:00 pm

Just go to Walmart.com, in their search bar, place Uniroyal RS20 and your tire size. It will pop up

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #41 – January 24, 2020, 05:28:25 pm

I'm a big believer of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvZrNrF9NDY

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #42 – January 24, 2020, 08:18:30 pm

It also makes perfect sense to have the alignment checked "under road load".

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #43 – January 24, 2020, 08:21:37 pm

Alignment or RUN-OUT and BALANCE?

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #44 – January 24, 2020, 09:07:48 pm

Quote from: wolfe10 – January 24, 2020, 08:21:37 pm

Alignment or RUN-OUT and BALANCE?

Some truck alignment shops are starting to do a loaded toe in adjustment. Instead of just after being sat on the lazy Susan trivet plates.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #45 – January 24, 2020, 10:30:33 pm

Quote from: bigdog – January 24, 2020, 09:07:48 pm

Some truck alignment shops are starting to do a loaded toe in adjustment. Instead of just after being sat on the lazy Susan trivet plates.

Wow. Would love to see that equipment. Who makes it?

Thanks.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #46 – January 24, 2020, 10:58:09 pm

Quote from: wolfe10 – January 24, 2020, 10:30:33 pm

Wow. Would love to see that equipment. Who makes it?

Thanks.

I was reading about that process a while back. But can't find it right now. The theory is that front suspensions while at rest do not impart any stress to the tie rods from the toe-in setting. When underway. The forces of rolling down the road puts outward pressure on the tie rod and can thus increase toe-in to out of tolerance levels. So the process is simply to put a load bar on the back of both front tires to simulate the force imparted by toe-in while driving. Then check and adjust the toe-in.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #47 – January 24, 2020, 11:39:38 pm

Quote from: bigdog – January 24, 2020, 10:58:09 pm

I was reading about that process a while back. But can't find it right now. The theory is that front suspensions while at rest do not impart any stress to the tie rods from the toe-in setting. When underway. forces of The rolling down the road puts outward pressure on the tie rod and can thus increase toe-in to out of tolerance levels. So the process is simply to put a load bar on the back of both front tires to simulate the force imparted by toe-in while driving. Then check and adjust the toe-in.

If the load bar changes the toe-in setting I would argue that the tie-rod ends are worn....

Just my 2 centavos

Tim

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #48 – January 25, 2020, 10:18:22 am

Quote from: TGordon – January 24, 2020, 11:39:38 pm

If the load bar changes the toe-in setting I would argue that the tie-rod ends are worn....

Just my 2 centavos

Tim

Putting on my Toolmaker's apron, making sure I have my 1" micrometer, my 6" steel scale and my pencil. And a clean shop rag, all in their places. OH, and my glasses,

Nothing is rigid. absolutely nothing.

When it comes to a front end suspension, all of those moving parts have built in clearances so that they move. So yes, we set a certain amount of toe in when the suspension is adjusted in the garage*. And yes, when driven down the road the front wheels are sprung out against all of that built-in play to a more or less straight ahead position.

It is my opinion that pulling in on the rear of the front tyres to simulate road conditions is akin to snake oil.

*We used to have our own alignment rack in our garage.

Re: Motorhome Tires

Reply #49 – January 25, 2020, 09:03:21 pm

I dismounted my junk michelins (I had two inner rear duals blow holes in sidewall) and mounted my toyo m177 myself at home. I got the ken-tool Serpent bars (price has gone up since I bought them).

I also got the slide hammer bead buster, but I didn't need it on the aluminum rims, the beads all slid off easily by standing on it. The steel wheels took some beating. I replaced the two steel wheels with aluminum. I have 6 alum rims and 1 alum mounted spare now. Anybody wanna buy my steelies with mounted tires?

I did not balance...because I installed centrimatic balancers. It rides smooth as silk. I measured the tow and adjusted slightly for good tracking. I found that going by feel to dial it in is the best (assuming it isn't far enough out to cause tire wear).

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