Tire question

[nssracer]

Last night I was driving just south of Dalton,GA in my 2006 Alpine 40 ft. The left front tire tread came off but the tire did not blow. These are the original Toyos 11R22.5s still on the coach. A very nice group called Bobs Road Service came out and replace both front tires. They replaced the Toyos with Michelin 275/8022.5 XZA2. After they installed the tires I noticed they ride much smoother than the Toyos. So today Im thinking of replacing the rear tires to match the Michilens. But I measured and the Toyos are 40 inches tall vs. 38.75 for the Michelins. Is this a problem? I looked at the Michelin website and it appears the tires are rated to handle the load of this coach. Any ideas? Thanks, Doug

[EngineerMike]

The size differential will cause a small error in the speedo unless you have them correct the "revs" in the ECM. I think the Michelins are a great choice for the fronts, but they are expensive. You may wish to consider other brands for the rear, like Bridgestone, Continental, for cost. A blowout on the front is a bad deal, on the rear much more manageable; also noise & ride are less of an issue on the back.

[nssracer]

So you think these tires are fine for the front?

[EngineerMike]

Bueno.
I'm looking at new fronts later this year and will go Michelin there. I'll replace the rears next year. If you're on original Toyos tho, I'd replace the rears now. Age is the biggest enemy for tires, and that front tire was sending a message. You don't want to get stuck on the road shopping for tires, that'll cost you $500-1000 more than getting a good deal at your leisure.

[Jim A]

Are they G rated or H rated?

I used the Michelin XZE2 tires, and stayed with the 11R/22.5 size all around just to avoid any significant size differences. Not sure what the difference is between XZA2 and the XZE2.

[gjstacy]

Jim, I don't know what the difference is, either, but we have the XZA2s, and they are H rated. We put Michelin on all of our vehicles, as we believe they give a better ride and last longer. They definitely are not cheap, and of course, we bought them before the deal at FMCA was announced.

nssracer, if you are considering Michelin for the rear, be sure to check out the discount deal available on fmca.com, so you can save a few bucks.

[Renipladlo]

The FMCA deal is called the "Michellin Advantage Program". I have the PDF file on my pc, but if you are FMCA, you can download it from the website, just do a search once you login.

Michelin also will show you what the differences in the tires are on their website, just poke around until you find it. They also have several downloads which might be helpful about tires, etc. They sponsored a Video on Youtube (at least that is where it is last time I looked for it) about how to safely handle a blowout on a MH. I suggest you search it out, and everyone should watch it about once a quarter to refresh old brain cells.

I think someone posted a thread about tires, saying Toyo was not making RV tires any longer, but that could be wrong. Goodyear would be my second choice on tires, but I won't mix brands on a MH, as I don't think it will steer correctly nor track right, again, not tire person, so could be wrong. My suggestion is stay with one brand, if you need service, or warranty, then you only have one company to deal with.

[gjstacy]

Old RVer, thanks for the reminder of the blow out video! It's really good, and I think you have a good point to watch it every so often as a reminder! Here's the link for the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkwOE1yKY5c

.

[nssracer]

I local tire dealer recommended the Bridgestone R250 ED. $572 a tire installed. Any thoughts?

[tiredvet]

I have 1300 miles on the exact same Bridgestones. Very smooth ride.

[Sohapi]

Thanks for posting the video!

[Old Scout]

Have seen this video before and while the concept of avoiding the brakes and maintain speed or in fact accelerating is interesting--perhaps even proven; but there are a couple of competing issues that need to be factored into the equation. First, your natural tendancy is to get off the gas and get on the brake. If you have some advanced warning, eg, a large vibration before the tire fails, you may have some time to reason thru all this and actually avoid the temptation to use the brakes. Second, the design of the interfenders/wheel-well on our Alpines creates the opportunity for the shredding tire carcuss to actually grab the backside of the wheel-well and completely lock-up that wheel--especially on the front. If this does happen, you will get a dramatic pull in the direction of the locked up tire. Its probably still true that avoiding the brakes and accelerating will help steer the coach but suspect the rather benign demonstrated on the video understates the side forces you are going to encounter....Safe travels...

[gjstacy]

Originally Posted by Sohapi

Thanks for posting the video!

You are welcome! OldRVer had a good point...that we should watch it a couple of times a year as a reminder...

[gjstacy]

Originally Posted by Old Scout

Have seen this video before and while the concept of avoiding the brakes and maintain speed or in fact accelerating is interesting--perhaps even proven; but there are a couple of competing issues that need to be factored into the equation. First, your natural tendancy is to get off the gas and get on the brake. If you have some advanced warning, eg, a large vibration before the tire fails, you may have some time to reason thru all this and actually avoid the temptation to use the brakes. Second, the design of the interfenders/wheel-well on our Alpines creates the opportunity for the shredding tire carcuss to actually grab the backside of the wheel-well and completely lock-up that wheel--especially on the front. If this does happen, you will get a dramatic pull in the direction of the locked up tire. Its probably still true that avoiding the brakes and accelerating will help steer the coach but suspect the rather benign demonstrated on the video understates the side forces you are going to encounter....Safe travels...

Interesting comments, Old Scout, but you didn't have to scare me like that!