Bridgestone Ecopia R268 Tires

[Algonquin]

Does anyone have any experience with the new Bridgestone R268 tires which have replaced the production of their R250 tires?

[LVJ58]

Nope, but sure have had excellent trouble free service from our 250's

[Smitty77]

We have 6 R12 22.5's coming into Junction City, OR. The gent helping me order them, had to call Bridgestone, as his computer system did not reflect this size tire. Once it was validated, they're on the way from Southern California warehouse.

I have XZE* Michelin's which are coming up on 6 years old. Lost two our of our 8 due to a sever encounter with a pothole. I liked the 'extra meat' on the sidewall of the "*" XZE, which was already a known strong tire to start with. But, we also were looking for a less 'stiff' ride over bumps and expansion joints. Due to the Michelin backlog, we replaced the two damaged tires about two months ago, with BF Goodrich ST230's, shuffling tires to put the new ones on the steers. Less stiff ride, and we could sure tell the difference going over expansion joints.

With the FMCA discount for the BF Goodrich ST230's, I feel they are a good value for a solid Tier 2 tire. I would have been fine, and save about $1000+ for 6 more tires. But, I also wanted newer Energy Efficient lower Rolling Resistant tires. In the 12R 22.5 size, not many choices. On the steers, I could have gone with a 315/80 22.5 XZA2 but at a higher load range, and with a 'squished' mount on 8.25" range - both I felt would have offset any saving from less Rolling Resistance.

After lots of reading and research, I found the relatively new R268 Escopia's in the 12R size, and, with pretty good numbers for Rolling Resistance. Michelin's site shows the R268's with a 6 point higher Rolling Resistance then the Michelin XZE's. These are Tier 1 tires.

So, I'll put the ST230's on the Tags, and 6 new R268's on the Steer's and Drive's. Should be mounted two weeks from today.

So, I hope they turn out to be a good tire!

Best,
Smitty

[Civdiv99]

Well, I just responded to this question in the General Discussion and Problems forum too.......

[Smitty77]

Originally Posted by Smitty77

We have 6 R12 22.5's coming into Junction City, OR. The gent helping me order them, had to call Bridgestone, as his computer system did not reflect this size tire. Once it was validated, they're on the way from Southern California warehouse.

I have XZE* Michelin's which are coming up on 6 years old. Lost two our of our 8 due to a sever encounter with a pothole. I liked the 'extra meat' on the sidewall of the "*" XZE, which was already a known strong tire to start with. But, we also were looking for a less 'stiff' ride over bumps and expansion joints. Due to the Michelin backlog, we replaced the two damaged tires about two months ago, with BF Goodrich ST230's, shuffling tires to put the new ones on the steers. Less stiff ride, and we could sure tell the difference going over expansion joints.

With the FMCA discount for the BF Goodrich ST230's, I feel they are a good value for a solid Tier 2 tire. I would have been fine, and save about $1000+ for 6 more tires. But, I also wanted newer Energy Efficient lower Rolling Resistant tires. In the 12R 22.5 size, not many choices. On the steers, I could have gone with a 315/80 22.5 XZA2 but at a higher load range, and with a 'squished' mount on 8.25" range - both I felt would have offset any saving from less Rolling Resistance.

After lots of reading and research, I found the relatively new R268 Escopia's in the 12R size, and, with pretty good numbers for Rolling Resistance. Michelin's site shows the R268's with a 6 point higher Rolling Resistance then the Michelin XZE's. These are Tier 1 tires.

So, I'll put the ST230's on the Tags, and 6 new R268's on the Steer's and Drive's. Should be mounted two weeks from today.

So, I hope they turn out to be a good tire!

Best,
Smitty

Correction on my post above about the R268 and R283 Escopia's. I misread the Michelin Rolling Resistant Comparison. I was reading them arse backwards... The R283's have a better rolling resistance then the R268's. I ordered the R268's in, so the tire shop is seeing what we can do to either return them, or if they can sell them to someone else. I've committed to buy tires from them, so hoping that will help, but I sure don't want to pay shipping costs to return tires! Hoping they can add them to their stock and move them.

I figure with tires going for 5-7 years of usage, I want to get the ties that I feel are the right ones for us. And, lower rolling resistance does give a chance for improved MPG over those years.

Smitty

(This update posted in other tire threads, to correct the info on rollin resistance, so others don't consider this bad info I provided as part of their tire purchasing process.)