Community Forums

moisheh · 03-10-2009, 08:30 AM

tmar10:

Please post on this forum when your 8 year old tires explode. I hope your family does not suffer! I just had an explosion on a 8.5 year old GoodYear. That will not happen again as I will never go beyond 7 years!! Has nothiong to do with care or environment. The tires rot from the inside out! Good Luck

tmar10 · 03-10-2009, 09:15 AM

Hello Moisheh,

The thought of endangering my family and friends is why I spend a lot of time and effort to ensure proper pressures and weight levels are maintained. Before every trip, each tire is inspected for pressure, damage or signs of unusual wear. There is no date certain of tire failure and the majority of all failures are caused by improper air pressure and improper loading. To say tire life has nothing to do with care or environment is just wrong. Is there an infinite life span? No, but proper care does make a difference.

My tires will not stay in service no longer than eight years or at such point in time I fell they may not operate safely...whichever comes first. You can do as you wish.

MikeandClaudia · 03-11-2009, 07:22 PM

Although I have never lived anywhere there was a COSTCO, on other posts it seems to be an agreement that COSTCO may be THE place to buy motohome tires. It seems like the customers had to place an order and wait a couple of weeks.

I don't know if they come staight from Michelin or from some COSTCO warehouse, but it might be worth checking out.

moisheh · 03-12-2009, 07:38 AM

tmar10:

The only way you can determine if your tires need replacing is to dismount the tire and inspect the INSIDE. They rot from the inside out and there is nothing you or I can do to prevent this type of rotting. My point is that you ARE endangering your family by falsely thinking your exterior isnpection is all that is necessary.

tmar10 · 03-12-2009, 08:40 AM

In no way did I infer there is no deterioration, both inside and outside of the tire, based on environmental and chemical interactions over time. Proper care and maintenance can prevent untimely failure but at some point the tires will have to be replaced due to age. If I feel the need to dismount the tire to determine the interior condition, the tire would be replaced. The amount of time before safe operation of my tires is a question is something that will be answered though my personal experience and historical information from others, including yourself. Thank You.

chasfm11 · 03-12-2009, 08:41 AM

To moisheh's point, Michelin specifically recommends the internal inspection of their tires after 5 years. There is a cost to do that. If you inspect your tires, following that guideline, for two years in a row (years 5 and 6 in the tire life) you will have eaten up any savings that you gain by waiting until 7 years to replace them. There is no reason why tires couldn't last to 8 years...except that some of the damage to the steel in them through moisture build up because of lack of continuous use isn't even visible from the inside inspection.

Here is the way that I look at it. If I inspect a rubber belt, I may or may not see cracks in it. The presence of cracks may or may not tell you that the belt is going to fail the next day. When you factor in the age of the belt AND the presence of cracks, the likelyhood of next day failure increases. It is my understanding the belt manufacturers recommend a 5 year replacement cycle because, after that, the likelyhood of failure is increasing more rapidly. I've followed that philosphy for over 30 years and have never broken a belt. Some would say that in doing so, I've thrown away money. My goal, however, is to balance the belt costs with the impact of belt failure. As long as you can live with belt failure, you might make a different decision. I don't view tires any differently other than the fact that tire failure could be catastrophic, even fatal. I'd prefer not to be at the wheel when a steering tire fails on our RV. If nothing else, my piece of mind on our RV trips is better because I'm less fearful of a tire failure with newer tires. There is no formula that I know of that is going to provide an answer to how peace of mind can be achieved. It comes down to what risks you are willing to take. Some people are willing to dismiss those risks and they might be right. But what if they aren't?

jpf · 03-14-2009, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moisheh

They rot from the inside out and there is nothing you or I can do to prevent this type of rotting.

you could air up with nitrogen.

moisheh · 03-14-2009, 01:50 PM

chasmf:

Your logic is a good example of proper maintemance and preventative maintenance. There is nothing worse than spoiling a trip by breaking down on the side of the road. AS you stated the risk with tires is more than just a nuisance. It is risking your life. I blew a right fron tire and darn near had a heart attack. Our Bluebird has a huge steering wheel and a steer safe. I was able to control the motorhome. A person with less strength, a smaller wheel and no steering device would probably have rolled into the ditch. Good tires that are not aged is a serious matter. BTW: nitrogen does nothing for dry rot.

jpf · 03-14-2009, 04:16 PM

poo pooing the use of nitrogen in tires is fine.
There's plenty of arguments for & against its use readily accessible. Reduction of rotting due to the lack of moisture & contaminants when using nitrogen is just one of the arguments for its use.
Google it, don't take my (or anybody else's) world on what use it is for RVs.
Anyone looking for preventative maintenance should consider it one of the weapons in their arsenal along with the freshest tires they can find.

chasfm11 · 03-15-2009, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Anyone looking for preventative maintenance should consider it one of the weapons in their arsenal along with the freshest tires they can find.

I've considered nitrogen. One of the concerns that I had was how to make pressure adjustments. Today, I use my onboard compressor while on the road to increase pressure when it is needed. What I don't want to do is create a situation where I need to increase pressure but have no available source of nitrogen to do it. Damage done running an under inflated tire would far outweigh any advantage that nitrogen would offer. Is there are practical solution to this problem?

AA4WP · 03-19-2009, 07:33 PM

As far as I can determine, no one has addressed the issue of the XRV model of tire mentioned in the first post. I just had a tire replaced (it had lost pressure and was loose on the rim), and the people at RVNet informed me that XRV's are not being made any more. Upon further investigation I found that the XZE model is far more safe to use; XRV's have had a poor history for blowing out, even when the coach is parked. The tires I have purchased this week are 2708's (July, 2008?) and looked and smelled fresh. Price about $500 unmounted. I'll get the other five put on next week. The tires we are replacing are June - September 2003 manufacture.
By the way, the tire lost pressure due to a loose valve extension. The replaced tire was an inner tire. Another good reason to frequently check air pressure (I had not since December, 2008, since I had parked the beast in the driveway and put it out of my mind) The valve stem was easily turnable, was a secured to the wheel with a large nut, and was prevented from motion with a guard holding it in place through the opening in the outer wheel. The fellow who changed the tire said he had seen this before; the stem evidently vibrated loose with road pounding. Lots of things to look for in routine (and usually overlooked) maintenance.

Wendell

chasfm11 · 03-19-2009, 07:48 PM

AA4WP said

Quote:

the people at RVNet informed me that XRV's are not being made any more. Upon further investigation I found that the XZE model is far more safe to use; XRV's have had a poor history for blowing out, even when the coach is parked.

I've read similar posts on that forum. Here is my response:
- XRV tires ARE still made, Perhaps they are not made in all the same sizes as before. I just bought a set of six new ones a couple of months ago.
- Part (not all) of the bad history of XRVs is that they were used on coaches that were too heavy for them. I read many posts back in 2004-2005 where the poster was complaining about the bad XRVs and when new tires were put on, they were a load range or two higher. My buddy had a rash of blow outs on Goodyears only to find out that his coach maker had used too small of tire for the weight that he was carrying.

Personally, the only tire complaints that I want to listen to are those from drivers who have had all 4 corners weighed, have gone to the manufacturer's websites and looked up the proper pressure for the weight that they have.

We are using the 3rd set of XRVs on ours. I replaced the 1st due to cracks in the sidewall just after we bought the RV. I just replaced the tires again 5 years later for the beginnings of sidewall cracks. I truly believe that Michelin has quality problems in some of their runs of XRVs about 6-7 years ago. I just don't buy that all of the reported XRV problems were the fault of bad tires.

MikeandClaudia · 03-19-2009, 07:51 PM

I guess this is another "two-points" for having a tire-monitor system.

One ruined tire saved will pay for it.

AA4WP · 03-20-2009, 07:30 AM

Hello, Mike&Claudia:

I never considered having a tire pressure monitor; doesn't one need to be in the coach to monitor? This air loss was sustained (I have to believe) occured when the coach as parked through the winter months in our driveway. Probably while underway hurtling down the highway at a fast clip would a "heads up" on air loss would a monitor be beneficial. I believe that I will have to overcome my inherent laziness and check the tires on a more frequent basis.

More to the point, I think that the routine maintenance servicings should have found that loose valve "pipe" which attaches to the wheel. Don't they check belts, rubber hoses, and things of that nature when they are changing the oil and greasing the chassis points. I do not have the flexibility to crawl under the coach and check these valve stems; I'm not even sure I could reach between the two dual wheels and check that tightening nut. The alternative would be to remove the outer wheel and check the inner wheel valve stem. That is a massive undertaking for the shade tree mechanic; no air tools in this home.

Well, just a few more musings from a lazy retired person.

Wendell