Help me find new Fresh tires

[BradandJanee]

I'm trying to find a source of six new Michelin tires size 255/80R 22.5 XRV. I'm most interested in FRESH tires with a DOT born-on date of 0109 or newer. The newest I have been able to find so far is six XZE tires with a DOT date of 1408. Do anyone know of a source of fresh tires? I just hate to buy tires that are already a year old.

[RustyJC]

You might want to use Michelin's dealer locator HERE to see what you can find.

Rusty

[chasfm11]

We bought new tires last October. Here is what I learned while shopping.

1. Michelin only runs certain types of tires a certain times during the year. The tires will be as fresh as the last run of that type. It may not be this year.
2. If you order from a Michelin warehouse, they will not respond to requests for a specific DOT code. You're right - not very consumer friendly.
3. You can follow Rusty's advice. I did. I found a number of dealers who should have been able to help me but didn't have my size in stock. Since I, like you, was looking for a recent DOT code, I figured out what the latest run was for my size and asked for that. I finally found a local dealer with those DOT codes. I asked for a quote.
4. I continued to shop and found another dealer who was almost $200 cheaper. He however, did not have the tires either. In the end, he was able to exchange tires with the other dealer who had the tires with the right DOT code and sold them to me for the price quoted.
5. Being a very skeptical sort, I drove our RV to the dealer and "helped" them stage the tires. Two guys were working on getting the old tires off the rims while I staged the new ones. Since I had a verbal agreement with the dealer, I physically checked the DOT code on every tire before it was installed.

I drove away happy that I had gotten what I wanted, at a better price than I had hoped and that it didn't cost me too much time and effort. This isn't how it should work but I tend to use existing systems to meet my needs. I still haven't figured out why the original dealer with the tires was willing do play the game the way that he did.

Charlie

[Tom and Patty]

Having a tire that sat in a clean warehouse for 6 mos to one year would not worry me.

As Charlie said tires are built by a mold, and a specific number of tires are produced. Then the manufacturer pulls the mold and puts another one in. In this business we will call the manufacturer and find that a particular tire may not be in production again for 1-3 months, sometimes more.

If our warehouse had to pull tires by DOT number for all of our 300 plus customers your tire price would go up by $$.

IMHO, I would worry about the tire after 5 years on the road.

[chasfm11]

If our warehouse had to pull tires by DOT number for all of our 300 plus customers your tire price would go up by $$.

Tom, I believe that 75% of consumers (perhaps more) are unaware of DOT codes and at least some that are aware that they exist, don't know how to read them. Now, we are down to a very small number of the 300 customers that you mentioned who could ask for a specific DOT and at least some of those will be reluctant to do so.

There have been reported cases where consumers have been sold very old tires (by DOT code) as new and I believe that to be wrong. I don't want a long shelf life battery either. I place very little value in any warranty and would prefer to purchase fresh products and take my chances versus having to go through an "adjustment" process. Somehow, the consumer never seems to come out very well when that happens. To me, the only outcome of adjustments is that I'm hooked into spending yet more money for the same brand product that failed in the first place. I always like the opportunity to evaluate the marketplace again with each new purchase.

Somehow, businesses that deviate from the old adage "the customer is always right" seem to struggle in the end. If I'm savvy enough to know about DOT codes, know what the current run for my particular tire type is and ask for it, would it be so difficult to meet my request? Actually, I agreed to pay more per tire that I just purchased than I would have if I had ordered from the Michelin warehouse. When I'm spending that kind of money, it is worth it to me to get what I want, not whatever shows up.

[Tom and Patty]

Maybe I wasn't too clear on the:

If our warehouse had to pull tires by DOT number for all of our 300 plus customers your tire price would go up by $$.

We deliver thousands of tires daily to independent tire dealers. If we had to pull by DOT's per customers request, it would be an extremely slow process, if not impossible.

"I'm sorry, today we are fresh out of 0709 195/60R15 Michelins. We looked through all 1200 of our tires. Would your customer take 5208's?"

This is an exaggerated case, but so was the article.

Old tires created good press for the media. I may have a jaded view, but it was blown out of proportion and is not as frequent as most would believe. Those that sell old tires should make the customer aware of the age.

That being said, most of our inventory sits in the warehouse for only 1-5 months at the most. Tires coming from overseas take about 30 days on the water, port, and delivery.

I wouldn't and didn't want to buy 2 year old tires when we re-tired the MH. Mine were 6 mos old when they were put on. Bridgestone warrants their tires for 5 years date of manufacture, some premium sizes 7 years (mostly long haul designs), Michelin is 5 years date of purchase.

A consumer buying tires, in most cases, will not buy a tire more than 6 months old. Consumer tires generally have a 5 year date of purchase and 6 year date of manufacture warranty.


I stand by my point.


A 1 year old Michelin sitting in a clean environment need not be worried about. In Brad's case, it was built in March '08 and Michelin will give him a 5 year warranty, the same as one built today. Brad must keep his receipt to get the "5 year date of purchase" warranty. Brad does however have a right to look and purchase a newer built tire. He just may not be able to find a tire built in '09 if the manufacturer hasn't had a production run of that size, yet this year.


I could go on and on, but I"ll get off here.

[Gary RVRoamer]

A consumer buying tires, in most cases, will not buy a tire more than 6 months old.

In your experience, do you believe that to be true of Class A RV sized tires, i.e. 22.5" diameter and widths 225 & up? Those are not high volume sellers and it appears they are often a year or more old, e.g. Brad's 1408's (11 months old). I don't have a problem with six month old tires, but I would be distinctly unhappy at 12 months.

[chasfm11]

most of our inventory sits in the warehouse for only 1-5 months at the most

I understand your point but:
- there have been several reports of customer's being sold tires MUCH older than 6 months as new. While you may not share the concern about tires sitting in a warehouse for a year (or more), obviously both the OP and I have that concern.
- I frankly think Michelin's warranty sucks. So do most of the warranties of other tire manufacturers. I was expecting an adjustment on my last set of tires based on obvious tire problems within that 5 year warranty period. I didn't get any.

I don't buy tires for warranty. The most common tire failure on MHs, a zipper blowout, is one that I don't ever want to have. I'm buying tires more often than many to avoid that. In other words, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I expect a tire dealer to meet me half way with that kind of a commitment. In addition, if I do get to a blowout and my RV is damaged as a result, any adjustment from Michelin is going to be against the tire, not against the resulting damage. I just don't want to go there.

I do recognize that I'm not going to change the system. I'll continue to do what I do and work around it. I promise you that if I had arrived at the tire dealer and the tires hadn't been what we agreed upon, I'd have driven off immediately.

This isn't Henry's Ford and there are colors besides black.

[AFChap]

I look at buying tires somewhat like I do buying diesel fuel ...I want a place that does enough business to have enough turn-over that their stock won't be terribly stale. For tires, that means large truck tire service places to me.

Both times I have bought tires for my current motorhome (275/80R22.5 LRH) I have ended up at at Best One tire dealer after calling around for best price and someone with tires in stock with decent dates. The first two I bought in Huber Heights OH, they were date 2406 and were bought at 3806 (Continentals) ...very fresh I thought at 3 1/2 months! The last four I bought in Montgomery AL. They too were Continentals, and were dated 2308 when I bought them at 5008, right at 7 months.

[chasfm11]

I want a place that does enough business to have enough turn-over that their stock won't be terribly stale.

As Tom was trying to explain to us, the turn-over rate is highly selective. A tire dealer can turn over 1000s of tires but may have only sold your particular size tire twice in the past year. RV tires are not like OTR tires.

Another interesting thing that I found while shopping - most large size tire dealers have no physical space to deal with a MH. The first set of tires that I bought, the dealer came to my house to install them. For the last set, the dealer borrowed room from a nearby merchant. Most of these types of dealers use trucks to service OTRs and don't need a lot sticks and bricks to run their business. It also means that they don't have a lot of local stock and are the the benefactor or the victim of whatever their local ware house sends them. So, the real question becomes: what is the turnover rate of that particular sized tire at that particular warehouse. I can easily understand why that is a hard question to answer. It is just that when I'm shelling out that much cash, I do want that answer.

[GraciesMom]

My DOT date on my new Toyo tires were 45/08. That's the newest ones I could find. They were surprised that I knew anything about the date at all and tried to sell me some from 08/07.

[chasfm11]

Gracie's Mom said

They were surprised that I knew anything about the date at all and tried to sell me some from 08/07.

That was EXACTLY the situation that I feared. Some tire stores try to unload "stale" merchandise on the next unsuspecting customer. This isn't a case of simply picking the next set of tires off the warehouse shelf without regard to the DOT code but of knowingly using up older inventory. When the grocery store ends up with produce that is past its prime, they cannot hide and either mark it down (so that the consumer understands there is a freshness issue) or discard it. The DOT codes are there to let everyone know that cares to take the time to understand them. Arguing that those codes don't mean anything simply compounds the staleness problem, IMHO.

Charlie

[paz]

While tires sitting in a clean, dry warehouse a couple of months probably won't make a huge difference in the life of the tires, it will shorten your warranty if there should be a manufacturing problem that doesn't show up for a long time. Since RV tires are a specialty item and may only be manufactured at certain times of the year, a 6 month old mfg. date may be the best you can do in many cases.

The real problem comes from dealers and warehouses that don't rotate their stock. If the same tires sit at the bottom of the pile for several years, that can be a problem. You could end up buying tires that are almost out of warranty the day you put them in service.

[tmar10]

Management of inventory systems with dated products should focus on moving the products based on a first-in-first-out system. All products of this type are coded to provide proper inventory management.

Where did the 5 year replacement window or worry period come from? With proper care and inspection by the owner and tire service center, I have no fear of a 5 year old tire. I plan replacement within a 7 to 8 year window and have a local dump truck operator who wants my tires. Just my opinion.