Kudos to Yokohama Tires

[Craig P.]

My MH came from the factory with Goodyear G670 tires. They developed a known defective wear pattern called "rivering". When it came time to replace the tires earlier this year, I decided to replace them with another brand and set out on what I thought was an exhaustive research campaign to find a better tire. My tire size is 275/70R22.5. Not every tire manufacturer makes a tire in that size, so my selection was limited.

After comparing tread designs and gaining feedback from members of this, as well as other RV forums, I narrowed my choice down to Yokohama & Michelin. Since a set of Yoko’s were almost $1000 less than Michelin’s, I decided on a set of Yokohama RY103 tires. The best price I could find was at a truck tire shop about 20 miles from home, Canyon Tire Sales in Corona CA.

I had the Yoko’s installed in mid-March. Based on my coach’s scale weight, I inflated the tires per Yokohama’s inflation chart. I immediately noticed a difference in the way the RV handled. It exhibited the classic tail-wagging-the-dog syndrome. This condition was magnified when I towed my dingy. I once again looked to the forum for help and tried all kinds of different tire pressures, which didn’t help. The coach had been aligned several months prior to the tire installation and it drove fine with the Goodyear’s, so I know it wasn’t an alignment issue. I finally decided to give the tires time to break in, hoping they would improve after a couple thousand miles. I never saw any improvement.

Last week I contacted the manager of Canyon Tire and explained my situation. I asked if they could give me an adjustment on the Yoko’s towards a set of Michelin’s. He flatly said no. He told me that I could call Yokohama, but he was sure they would do nothing for me as well. Fortunately for me, he was dead wrong.

I called Yokohama’s customer relations and re-explained the situation. They weren’t happy about the lack of help that I received from Canyon Tire. They issued me a case number and said they would have their regional manager contact me. The manager called me that same day and was very sympathetic. He said he would do his best to get me a 100% refund. He called me back today and said that Yokohama would refund me $300 per tire towards a set of Michelin’s. I paid $340 per tire, so this was not bad at all, considering I’ve had the tires for 6 months. This was definitely better than I had originally hoped for. Unfortunately I am out all of the other charges that come with tires, including sales tax.

This was indeed an expensive lesson for me, but kudos to Yokohama for making things right!

Craig

[Midniteoyl]

Did Yokohama ever figure out why the handling changed? It really shouldn't have..

[Craig P.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midniteoyl Did Yokohama ever figure out why the handling changed? It really shouldn't have..

Yokohama confirmed what my alignment shop told me. In some rare situations, certain chassis’ don’t like certain tread designs. My alignment shop told me you can install the same tires on two different coaches with the same chassis....one chassis will handle fine and the other will not. He did say that to play it safe, RV owner’s should stick with a tire manufactured for an RV. Many non-RV tire owners will dispute this, but in my situation it proved to be sound advice.

Craig

[Midniteoyl]

Thanks..