Tire Advice

[m.elliott63]

I know this subject has been beat to death but maybe this would be a new topic of discussoin on tires. I have my 1998 NRV Sea Breeze in a truck alignment shop right now. The mechanic told me that possibly some of my front end vibration at highway speed was due to the fact that I have drive tires on the front steering axle. I currently have 225/70R19.5 12pr 125/123J tires all around. I need to replace my spare which is much older than the tires on the coach. I was thinking of getting a new pair of steer tires for the front and keeping the drive or all positions one for spare mounted and one for spare spare unmounted. Do you guys have a recommendation of what brand would be good for the steer axle? Thanks.

[jacwjames]

I put a 2 Bridgestone R250's on the front back in 2009, 295/80/22.5's. The have held up well with ~+50K miles on them, can't even tell that they've worn. There is absolutely no weather checking.

I am thinking about rotating them to the rear and bring the 2011 tires up front to get a couple more years out of them and then replace all 6 at one time. I know this isn't conventional wisdom but I've had a TPMS system ever since getting the tires and know they have never been run low of air. I treat them several times a year with UV protection.

My wife has Michelins on her Chrysler Van, which is always parked under cover. The tires are the same age as the RV's but her tires are weather checking and I'll have to replace. Not good but at least they aren't a $600 tire.

I had put Michelins on the Class C we had before and had to replace them because they weather checked so bad after 4 years I was scared (yes me) to run them. We knew we were going to upgrade to a new coach but still didn't want to take the chance. I replaced with Bridgestone and they looked good when we sold and in fact are still on the rig, they are ~10 years old now. I told the current owners they should change but they see no reason as they look good.