Tire choices

[tropical36]

There must be some highly kept secret chemical formula, that makes Michelin tires so superior to all the rest and the only tire that's absolutely safe to drive on.
But so far, I haven't been able to find one piece of engineering data that proves this or that Michelin tires are in any way, made any better than these Hercules, I've been running on two different coaches, so far..... Cooper Tire & Rubber Company - News Releases
I would welcome anyone who might provide documented info, though and who knows, I might even change my mind about paying through the ying yang for a set, which hopefully won't prematurely crack in the sidewalls, like so many I've seen.

[Darwin]

I was a die hard Michelin fan for many years until a three year old Michelin blew out on the front. Michelin would not honor any warrenty. I replace all 6 at 5 years at a much cheaper price with Toyo. Ride is much better. I have had many very good Michelin tires but other tires are also good. I would not spend the extra money for Michelins.

[BCam]

Personally I think that any name brand tire with the right specs will work out fine. I put Uniroyals on mine (another Michelin owned brand) but have no particular allegiance to them. I purchased them on the recommendation of "my tire guy" who was recommended by "my truck guy" and the price was right. Both outfits are truck shops as their primary business but service a lot of RVs. While I was at the tire shop there were probably four or five RVs in the lot.

Whatever you buy, double check to make sure the DOT date codes are relatively current. I don't remember the range of acceptability so you'll have to do some research.

[geordi]

The DOT number on any tire (and this goes for passenger / light truck tires too) will have an oval section on one side of the tire with the date code branded in. This will be a 4 digit number, indicating the week and year of manufacture. So 0118 would be the first week of 2018.

If you find a tire with a three digit code - RUN AWAY. That's more than 19 years old!

As far as acceptable - anything in a rolling "less than 5 years old" is the range you want, and you want to start thinking about replacement when your tires on your coach reach 5 years, up to as much as 7 years old. I wouldn't keep them in service longer than that, it is just asking for tire failure. Obviously if you are buying them new, try to get as fresh a set as possible - they CAN sit around in places for many months after being manufactured.

Now about Michelin. They don't have any "magic" formulation, and as one person's anecdotal information... My family has had Michelins on about 5 different cars or SUVs over the years, and 3 different primary drivers for those vehicles. A set was also on a 30' RV. A total of about 26 Michelin tires within the family. All users were based in South Florida, one was a retired senior, and various driving conditions.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of these Michelins ended in a failure. Either a tread bubble, a sidewall bubble, or an outright peel-off. 1 of the RV tires peeled off at low speed (a front tire) without losing pressure, another was a sidewall bubble.

Note: Only two sets on cars were ever actually purchased by us, all the others came with the vehicles. None were over-aged or over pressured. None were abused. They just were manufactured like crap.

I've had a lot better luck with BFG tires on heavy SUVs, or Goodyear on cars. For the RVs... I like Kelly or Cooper, or anything that is affordable b/c they aren't going to end by mileage. But never Michelin. Their failure rate has lost them my business forever.

[RightUR]

Originally Posted by oscarvan

I have to ask..... There's a lot of people reporting a better ride after they replace their tires with a brand XYZ......

Could it be that if you replace a years old tired, dried, worn, cracking tire of ANY brand with a nice new fresh one of ANY brand you get a rejuvenated ride?

Just sayin'......

Fair question. But I think and have noticed that many people when changing brand, Go from a ROUNDED shoulder tire to a SQUARE shouldered tire, and vice versa, without noticing, but then notice the different ride and still don't investigate the real reason.

[jimpezzuti]

has anyone used BF Goodrich ST 230 tires? thinking of replacing my XRV Michelins with the ST 230 Or Bridgestone Ecopia R268. the BF Goodrich tires are much cheaper.

[sbleiweiss]

Originally Posted by Crasher

I'm guessing your tire is the smaller 235/80 or 245/75. Just for comparison, my 295/80/22.5 Toyo's were $50 less/tire mounted and balanced. They have a 7830# capacity. I'm guessing the smaller size Toyo would be in the $375 range mounted.

Yes, 235/80. I might have gone with Toyo but I am replacing both fronts and I already had one new Michelin that I have been carrying as a spare. So bought one and putting on two.

[Scottybdivin]

Originally Posted by geordi

The DOT number on any tire (and this goes for passenger / light truck tires too) will have an oval section on one side of the tire with the date code branded in. This will be a 4 digit number, indicating the week and year of manufacture. So 0118 would be the first week of 2018.

If you find a tire with a three digit code - RUN AWAY. That's more than 19 years old!

As far as acceptable - anything in a rolling "less than 5 years old" is the range you want, and you want to start thinking about replacement when your tires on your coach reach 5 years, up to as much as 7 years old. I wouldn't keep them in service longer than that, it is just asking for tire failure. Obviously if you are buying them new, try to get as fresh a set as possible - they CAN sit around in places for many months after being manufactured.

Now about Michelin. They don't have any "magic" formulation, and as one person's anecdotal information... My family has had Michelins on about 5 different cars or SUVs over the years, and 3 different primary drivers for those vehicles. A set was also on a 30' RV. A total of about 26 Michelin tires within the family. All users were based in South Florida, one was a retired senior, and various driving conditions.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of these Michelins ended in a failure. Either a tread bubble, a sidewall bubble, or an outright peel-off. 1 of the RV tires peeled off at low speed (a front tire) without losing pressure, another was a sidewall bubble.

Note: Only two sets on cars were ever actually purchased by us, all the others came with the vehicles. None were over-aged or over pressured. None were abused. They just were manufactured like crap.

I've had a lot better luck with BFG tires on heavy SUVs, or Goodyear on cars. For the RVs... I like Kelly or Cooper, or anything that is affordable b/c they aren't going to end by mileage. But never Michelin. Their failure rate has lost them my business forever.

This is why tire reviews and topics are so subjective. Your experience is about 180 degrees away from my experience with Michellins. In my previous career, i drove about 40-50K / year mixed on/off road. Never busted a Michellin or had a failure but I busted a lot of SOB's over 35 years.

When I purchased my DP, new tires were bargained into the agreement and I demanded Michellins.