Best Tires?

[Kacordy]

I have a 2019 Mini Winnie Ford E-350 with 15k miles. I want to buy a new set of tires. I want to be as safe as possible and replace the tires every 5 years. I pull a 20 foot tandem axle enclosed trailer. My buddy had an inner tire blow out last Friday night on Hwy 5 in Northern California. 6 year old Michelin’s. He is safe but found it to be a scary experience. It tore up his motorhome real bad. The failed tire grabbed a hold of a wiring loom and pulled a bunch of wires out of the walls. What a mess. What tires would you recommend? Thanks, Allen

 

[Eagle5]

Hi Allen,
As you have the same year as my 22M, your tires must be less than four years old at this time, and 15K isn't too many miles. I would recommend that you carefully examine the sidewalls and treads at the start of each trip, and top-off the air pressure too. Remember that air never leaks in. Your friend's blow-out probably was from a slow leak that wasn't noticed in time. Perhaps a tire pressure monitoring system would give you assurance, and I know lots of folks on this forum have purchased those.
I think that Discount Tire has a fairly good reviews of various brands:
https://www.discounttire.com/
With the tire size of 225/75R16 and load range E (80 psi) you have many tires from which to choose.
Eagle5

 

[BCam]

You'll find that there's no "best" tire. OK, maybe theoretically there is, but you're not going to find it here. You will, however, get a ton of, often conflicting, opinions to the contrary. Many swear by Michelins, and they're certainly a quality tire and one of the most expensive. On the other hand, that's what your buddy had, so they must not be good, right? Anecdotal information like that is pretty much useless in determining if a tire brand is good or not.

Stick with a major name brand tire from a quality tire shop and you'll be OK. Eagle5 has given you some good advice.

Tireman9 (Roger Marble) is a retired tire engineer and Winnieowner who has a site with a ton of tire information, including this collection of items about "Best Tire". Check it out, and, while you're at it, educate yourself about tire pressures and the other topics he covers, including his advice on how often to replace your tires:

https://www.rvtiresafety.net/search/label/Best tire

https://www.rvtiresafety.net/search/label/replace tires

You can also find links to his posts on Winnieowners and IVR2 (WO's sister site) here:

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/members/tireman9-44688.html

https://www.irv2.com/forums/members/tireman9-44688.html

 

[BarryLS]

BobC and Eagle5 provide excellent advice. If you read Tireman9 you'll find that he recommends staying with the top brands, but not much more. Care of the tires are critical, including never running with low air pressure. Low pressure is a tire killer along with physical damage that may not be apparent (curb hopping, potholes, etc).

When I purchased the Minnie Class C recently I drove one mile form the paper signing to the tire store. Older tires and history I knew nothing about. I was not going to drive home with the old tires.

I purchased my 5th set of Cooper tires. The other 4 sets are on cars, 2 Suburbans, 1 Avalanche, and 1 Mercedes. They have been excellent tires on the vehicles so I thought I would give them a try on the Winnebago.

 

[barneybak]

Best tires for Class-C

I owned a class-c m/h for over 11 years and went through many, many tires. The only ones that lasted the longest and gave me the fewest problems were Michelin XPS-Rib. ( LT225-75-r16 ) The tire's that failed the most times were always mounted in the inside dually position. I still replaced the rear's ( all four ) when they hit 4 years old. My first tire that blew only had 2500 miles on it and was the inside dually, driver side. It was a Michelin LTX-MS. They did not last long at all and neither did any Cooper Tire. It may have to do with were I live, Yuma, AZ and our summer temperatures. ( I monitored my pressures religiously )

 

[Tireman9]

I owned a class-c m/h for over 11 years and went through many, many tires. The only ones that lasted the longest and gave me the fewest problems were Michelin XPS-Rib. ( LT225-75-r16 ) The tire's that failed the most times were always mounted in the inside dually position. I still replaced the rear's ( all four ) when they hit 4 years old. My first tire that blew only had 2500 miles on it and was the inside dually, driver side. It was a Michelin LTX-MS. They did not last long at all and neither did any Cooper Tire. It may have to do with were I live, Yuma, AZ and our summer temperatures. ( I monitored my pressures religiously )

Do you monitor tire pressure with TPMS or just check daily?
What are your scale weights for each axle?
All tires on an axle should be inflated to the same lever.

LT225/75R16 LR-E are available from all the major tire companies.

When you check the Load/Infl tables do you inflate to a level that gives you at least 15% Reserve load? Reserve Load = tire Load Capacity/Scale weight

I have same size with LR-E ( Firestone and Generals) on both my Class-C with TPMS since 2009 Zero failures. I run a Reserve load of about 20%

 

[cshodges]

We have a 2014 31’ Minnie Winnie on an E-450 chassis. I’ve had Michelin, Bridgestone, and Cooper tires. For truck tires I don’t think it matters much, as long as you have the right type. My RV requires the Load Range E tires. I carry a spare loose tire, as sometimes it’s hard to find one in stock on the spot when an issue occurs, but any mobile truck tire service can mount it wherever if I have one.

As mentioned above, what is important is that you monitor your tire pressure regularly. A tire pressure monitoring system is the best way to go.

 

[BarryLS]

We have a 2014 31’ Minnie Winnie on an E-450 chassis. I’ve had Michelin, Bridgestone, and Cooper tires. For truck tires I don’t think it matters much, as long as you have the right type. My RV requires the Load Range E tires. I carry a spare loose tire, as sometimes it’s hard to find one in stock on the spot when an issue occurs, but any mobile truck tire service can mount it wherever if I have one.

As mentioned above, what is important is that you monitor your tire pressure regularly. A tire pressure monitoring system is the best way to go.

The coopers I used for the Motor Home are E rated.

 

[jadatis]

Do you monitor tire pressure with TPMS or just check daily?
What are your scale weights for each axle?
All tires on an axle should be inflated to the same lever.

LT225/75R16 LR-E are available from all the major tire companies.

When you check the Load/Infl tables do you inflate to a level that gives you at least 15% Reserve load? Reserve Load = tire Load Capacity/Scale weight

I have same size with LR-E ( Firestone and Generals) on both my Class-C with TPMS since 2009 Zero failures. I run a Reserve load of about 20%

I would like to know how you TM9 as respected tire-specialist , manages the tires on your motorhome. And what your experiënces are with comfort and riding quality.

You write even 20% reserve. Is that heavyest weighed axle-end +20% , or heaviëst axle-end searched back in list, and pressure+20%.
Or what ever.

Then how do you experiënce the comfort.
My idea is 85% used of loadcapacity belonging to the pressure for 99mph , that then comfort still acceptable. But on smooth highways it can go lower that % .
85% of loadcapacity is the same as adding 18% to the determined axle-end load .
80% , what I use for TT, so no screws trembling loose , is the same as adding 25% to the axle-end load.

With your tire knowledge, you can translate your comfort feeling to reserve to weighed loads allowed for comfort.

Then you also have LT 225/75R16 is loadindex 115/ 2680lbs maxload. And European C-tyres in that sise have E-load/10pr LI 118 at 77 psi or LI 120 AT 83psi. This could spoil my calculations, depending on wich system is right to laws of nature.

 

[Tireman9]

I would like to know how you TM9 as respected tire-specialist , manages the tires on your motorhome. And what your experiënces are with comfort and riding quality.

You write even 20% reserve. Is that heavyest weighed axle-end +20% , or heaviëst axle-end searched back in list, and pressure+20%.
Or what ever.

Then how do you experiënce the comfort.
My idea is 85% used of loadcapacity belonging to the pressure for 99mph , that then comfort still acceptable. But on smooth highways it can go lower that % .
85% of loadcapacity is the same as adding 18% to the determined axle-end load .
80% , what I use for TT, so no screws trembling loose , is the same as adding 25% to the axle-end load.

With your tire knowledge, you can translate your comfort feeling to reserve to weighed loads allowed for comfort.

Then you also have LT 225/75R16 is loadindex 115/ 2680lbs maxload. And European C-tyres in that sise have E-load/10pr LI 118 at 77 psi or LI 120 AT 83psi. This could spoil my calculations, depending on wich system is right to laws of nature.

My MH Class-C motor homes (A 2008 and a 2016) is smaller than some at 21' and 24' so to start off are lighter weight than the 30' Class-C. i also pay attention to what I carry. My chassis is a Chevrolet 4500 so the ride comfort is good. When doing the original evaluation for Class-C I did ride in Ford chassis Class-C but found the ride stiffer and the foot-well space for the passenger is much smaller. (Small enough to make long rides for the passenger uncomfortable for anyone with shoe size 9 or larger)
In the past I owned a F350 dually pickup and a Chevy 3500 dually when pulling a 26' box trailer with my race car inside and a slide-in camper in the bed of the truck so fully loaded.
Tires on all of the above were LT225/75r16 LR-E. I did run the Dually at 80 but since I was fully loaded the ride was ok even on my long drive across the US (Ohio > Calif and Ohio > FL)

Many times people do not think of the trade-off they are making. Sometimes you have to go with a larger MH if the family is 2 adults + 2 children older than 7.

The large Reserve Load on trailers is important as that will lower the Interply Shear found in tandem axle trailers. Only tire failure I had was a separation on the box trailer when running 65 psi in the OE tires in 1985 before I discovered about the high Interply Shear in trailer application. I moved to LR-E Firestone tires and ran 80 and never had another problem.



I

 

[hank857]

Tires in reality are a crap shoot. I have had bridgestones fail on my truck (f350) and also on the rv. Bridgestones are a michelin product BTW. On a dually I had a tread slippage with resultant out of balance type ride and had to replace all since it was on the rear axle and they recommended that since it will stand taller than the rest that is what was required. I replaced the michelins with Revo's I think they were and so far so good.

 

[Tireman9]

Tires in reality are a crap shoot. I have had bridgestones fail on my truck (f350) and also on the rv. Bridgestones are a michelin product BTW. On a dually I had a tread slippage with resultant out of balance type ride and had to replace all since it was on the rear axle and they recommended that since it will stand taller than the rest that is what was required. I replaced the michelins with Revo's I think they were and so far so good.

Any tire can fail if overloaded , underinflated, or damaged.


Sorry but whoever told you that Bridgestone tires were a Michelin product is so wrong as to be laughable. Does that person also believe that Ford Motor Co makes the Corvette?


Michelin and Bridgestone are two completely separate companies.


Glad you are happy with the Revos made by Bridgestone