Busting the Myth of 5 year tire life.

You can’t make a blanket statement aimed at everyone based on your bad luck.

Lots of people run tires way past 5 years with no issues at all, I’m one of those people. A tire dealer near me does a LOT of m/h work and there’s a waiting list of people anting those 5 year old tires, most are medium duty trucks in regional service. Our fleet runs them too and has never had a bad tire yet.

For 19.5 tires -- 5 years and done!!! LT tires are TRUCK tires. Design profile is 150-200k miles in a couple of years; recap for another 150-200 and scrap the tire. They rarely reach 5 years in service. Don't need compounds to make the sidewalls last longer, so don't get them.

At 5 years on the tires (Goodyear 19.5 G159's) of a MH I bought new and picked up at the factory I noticed a bubble on the inside of a front tire while servicing the grease fittings. Local dealer had installed a two year old tire before I caught it. Had it removed and went to another large high volume shop 100 miles away and replaced both fronts. Three weeks later a rear dual blew out the sidewall. No damage. Replaced the 4 duals. Tires were Goodyear. Replacements were the allegedly RV designed 670's. Goodyear was hit with a 5.6 million dollar judgement for a 2004 accident caused by a blowout of a MH front tire, and was forced to admit that the G159's were truck tires not suitable for an RV operating profile.

Five years and one month later the 670 Goodyear inside dual blew unwrapping the tread. Had little pieces of fine wire all over the toad and bikes on the rear of it. Took out the Banks Exhaust, the generator exhaust, air bag lines, and dented the drive shaft. Damage more than the price of a new set of tires. I was 70 miles from a Les Schwab dealer that I had planned to have replace the old tires. In both cases the tires had never been run under inflated, nor excessively hot. I carry an IR thermometer and check temps at each rest stop.

Blowouts can be benign or catastrophic. Couple of years ago I saw a new Super C on a Freightliner chassis that had blown a front tire. Took out the entire front: fancy chrome grill, a/c, radiator -- over 10K in damage, and several weeks waiting for parts.

Lets hope the 'tire jockey' replaces the anti-corrosion ring between the aluminum outer and the steel inner rim as well. Nothing worse than locked rims from galvanic corrosion.

dougrainer wrote:

parkmanaa wrote:
OLDSPIRIT, you are addressing an area that has been near-and-dear to my heart for years. TIRE MARKETERS, not MANUFACTURERS, have been playing this age thing as a safety issue and it should be against the law. IMHO it is nothing but a gimmick to sell more tires, just like cereal makers, dairies and thousands of other industries started decades ago. They started by playing their message to kids and, being successful there, have also been somewhat successful in selling the same "theory" to adults.
People, seemingly especially RVers now see a blown tire on the side of highway, immediately assume "it was an old tire". I can tell you from many years in the tire industry, and many, many scrap tire analysis, you will find most blown-out tires are a)cheap, foreign made, b) obvious poor maint., with c)age coming in at a far distant third.
Again, IMHO OLDSPIRIT is doing exactly what smart RVers should do, and exactly as manufacturers such as MICHELIN recommend, AFTER 5 YEARS HAVE TIRES CHECKED ANNUALLY BY A QUALIFIED TIRE TECHNICIAN", REPLACE AT 10 YEARS AGE, REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCE"
This is the same basic message I have attempted on this forum for years. Take it or leave it, it's your money !

"40 years in the tire industry; seen it all and done most of it"

Tell us where you find a "qualified" Tire Technician. Does inspection require taking the rubber of the rim? If so, just how much do you think a qualified Tire shop would charge for dismounting 6 RV motorhome tires, remounting and then balancing? AND, knowing how RV'ers are loath to spend any money for this type thing, what rv'er would take the time and money to do such a thing every year after that 5 years? Doug

When you rotate your Class A Motorhome tires, the tech HAS to remove the tires from the rims. You have three different rims on that rig. The front rims are different than the outside dually and the inside dually is a utility steel rim (nothing fancy). Tires are normally rotated from front to back and inside dual to outside dual. You can't simply move tire and rim from one position to another as you do on a car.

dougrainer wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:
I've never bought any tires at a tire store, well ag tires excluded. I get all my tires online from either Tire Rack or an online seller. Tires are like batteries, volume sellers turn over inventory quickly so you get newly made tires, not dusty sitting in the corner ones.

O mount my own as well (ag tires not included again), so no problem with tire jockeys either. I'm the tire jockey.

Tire mounting (and balancing) isn't rocket science, just takes the right tools, which I have.

Really, I would like you to make a short video of you pulling the Wheels and tires off your motorhome(especially if you have a Diesel) and replacing and balancing, those with your home tools. You must have an interesting shop and tools and be pretty strong and young. Doug

Actually, I do... Not exactly home tools, I own and operate a short run machine and fabrication shop. I happen to have a Coats 10-10 tire machine and a Blue Point spin balancer along with some other tire tools. Far as mounting and dismounting 10-22 or 11-24.5 or 24.5 low pro's, I do that with tire irons and it's all manual and it's not hard. With the proper tools and some common sense and rim lube any big tire can be mounted and dismounted easily. I'm 68 and it's no issue but then I'm not a couch potato either. Don't do ag tires because, unlike road on road tires, the tire beads are very strong and heavy and it takes a air operated bead breaker to dismount and mount and its easier to have that done by a specialized shop.

I sent you a pm in as much as posting my website on here is a violation of forum rules...

They real enemy of tires is UV exposure ! If you keep your tires covered while in storage it will prevent a lot of cracking.

mat60 wrote:
My new TT has ST 205/75R14/C. On the sidewall it says max weight 1570 LBS.. 4 tires gives me a total of 6280 LBS.. My trailer total GVW is 6900 LBS. If I travel light I should make the 5 days. :)

It seems to cut costs they give you tires that carry the weight on the wheels when it's hooked up. Having said that, if you have 15% on the tongue and you don't fill it to the brim with your goods to reach the GVW of the rig, your tires are likely under their carrying capacity. Not by a lot, but most likely under.

Best solution is find a weigh station and do a wheel by wheel test to see what you are actually carrying.

parkmanaa wrote:
OLDSPIRIT, you are addressing an area that has been near-and-dear to my heart for years. TIRE MARKETERS, not MANUFACTURERS, have been playing this age thing as a safety issue and it should be against the law. IMHO it is nothing but a gimmick to sell more tires, just like cereal makers, dairies and thousands of other industries started decades ago. They started by playing their message to kids and, being successful there, have also been somewhat successful in selling the same "theory" to adults.
People, seemingly especially RVers now see a blown tire on the side of highway, immediately assume "it was an old tire". I can tell you from many years in the tire industry, and many, many scrap tire analysis, you will find most blown-out tires are a)cheap, foreign made, b) obvious poor maint., with c)age coming in at a far distant third.
Again, IMHO OLDSPIRIT is doing exactly what smart RVers should do, and exactly as manufacturers such as MICHELIN recommend, AFTER 5 YEARS HAVE TIRES CHECKED ANNUALLY BY A QUALIFIED TIRE TECHNICIAN", REPLACE AT 10 YEARS AGE, REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCE"
This is the same basic message I have attempted on this forum for years. Take it or leave it, it's your money !

"40 years in the tire industry; seen it all and done most of it"

I've never had a blowout with any car or truck in my 62 yrs of driving and ownership.
Have blown two tires since owning a Motorhome.
Both were GY RV670's on two different rigs and both happened in NY state.
Tires were 6 and 5 years old, respectively, with the first bought and maintained by me. The second was shortly after purchase and had two previous owners.
Always keep my tires covered and am diligent about keeping them aired up.
As for tire Chemistry and Engineering, I have yet to be provided with any technical details, as to how an expensive domestic made tire is made, that makes it superior to a foreign made tire.
I guess the DOT code on the sidewall means nothing, either and once FRENCH Michelin goes to China, I guess their disciples will be riding on the rims.

SidecarFlip wrote:
I've never bought any tires at a tire store, well ag tires excluded. I get all my tires online from either Tire Rack or an online seller. Tires are like batteries, volume sellers turn over inventory quickly so you get newly made tires, not dusty sitting in the corner ones.

O mount my own as well (ag tires not included again), so no problem with tire jockeys either. I'm the tire jockey.

Tire mounting (and balancing) isn't rocket science, just takes the right tools, which I have.

Really, I would like you to make a short video of you pulling the Wheels and tires off your motorhome(especially if you have a Diesel) and replacing and balancing, those with your home tools. You must have an interesting shop and tools and be pretty strong and young. Doug

parkmanaa wrote:
OLDSPIRIT, you are addressing an area that has been near-and-dear to my heart for years. TIRE MARKETERS, not MANUFACTURERS, have been playing this age thing as a safety issue and it should be against the law. IMHO it is nothing but a gimmick to sell more tires, just like cereal makers, dairies and thousands of other industries started decades ago. They started by playing their message to kids and, being successful there, have also been somewhat successful in selling the same "theory" to adults.
People, seemingly especially RVers now see a blown tire on the side of highway, immediately assume "it was an old tire". I can tell you from many years in the tire industry, and many, many scrap tire analysis, you will find most blown-out tires are a)cheap, foreign made, b) obvious poor maint., with c)age coming in at a far distant third.
Again, IMHO OLDSPIRIT is doing exactly what smart RVers should do, and exactly as manufacturers such as MICHELIN recommend, AFTER 5 YEARS HAVE TIRES CHECKED ANNUALLY BY A QUALIFIED TIRE TECHNICIAN", REPLACE AT 10 YEARS AGE, REGARDLESS OF APPEARANCE"
This is the same basic message I have attempted on this forum for years. Take it or leave it, it's your money !

"40 years in the tire industry; seen it all and done most of it"

Tell us where you find a "qualified" Tire Technician. Does inspection require taking the rubber of the rim? If so, just how much do you think a qualified Tire shop would charge for dismounting 6 RV motorhome tires, remounting and then balancing? AND, knowing how RV'ers are loath to spend any money for this type thing, what rv'er would take the time and money to do such a thing every year after that 5 years? Doug