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moisheh's avatar
moisheh
Explorer
Oct 15, 2017

Clas C and tires

I have been doing online research for the purchase of a new to us RV. A Class C is high on my list. Probably an E450 from about 2000 to 2004. I really want a dinette, sofa and a chair. That would mean a 30 ft. But I could concede and go for a 28 or 29 ft. A rear Queen bed is a must! I naively thought that only Class A's had weight problems. Boy was I wrong. However it is one thing to be a few hundred lbs. over your gross but another to be blowing tires . I see postings about tires wearing out prematurely and some about blown tires. I assume most of these problems are due to the 225 tires not being able to handle the weights. I used to have a small fleet of one ton cab and chassis with aluminum dry van bodies. Almost as high as a Class C. Granted these were used as City trucks but when cornering all the weight gets transferred to the other side. The front ends on these trucks were horrible! But we were able to go up a size in tires and all was good for tires. What do owners do about tires? I could care less about premature wear. We would probably replace the tires from age before being worn out. But blow outs are not only dangerous they can do a lot of damage to plumbing and wiring that is exposed . One of the units I hope to see soon needs 6 new tires. I see lots of inexpensive load range E tires on sites like Tire Rack. They scare me. I also see the Michelins at about twice the price. There are a number of known brands at decent prices such as Bridgestone Dueler and Firestone Transforce HT. The TransForce are very popular with owners of Classic class A units similar to the GMC. Any comments based on personal experiences appreciated. BTW: Having a good experience for a brand on your grocery getter is really not a basis for buying RV tires. Thanks.

Moisheh
Class C

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  • photobug's avatar
    photobug
    Explorer
    Oct 15, 2017
    I put a new set of goodyear load rated truck tires on mine last summer, worked well so far even with a bit of snow. They're the same tires as on my E350 which have held up well except the rv tires are one size smaller. Go figure since the rv is and e450. I put a set of tires from costco on my volvo when I blew one out while away from home. They were cheep and in rage of my limited mini-spare. AWD need to have the same tires on all four wheel so I had to replace them all (needed to anyways) Problem is, those tires suck. They are noisy, poorly track ruts in the road, squeal when going around corners and don't have the traction that the previous set did. Can't wait until they wear out so I can get some good ones.
    Tires are the last place you should be cutting corners. I've blown 4 TT tires before the thing finally pulled a major rollover in the middle of the freeway on a wet slippery road. Not pulling a big trailer anymore.
  • DrewE's avatar
    DrewE
    Explorer II
    Oct 15, 2017
    Many class C's do have limited payload. I don't think any in the years you're looking at would come from the factory overloaded, though that was not unheard of in some old RVs. Very generally speaking, class A's will usually have more payload than class C's, though of course there's a lot of variation among specific models.

    I suspect you'll find that most cases of blowouts are not caused by overloading so as much as by excessive age, by damage due to grossly improper care (i.e. underinflation), or by road hazards that could affect any tires.

    My own experience with non-name-brand tires has been somewhat mixed. I did have one tire die due to tread separation, though it technically did not blow (it stayed inflated). I can't say whether the failure was due to some manufacturing defect in the tire or due to some tire damage I wasn't entirely aware of. I had driven with it over some pretty rough roads through Alaska.

    I tend to be of the opinion that any tire that is DOT approved is generally safe to use within its ratings, regardless of brand. I also have not made much study of the matter.

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