Firestone Vs Michelins

Just as a side note, the new design Michelin M&S "2" tires probably solve any issues with their previous old design M&S tires that shipped on the Ford E350 and E450 chassis for so many years.

In particular ... I'm hoping that the M&S 2 design has stopped the premature sidewall cracking problem that showed up with the M&S design. Our previous M&S set that came on our E450 had cracked sidewalls with PLENTY of tread life left. Our current Michelin set is M&S 2.

I know cost is a major consideration for all things RV but when it comes to safety for my family and others on the road, I never have felt that (and boy am I tight with the pennies) tires are where I want to save money. Only a few square inches of rubber on each wheel is in contact with the road. Those six points of contact could represent my life. I am gonna buy the best tires and save money on something else. Buy cheap beer, boxed wine, whatever. But I am not going to scrimp on tires.

Tread, sidewall structure and stiffness, manufacturing processes all come into play for me and I think there is more than one good brand available out there. Since the pros use Michelin, so do I.

Paul

Which Michelin tires and which Firestone tires? There are at least two tire lines from Michelin in that size (and E load rating), at least three from Bridgestone-Firestone. The different tire models are designed for different applications although all have the same capacity.

Not completely happy with the LTX M/S Ford puts on the chassis when building it for RV makers, I chose slightly more expensive (and about 30% heavier) Michelin XPS Rib tires. But the LTX M/S2 does fine on my E-350 passenger van.

Bridgestone-Firestone equivalent to XPS Rib would be the Duravis R250 at about $240 per tire.

The bargain commercial tires from Bridgestone-Firestone are the Duravis R500 and the Transforce HT, at about $170-$180 per tire. Michelin does not sell a commercial tire at this price point using the Michelin brand, the equivalent Michelin tire to a Transforce is BF Goodrich Commercial T/A.

Both companies also sell bargain commercial truck tires (Destination, Long Trail at $100-130) in our size, using their BFG and Firestone brands.

They also sell SUV/Light Truck tires for passenger service, e.g. Michelin's LTX lines and Bridgestone's Dueler lines. Certain models of these softer riding, quieter tires are built as Load Range E in 16 to 18 inch sizes, for 3/4 ton and 1-ton applications, because so many trucks and heavy SUVs are sold as passenger cars, and buyers don't like some of the NVH compromises that come with the longer wear life of commercial tire designs.

Go over to Goodyear-Dunlop-Fulda and you will find the same thing, premium commercial tires around $230-250 (G947 Armormax), mainstream passenger/commercial tires under $200 (e.g. Wrangler HT), and lower cost models for urban delivery where high speed driving is not as much a design factor as handling bouncing off curbs and hitting potholes.

So if you compare one company's best tires to another company's cheapest tire that fits, you will see a price difference of about 2:1. I think you are probably comparing two different classes of tire, not two different companies.

If you don't do a lot of highway speed driving at high temperatures, a cheaper tire can save you some money, because RVs do not usually put on enough mileage to take advantage of the longer wear life of high-end commercial tires like the Armormax, XPS, or Duravis R250. U-Haul does quite well with Wrangler HT from Goodyear, Transforce HT from Bridgestone-Firestone, and Michelin's BFG Commercial T/A. They even mix the brands on any given truck.

I can’t speak about RV tires but I drive a wrecker and the boss only buys Michelins we have a fleet of over 50 units from F550 up to 75 ton rotators costing over 1 million and he would not switch. We put a lot of hard miles on these tires!!

KC

I guess I don't know what there is about Michelin tires on your E450 motorhome that should be considered as "overkill".

Michelin tires have been installed by Ford, stock, onto Ford E350 and E450 cutaway van chassis as delivered for years to U.S. Class C motorhome builders. I consider Michelin tires as about the best available for a Class C motorhome. However, some folks might discuss a couple of different types of Michelin tires for Class C motorhomes with respect to one Michelin type of tire being "better" than the other.

We are on our second set of Michelins with our E450 24 foot Class C motorhome. Our current set carry a 70,000 mile tread warranty and are Green X rated. The last thing we want is a tire problem out in the middle of nowhere when drycamping in our Class C.

I researched new tires for a year. I read various RV forums and forums used by freight haulers using medium duty gooseneck trailers. I chose to go with Michelins.

Many of the posts, especially by the freight haulers, reported very good luck with the michelins and most reported they got more miles from the tires than they expected. Keep in mind these are drivers that put 70,000 - 100,000 miles plus on the tires each year.

Many because they were happy with the performance of the Michelins were on their 2nd or 3rd set. If they weren't happy and didn't see the overall savings they would have gone with other brand tires.

The 400 may seem like a lot now but if the michelins out live the Firestones the extra 400 will save money in the long run.

I've run Firestone Transforce tires on my PUs for over 13 years without any problems. Started with Michelin 40+ years ago but not any more.