Itasca Spirit 31' Tires

4. Michelins.

My rig came with Michelins and I eventually switched to Toyos.

A thought on Ford chassis tire wear. If toe-in is set to Ford's specs, You WILL experience wear (and sometimes cupping) of the front tire's outside edge. Tire dealers will sometimes suggest you go to an alignment shop where they will sometimes try taking some of the toe in off. This will help the outer edge wear BUT will make the coach much more susceptible to being pushed around by crosswinds or oncoming trucks. Big truck chassis need that factory toe in setting to compensate for the action of the forward thrust of the coach pushing the tires straight against the pretty much non-adjustable caster setting. My experience over the decades has been fronts will wear out the outside edge at about 40K miles while the rears will last quite a bit longer. On our old RVs, I'd swap the fronts to the outer rear every 15K miles or so. Now that we have an coach with 22.5 wheels, the lug nut torque is now 450 ft/lbs rather than the old 19" 150 ft/lbs so I've resigned myself to just buying a couple of front tires sooner. I know you can get a torque multiplier to break the lugs free but torque wrenches capable of reading 450 are VERY expensive. The RV shops seem to all want quite a bit of money to rotate the tires. Gotta pay for those tools, I guess.

We have a 30 ft. 2003 Itasca Class C and I have all Hankook tires. No compelling reason other than that's what my tire shop suggested and put on. Also had them on my last car. No problems at all. It's not been proven to me that the most expensive or best known brands are significantly better than something like Hankook so I tend to shop for price somewhat. That's important with a 6 tired vehicle. I've really never had problems with tires throughout my 60 years of driving. Maybe more important to make sure the tires are heavy duty to handle heavy loads and to watch for under inflation and replace at 5-7 years no matter the looks.

I always read reviews on Tire Rack and other tire sites and have good luck using Cooper tires which I keep switching back to after trying other brands. The BF comm tires also did well on my 'E' applications in the 16" sizes.
I don't think the Mich line is what it use to be from what I have read and talking to the fleet users. The older one's did fine, equally as well as the Cooper A/T's which BTW did very well in snow. The REVO tires wore out a lot faster but performed well.
What I have found in general running many different brands on my personal vehicles as well as my fleet vehicles, tires with softer rubber bite better on all surfaces but wear faster and tend to become a bit more noisy as they age. That's the trade off. Basically, if you want a safer ride, it will cost you more money to replace tires more often.

I use Michelins on our Itasca. I don't let the tire shop pick the brand or size. I researched the various Michelin lines and then went into the tire shop and told them to order and install the Michelin tires that I specify.

I'm currently running Michelin 215/85R16 Defender Load Range E tires on our Class C and they show no wear after a couple of years and make no noise on the highway. Their tread is M&S (Mud & Snow) rated - for good traction in dry or wet weather. They carry a 6 Year, 50,000 mile warranty.

The stock tires were another Michelin tire type in 225/75R16 size Load Range E, but I switched to the Michelin Defender 215/85R16 size Load Range E tire to get a slighly taller tire for more ground clearance but with the same load rating, and to get a more advanced material in the tire sidewalls.

But .... they are far from the least expensive tire you can get by with on a Class C motorhome, so you have to budget for them.

pnichols wrote:




The stock tires were another Michelin tire type in 225/75R16 size Load Range E, but I switched to the Michelin Defender 215/85R16 size Load Range E tire to get a slighly taller tire for more ground clearance but with the same load rating, and to get a more advanced material in the tire sidewalls.

How much did it throw your speedo off ? As it is now ours is off 2 mph (slower) replaced the Michelins that had the recall with the defenders, but went with same size 225/75/R16 ..

Wow! You are running on 10 year old tires? If it had of been me I would have had many a blow out by now!!

We have a 31' Itasca that had BF Goodrich from the factory. Crappy tires, I had 1 blowout and 1 tread separation in the 5000 miles I ran them. Plus they leaked air like crazy. I had to air them up a little every couple of days. I have both aluminum and steel wheels on my rig. Went to Michelin XPS Rib tires finally and what an improvement. Steers better, rides better and they never leak air.

Dave

Michelin or Hankook. My new Minnie Winnie 31G came from the factory with Hankook. Put a set on my 2007 Class A after I dumped the Goodyears after 16k and 2 blowouts. Never had an issue after that. Hardly ever even had to adjust the air pressure. Put 30k on those with no visible wear and 7 years.