I need to replace the 10 year old tires on my 2000 Winnebago Itasca Spirit 31ft and have a few options available. Are they all about the same quality?. The load range is all the same1. BF Goodrich Commercial T/A 225/75/162. Firestone TransForce H/T 225/75/163. Goodyear Wrangler H/T 225/75/16

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.

Itasca Spirit 31' Tires | Good Sam Community

pnichols
Explorer II
Jul 25, 2018
OFDPOS wrote:
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 ..

According to my satellite based navigator unit (Garmin), my speedo now reads about 1.5 MPH slower due to my over-stock-diameter Michelin tires.

I don't care about speedo inaccuracies this small, as I'm usually under speed limits anyway. Probably a Ford dealer could tweek my V10's ECU someway to compensate for the larger diameter tires if I wanted to pursue it.

I'd like even larger diameter tires on our Class C if it didn't make it too much of a step-up into the cab for the DW.
ron_dittmer
Explorer II
Jul 25, 2018
For convenience and for reference....
CLICK HERE for Tire Rack's selection of 225/75/16 "E" rated tires. A few in the list are close-outs with limited stock.

I realize most of you are unable to mount and balance your own tires. But the information is interesting.

I buy all my tires from Tire Rack, but I have access to a tire mounting machine and a tire balancing machine. I do wonder if the balancer can handle the DRW offset.
tatest
Explorer II
Jul 25, 2018
The three tires you list are roughly equivalent, and Michelin's Defender series in Load Range E is essentially the Commercial T/A with a different tread, designed more for all-season use on lighter trucks and large SUVs. Bridgestone similarly has a tread pattern alternative to the Transforce H/T in their Dueler H/T line.

A step up in durabilty, with substantially heavier tire bodies (and in some cases steel rather than polyester in the body) will be Michelin XPS Rib, Bridgestone Duravis R250, and Goodyear's RSA tire lines. My last tire change I put on XPS Rib tires, knowing that I will not be using the RV on snow and ice.
pnichols
Explorer II
Jul 25, 2018
tatest wrote:
A step up in durabilty, with substantially heavier tire bodies (and in some cases steel rather than polyester in the body) will be Michelin XPS Rib, Bridgestone Duravis R250, and Goodyear's RSA tire lines. My last tire change I put on XPS Rib tires, knowing that I will not be using the RV on snow and ice.

Tom,

I think it's possible to get that great XPS Rib performance and safety in a traction tire if one can get their tire dealer to order this tire for their Class C, since dealers probably wouldn't normally stock it:
https://www.michelinman.com/tire/michelin/xps-traction

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