Keeping Jacks Down for Storage to reduce tire flat spots

When I put our coach to bed for the winter I air up the suspension fully, then build up 4x4's and 2x4's tight under the RETRACTED jacks. I then dump the air from the suspension thus transferring weight from the suspension/tires to the retracted jacks.

Well, everyone had us worried to death about our G670s on the rear.
13 years old. Pulled them off this spring. Soft and supple inside and out but only 36,000 miles or so. Of course it is stored indoors and the tires are kept clean. Did have some sunblock put on in 07. some may still be on them.
Michelin says their tires are warranted for 5 years.
Goodyears RV tires were for 10 years. We heard everything in between though. Now the Dealers say there is no established limit, however they won't buy them back for casings after five years.
Someone with a Semi is running our old tires today. They will wear them out in a year, carrying the heavy load, I'm sure.
I sure could have used the four thousand dollars for something else like a new boat.

AND we put our jacks down, in storage, on coated concrete, inside. Always have. Factory recommended it

jpwiggo wrote:
Hi Folks actualy looking for info about the jacks. I can't see that extended use will hurt anything or the air bags, just somthing I was wondering.

As far as tire life Actually, this is something that I do know a bit about. I know there are those in the RV world that feel tires need to be changed ever 6-7 years, but many get confused, and have talked to tire people regarding passenger tires.

Tires on my rig are commercial grade 22.5 Heck the warranty on these tires from the OE I think is 10 years.

As food for thought, I would recommend doing a bit of google searching. Commercial truck tires from the big manufactures now don't have a defined service life. They can stay in service as long as they pass inspection. We have got tires on our fleets that are over 20+ years old and 100s and 100s of thousands of miles on them - (millions perhaps.) That assumes the tire gets professionally inspected and retreaded when needed (usually every 100K)

Recent study's are showing that modern tires also do not degrade/pulled from service due to age/ozone effect.

Thus a commercial truck tire can stay in service indefinitely. Have it inspected and replaced when the pro's tell you, not when the sales guy or internet.

I'm not confused. Did you not see the link I linked? It was in reference to commercial truck tires. 10 years, max. More details here.

Hi Folks actualy looking for info about the jacks. I can't see that extended use will hurt anything or the air bags, just somthing I was wondering.

As far as tire life Actually, this is something that I do know a bit about. I know there are those in the RV world that feel tires need to be changed ever 6-7 years, but many get confused, and have talked to tire people regarding passenger tires.

Tires on my rig are commercial grade 22.5 Heck the warranty on these tires from the OE I think is 10 years.

As food for thought, I would recommend doing a bit of google searching. Commercial truck tires from the big manufactures now don't have a defined service life. They can stay in service as long as they pass inspection. We have got tires on our fleets that are over 20+ years old and 100s and 100s of thousands of miles on them - (millions perhaps.) That assumes the tire gets professionally inspected and retreaded when needed (usually every 100K)

Recent study's are showing that modern tires also do not degrade/pulled from service due to age/ozone effect.

Thus a commercial truck tire can stay in service indefinitely. Have it inspected and replaced when the pro's tell you, not when the sales guy or internet.

ksg5000 wrote:
Never heard of "flat spots" being an issue - have heard that tires need to be exercised occasionally to keep the chemicals within the tire distributed to prolong life. Doubt putting the rig up on jacks does anything to prolong the life of the tire.

I have always heard that RV tires tend to rot from the inside - your tires are well beyond the norm that most RVers would consider safe. If it were me I would have the tires unmounted and inspected by a tire guru. Just my 02.

Even without visible damage, inside or not, they need to be retired. I rotate tires out at seven years at most, even major tire companies such as Michelin say no longer than ten.

Never heard of "flat spots" being an issue - have heard that tires need to be exercised occasionally to keep the chemicals within the tire distributed to prolong life. Doubt putting the rig up on jacks does anything to prolong the life of the tire.

I have always heard that RV tires tend to rot from the inside - your tires are well beyond the norm that most RVers would consider safe. If it were me I would have the tires unmounted and inspected by a tire guru. Just my 02.

I would be disappointed in your Tire Engineer friends. ANYBODY in the Tire business KNOWS that Tires need replaced every 5 to 7 years regardless of use or tread. Read up on this and educate your Engineer friends. 11 years???????????????? You are running on very borrowed time. Doug

First at 11 years we really should replace them (yes I said WE but I got another higher priority repair, Tires are #2)

Second. "Flat spotting" on a tire is something else entirely Now if you move the RV in very cold weather the tires may be "Flat Spotted" from sitting for, oh, the first 2 or 3 revolutions, but not much farther... I don't think taking weight off with the jacks will affect that.

IT does, however have several other advantages

Stability.. Jacks, or in my case hard jack stands are way more stable than sitting on springs... I was just far closer to disaster (Hurricane) than I care to be.. Rig did not shake very bad.. Due to a jack failure it's sitting on jack stands. Nice solid jack stands.

It also takes a load off the springs.

I use the jacks to lift the coach but I put jack stands underneath to hold the weight if I am on a firm surface, like my concrete driveway.

11 year old tires need to be replaced. Even commercial 22.5 ones...

In answer to your first question, though, we only bother lifting ours off the tires if we're going to store it for more than a month.