New Sumitomos

Texted my son-in-law, who runs the shop for a trucking company, to see if they had experience with Sumitomos tires and what they were like. Now, trucking applications are different in that they are high miles where most RV tires are going to die from age degenerations well before miles. But he said they make a "decent" tire. They've had good experience with them, though he said that in the long run, they have better experience with Michelins even at the higher cost.

Again, this is probably not something likely in an RV application, but in trucking he said that when the Sumitomos get to about 1/2 tread, they get a "hopping" that cannot seem to be fixed with balancing. This hopping causes uneven tread wear which just causes more hopping and they have to be changed out.

He did mention that they have blowouts on Michelins, but it's usually a tire-pressure related incident. He said that Michelins have softer sidewalls, which provide for a smoother ride, but also make them more sensitive to low-pressure causing heating and blowouts.

I can't say either way...just the experience of someone that sees the results of tires purchased and used in large volumes, but clearly in a different application.

I'm also wondering if the Sumitomos use any UV resistant chemicals in their rubber composition, which can be an important factor in RV applications.