Thoughts and Help Please

If you plan to do some serious touring in this old rig have entire brake, engine cooling system and suspension components checked and repaired as needed.
Obtain proper wheels for modern radial tires and proper RV tires. Your house battery and converter charger should be tested, battery(s) replaced and modern converter charger installed. Learn about testing and servicing the 12 volt DC house battery system, most appliances and furnace need 12 volt power in addition to propane or 120volt AC power. Your fresh water pump and plumbing system may need replacement/fixes. If you have an RV generator it will come in handy at rest stops, etc. The roof AC and dash AC are also necessary. You may need new awning fabric. Check all exterior lighting. You have a new hobby.

I had heard that about the bead area also, but don't know anyone who's had that problem with the firestone transforce.

A clipper buddy of mine changed out to the 16s. Everytime we meet up, he looks at my rig and says he wishes he had stayed with the 16.5s.

Also, whichever ones you put on, get the Cat's Eye tire pressure maintenance system for the duallies. Will make life much easier. They have an internal check valve to stop both tires from going flat.

OP, If you want to go to the research and shopping, you CAN find 16" wheels that will work. You may even find some with serviceable tires on them. Depends on how long Chevy/GMC stayed with 16's that have characteristics equivalent to your 16.5's. I think OP in the Lengthy Tread linked above, decided all that wasn't worth the trouble and sounded ready to stay with 16.5.

Do NOT Stock Up! Even with travel like you plan, most of us will not wear RV tires out. They will AGE Out first. There's DOT coding molded into tire sidewalls. One only one sidewall, there's a four-digit production date branded on the end of that coding string. WWYY, where WW is Week Produced and YY is Year Produced, so 0517 would be the fifth week (sometime around FEB) of this year. Always ask for, make that Insist On, Recent Production Dates.

Tires age out even unused. Dodge Van, single rear wheels, 800/16.5 tires. Came with five beautiful Goodyears that ran great for years. As they were wearing out, I found an unused one at Firestone. Mounted it with my identical unused spare and two new tires.

First, I did not get Half the Mileage on those New/Old tires that I did when the set was new.

Second, I bought "take-off" tires for the other two. On CARS, they might come off because of the Look - Owner wants something with/without white letters, etc. On a Commercial tire, they probably come off because they were so out of round or out of balance the driver couldn't hold onto the steering wheel. At least that was what I found.

I replaced them all with a set of 875R16.5 and the change was wonderful! Never looked back.

Please find your door jamb label and reply with what it says about Tire Size, Type (hopefully Load Range or "Ply") and Axle Ratings for Front and Rear.

The 800 size is gone. What tire companies did was go to 875, which almost always replaces 800 without problems. They also quit offering Load Ranges C and D and offer only 875R16.5E.

In the Lengthy Thread, Capri Racer (barrystiretech in another site I linked) said the 875 should work with rims originally used for 800. Another OP was concerned about E tires rated at 80 PSI and the old rims are probably not. Your axle weights are not going to require more than the 65 that D tires could go to. Another mentioned that radials use a different bead area of the rim than old bias tires did. I personally never heard that, and I know I had no problems with radial on my truck that had been built in 1971 with bias tires.

Do "E" rated 16.5" tires carry a heavier load compared to the current-day "E" rated 16" tires? If the answer is "Yes", I would surely stay with the 16.5" tires and tolerate their lack of popularity. That is unless your 1987 Itasca is very light which I doubt because rigs were made heavier back then.

Another consideration to the switch is to compare the outside diameter of the tires. If there is a difference, your speedometer will not reflect your actual speed.

j-d wrote:
All seven wheels should be the same and mount in any/every wheel position.

We just crawled through this with another member, it seemed the decision was going to be to stay with 16.5 tires.

Read ***Link Removed*** and be sure you understand OFFSET. Offset produces the required spacing between dual rear tire sidewalls but it isn't measured that way.

How do you plan to use this coach? Like how far do you want to drive? Stay away from your base how much/how long?

The Firestone Transforce is a good tire and the price is reasonable.

Thank you all for the reply..
Hmm...the Offset is definitely going to be a factor.

Thanks JD -
To address your ?s - I plan on driving across the country (From Oregon to New York and down to Florida and west to California and back up to Oregon.\ That's the plan.

I am on the fence about putting Firestone 16.5 Transforce tires (not readily availabe). I could just stock up while it's still available?

Such a hard decision esp. w/ limited budget.

My clipper is 16.5 tires. I originally ordered them online through tire rack and had them mounted and installed locally. When I went in to have them installed the shop folks told me I could order directly through them in the future. They would price match also.

All seven wheels should be the same and mount in any/every wheel position.

We just crawled through this with another member, it seemed the decision was going to be to stay with 16.5 tires.

Read This Page and be sure you understand OFFSET. Offset produces the required spacing between dual rear tire sidewalls but it isn't measured that way.

How do you plan to use this coach? Like how far do you want to drive? Stay away from your base how much/how long?

The Firestone Transforce is a good tire and the price is reasonable.

Hate to say it because I had Chev P/U with 16.5's one time. The real fix is to put new rims on that are 16".

vlink55 wrote:
Good day to all fellow RV members. I'm new to the forum and forgive me.
I inherited an RV (1987 Itasca on a Chevy Van 30 chassis). It's currently riding on 16.5 rims/tires (8.75R16.5 LT BFG commercial tires). Dually in rear. I just made this discovery after taking it to Les Schwab. 16.5 is hard to come by. Local shops in Oregon can't help me. Can anyone suggest a solution? Should I purchase the Firestone Transforce 16.5 from Walmart? Or should I try to get 16" Dually wheels and somehow have all 7 tires mounted on Duallys? But here's another concern. Is it possible to install Dually Rim/wheel in the front?

Onc again - apologies in advance. I read another post about 16.5 tires but wasn't able to find that post again. Hence this new tread/post.

Any help for this new RVer is much appreciated. Thank you!

Size not withstanding, the TransForce that I have on now, are a far better tire than the Michelins that came on it new, better ride, longer wear, and virtually NO weather checking, which can't be said for the Michelins that cracked severely in 3 years.