Why Are Tire Covers Needed?
My personal cars spent 38 years parked in open air employee parking lots in Arizona and none ever required covers or protection of any kind. I routinely got 40K miles or more of service out of a set ...
Forum Discussion
My tires on my Class A always aged out (5 years) before they showed any signs of sun damage or cracking. They spent 7 months of each year stored in fall-to-summer Florida sun. I had blowouts on two different sets of tires at 5 years and one l month. No cracks of sun damage on the 1st set - simply blew out the side wall. On the second set the tread unwrapped and the tire totally came apart. No cracking or sun damage on the other 5. The first set were 19.5 Goodyear 159's. The second was Goodyear 670's - allegedly specially formulated RV tires. Both sets had about 50k miles and 2/3 of tread left.
Not sure if this applies to the 16 inch tires found on most Class C's. The Continentals on my Sprinter based Winnie are 6 years old and show no signs of sun damage. I've heard "age-out" is 7 years on this size tire - not sure of the validity of that. I plan on new tires before next season.
The 19.5's were carrying about 3200 pounds per tire at 75 psi while the 16" tires are less than 2000 at 62 psi. I suspect the weight, and resulting heat, is the major difference. The 19.5's usually ran about 130-135 degrees - the 16" tires are running about 10 degrees cooler. I use an IR thermometer at most stops.
Not sure if this applies to the 16 inch tires found on most Class C's. The Continentals on my Sprinter based Winnie are 6 years old and show no signs of sun damage. I've heard "age-out" is 7 years on this size tire - not sure of the validity of that. I plan on new tires before next season.
The 19.5's were carrying about 3200 pounds per tire at 75 psi while the 16" tires are less than 2000 at 62 psi. I suspect the weight, and resulting heat, is the major difference. The 19.5's usually ran about 130-135 degrees - the 16" tires are running about 10 degrees cooler. I use an IR thermometer at most stops.
