LT Tire Replacements - All season

Ohio_Engineer wrote:


John, The BS R250 is a "Commercial" grade steel body tire. As such I would expect it to be more durable than a more basic "consumer" grade tire. I have heard good things about the 250 from RV owners.
The BS R238 is a "newer" design (unusual for BS to go down in model number) It may have some design improvements in it over the 250 but I do not have access to the actual specification so just a reasonable guess.

I agree with the others about questioning the need for a serious All-Season tire. They generally have a deeper tread which might generate more heat.

Your pictures are definitely a Belt/Tread separation. Surprised your "free spin" inspection didn't allow you to identify the potential for problems before the tire came apart. IMO this is unusual.

Are your tire loads still about the same as in 2012? Still running 80 psi cold? Have you confirmed gauge accuracy? If +/- 2 psi you are good. In my blog I did a TPM accuracy test a few weeks ago you may want to review but IMO the TPM sensors were in acceptable range.

While TPM are really designed just to warn of pressure loss they can be used to confirm CIP too as long as you know the accuracy of your sensors.

Roger Marble, Tire Desigh Engineer (Ret)

Thanks Roger,

Some comments to your questions:

I had all 4 tires off for the last 3 months doing some frame repairs over the winter. I did not notice any out of roundness when taking them off or putting them back on. I was admiring how great the tread looked even.

I did look up the mileage today, 12,160 miles since I installed them in July 2012.

I always run that at 80psi cold.

Weights, my weights from 2012 did increase by 100# from last year to this year. I did some frame repairs and the 100# is spread between the left and right side of the camper. Once I get sound tires back on I will recheck the weights by cat scale to make sure something else did not creep in.

The TPM reads about 1 to 2 psi low compared to my compressor fill gage air chuck. The gage is a bourdon tube gage and it compared to my larger truck sliding gage air chuck. So between all 3 devices I have including the TPM I am within the +/- 2psi

This weekend I will start the process of preparing for new tires. I will put the camper up on jack stands and do a spin test to see if the remaining tires have any wobble and run out.

I will also start taking them off the rims to have look inside all the tires for closer inspection. My older tire machine works well on these steel trailer wheels so I can do this looking myself.

This Friday Bridgestone tech service folks are supposed to be back in the office. I will call them and talk about the R250 and the R238 and report back. Right now I'm leaning towards the R238. There is a small cost savings going R238 but it gives me a hopefully a slight advantage in colder wet conditions then it was worth it. During a trailer braking situation loosing any slip is not a good thing and the R238 can hopefully help over the R250's.

Thanks

John