Tire Review Bridgestone Duravis R500 HD

[Me_Again]

I am putting this review in the 5th wheel section because I believe that this tire is most likely the best LRE LT poly carcass tire available for trailer service.

Back ground. I ran Michelin XPS Ribs for 6.5 years and around 42-44K miles on my 2005 29WBLX Cardinal and installed Bridgestone Duravis R250 this time. Both are steel ply carcass tires that was more or less bullet proof for trailer service. "Put them on and don't look back" is my motto! I found the R250's to be cheaper than the XPS Ribs by about 50 dollars per tire.

This got me looking at Bridgestone for replacement of my Tow Vehicle tires a couple months ago. The Michelin LTX M&S had around 50K miles on them and were getting slippery on rainy days. They were 6 years old and I want to "save" one as a spare as my spare was 13 years old.

This brought me to the Bridgestome Duravis R500 HD which was also cheaper than new Michelin LTX M&S2's, at $186 per tire.

So I installed LT265/75R16E R500 HD's on the truck. And I can say they are Heavy Duty!!! Maybe to the point that some would like a softer ride. Our truck however is primarily our TV for the trailer, as serves as my daily drive in the Skagit Valley. Road trips are done in wives Buick Rainier SUV.

So this commercial grade tire weighs in at 53 pounds vs 46 pounds for a Michelin LTX M&S2.

We just did a 600 mile loop through Eastern Washington and I am happy with my choice. Mileage pulling the trailer was great at 12.5+ MPG. I drove a little slower than normal because of other couple traveling with us in a class C FL Sprinter Diesel MH. But given the hilly route this was really good mileage.

Now onto the application of this tire for trailer service.

The LT235/85R16E weighs in at 47 pounds or more than just about any other poly carcass tire this size. The LT245/75R16E weighs in at 46 pounds. These are one brute of a tire and should perform very well as trailer tires. Tire Rack list the LT235 at $162 each and the LT245 $180 each.

Tread pattern is ideal for trailer service with closed outer ribs and very little siping. Chris

[gusco01]

I bought 5 of the 500hd tires and I'm really glad I did. They are very heavy duty, I have about 2 years on them now still look new. I do monitor tire pressure. They hold air great. Just normal up and down due to temperature  changes. I did all kinds of research on rv tires and tire reviews, these seem to be the best bet for long mileage and dependability.  I run michelins on the tow truck. I really like the new defender tire, but the michelins do crack on sidewalls after about 5 years. I don't like that. So far I love the Bridgestone Duravis tires for the 5th wheel. I even bought maching rim and put one on spare to rotate into the 4 on the ground. I do that on my work trucks also. Dan.

[way2roll]

I am sure the information would have been helpful but this topic is 10 years old. 

[cummins20141]

The gold standard now is the Sailun S637"s

[JIMNLIN]

  The Bridgestone R250 LT E mentioned was a all steel ply carcass commercial grade tire good for 5.2k and 6k axles. Bridgestone  dropped the R250 a upgraded R-238 same steel ply carcass tire. 

 The Michelin XPS and Bridgestone R-238 both are a commercial grade 16" LT E tire not to be confused with the higher capacity ST235/85-16 G load range @4408 lbs capacity is a great tire for 7k and 8k axles....not the 16" sizes the OP was using.

[avvidclif1]

chevor wrote:
They'd be good for trailer if you burn the tread off on the truck first…. If you could ever put that many miles on them.
This is what it looks like with 184,000 miles on the tire. Could of possibly went longer but didn't correct alignment issue soon enough.

Over a 5 year period that's an average of 355mi/day. When do you stop?

[chevor]

They'd be good for trailer if you burn the tread off on the truck first…. If you could ever put that many miles on them.
This is what it looks like with 184,000 miles on the tire. Could of possibly went longer but didn't correct alignment issue soon enough.

[GON2SKI]

I ran with the OEM Goodyear Marabombs for 1.5yrs and now upgraded to Bridgestone 250's ...like the new ride and peace of mind the heavier balanced tire delivered. The F350 also has new Toyo's on stock rims now. Thanks for your reviews Chris!

[Bamaman11]

I bought a set of Duravis R250's ($195 each) to replace the Chinese Will Pops on my brand new fifth wheel trailer. The manager at Costco said they sell a few to go on 1 ton dually box bed trucks and trucks with utility beds and small cranes.

The Costco manager said they sell more R500's for use on 3/4 ton and 1 ton pleasure trucks. He said the mileage reported on them is absolutely incredible, and that they have not had any come backs, blow outs, etc. He's been really impressed with both Duravis'.

[big_buford]

I agree with your review of this tire. Spot on! It is a commercial rated tire ready to work. As you said, probably not the smoothest riding tire to put on a truck that does limited towing.

That said, you'd be hard pressed to find a better trailer tire for all but the larger and heavier fivers. This tire imho has the beef where it counts, where the sidewall meets the tread! Most of the st failures I've had appear to originate in that area. Steel belts cutting thru inner casing due to too much flexing in that area.

All one has to do is handle this tire dismounted next to another brand, press where sidewall meets the tread and you will immediatly see the difference.

Mounted you can also tell the tire does not squat near as much as most others.

I have installed about 28 of these tires on school busses in the last five months and am very impressed with the tire wear they are providing.

Bridgestones rubber compound has stood up much better to the test of time. Ofcourse that could change any time but I've not seen them dryrot like many others.

I give um a thumbs up :B

[Hvyhauler]

Hello Me Again... I had 4 of the Bridgestone R500 LT235/80R/17E tires installed on the rear of my Dodge dually 3 weeks ago.

The Bridgestone's replaced the 4 rear BFG Comm TA's,the left rear outer BFG developed a belt seperation at 28K. I moved the 2 rear inners (L/R) with excellent tread to the front.

The R500 does have a stiffer ride than the BFG... but offers extremely high mileage service which is what I'm after.

I bought mine from Discount Tire... they went the extra mile and pro rated the failed BFG and credited $86.00 towards the R500 purchase price.

All 4 R500's were balanced on the Hunter Road Force balancer.Lifetime balance is included in the purchase,no disposal fee...I took the old tires home.

We are currently camping in south Georgia... the trip up here was good,the truck rides smooth.Stopped at the first rest stop in Georgia to check all the tires,and all was good.The R500's were slightly warm and the trailer XPS Ribs were about the same maybe a little cooler.

I kept the cruise on 68mph most of the way up... truck and trailer felt super stable.

We head home Friday for a week then its off to the mountains of S.C. / N.C. and Virginia for a 3 week camping trip. The second half of our camping season is underway.

[MC9]

I have the Bridgestone R500 hd 265 70 17 on my F-250 for 2 yrs now and Firestone TransForce 245 75 16 on the rv for 2 yrs. Both made in Canada. I highly recommend both.

[Me_Again]

Mootpoint wrote:
Thanks for the review. I am presently investigating for both the TV and 5th. I thought about Bridgestone because I've seen a lot of them on TV's but hadn't talked to anyone yet. Thanks for the info.

My truck is basically a freeway queen! There are reports of the R500 HD going 100K miles. If I was going to do a little offroading or drive in snow, I would not have installed the R500 HD's on it. I would have most likely installed Michelin M&S2's. Although the reports of Michelin's dry rotting in just a few years is a concern.

Wife's Rainier has M&S on it, so I will be watching it closely.

Chris

[Mootpoint]

Thanks for the review. I am presently investigating for both the TV and 5th. I thought about Bridgestone because I've seen a lot of them on TV's but hadn't talked to anyone yet. Thanks for the info.