Motorhomes with 19.5 vs 22.5 tires

[wtmtnhiker]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a gasser motorhome. Talking to someone who works on them said that a coach with 19.5 tires will not handle very well and only look at coaches with 22.5 tires. I had not heard that before. He said the 19.5 coaches are a smaller chassis and will be harder to handle in wind etc. Opinions from those with experience would be greatly appreciated. I am looking at 2 different ones both on workhorse chassis and both with 245/70R/19.5 tires. Thanks

[IB853347201]

I've owned 3 MH's. One on 16 inch, one one 19.5 inch and the present one on 22.5 inch. Every time we traded up to a larger chassis and larger tire size, the ride and drivability has improved. The 22.5 inch tire is the best by far.

[jorbill2or]

Yes the 22.5 also comes with a larger heavier chassis. You don’t option the 22.5 by itself Is it the smaller tires or the lighter capacity chassis, springs etc ? Probably a combination. The bigger I’ve gone , the better it handled but the bigger ones all have many upgrades in suspension. And of course weight.

[SuperBus]

Interesting topic but as others have mentioned there is so much more to the ride quality than "just" wheel size. Perhaps a good way to look at it is (I am making a guess here) that no coach offers an "option" to upgrade to 22.5" wheels. The wheel size is dependent on a number of things including. mostly, the size and weight capacity of the chassis. A well-designed coach should handle well if the proper engineering went into it the chassis, no matter the size of the wheels (as the wheel size is an output of many other design parameters). As another reply said, I'd recommend to just get out there and drive what you like. However, I would guess that many of the larger coaches on 19.5"s are reaching the edge of what would be considered acceptable.

Update: Thats the theory. Practically speaking, I think it is safe to say that a 22.5" wheel equipped coach will handle considerably better than a 19.5" wheeled motorhome. The differences in chassis components are huge when going from what is technically a light to medium duty PV based chassis to a real heavy duty commercial chassis.

[wa8yxm]

I don't know about handling but the larger tires can carry a larger weight load and will last longer (miles) due to fewer revolutions per mile.. They also cost more (naturally) but I'd go with the 22.5s

[Dave_in_TN]

For what it's worth, I've owned two Winnebago gasser motorhomes. Both same length (35-36'), very similar floorplans. First was a 2007, F53 with 19.5" Goodyear tires. Second was a 2014, also F53, with 22.5" Michelins. The 2014 coach handled significantly better than the 2007. Could it be the tires? I think that was a contributing factor. But, were there improvements in the F53 chassis in that time? Did Winnie design the coach differently, with different weight distribution, beefier components, etc? There are a lot of variables. If the first coach had been equipped with 22.5" tires or the second with 19.5", would the handling have been reversed? I can't answer that. But, anecdotally I can tell you the one with 22.5's did handle better.

Clear as mud?

[wildtoad]

Go drive them, but don’t just take them around the block. Take them on an interstate at the speed you plan to drive. Take them on some smooth roads, and on some less well maintained, over some bridges.

My 31’ does real well on good roads, becomes a bit harsh on older roads, and does poorly where road meets bridge if not a smooth joint.

When we bought ours the exact same floor plan was offered with 19.5 tires in the BayStar Sport line and with 22.5 in the bigger BayStar line. We would have preferred the BayStar but it was too tall for our existing carport.

[RLS7201]

That person that give you the tire information is NOT well informed. Do not use him for repairs.
My old coach with 16" tires handles very well.
Handling all depends on alignment and maybe a add-on or 2.

Richard

[way2roll]

I had this same thought many years ago when shopping for a gasser. Since then we have owned 2, both with 19.5 tires and never felt like it was an issue. Both of those were smaller Class A's though. If going 34+ feet I think you'll find they come with the larger wheels. I think it's more of a capacity/spec to chassis thing than a handling one. Smaller tires are cheaper.

[craig7h]

I had a 29' gasser with 19.5 tires. I myself did not really feel that there was an issue. It was an entry level coach that to me handled all right. After a couple years traded for a 37' DP with 22.5 tires. The ride is great so is the cost of tires.

Its not fair to try and compare the ride as my coaches were about as far apart as possible. I think its going to be hard to compare apples to apples on thin one.

[rk911]

Our 35' 2000 Itasca Suncruiser 35U (gasser) on the Ford chassis had 19.5" tires and, as far as I'm concerned, handled just fine. We had that coach for 15-seasons and traversed the country several times. As I recall we had roughly 75,000-miles on the odometer when we traded it.