Tire changing on Class C

ron.dittmer wrote:
To the original poster dennislanier,

There was a recall on Michelin tires made during a certain time of which were prone to blowouts like you describe with your sidewall bubble/tumor. Get the production number off your tires and call a Michelin dealer. You might get your tires replaced for free under the recall, both the tires & labor charges covered. You can also just drive your rig to a Michelin dealer and have them find the numbers for you. Even if your tires are not covered under the recall, they may pro-rate your bad tire.

Thanks for the info but I don't have Michelins on my rv. Mine are some Chinese brand called Capitol which were on the rig when I bought it. Maybe someone else will see this and be able to use the information

To the original poster dennislanier,

There was a recall on Michelin tires made during a certain time of which were prone to blowouts like you describe with your sidewall bubble/tumor. Get the production number off your tires and call a Michelin dealer. You might get your tires replaced for free under the recall, both the tires & labor charges covered. You can also just drive your rig to a Michelin dealer and have them find the numbers for you. Even if your tires are not covered under the recall, they may pro-rate your bad tire.

Because of weight close to max GVWR, we decided to go a little upscale from the truly excellent tires like MS/2, Transforce, BFG, and get Bridgestone Duravis R250. These are a "highway" tread like Michelin XPS Rib. Our R250's were 7 years old and showed zero problem signs. Not in the tread, not in sidewalls. But we had two older Brigestone V-Steel tires, same size and approximate tread pattern. THESE turned out to be 10 YOA and and were developing cracks at the bases of the tread ribs, parallel to the ribs. Several on each tire. The spare was an OEM Firestone from 2002, never on the ground. Bottom Line: SEVEN NEW R250's. You don't want to have 100 miles to a tire shop and learn you had a 50-mile spare!

Just the voice of experience here, had a tread separation and blowout, 2 year old tire. Cost us $6000 to repair. 75 miles later another separated, caught it before blow out. IMHO I would replace them all, its a lot safer and possibly cheaper in the long run. We have a 31' Itasca. Weight runs close to max all the time so don't risk it.

Dave

My tire shop does this work on my RV out in the driveway. Bottle jack under the shock mount, 3/4 drive impact wrenches, needed pry bars to get the wheels off the axle. A single lug nut holds both duals, but they also get rust-welded to each other and to the hubs.

They loosen the lugs slightly before jacking, and chock the front wheels to lift the rear, because the parking brake and park in transmission are both ineffective when one rear wheel is lifted.

If you have an old tire starting to come apart, the others of similar age are probably close. Learned this the hard way on my minivan when three of the five tires developed bulges on the same trip (in extremely hot weather).

My advice is to take it to a tire shop that works on medium duty trucks, because if tires are of similar age, it is time to replace them, and you want it done at a place that knows what they are doing. Lug nuts on this chassis need to be properly torqued, in stages. A lot of tire shops just run them down with an air wrench. Then, after 200 to 500 miles, they need to be torqued again. My tire shop told me to come back for that, yours should too. I didn't, because I torque them myself at the beginning of every season, just a maintenance thing like checking pressures before every day of driving.

Just had mine replaced, all 6 on Minnie. Chose Firestone Transforce and it rides well. Had the Ford dealer replaced them.

I just put michilins on our C ,ms 2 are nice and can handle the job, if you have a MR TIRE in your area they can do it.

Oh, Dennis...

Your year E450 has its parking brake on the Drive Shaft. Located at the rear of the transmission. No more effective than putting transmission in Park. You'll have to block the wheels that are staying on the ground. Otherwise if it wants to roll, the wheel on the ground can go that way, the wheel that's raised will go in the opposite rotation, and only the drive shaft will stay still.

5 years is about the limit for the tires that came on motor home.Replace them all,replaced mine with Firestone transforce.Good tire and ride.

dennislanier wrote:
The others have very few miles on them but they are five years old. I really hate to shell out the money for a full set right now. Any information or suggestions on removing the wheels would be appreciated.

My advice is to let the professionals do it.

Likely a bottle jack is not good enough.
Likely that you do NOT have access to tools strong enough to remove OR re-tighten the lugs properly.

Do you know which wheels the "parking brake" locks ?
If not, you have no business jacking it up to change tires.

5 years is when most people say your tires are getting "iffy"....especially if they sit outside unprotected all the time.

I just had exactly the same thing happen on my rig.
Tires 8 years old but looked really good.
I replaced them all at $150 each, installed. Taxes extra.
This was at a small independent truck tire dealer.