Tires For E450

The weight of our E350 rig does not challenge the "E" rating. With that said, I am seriously considering THESE "E" rated Sumitomo Encounter HT LT225/75R16 tires. I have mounted Sumitomo tires on a 2003 Corvette and a 2007 Solstice GXP of which they were great on those performance cars. But I wonder how the Sumitomo brand fairs in a motor home application?

Does anyone have "E" rated Sumitomo Encounter HTs on their rig? Your input is welcome.

I just replaced a pair of Michelins on the front with 2 Cooper HTP's from Discount. Limited use so far but so far so good. These tires balanced perfectly which is a great start.

I've been running a set of Cooper AT3's on my pickup for about a year & a half now which are the 1st Cooper tires I've ever owned. Absolutely fabulous experience with those so I decided to pop on some Coopers for the coach.

I'm becoming a big fan on the Cooper product after having run BFG & Michelins for decades.

It's done. Went with Discount Tire because they have a nationwide presence, and opted for their replacement certificate ($23 per tire) which will provide a ten year/50,000 mile replacement if we lose another one. With the Minnie already 15 years old, it's likely these are the last tires I'll need to buy for it.

My mixed set of tires wound up being 2 Uniroyal Laredos from 2009, two BFG Commercial TA's from 2012, a Cooper Discoverer HT from 2014 (kept as the new spare), and a Michelin from 2004 that came with the motorhome as its original spare (put on about a month ago when I lost another Laredo).

Feels good having a matched set, and I feel a lot more comfortable taking it out to Wyoming and Colorado next month.

lane hog wrote:
Replacing all six of my tires on our E450 Minnie, and considering the following options:

BFG Commercial TA
Cooper Discoverer HT3
Cooper Discoverer HTP

I’ve run Uniroyal Loredo’s, Cooper Discover HT, and Michelin LTX’s and now have two of each on our rig. It’s time to go back to a matched set, but I can’t justify the cost of the Michelin’s after the problems we had with the cracking on them.

Any experience with these? All come in at about $150 a tire plus installation.

I think that Michelin has fixed the cracking problem.

Starting with their Defender LT series, I believe that they changed the material used in the sidewalls of their popular Class C tire sizes when they brought out their Defender line. I've had Defender M&S (Mud & Snow) tires on our Class C now for a few years and not a sign of cracking, no road noise at all, and outstanding (lack of) tread wear.

Michelin now even has an improved line above the Defender in the 225/75R16E size. They call it their Agilis® CrossClimate tire:
https://www.michelinman.com/tire/michelin/agilis-crossclimate/245-75-r16-120-r--bsw?fromResultList=searchEngineByVeh&zipCode=95030

I refuse to price shop for RV tires for a bunch of reasons, so I'm going to continue to go with Michelin - but always being careful with which one of their tires I have installed. Tire dealers sometimes try to install "what they recommend" or "what they have in stock". I do my homework and go into the dealer and demand a specific tire size and type for our RV, even if it means that they have to special order it.

Things I watch for are such criteria as the weight of the tire for any given size (heavier means more material), tread type for a given size (Mud & Snow tread is best to deal with bad weather), tread thickness, tread wear rating, and length of warranty.

(I've also changed tire size from what came stock on our Class C ... in order to increase ground clearance just a bit.)

I have had the HT3's on since July of 2015. I have put about 10,000 miles on them. They are a good tire so far. I have a 2003 Winnebago Minnie 29B, I am told this is a heavy unit. I have never weighed it. We travel with a family of 5 (2 adult and 3 kids) and a dog. All the stuff that goes with us as well. I also travel with a full tank of fresh water. I have not had a problem yet. I do not rotate the back tires, and only cross the fronts left to right. I do not see a problem getting 10 years out of these tires (I park the unit inside when not in use, so no UV damage). The tires are wearing very well and look almost new still. Other than the typical Ford TTB tire chop on the front, which a Ford will do to any tire, hence crossings fronts, these have been great tires.

I settled for the HT3’s - they’re rated 115R so that’s 1300 lbs over the rear axle rating and 800 on the front. It’s been a few years since we did a four corner weigh, but we had about 1000 lbs of free capacity below the GVWR.

Hi Lane Hog,

If your E450 is long and heavy, you owe it to yourself to consider "E" rated tires that handle an extra 500-600 pounds per tire. There are two types of these extra load tires. One requires 83 psi to get the full rating, the other requires 90 psi. Get the 83 psi because the E450 stock steel wheels are rated for 80 psi.

CLICK HERE to see one such example, but there are different brands to choose from.

If I owned a long 28-32 foot class C motor home and needed new tires, I would surely get the extra load tires to avoid a tire blow-out, a common problem with the largest and heaviest class C's.

Thanks guys, I’ll check out the Toyo’s.

When the Michelins were all cracked severely, after only 3 years, I went with Firestone TransForce, and have been perfectly happy with them, no cracking after 5 years, and they ride better.

They were Bridgestone Duelers

I ran them 2x on my truck camper pickup. I liked them, good snow traction, good on wet roads but found that they didn't wear as well I thought. Maybe made from a softer rubber ? Offers good traction at the expense of tread wear.
I ran 2 sets of Cooper AT3's after them and found them to last a little longer under the same basic driving conditions. All ran quiet but as the Coopers wore down their road noise seemed to increase slightly.

IMO, as stated, the TOYO is a VG choice . I would run any of those brands , depending on availability and the best deal at the time of purchase.