Typical tread life?

[Cbones]

I know that most folks tend to replace tires by age, but if age was not an issue, what would expected tire tread life be? I am at almost 90K on my 4year old Goodyears 275x70x22.5 rear tires and they still have decent tread. I replaced the fronts with Michelins at 20k due to severe rivering, and I can't wait to get rid of the rears, but I am also not looking to throw $$$ away. I will replace them when they wear out. As a side note, the Michelins have been totally trouble free for 70k miles, and there have been no changes to suspension or alignment, only change was steer tires.

[CapriRacer]

I hope everyone is aware that driving in a straight produces very little tire wear. That turning corners is where most tire wear occurs. That's one of the reasons why over the road trucks get such good tire wear (yeah, the tread compounds help a lot, too!)

So a typical 1 ton pickup used to tow an RV trailer for a long distance is going to get very good tire wear compared to the same vehicle being used to commute to work.

[Cbones]

mpierce wrote:

Koop wrote:

Cbones wrote:

mpierce wrote:
Running 22.5's on semis and trailers, loaded to legal max over 90% of the time, I would get 300,000 on the tires, as long as nothing damaged them, and I kept them balanced and aligned. I balanced them, then put BalanceMasters on, and would align 1-2 times a year. Using Crossfires on the duals to keep the pressure exactly the same in both tires helped a lot. 2# pressure difference in the tires on a pair of duallys means one tire is going farther than the other, thus causing the rubber to scrub off.

That is serious mileage. What time frame would that be? I think I would be happy to make it to half that on mine.

He's talking about OTR truck operations that can run up mileage in a hurry. My friends in the trucking industry tell me that 250,000 to 300,000 miles in a tractor rig running full time is typical.

Correct. Running team, my wife and I ran a ND, MN CA, AZ route every week. 5200 miles a week, 51 weeks a year. We took Christmas week off! No load.

Just not sure why MH tire wear is so bad? Wearing out under 100k, when the same tires, with max legal loads, run 3 times as long on a truck? I understand aging out on a MH, just not the short tire life for mileage.

That has me wondering. Do you think it has anything to do with the lower pressures we tend to run for comfort?

[John_S_]

Depends on your motorhomes weight too and tire position. I have put 120kon before they aged out but did not get more than 70k on the tags.

[mpierce]

Koop wrote:

Cbones wrote:

mpierce wrote:
Running 22.5's on semis and trailers, loaded to legal max over 90% of the time, I would get 300,000 on the tires, as long as nothing damaged them, and I kept them balanced and aligned. I balanced them, then put BalanceMasters on, and would align 1-2 times a year. Using Crossfires on the duals to keep the pressure exactly the same in both tires helped a lot. 2# pressure difference in the tires on a pair of duallys means one tire is going farther than the other, thus causing the rubber to scrub off.

That is serious mileage. What time frame would that be? I think I would be happy to make it to half that on mine.

He's talking about OTR truck operations that can run up mileage in a hurry. My friends in the trucking industry tell me that 250,000 to 300,000 miles in a tractor rig running full time is typical.

Correct. Running team, my wife and I ran a ND, MN CA, AZ route every week. 5200 miles a week, 51 weeks a year. We took Christmas week off! No load.

Just not sure why MH tire wear is so bad? Wearing out under 100k, when the same tires, with max legal loads, run 3 times as long on a truck? I understand aging out on a MH, just not the short tire life for mileage.

[Koop]

Cbones wrote:

mpierce wrote:
Running 22.5's on semis and trailers, loaded to legal max over 90% of the time, I would get 300,000 on the tires, as long as nothing damaged them, and I kept them balanced and aligned. I balanced them, then put BalanceMasters on, and would align 1-2 times a year. Using Crossfires on the duals to keep the pressure exactly the same in both tires helped a lot. 2# pressure difference in the tires on a pair of duallys means one tire is going farther than the other, thus causing the rubber to scrub off.

That is serious mileage. What time frame would that be? I think I would be happy to make it to half that on mine.

He's talking about OTR truck operations that can run up mileage in a hurry. My friends in the trucking industry tell me that 250,000 to 300,000 miles in a tractor rig running full time is typical.

[Koop]

frankdamp wrote:
My post faile due to an IE "problem" so I'll repeat it.

The family barge, an '03 Kia Sedona mini-van, got abut 53K on its OEM tires. It's at 103K now, and the front tires are looking a bit skanky. Both the MH and the Sedona are running on Les Schwab's house-brand Toyos, which haven't given me any trouble at all.

We've only put about 5K on the MH in four seasons, so wear isn't an issue. If we keep the rig, it's probable that I'll push the "standard" 7 year life to 8 years. We're in a very gentle climate here.

Toyo isn't Les Schwab house brand. They are a legitimate brand name manufacturer and are currently an OEM supplier for Toyota.

[Cbones]

mpierce wrote:
Running 22.5's on semis and trailers, loaded to legal max over 90% of the time, I would get 300,000 on the tires, as long as nothing damaged them, and I kept them balanced and aligned. I balanced them, then put BalanceMasters on, and would align 1-2 times a year. Using Crossfires on the duals to keep the pressure exactly the same in both tires helped a lot. 2# pressure difference in the tires on a pair of duallys means one tire is going farther than the other, thus causing the rubber to scrub off.

That is serious mileage. What time frame would that be? I think I would be happy to make it to half that on mine.

[mpierce]

Running 22.5's on semis and trailers, loaded to legal max over 90% of the time, I would get 300,000 on the tires, as long as nothing damaged them, and I kept them balanced and aligned. I balanced them, then put BalanceMasters on, and would align 1-2 times a year. Using Crossfires on the duals to keep the pressure exactly the same in both tires helped a lot. 2# pressure difference in the tires on a pair of duallys means one tire is going farther than the other, thus causing the rubber to scrub off.

[frankdamp]

My post faile due to an IE "problem" so I'll repeat it.

The family barge, an '03 Kia Sedona mini-van, got abut 53K on its OEM tires. It's at 103K now, and the front tires are looking a bit skanky. Both the MH and the Sedona are running on Les Schwab's house-brand Toyos, which haven't given me any trouble at all.

We've only put about 5K on the MH in four seasons, so wear isn't an issue. If we keep the rig, it's probable that I'll push the "standard" 7 year life to 8 years. We're in a very gentle climate here.

[Koop]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
The Firestone tires (12R 22.5) on my coach lasted 80,000 miles and I was very pleased with that. You say yours are only 4 years old and have 90,000 miles miles on them. That's even better. If you still have what is considered a safe amount of tread (Lincon's head is fully visible when inserting a penny into the tread) there is no reason to replace your tires.

I'm thinking you mean Lincoln's head is not fully visible. If his head is fully visible when you insert a penny in the tread, you have insufficient tread depth.

[Bill_Satellite]

wa8yxm wrote:
If you are replaceing RV tires due to tread life.. have your alignment checked, Weight the rig, and adjust tire inflation to match the weight (4 corner weights not total weight).

Either inflation or alignment is 'off' if you are wearing out tread. (or bad tire can do it as well).

That's not necessarily true. It depends upon how many miles you drive per year. I averaged 10,000 - 15,000 per year and had to replace them after about 6 years. That's not alignment, weight or inflation, that's 80,000 miles worth of driving and those tires were "pooped"!

[ferndaleflyer]

Keep on rolling---when I changed mine--same size---I had around 70,000 on them. I sold the old ones for $125 each to a dump truck company. They use them on the tag axel.....and mine were almost 7 years old.....Remember, look for ways to get it done , not a million reasons why it won't work or you can't do it---think Positive.

[wny_pat1]

Fleet Man wrote:
Keep running the tires but keep watch on the wear. I would not recommend wearing them down to less than 5 to 7/32 inches of tread remaining. In my fleet experience, I have seen the most failures when attempting to run off that last 3 to 5/32 of rubber. Remember, 2/32 is the minimum tread depth you can legally run.

Some states are at 4/32 now!!!

[J-Rooster]

Cbones, that is really strange about your Goodyear Tires wearing like that and you change brands do nothing else and the problem doesn't show up in the new tires? I would get the rear tires inspected once a year and run them out! My guess would be 7 to 10 years!