Tires, replace or not

As of last Friday, I had BridgeStone Duravis M895 tires put on the rig. Decided to get away from Michelin. Got a decent deal including mounting and balancing on the Durvais. The ride is a little stiffer but smooth. Did not have any extra road noise with them either.

Wow, I didn't realize how big a quest this tire issue was going to be! Just got off the phone with Michelin customer service. That conversation was interesting but frustrating and non-productive. I guess they thought I was trying to get them to give me new tires for free or something. Anyway, Michelin is out of the picture now and the Bridgestone M895 Durvais is looking better all the time. Not much difference in price compaired to the Michelin LTX M/S2 and has steel sidewall construction and the load rating is "E" so that's not an issue. I'm probably overdoing this conversation but I really appreciate the input that I've received from everyone.

I'd run THESE on the rear...probably a rib tire in front.

DulcimerPlayer wrote:
Thanks everyone for the information. I've decided to replace them so we don't have to worry about it. The first price I got was for the Michelin LT225/75R16 LTX M/S2 and that was $1620 installed. I'm going to price the Michelin XPS tomorrow. We will be on the road for a couple of months and peace of mind going down the road like RV Volunteers CONUS said is priceless.

$1620!!!!! Ouch sounds a little high.Should be about $200 a piece installed.

I have an 04 Winnebago Itasca that we bought new. I just put new tires on it a couple of months ago even though they looked really good. They only had 42K miles on them and the MH is always parked indoors. They did have a few small cracks here and there and when each was taken off the wheel I inspected each one inside and out and they looked like new but better to be safe than have an old one blow and tear a piece out of your rv.

Thanks everyone for the information. I've decided to replace them so we don't have to worry about it. The first price I got was for the Michelin LT225/75R16 LTX M/S2 and that was $1620 installed. I'm going to price the Michelin XPS tomorrow. We will be on the road for a couple of months and peace of mind going down the road like RV Volunteers CONUS said is priceless.

With non use and sidewall cracks it's probably time to replace them. However, my MH spare was a Michelin that was 16 years old and never used. It was stored covered (in a compartment on the back of the MH) and is still working after being put in service last year for several hundred miles. It had numerous sidewall cracks but held up fine. I am replacing it now, 17 years is long enough. :)

Yup change them out.I had a 4 year old blow on me.

Replace! Years ago I had a MH and let the tires go 7 years because they looked great. I had one blowout heading out on vacation, and a second blowout on the way home...probably because I limped into a town with only one rear duelly.
The body damage was minimal but still enough to make me a believer in new tires every six years no matter what they look like. I just spent a little of $3k replacing the six 22.5s on my 2005 Adventurer at 6 years.
JMHO

Our Bounder was built in October of 2006 - 5 of the tires had a date code of 2806, while one tire, the driver's side front, had a date code of 3405. They had just over 16K miles on them. During a pre-trip inspection I saw significant sidewall cracking on the driver's side front tire. Basically, everywhere there was lettering on the sidewall had cracking at the edge of the lettering. I just replaced all 6 tires through the FMCA program and saved $100 per tire over the best price I could find on the tires locally.

Unless you're on the road constantly, mileage means little when it comes to RV tires - check the date codes and, as Michelin states, after 5 years have them checked annually be a competent tire guy. Some people can get 10 years out of them; others are lucky to get 7 years. Covering the tires helps, but unless you can keep the atmosphere away from both sides of the tire the ozone still works its magic on the rubber.