Tire Replacement

[Linda Garcia]

We replaced the original front tires on our 2005 Monterey in September with Goodyear G670s.  We are now looking to replace the original back 4 tires now in Yuma, AZ and all the dealers for Goodyear and Michelin say they are 'backordered' and won't be available for 2-3 months!   One dealer said he could get Toyos but I read somewhere on the forum that they aren't supported by Toyo for RV use.  Is this still true and what exactly does that mean?

[Gerald Farris]

Linda,
Toyo was involved in numerous complaints about their tires failing on motorhomes in the late 90s early 2000s. This was usually caused by the coach manufacturers using undersized tires at the OEM level to save money. Country Coach was even forced to recall a lot of coaches and replace the front tires with a larger size tire with a higher load capacity. At the time Toyo was the OEM tire on many high end diesel pushers including Beavers. Apparently Toyo did not think that the RV business important enough to their future business plans, so they announced that they would no longer support their tires in RV use.

Gerald    

[Richard And Babs Ames]

We had Toyo 255/70 R 22.5 on our 1997 Beaver and had two front tire failurers and Toyo stood behind the tire even though we were about 500 lbs overweight at 120 PSI per RVSEF by wheel weighing.  We  could not document what the previous owner had ran in the tires but the dealer reccomended 100 psi which was the best for ride according to the Beaver Factory Representatives. We were at 120psi when the failures occured. The Toyo representative actually stated that the tire in that size may be "overrated for its advertized capacity" in a phone conversation off the record.

We were able to move to 275/70 R 22.5 tires which involved repositioning the front axle (Beaver had a printed procedure for it) to allow clearance for the air bags behind the front axle. This got rid of the overloaded tire issue but we did suffer a Good Year G670 sidewall failure (Goodyear stood behind the tire) and a G670 river wear issue which was supposed to have been addressed when we went from the GY G159 to the G670 RV tire.

We currently run Michelin on the front and find that they are rounder than the Goodyears and have a J instead of an H rating in the 275/70 R22.5 size.

[Linda Garcia]

Thank you all for your input.  I think we will wait for the Goodyear or Michelin tires to come out of production.  Makes us a little nervous to be traveling around with probably 9 year old tires in the rear.  Better than in the front though.

[Edward Buker]

Linda,

You can read the date codes on the sidewall of the tires. If you go to this link it will tell you how to do it.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

If your tires are really 9 years old they are beyond what is considered a safe end of life at 7 years which is generally sited by the manufacturers. The material strength of the steel cables in the sidewall as well as the rubber compounds and bonding materials break down with age. Thermo oxidation is the term used for the tire material ageing process. The tires age faster with heat and the breakdown is likely to occur at highway speeds in warmer weather. Most RV tire fails are sudden catastrophic sidewall failures that burst when the steel cables fail.  For your own safety consider the age of the tires and the possible safety consequences of a failure. As much as I hate to spend the money on tires, I stick to the 7 year recommendation given it is a real safety issue. Glad the fronts are new...

Later Ed

[Linda Garcia]

UPDATE!
After trying to find new Goodyear or Michelin tires to replace 4 outdated tires in the rear we FINALLY found 4 in Coachella, CA and bought them through FMCA/Michelin program!
Happy to have safe tires all the way around!  According to all the dealers we talked with, Goodyear and Michelin both are not manufacturing new tires until March and after filling backlogs
none would be available until April or May.