BAC Forum
General Boards => Sources for Suppliers, Parts and Maintenance Materials => Topic started by: Don Schobert on March 16, 2014, 07:09:16 PM
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What is the best Michelin tire for my 2007 Contessa 39ft.
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If they make it in your size I have had very good results with XZA2 Energy tires. (Ride, Quiet, Wear, Balance) They were recommended to me by an engineer at Michelin for my application which is a non tag 2002 Marquis.
later Ed
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Don,
The recommended Michelin tire for your coach is a 295/80/22.5 XZA2 Energy in load range H.
Gerald
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Thanks for the help on the tires.
don
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Has anyone tried the Michelin XZA3+ yet? I've been calling around about tires as I plan to replace 6 of mine in the next couple of months. I was planning to go with the Michelin XZA2 but they seem to be hard to get in my area. One nationwide dealer said he can get the XZA3+ within a couple of days and it is a upgraded version of the XZA2. Of course it's going to cost me a little more but thinking down the road if I have a tire failure it may be better to go with their latest model tire now rather than one I may not be able to get in a couple of years.
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We have the Michelin XZA3 as our front, steering tires and they seem very good. I didn't put these on, so I don't know what the differences are between the A2 & A3. Maybe someone can help. They were just inspected and found good to go for another season. I had been keeping the pressure at 105 lbs, but the service center reduced them to 90.
Good Luck,
Gary
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Gary,
If a service center reduced the pressure in your tires without having the weight of the coach, but just used the coach tire placard by the driver's seat, you probably have a problem. The weights that Beaver used for tire pressure in the 90s was very inaccurate in most cases. Therefore, your tires may be underinflated, and that can be the very worst thing that you can do to your tires because it is the number one reason for tire failures on a coach. That is the reason that I say to run your tires at maximum inflation unless you have the coach weighed, and then set the tire pressure by the coach weight.
Gerald
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There is a problem with using XZA3+ Evertread tires, and that is that Michelin does not make them in the 295/80/22.5 size that most late coaches require. In XZA3+ tires you would have to use either 11R22.4 or 275/80/22.5 tires instead of the 295/80/22.5 ones that are recommended. These XZA3+ tires are rated at 670 pounds less capacity each in a single application than the 295/80/22.5 XZA2 Energy tires that are recommended. This loss in weight capacity can be dangerous on some coaches. However, if you do not need the weight capacity, the ZXA3+ tires should give you good service.
The XZA2 Energy tire are not an old line that is about to be discontinued. They are state of the art tires that use the latest technology to achieve a very low rolling resistance, and therefore save fuel.
Gerald
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Gerald,
What the sticker shows on our Marquis is the front axle has weight rating of 13,200 lbs with 275x70x22.5 tires at 110 lbs of air. What I have is Michelin 275x80's GreenX, XZA3 with reduced pressures to 90 lbs. I was running them at 105 lbs. I'm really confused on what I should have in both size, type of tire as well as amount of air pressure. I was running 100 lbs. on the rears, but they reduced those to 90 lbs as well. I'm not going anywhere soon, so I have time to adjust.
Thanks,
Gary
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I believe Michelin has made the decision for me since they don't make a XZA3+ in the 275/70R/22.5 the closest I can find is the 275/80R/22.5. Looking at the spec sheet for the tires the 275/80R22.5 has a diameter of 40.1 inches. I already have the XZA2 275/70R/22.5 on the front and their diameter is 38.0. Sometimes in a slow tight turn I hear a tire rub so I don't think I can increase the diameter, plus I looked at my coach tonight sitting with all the air out of the system and it has not more than 2 inches clearance above the tire. Looks like I'm going to wait on some XZA2 tires to be delivered.
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Gary,
If you go to the Michelin website and look at the load and inflation tables for your tires, you will see that if you have 90 PSI in your tires the maximum load rating for your front axle is only 10740 pounds if you have LR (load range) G tires, and 11390 pounds if you have LR H tires. These weights are a lot under the 13200 that you should have on that coach unless it weighs that much less and I doubt that.
The proper way to set air pressure in your tires is to weigh the coach and adjust the pressure by the load and inflation tables for your tires. Until you weigh the coach, the safest inflation is to use the maximum inflation that is on the tire sidewall.
Gerald
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Gerald, why not just run the tires at the maximum pressure all the time? Can a person really tell the difference in ride quality between a tire at 120psi and 110psi? I don't think I could. Seems like an awful lot of weighing and adjusting.
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Adam,
Everyone does not feel the same as you about tire pressure. Some owners are looking for as good a ride as possible. Personally, I agree with your view point. My coach should be running 110 PSI to 115 PSI, but I like to error on the side of safety so I run 120 PSI in all tires. However, if my coach was lighter or if it had a tag axle, and I could run a lot less pressure, I would probably reduce the pressure. But I would still run 10 PSI to 15 PSI above the recommended pressure.
One of the reasons to weigh your coach, especially the 2002 models and older, is to be certain that your tires are adequate for your weight even at maximum inflation. My 2000 Marquis came with 11 R 22.5 tires, and when I weighted it, I found that I only had one tire (the right front) that was not overloaded at 120 PSI. So I replaced the all most new tires (I received almost half price on the 11 R 22.5s for trade-in) with 295/80/22.5 tires for the extra load capacity. I have had a blowout on a motorhome before, and I do not want another one. That made the peace of mind gained from the extra weight capacity worth the price of tires.
Gerald
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We had a 1991 Baronett that had a wear problem on the front and going 10 psi over chart pressure at he reccomendation of JoSam in Orlando cured abnormal wear problem.
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Gerald, this is all very, good information. After looking at all the information and the tires I have on the front of our Marquis, I will get it weighed as soon as possible. My tires are rated at 6175 LBS at 110 PSI, so I'll add air up to 115 or so hoping they will carry the 13,220 lbs if the front is that heavy until I can get them replaced.
Thanks,
Gary
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Gary,
I never recommend that anyone should run above the maximum pressure, but 5 PSI should not hurt, especially if the ambient temperature is above 60 degrees when you check the pressure because the pressure will go up with the temperature. I try to use 45 to 50 degrees as the ambient temperature to check tire pressure when possible.
Be sure to weigh each wheel individually, because your coach probably does not weigh the same on both sides, and in that case you use the weight for the heaviest side to set the pressure for both sides. With the generator on the left side of your coach, it is probably heavier on that side, and if it has a slide, the weight difference is even worse. My 2000 Marquis is over 1500 pounds heavier on the left side of the coach.
Gerald
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This post is becoming very educating, thank you all.
We just suffered a blowout of the left front steering tire this past Thursday while heading out of town for a weekend camping trip. This occurred at the absolute worst possible place, that being a 55mph two lane raised levee highway with no shoulder and 10 feet drops down to water on both sides. The blowout was extremely violent and immediately threw us into the opposing lane of traffic with a big rig approaching us. It took everything to avoid flying off of the levee road and get back into the correct lane and not going head on with the oncoming traffic. My wife and 10 yr old were in tears. By some stroke of luck the only damage to coach was the mudflap and wheel well liner. Les Schwab came out and did a highway fix and replaced both fronts with new tires. My appointment to get the 4 rears replaced at Schwab is tomorrow morning.
Since this coach was purchased used, but new to us, I should have replaced all the tires immediately but fell victim to the thought that since there was plenty of tread left on them they were fine.....bad choice.
I, like Gerald said above, never ever want to experience another blowout again. I really did not know anything about RV tires until this happened and have done a huge amount of reading up on the subject since our blowout.
From this point forward I will be getting the coach weighed, replace the tires at the five year mark irregardless of wear. will check tire pressures relentlessly on driving days, and will likely buy some tire pressure monitors in the hopes of preventing or detecting a blowout from happening in the future.
I was more worried about about leaks in the slide out and cosmetic fixes for our coach rather than issues of extreme safety.
Don't make the same, nearly fatal mistake I did.
Here is the link for a RV tire brochure from Firestone that I found online that was helpful in understanding some of the terms etc used in all of this tire stuff.
http://www.trucktires.com/bridgestone/us_eng/press/zip/RV_Brochure.pdf
http://www.trucktires.com/bridgestone/us_eng/press/zip/RV_Brochure.pdf
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Matt, thanks for your post, tires are now pushed to the top of my list of repairs. I haven't got to a scale yet with our 1998 Contessa but she is probably of similar weight as your Patriot. Please post which tires you decide to have LS install for you.
Grant
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Grant-
I had no real choice at the time of replacement, being stuck on the highway and the fact that LS only had 2 tires in stock that were the size I needed I took them. I ended up with the Firestone FS 560's load rated H in a 275/70R 22.5
I'm just going to put the same model Firestones on the rears tomorrow.
From what I've read they seem to get decent reviews and certainly can handle the weight loads etc of the coach. I'm sure they'll be fine for 5 years.
Found a local agriculture farm with full public scales a few miles from home that will weight all four for $5 and adjust all tire pressures accordingly.
When it's time to replace next time I'll do a bit more shopping as I hopefully will have more time.
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Remember to weigh each corner of the coach. Use the highest front axle corner for both the front axle tire pressures and the highest rear axle corner for all the rear tire pressures. Use that to look up the weight in your tire pressure chart to get the correct pressure for each axle. Check the chart, but most are rated at 70 degrees F ambient temperature. You need to adjust for the temprature when you check your tires.
All the corners will be different, and you want to use the same pressure all across each axle, and that is the highest corner.
Cheers,
Larry
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Thanks guys. I've never weighed my coach and I replaced the tires with the same ones that were on it when I bought it. As far as weighing it, will a public scale tolerate taking the time to weigh each corner, or will they want to rush you through? Also, when a tire is rated for a certain load, say in my case 16610lbs at 120psi, is that the max for each corner, or the whole axel?
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A lot of truck stops offer, for a fee, scales to weigh each axle of your vehicle, but most won't allow you to weigh each corner. I'm having trouble finding portable scales that can do this. We aren't attending any rallies soon that may have them, Any idea's?
Thanks,
Gary
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Adam,
Some public scales have no problem in weighing each wheel location, and some will only weigh each axle, while others will only weigh the entire coach. Therefore, you will need to check with the scale that you plan to use. The coach weighing services at FMCA or Escapees Rallies only weigh coaches by each individual wheel.
There are no tires that are commonly used on motorhomes that are rated for 16610 pounds each, so you must be talking about total axle weight. In that case the individual tire rating would be 1/2 of that amount if you are referring to the tire being used in a single application, or 1/4 of that amount if you are referring to the tire being used in a dual application.
Gerald
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Gary,
I do not know where you are located so I can not give any further guidance than to tell you that I used the scales at a large feed store once to weigh my coach and they had no problem with individual wheel weights.
Gerald
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Gerald, we're located near Nashville, TN; that's a good idea about feed stores. Also, I've been told moving and storage companies may use them as well.
Thanks,
Gary
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Gary,
A CAT scale should give you both steer and drive axle weights separately. I weighed mine at a Petro in Eloy AZ. Cost $20; 2 weighs, 1 on driver and 1 on passenger side at $10 each.
Steve
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I can't speak to other states but in both Washington and Oregon when a state operated weigh station is closed, the scale is still operating. You can pull in and weigh individual axles as well as offsetting the coach to one side or the other and weigh individual wheel positions ie; left steer, left drive (duals) left tag. No fee, no waiting.
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Once I called the local police to ask when and where they were going to put down the portable scales next. They were nice to weight each corner for me.
Stan
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Thanks for everyone's input! I re-inflated all tires and will weigh it soon, but still haven't found anyplace to get the corners seperately. I will take it to the local Cat scales and have the axles weighed.
Thanks,
Gary
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I would like to report to the forum that I just put new tires on my rig last week using the FMCA Michelin Advantage program. I have a 2003 Monterey so my tires are a little smaller than the newer rigs. I installed six Michelin XZA2 Energy 275/70R22.5 tires since I have no tag axles. The FMCA price was $495.89 plus $32.51 FET each and no sales tax since I had them installed at Bob Dickman's Tires (a Les Schwab dealer) in Junction City, Oregon. The dealer charged me $80 per tire to mount, balance and dispose of the old tires. I just got the invoice from FMCA for a total of $3170.40 (tires only) which they charged to my pre-approved credit card.
The process could not have been easier.
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Don't forget: if you have driven to the scales-do not put air in or let air out until the tires have cooled and you have achance to check the pressure BEFORE driving !
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I put new tires on my 2003 Monterey 3 weeks ago at GCR Tires in Coburg, OR. All six tires had the same date (14/14) and were Firestones. With new valve stems and all six balanced, the total bill out the door was $2346. They did give me $50 per each tire on trade in. My old Firestones were 6 years old. I used to buy Michelins but since I only run my tires for 6 years, I felt I was paying extra for the name and the Firestones have never given me a problem.
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There is only one exact way to find the correct tire pressure on your coach: draw a line across each tire with sidewalk chalk. Then drive a couple of revolutions watch each line add or subtract air until the line is wearing all the way across. Then your tires are properly inflated. Once you do that you can check them occasionally to keep them adjusted. You will get very good tire wear doing that. Just an old Truckers trick.