Replacement front tires

Bottomland4x4 · 03-17-2018, 10:14 PM

I am leaving for a trip to south Florida on Wednesday, 750 mile trip one way, and I noticed today that my pass front tire has some small dry rot cracking on the sidewall. The tires are Michelin and are about 7 years old, the driver side has no cracking and looks perfect. The pass front has me worried. I planned to replace them after this trip, but I don't want to chance it.

It has Michelin, but what other brand do you recommend or have used? Michelin are around $700 each, and I have heard from several truck conversion dealers that they need to be replaced around 6 years, that the Michelin is one of the worst to blow out.

Any recommendations?

petrel · 03-18-2018, 07:52 AM

FWIW, I'd stay with Michelin. However I've read some good things about Bridgestone steers over on the trucking forum.

Bottomland4x4 · 03-18-2018, 08:42 AM

Been reading some good reviews on the toyo M144 tires. I'm going to see what I can get here at my local dealer.

Sloppy joe · 03-18-2018, 11:27 PM

I would advise against going cheap on the fronts. Michelin is kinda the only tire I trust up front. As for the rears toyos etc. but do not expect the same life out of any tire as you get with a Mich. and when they blow their gonna do some real damage to those shinny bay doors.
My fronts and rears are date coded 2006 I just changed out the fronts last year and will do the rears in June of this year.
Almost no cracking and with 26k on em there still gonna roll on one of my local haulers.
Why spend big bucks for a house on wheels carrying family then cheap out on one of if not the most important items. I read in one of your posts you carry two 13 year olds.
I myself run michelins cause I trust em specially up front.
If your tires are blowing out your doing something wrong or not doing something right not you per se but whom ever told you that.
Join the fmca and get a discount on michelin.
Have em balanced and mounted then drive with confidence.
I paid 1500 for my fronts all said and done bumped em up to a 315 H rating too.
I'm not ranting or trying to bust your chops but when I seen your hauling a trailer with a single axle rear two 13 year olds quads and a jeep and the wife and looking for a cheaper tire I was like, seriously?
Btw, l drove from Illinois to Cali and back in 7 days with my rig and a trailer in 2015 on those michelins then down to FL. and back to Illinois in 15,16, and back to FL. where she sits now lda never done that driving with any other tire 6 years or older other than a michelin imo based on experience michelins will get you 10 years plus if you keep your rig under cover and up on the jacks no patches or plugs.
Please don't go cheap on steer tires.

Bottomland4x4 · 03-19-2018, 05:40 AM

The date code on both tires are 2011. I don't understand why one has the cracks and the other does not? Maybe the tire was exposed more to the sun with the previous owner? I don't mind paying for the Michelin, but I would expect it to last longer? I had a dealer who has dealt with truck conversions many years tell me that the Michelin tires were one of the worst to weather crack and show of be replaced at a maximim of 6 years?
The toyo tires I was looking at are designed for commercial busses and have some good reviews on motorhome forums. They are supposedly heavier sidewalks due to the likely hood of hitting curbs etc in the bus environment. I'm going to talk to a good friend who has been selling commercial tires for about 20 years and see what he says. Thanks for the feedback!

samcrimm · 03-19-2018, 03:21 PM

Been reading about fuel mileage and they talk about Michelin's helping with the fuel savings.... It talked about the
XZA

If your going for it, get the best, make sure they have them too, if not order them in and then go them installed and a new alignment while your at it.

Sam

DeepVee · 03-19-2018, 04:00 PM

The Michelin rubber compound is known to crack like that. Even so, these are the only tires I will run up front. We blew out a 2-year old date coded Firestone 11R steer tire a few years ago. We switched to 315 Michelin tires after that using the FMCA discount.

bushpilot · 03-21-2018, 12:30 AM

I run Michelin XZA2's on the steers - BFG's on the rear drives.

Bottomland4x4 · 03-27-2018, 07:05 PM

Well after talking with my friend who has sold commercial tires for the last 12 years, I decided to try Yokohama tires on the front. He sells both Michelin and Yokohama and for my purpose he recommended the Yokohama. He told me they would ride as good, and if not he would swap them out for Michelin and I would only owe the difference. He knows that the tires will age out way before they wear out, and with that he said there is no use to buy the Michelin tires. He had both brands in stock.
He put those on 3/20, I left out on 3/21 for a trip to Florida. I can honestly say they ride as good as the Michelin tires that were on there and are a little smoother. The Michelin were date coded 2011, so that may be why. But after driving 1600 miles round trip, think my rear Michelin tires are out of balance, they ride rough compared to the Yokohama front tires. My rear tires are only couple year old Michelin, but when they were installed they were balanced with hammer on wheel weights and look like crap. I wonder if they are out of balance. These new front tires were balanced with equal, I may have the rear done.
I will post up any updates and how the tires hold up. Thanks for the comments. One other thing I noticed was the Yokohama tires had a wider footprint than the Michelin. The Michelin sidewalls were really round and curved, whereas the Yokohama were more 90 degree.

Bob86ZZ4 · 03-27-2018, 10:36 PM

I had Dynabeads in my tires. After a few years I noticed loose front end. Shocks and spring bushings were worn out. Seemed like also the tires were out of balance even though they have Dynabeads in them. I replaced the bushings. I put on Centramatics. And I'm in the process of replacing the shocks. I've learned that the shocks on these trucks are pretty much throw away wear out items. Most of the truckers say they get 40-50k miles and toss them. Mine had 42k miles and they are done. No resistance pushing them in and out when I took them off. Did you try taking your shocks off and see if they have any resistance?

samcrimm · 03-27-2018, 10:54 PM

so i looked up the equal stuff Extended Tire Life: How Does Equal Work? | IMI Products interesting. What did they charge you for that?
and what was the price difference if you don't mine me asking?

From what I read on the equal, you could fix any problems you have on your back tires by installing it.

Sounds interesting for sure!

Sam

Bob86ZZ4 · 03-27-2018, 11:13 PM

From what I read it seemed like Dynabeads were rated better than Equal. I don't remember how much it cost but it wasn't that much.

Bottomland4x4 · 03-28-2018, 05:46 AM

I will check out the shocks when I do the rear. The front is nice and smooth. The rear is air ride, and if those shocks are bad wouldn't it be really bouncy? I do need to adjust my trailer slightly, I think I had a little too much tongue weight. My air ride gauge went from 63 psi to about 81 in the rear. My old toter version never went over 65 loaded, but it was a sportdeck model.

samcrimm · 03-28-2018, 12:04 PM

Bob,
Do you still have Dynabeads? I have them in my front tires. It sounds like they caused you a problem? I wonder if they wear out too?
Sam

Bob86ZZ4 · 03-28-2018, 10:30 PM

The beads are still in there. I don't think they caused a problem. I think my shocks and spring bushings were worn out. I think the beads are still fine. I can hear them sloshing around in there when I spin the tire. I decided to add the Centramatics because I don't think they can hurt. I'm sure replacing the spring bushings really helped tighten everything up. The spring shop told me I should replace my rear bushings too. I just haven't gotten around to doing them yet. I'm really excited to get the RoadKing shocks on. I think they'll have a big impact.

Bottomland4x4 · 03-30-2018, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by samcrimm

so i looked up the equal stuff Extended Tire Life: How Does Equal Work? | IMI Products interesting. What did they charge you for that?
and what was the price difference if you don't mine me asking?

From what I read on the equal, you could fix any problems you have on your back tires by installing it.

Sounds interesting for sure!

Sam

Not sure what they charged it was all included with the total price? This particular tire shop used the equal, that was the only way they had to balance the tires.

bushpilot · 03-31-2018, 10:45 AM

I'm running dynabeads/balance beads in all of my tires - no problems per se
ill have to check my receipts but i don't think it was even 20 bucks per wheel.

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