Tires

[Echo]

I have come to the conclusion that shopping for tires for the TT is like trying to find that perfect pair of shoes OR trying to find just the right card to send someone! EXHAUSTING AND CONFUSING!!!!

Have spent a whole lot of time in the past two weeks looking for, reading about, checking reviews, blogs and forums about tires. Most every tire now made for RV's are made OUT of this country. And there are some really bad reviews out there on tires. About the first tire that will pop up in the size I need for a trailer are Goodyear Marathons and they are no longer made in this country. And they sure do have some scathing reviews about them. Even the freaking tires that say USA will in teeny tiny print by the bead will say Made in China. Or Korea, or Taiwan or ......... ~sigh~

Finally made up my mind to get Maxxis tires. Just about every review, blog and forum I read, most everyone had good things to say about them. The second tires I found that people liked were Denman. They use to be made in Canada but now are made in China or Japan, I forget which it was. To tell you the truth I really don't ever want to google another tire ever again!!!! The tires are sold thru "Discount Tire" and are pretty much nation wide.

Tires will cost $108 each, with valve stems and certificates for replacement the total cost just to buy will be a little under $500. Then I will have to have them mounted and balanced on the rims. I will take off the old wheels and take the whole shebang to a shop to have then done and then I will put them back on the trailer. Lots of work and fun. Or I just might take the spare and use it just to get this thing to the shop down the street and have them do it all. Not sure yet, haven't made up my mind as to which way I will do it yet. I will be glad either way to get the old tires off and new ones on. The tires on here now are "P"s which are made for passenger cars NOT TT's. Sure the heck am not gonna trust them any farther on a road. It is advised to not put tires rated for light trucks or SUV's on TT's as the sidewalls are not strong enough. Would really like to get the E rated tires but with the age of the rims I don't believe that they would hold up to the 80psi needed for E rated tires. So D rated ST tires it is. Haven't figured out yet where to get another rim. So that is something I will be checking out and shopping around for. UGH!

I really wanted to sit by the campfire and post this...... But knew it belonged here under this heading. ~sigh~ But am gonna sit by the fire for at least a few minutes and relax then off to bed for me...

[sharon]

Just to give you a little peace of mind, BF won't use anything but Maxxis tires on his toy trailer or flatbed. He spent years changing tires and when he went to the Maxxis hasn't had a blowout since. When he bought the new toy trailer a year and a half ago, he towed it from Escondido to my house, from my house to a dealer near me and had all 6 tires changed to Maxxis before he would even tow it the rest of the way to his house. And he's heavy, puts a huge rock jeep in the trailer, so good choice! I was gonna suggest the Maxxis, even tho they're pricey when I saw your post, and then read it and saw that you had already decided on them.

Is there a used tire shop or car junk yard where you could get a wheel? I know you're pretty limited on where you are, you may have to go to St. George or a bigger town...

[mitch5252]

..

I'll bet you know more about tires than you ever cared to know! At least now you'll be safe hauling your home around!
Congratulations.

..

[Bethers]

Double check where you're getting the tires. Mounting and balancing has been included in the price of the tires I've bought for a long time - including the ones I last purchased here.

Oh, and make sure you check the DATE on the tire itself before you accept them. Tires can sit and sit and sit.

[Echo]

Thanks Sharon that's another good check mark on the Maxiss tire side of the equation. I think they will be good for us.

Mitch you are so VERY right on now knowing more than I was ever interested in learning. But sure can't say that the knowing will be wasted.

Beth I'm ordering the tires online. The closest Discount Tire is about 80mls from here and I sure can't get the TT over there to them. Plus they are only recommended installers at that. They would probably have to order the tires too. This is a big supplier so they should have fairly fresh tires. At least that's what I'm hoping. After read all the reviews that I have I think I would still prefer slightly older Maxiss tires over newer G.Y. Marathons or Greenball Towmasters. They really had some crappy reviews. Had been leaning towards getting Loadstars as I know that they are used on trailers for big trucks but the reviews on them have went way down hill since they moved the manufacturing of them overseas. Same with the Denmen tires I checked into. In the past 5yrs the making of a LOT of tires has left this country for 'cheaper costs and labor. And cheaper, less than good quality is what we get in return. They use to call Dayton OH the Rubber City, the capitol of the tire industry. Wonder what they call it now days??? I could buy the very "best" tire on the market for high dollars and have nothing but trouble or buy the cheapest at $69 each and have fantastic luck and run 100k miles on them. It's all luck and chance. ~sigh~

That said. All in all no matter what the reviews say or the brand name on a product or how good the reputation is on something? It's all in the luck of the draw when ya buy something. I'm sure ya'll know of someone who had fabulous luck with something and that it worked out good for them a long, long time while at the same time other people had rotten luck with it. Like a entry level, throw away car like the Neon or Caviler going for over 200k miles with only regular oil changes. While someones Caddy had tons of problems. Use to say they must have been built on a rainy day. Cause on a rainy day no one had anything else to do so decided to all go to work and do a super bang up job.

[Echo]

Well I did it. Ordered the tires today.

Was gonna order them on line but while reading about the certificates for repair or replacement something caught my eye and I called them to double check. Talked to a very nice ? young man named, Kyle. We got the question about the certificates all settled and he then offered to do the purchase over the phone unless I felt more comfortable doing it online. Told him no that we could go ahead and do it over the phone.

Had planned on only getting 4 tires for right now. The 4 would work at getting these old car tires off and would certainly work rolling us back to the lodge. And was gonna get the 5th tire for a spare later. Told him that I only had for rims to use right now and why and that the cost of another tire could wait. The cost for 4 out the door was $498. He asked me to hold for a moment........ ? He came back on the line and said that he could give me a deal if I went ahead and got all 5. Hmmmm? We discussed price.... And I ended up getting all 5 tires with the certificates and valve stems for $570! When the call was done and we had hung up I went back to the webpage to dbl check on pricing. The total price of what I got would have been $622. So I saved $52.50 by doing it over the phone and talking to a real live human!!! I'm a pretty happy person for having called!!!

The ease and convenience of doing something online is really good sometimes. But sometimes ya just can't beat a "live" deal!

I am so excited and now relieved that we will have new tires for traveling home in November!!! YAY!!!

OH! And I also bought a jack when we went to St George. So new tires and a new jack for just in case!!! Still need to replace the crapper tho!

[AlmostThere]

I'm so glad you got the new tires ordered AND got a deal in the process!! Yep, sometimes it's good to talk to a real person. Good for you!!

[khenrie]

Sounds like a great deal!

We will likely be getting our RV down to Big O Tires this weekend or next to get new tires on it. Randy is trying to decide on 30k, 40k or 50k tires.... Guess the price difference between the 30k-40k is only $90/tire, but the 50k are much more expensive.... any thoughts gals?

[Liz]

Glad you're gettin' her done and at a good price too.

[flick4411]

Such a deal! Way to go...we ought to all enlist your negotiation skills for high-cost purchases!

[Acadianmom]

Kimberly, I think you have a Class C motorhome. I'm not sure what you mean by 30k, 40K. Do you mean tires rated for that many miles? You don't want anything less than tires with load range E. Unless you special order them you will probably get truck tires. I am on my second set of Goodyear RV tires with no problems with them. Before going to them I had all kinds of tire problems. If you have a blow out it can do a lot of damage to your wheel well. Read the reviews online for what ever brand you decide on. There are some tires I wouldn't have if they were giving them away.

Martha

[Echo]

From what I understood truck tires themselves are not recommended for use on an RV. The construction of an RV tire is different from regular tires. The side wall on RV tires are a lot stronger than tires made for pickup trucks or SUV's. Some people swear by them but I'll go with the tires that are made for the weight and the job.

First tire that popped up in my search was Goodyear Marathons. About 6 years ago they were a good tire and the reviews were good. But the reviews have steadily gone down hill and a few of the review were nasty indeed.

Loadstar use to be a really good tire but it's the same story with them. The quality has gone downhill.

Greenball Towmasters, same thing. These tires use to be made in Canada but longer.

I'm not sure about the Maxxis tires??? But all the others are now made in China, Taiwan or there about.....

I would have loved to gone to an E rated tire for the extra weight carrying capacity. But I don't believe that the rims on here would have allowed the 80psi that is recommended for the E rated tire. So I ended up with D rated tires which carry a 2240 pounds weight rating I believe for each tire.

With the reading I did, I found out that 98% of the mfg's will put on the lowest rated and cheapest tire that they can get away with. That statement came from not only tire shops but from RV dealers also.

[Petsittin]

I did a ton of research on tires and got a lot of good information on RV.net. I found a person that had the exact same rig I had and put a lot more miles on it than I did on mine.
He bought a set of Goodyear G947 RSS Armor Max and was happy enough with them to plan on getting another set when the time came.
I had a blowout, which prompted the new purchase. These tires aren't cheap by any means, about $330 each, but the sidewalls are steel reinforced and are regroovable if you put a lot of miles on them.
http://www.goodyear.com/cfmx/web/truck/ ... ine=160026
Since I had one blowout, I replaced all 6 tires to the tune of $2,300. I'm taking care of these babies. The ride is so much quieter and smoother than the Michelins that came with my rig.

[khenrie]

We just ordered our tires from Big O - the 50k mile tires. Apparently the tires on the RV currently are E rated, so they quoted us E rated. Good thing, cuz we didn't know any better until just now - reading this thread. Spent $1100 for 6 tires. ugh. Will get them installed next Saturday.

[Bethers]

We just ordered our tires from Big O - the 50k mile tires. Apparently the tires on the RV currently are E rated, so they quoted us E rated. Good thing, cuz we didn't know any better until just now - reading this thread. Spent $1100 for 6 tires. ugh. Will get them installed next Saturday.

Actually, if you ordered from Big O I'm guessing they're installing them also? Not a bad price for everything. I should have another year or two on my tires - going to have to look up the date I replaced these and double-check all that this summer. I will do what I did last time - find a tire place I like, and have them quote me a price to order the ones I want, and then install, take my old, etc. This time, I'll have to get 7 tires, probably - unless we think one of the ones on now can be saved as a spare (hoping - that's what I did last time).