Recommendations for New Tires

[nkarnes]

Hi:
I have a 25 ft Class C motorhome, a Forest River Solera 24Rn 2014. I plan to purchase new tires before I hit the road in the spring. I currently have LT215/85R Open Country H/T All tires which were purchased at Les Schwab Tire. I am looking for recommendations on tires, and where you purchased your tires. I live in the Seattle area.

I also will purchase a tire monitoring system. Any suggestions or advise is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[JLeising]

On my 2012 Solera "S", the original Continentals lasted about 35K miles. Uneven wear on fronts; I rotated the fronts to one of the rear sides during an alignment at maybe 25K miles. Fronts still seemed to wear unevenly.
First set of Michelins I bought from Costco. They installed with "high pressure snap in" valves (same as OEM stems on the Continentals, which did not fail). Two of these valve stems failed in the first 10K miles. I believe Costco damaged them somehow during installation. I had another alignment done and had the valve stems replaced with metal bolt-in stems. These are hard to find for the Mercedes rims. The Michelins ran ~55K miles and wore quite evenly. I never rotated them, as the wear was quite uniform.
I'm now on my second set of Michelins. I chose and bought these online from Tirerack.com. I first called a local shop here and asked if they would install - had Tirerack ship directly to them. Had them NOT replace the metal valve stems. These are now at about 20K miles problem free and are wearing quite uniformly.

I have not installed a TPMS. For the ones that attach to the valve stem, with my bad valve stem experiences with the Costco installed stems, I do believe metal bolt-in stems are necessary (although, as I mentioned above, I have no actual experience with them).

FYI, Jim

[SeaDog]

take a look at the TST507 TPMS.

[CharSolera]

I have a 2014 Solera "S" and replaced the original Continental tires with Michelins from Discount Tire. My front passenger tire wears unevenly, even after repeated alignments. I rotate the tires.

I put on steel valve stem extenders from Yourtireshopsupply.com after the original extenders let all the air out of the back inside dually. I knew the inside tire was flat because I have a tire pressure monitoring system.

I recommend the Tire Minder tire pressure system (I had Tire Safeguard first, but the batteries were difficult to replace and when one of the tire monitors stopped working, I couldn't get a replacement). These work very well on the steel valve extenders.

[DaveJordan]

So "Michelins" covers a pretty wide swath of possible options. Any chance we could get specific model and size info? Thanks!

[JLeising]

Dave - What I currently have on my Solera (bought from TireRack.com):
LT215/85R-16 MICHELIN DEFENDER LTX M/S E

FYI, Jim

[mlmay12]

Originally Posted by JLeising

Dave - What I currently have on my Solera (bought from TireRack.com):
LT215/85R-16 MICHELIN DEFENDER LTX M/S E

FYI, Jim

I installed Michelin XPS RIB's. I too had trouble with rubber valve stems. Discount Tire replaced one tire that was damaged. I replaced all stems with metal/rubber hybrid ones, went to solid dually air extensions and installed a small clamp on each valve stem including the spare for added support. I also installed the TST-507 Monitor System and do not plan to have any more problems. Nobody touches those wheels but me, I thought Discount would know how to set up Dually Tires, nope.

[DaveJordan]

Originally Posted by mlmay12

Nobody touches those wheels but me, I thought Discount would know how to set up Dually Tires, nope.

Yeah, I had trouble at a local auto tire place. I ended up at a truck tire place which had no trouble doing the right things.

[clintbonnie73]

Originally Posted by CharSolera

I have a 2014 Solera "S" and replaced the original Continental tires with Michelins from Discount Tire. My front passenger tire wears unevenly, even after repeated alignments. I rotate the tires.

I put on steel valve stem extenders from Yourtireshopsupply.com after the original extenders let all the air out of the back inside dually. I knew the inside tire was flat because I have a tire pressure monitoring system.

I recommend the Tire Minder tire pressure system (I had Tire Safeguard first, but the batteries were difficult to replace and when one of the tire monitors stopped working, I couldn't get a replacement). These work very well on the steel valve extenders.

X2 ! Michelin tires are great choice..

[Mikegjax]

I'm still running the original Continentals. They have 63,000 miles on them, with plenty of tread still. The fronts do have out side edge wear that is near limit.

I run 70 psi on the fronts and 75 psi on the rears. Have done this since new.

[JLeising]

Originally Posted by Mikegjax

I'm still running the original Continentals. They have 63,000 miles on them, with plenty of tread still. The fronts do have out side edge wear that is near limit.

I run 70 psi on the fronts and 75 psi on the rears. Have done this since new.

GREAT tire mileage Mikegjax! I run 75 psi fronts, 80 psi rears (also since new).

Jim

[nkarnes]

Thank you so much for all the information. Greatly appreciated!!

[Talisman]

Purchased my unit with 16,000 miles and the original Continental. Still had tread left, but I will not run tires past 5 years of manufacture date. Went with the Michelin Defender LTX *** AND *** the Dill MB valve stems *** AND ** TPMS. I believe the Michelins ride better and after 16,000 miles I have NO leaks from the valve stems. The TPMS works great and it is a great piece of mind driving down the road. FYI... Recommend you have them installed by someone that knows how to balance truck tires AND does free rotations and air service. I rotate every season. Just because I can. With my 5ry rule, I will never wear the tires out, but it is nice to have the even wear pattern.

ALSO... Make sure you check the manufacture date on the inside of tires you are buying! Some shops will sell you tires that are already 9 months or 1 yr old. If running for 5 years, you just lost 20% of the value of your new tires.

One more thing... I have driven from Ohio to Seattle twice now since purchasing my unit. With the DILL's TPMS you will also see tire temperature. I back my rear tires off to 74 lbs COLD for these summer trips. When it hits 110 degrees out and you have a side load from winds, the tire temps and pressures get very high. Note... Low pressure only makes high temps worse.