FMCA - Michelin Advantage tire purchase program. An Update

[Jamie Bradford]

Hi David,

Thanks for this info - I will need some tires in the very near future.

Are Michelins necessary ? What have other people used ?



Jamie

[Pete]

Jamie, I put a set of Continental tires on my coach the last time and have had good luck with them. Bought from Southern Tire Mart, which has stores all over the south and southeast. Check them out. If you need further info, let me know.

[Gil_J]

Jamie, at the FMCA price it doesn't make sense not to run Michelins. You're not far from TCI-Orlando; they do good work.

[Coloradobus]

We like michelins, but the next set of tires we may rethink purchasing since most tires we all buy will age out. Factoring cost per mile per year, michelins are expensive. When we bought the current bus, we had our choice of any tire. Fiirestone FS400's, 315/80/22.5 were the next choice after Michelin, reason being the FS400's ride smoother. Past several busses had Michelin Pilotes,not made any longer, which when new we could definitely tell they were new by how the coach rode......smoothly. The Michelin Energy tires known for less rolling resistance hence gaining you a bit better mpg are made of harder compounds, resulting in a slightly harsher ride. Owning an 8V equipped coach, the mileage increase gained by running Michelin Energy tires might be a couple of percent over 10,000 miles. We have recently had comparable mpg increases just by towing a lighter towed car, and slowing down. Remember, every five miles an hour over 55 mph, adds thirty cents to every gallon of fuel burned. Running from home to OKC to Las Vegas to home towing a 3400 lbs car instead of a 5700 lbs car, we gained .2 mpg over the 2500 mile loop we have before. (I-70, I-35,I-40, I-15, I-70)

[tommybahama]

Jamie - here's an interesting POG thread on the subject of tire brands. Toyo, Hancook, Double Coin, are several little-known ones that manufacture 315/R80 22.5s.

There's gotta be a reason why the original equipment on the shells that came out of Sainte-Claire, Quebec over the decades were Michelins.

[jack14r]

In my mind the price at the FMCA deal and the known quality of Michelin tires make it an easy decision to purchase the Michelins compared to any other brand for my bus.

[Bruce Kaltenbrun]

We bought 6 tires from Pomps Tires in Iron Mountain Michigan. Pomps is an upper mid-west tire dealer. Bought tires through FMCA pricing with no problems with Michelin or the tire dealer. We were even paid $100 each for our 6-1/2 year old tires with side-wall cracking. At this kind of pricing, why would anybody pass up Michelin tires? If you go through the proper steps/phone calls, for verification, you'll have no problem. It's a no-brainer. Iron Moutain Pomps - cudos to you!!!.

[otto]

On the subject of tires...we just returned from a trip to the Keys. While on the Florida turnpike the passenger tag tire blew. I used Sam's club and had great service. We had a spare so drove home to North Carolina on the spare. I have two questions and one comment for all you wisdom figures.
1. Any suggestions on a replacement spare?
2. About ten minutes before the tire blew another driver signaled to me(as best as I could understand) that I had a flat tire. I stopped, checked the tires and could not find anything wrong with any of the tires. Can anyone tell me what I missed when I checked the tire? Maybe the tread was separating and I could not see it when I stopped?
Fortunately, the blown tire was on the tag wheel. I called Prevost since I was 7 miles from the nearest exit. They assured me I could drive to the exit with the tag wheel up so that the service man could change the tire in a much safer location.

Thanks, Otto

[dale farley]

Otto,

I think you are probably right about the tread separating and being in a place you couldn't see when you stopped. I don't know of anything else the driver could have seen. Fortunately, you spotted it before more damage was done. I had an inside driver tire blow and take an airbag with it.

[jack14r]

If that was a 365 I have 2 that you can have for free,they are 2005 dates.