What Tires???????

[Jon Wehrenberg]

They may be no name to us, but can 20 billion Chinese be wrong?

There was a time when we may have been concerned about things made offshore, but there is a certain reality most in this country are afraid to face. A lot of products and product content is made offshore, and those goods are usually made to the standards our domestic goods must comply with. Tires must be DOT approved, especially for commercial applications.

The castings for your Series 60 engine block are (were) not made here. It is likely most of the electrical components in the bus were made offshore. Not a lot of the typical car we drive is made here and the tires that carry familiar names are no longer exclusively made in the US.

[gmcbuffalo]

At the recommendation of Dave Gregory of Southern Oregon Diesel I didn't replace my steers with Michlens. Dave said that Michlens were prone to early sidewall deteriation, which was evident on my tires. I went with Toyo's somewhere in the $350 a tire range from Les Schwab Tires.

Greg

[nrhareiner]

Hello Jon,

Your bus was kept inside since new, if not traveling. I have used the M brand tire. However, when I owned the plastic coach had goodyear 670 with good result. I do not know if they are made in the correct size for our bus.

Kim
02 Vantare S@
06 dodge megacab

[Joe Cannarozzi]

You know what they say about opinions, heres mine anyway

Petervs although I agree with your thoughts about age limits I also believe Jons comments about compounds to be true as well.

Being a trucker and always going thru tires before the age issue it wasn't until I joined POG that I even learned how to read the date codes. Furthermore it wasn't until this Jan. that I discovered our tires all to be 1999 and 2000. Concidering the front 6 are a matched set and still 80% tread I'll be pulling the steers and putting them on the tag. I intend to run them until I see the sidewalls begin to show those small cracks or the tread is depleated, regardless of age.
The way I see it they are Michelins, right, outta be able to get something for all that extra cost. I've got tire pressure sensors and I dont run hard. I'll keep everyone posted.

As for your thoughts about off-brand tires I could not disagree with you more.
Local charter companys have been running them for years with NO adverse results. I myself have also experienced great results from the lesser brands of tires. If you don't care for the Chineese try Kellys they are also a fraction of the price. As a matter of fact Bridg. and Mich. are harder to ballance and wear no better

In a situation like Jon where he IS going to follow the age guidlines and in addition run them on the drives only carrying only around 5000lbs per tire and watch pressures like a hawk (i'm sure), and never brake 65 or 70 that is gonna be money well saved.

The new tires I will be putting on the steers will be off brand. I don't know what they will be yet. They will be 12-22.5 and I will buy according to price and/or availability. When I get around to that I will let the folks know the way I went with them as well.

More than happy to be the guinne pig on this one. Not worried in the least. Greg has Toyos he'll be our test for those.
All these tires are drasticly underrated in the first place. I used to pull a transfer trailer (garbage) with 60000 on the trailer,(thats 2 axles) and do it regurlarly with mismatched and old skins. The guy we worked for would run out front in his SUV and birddog, lookin for troopers. But I digress

Mich. and Bridge. are NO DOUBT great tires, the off brands are just as good.

[dale farley]

I checked with a friend of mine who sells all kinds of tires including Michelin, and he recommended using Toyo on large trucks and motor homes.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Kim,

Thanks. Good to know.

Joe,

Don't paint Michelin unfairly. They may not balance real well with weights, but when I started with Equal I never had a problem of any sort.

Greg and RR,

I'm going to check out the Toyo. I have seen other Prevost coaches with them.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Over the years I have used many brands of tires with varying degrees of success. I was never worried about the safety issue as I thought tires had to meet certain government standards. My satisfaction was related mostly to wear, noise and ride. I now prety much stay with the M brand because I perceive them to be better in each category.
I replace worn tires in less than 5 years.

JIM

[Kevin Erion]

Jon, I put GoodYears all the way around and ran 25K last year and they still look like new. I think you will be OK no matter what brand as long as you do the normal inspections.
Kevin

[mikedee]

I am a big believer in the Michelins, soft ride, great drive, and never had a problem with any tire they ever sold me. I just put 8 on my new bus and $5,000.00 later it drives perfect. XZA2 Energy gets my vote. I put them on my plastic coach and was very happy with the tires.

Mike

[Jerry Winchester]

Not that it will make any difference............

Two boys I graduated with started to work for the Uniroyal tire plant in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Now some 25 years later they still work there but now Michelin owns the plant.

I told them for years that the Michelin tires we used on our oilfield trucks wore better than the Uniroyal tires they made. They said I was nuts. There wasn't a lick of difference between the tires and they built them everyday.

So after about a year of them working for Michelin, I asked about the quality of the tires they now built. Their response? Big difference.

They said the first thing Michelin did was replace a bunch of their tire making machines with ones special built only for Michelin. They said the tolerence and quality of the tires made on these machines were far better than the tires made (off brand) on their other machines. They also said the tires they build for OEM folks were better than the tires you could by at the local Michelin store.

Now having said that, our coach has Goodyear tires and they are all in great shape, so I doubt they will be consigned to the grinder just yet.

However, here is another counter-intuitive issue that you can take someone other than me to task on. From the NTSB (and I will dig out the report if someone just has to see it), running your best tires in the front had no impact of safety. Just as many or more accidents resulted from rear tire blowouts as from front tire blowouts.

See, it's just as if IMRE never left.............