Tire shopping. Any reccomendations for a 275/80R22.5?

Anyone on here familiar with commercial truck and motorhome tires?

The tires on the Endover are 7 years old. It currently has Michelin XRV tires on it. I have no complaints about them. They drive and ride well. They are also fairly quiet. Michelin says they can run for 10 years. Most RV companies recommend 5-7 years. I'm going to split the difference and replace the steer tires now. The rears I'm going to run another year or so. 

I've never been a big fan of Michelin. 30 years ago I had an entire set separate and fail one at a time and I haven't bought a set since. 

At damn near $800 each, the Michelins are the most expensive tire you can buy for an RV. In that size and load rating, Toyo, Yokohama, and Goodyear also make tires. They are almost half the price. 

So my question is, are the Michelin tires worth the $2k price difference?

About 60% of the motorhome crowd seems to think so. The rest are running something else. That falls in with about 60% of the motorhome crowd always buying whatever is most expensive/popular and the other 40% being value-driven. 

What are you running you your motorhome/big truck and do you like them? 

Thanks

My only issue with Michelin is the price differential on a set of tires that will ozone crack long before you wear them out. Otherwise; yes, Michelin.

BTW, I'm not an RV owner but I do manage  a chain of class 8 repair and service shops across the north east. So I see all the brands and how they wear and Michelin is really the best for heavy duty.

Edit: While I'm spending your money if you don't have centramatics on your front axle you should get some. There are a lot of benefits that you can dig into but I've sold them for 17 years now and never had a customer complain that they spent the money.

Here's my take on Michelin.  While not quite as premium as they were 20 years ago, they often offer the "best" tire in many categories.  No idea about commercial tires, but they're pretty darned good.  Having said that, I don't buy them because they're always disproportionately more expensive.  The only Michelins I bought were for my E30, and that was because the previous owner had just replaced the rears but left the fronts bald.  I bought two Michelins to match the rears.  Super-impressive tire.  I have no idea how they combined the grip, the quiet, the rain traction, and the treadwear, but they did it.  Suffice it to say that your experience with dead Michelins can probably be excused as an anomaly and I wouldn't hesitate to trust them again.

I often find that big names like Goodyear, Continental, Firestone/Bridgestone, Yokahama, Toyo, etc tend to offer a tire that is 95% as good as Michelin for 60% the price.

On my previous box truck, I did some Goodyears on the rear.  It was a Wrangler model, but I forget the exact spec on them.  Traction was great, but I can't comment on noise or ride since... well... box trucks aren't made to excel at either of those.  I couldn't hear the tires because A) they were 20' behind me and B) I had an angry Cummins ISB with a cracked  exhaust manifold beside my feet.  I couldn't even hear the radio.

In reply to chandler :

I have looked at those. 

In my previous RV, I used balancing beads and loved them. Do you find that the Centramatics work better? 

I haven't bought Michelins since the last century, largely for the reasons others have stated, but the MINI I just bought came with them. Geez, they're a nice tire. Quiet, smooth, grippy for an all-season. They even ride well and they're 17" which I ditched on my last MINI because I wanted more sidewall. If you can stomach the pricing they're usually really good tires.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

 I often find that big names like Goodyear, Continental, Firestone/Bridgestone, Yokahama, Toyo, etc tend to offer a tire that is 95% as good as Michelin for 60% the price.

 This is what I've always thought. I'm very partial to Falken and Sumitomo tires but in the 295 size they are only rated for 6610 pounds whereas the Michelins are rated at 7160. My front axle is carrying 11280 with the tanks empty. Fill the tanks and load a little extra junk and I'd be pushing my luck with only 13220 of capacity. 

Toyman! said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

 I often find that big names like Goodyear, Continental, Firestone/Bridgestone, Yokahama, Toyo, etc tend to offer a tire that is 95% as good as Michelin for 60% the price.

 This is what I've always thought. I'm very partial to Falken and Sumitomo tires but in the 295 size they are only rated for 6610 pounds whereas the Michelins are rated at 7160. My front axle is carrying 11280 with the tanks empty. Fill the tanks and load a little extra junk and I'd be pushing my luck with only 13220 of capacity. 

Don't just look at the tire size for weight; go with the load rating. The difference between those two tires is  one is a G and one is a H. The H is equivalent to a 16ply tire (which isn't a thing in radials but is still the rating) and is typically good for 500 (more) lbs per tire or 6600#. I find in drive tires that the Yokohama is a very good quality for 70% of the price but for steers I always suggest Michelin or Bridgestone and BS has been difficult to get ahold of in our channels for awhile because they focus on OE in commercial tires first. Goodyear used to be a good commercial tire and their trailer tires still are but I've had a lot of ride complaints in the last 5 years with them and the B / C grade tires are really just price point but don't expect life out of them; they also zipper sidewalls more often because the rubber compounds are not as pliant. I can talk this all day lol

edit: you said 7160 on the weight rating so I'll go look at that but I don't remember any that high. Mostly the tires are made for the allowable weight ratings for the trucks; 80,000 pounds allows on a semi so dividing out that weight properly you would never have 13,000 on the front axle even with a condo sleeper. In your situation you may with only two axles. 

Toyman! said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

 I often find that big names like Goodyear, Continental, Firestone/Bridgestone, Yokahama, Toyo, etc tend to offer a tire that is 95% as good as Michelin for 60% the price.

 This is what I've always thought. I'm very partial to Falken and Sumitomo tires but in the 295 size they are only rated for 6610 pounds whereas the Michelins are rated at 7160. My front axle is carrying 11280 with the tanks empty. Fill the tanks and load a little extra junk and I'd be pushing my luck with only 13220 of capacity. 

I know this doesn't necessarily translate from passenger to commercial, but I'm fighting with my Falkens right now on the Express van.  Not overly pleased with their tires these days. Every 3000-5000 I have to check which ones are feathering the most and rotate.  They're also wearing very quickly.  I'll be using my treadwear warranty at about half the rated miles.

What actual size is on your rv now? The xrv appears to only be available in 235 255 and 305 widths according the current data sheet

The rule of thumb for motorhome tires is 10 years. I called Goodyear once and talk to an engineer about that and he told me that they are confident that 10 years for a well cared for tire with no impact damage is a good rule of thumb because they test to 10 years out. He said they do not have an opinion on tires older than 10 years because they don't test longer than 10 years. I had a service truck with 11 or 225 tires and I ran it for 3 years on tires that were 20 plus years old. They were in excellent condition or that was not really too worried about them blowing up. But if you do change tires, consider 11r225 because they're only an inch bigger and probably cheaper and more common. And look at the speed rating because a lot of truck tires, especially the cheaper ones are only good for 65 mph. You usually need to go to michelin's or Continentals or toyos to get the 75 mph speed rating.

The Xline Energy Z meets that weight and size you stated in an H rated tire.

I did not remember them being rated at that.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

The rule of thumb for motorhome tires is 10 years. I called Goodyear once and talk to an engineer about that and he told me that they are confident that 10 years for a well cared for tire with no impact damage is a good rule of thumb because they test to 10 years out. He said they do not have an opinion on tires older than 10 years because they don't test longer than 10 years. I had a service truck with 11 or 225 tires and I ran it for 3 years on tires that were 20 plus years old. They were in excellent condition or that was not really too worried about them blowing up. But if you do change tires, consider 11r225 because they're only an inch bigger and probably cheaper and more common. And look at the speed rating because a lot of truck tires, especially the cheaper ones are only good for 65 mph. You usually need to go to michelin's or Continentals or toyos to get the 75 mph speed rating.

Watch the sizing, adding an inch inside a fairing can add a lot of heat.

In reply to chandler :

To correct an error in my first post. The Michelins are the ZXE, not the XRV. These guys:

MICHELIN XZE - 275/80R22.5
 

They show a 7160 load rating and Walmart lists them at $714 each with free shipping to a store. 

The Wally World link: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Michelin-XZE-275-80R22-5-149/433380372

Ok, I don't know that tire exactly; we only sell that style in a 255 for drop decks and car haulers. It's an all position rather than a specific steer tire so it's made to eat up scrub from being pushed and dragged. It will be excellent for campgrounds and urban use due to the shoulder design

No motorhome experience but Michelins generally tend to be good quality and have low road noise. They're also generally the most expensive option. I've only ever bought a set used, just because they were the most track-worthy tires I could find at a good price.

Yokohamas also tend to be good quality, if you can get those for half as much that seems much more appealing.

Just went through this on our rig, 295/80R22.5s.  It had 7 year old Yokohamas that looked perfect, but were 7 years old.  In AZ....  The consensus on the RV forums is 5-7 years for an RV tire, and I would agree, given the consequences of a blowout are much higher than a tire failure in typical car.  Lots of anecdotal reports of age related failures, regardless of brand/price point.  I would never go 10 years on any tire on any vehicle, but definitely not on an RV.  Not when you're over 50k lbs going down the road...

I would have replaced ours with the identical Yokos, but the production has changed to a different model, and they were priced just under Michelins.  I ended up with the Toyo M144s, which were the next step down in price.  We did 4000 miles on them in Sept-Oct, I have no reason to be unhappy with them at this point.  The Toyos are well regarded on the RV forums, and most don't think the Michelins are worth the premium.  Saved about $2k over the same set of Michelins...

IMHO, I would rather have save a little $$ with a known good quality tire, and replace them every 5 years than buy the 'best' and hope they last longer to justify the premium.