Still kicking the tire thing around. Have found several suppliers, but all are offering $550-$600 each for 315/80R 22.5 major brand tires.
I might replace only the steers this year and put the old steers on the tags. I'm short one tire due to a blowout last fall. Blowing a drive axle tire is doable...blowing a steering tire is foul the driver's seat.
Sean (I believe?) posted a tire chart, maybe about a year ago, that I carefully saved until my old laptop died. I'd like to see that tire chart again if at all possible.
Bus weight is about 35K...what are the thoughts on going with 12Rs rather than 315s?
Any ideas? Time to move on and get this over with. We'll be using the bus in a little over a month now.
Anyone parting out a late model coach with good tires with good dates?
Open to any and all suggestions! JR
We just put Michelin XZA 12R22.5 on our drives. We have the same on our steers and have loved them. Problem is, they are a bit pricey... (We have a MCI DL3, which is a forty five footer. That is the size tires that came on it. I don't know whether that answers your weight question or not...)
God bless,
John
Thanks John, the fact that they are OEM on your coach does answer the question.
I checked on Michelin tires...about $700 each.
I just got a name of a tire place up in Ridgeway, Va that was selling 12R Firestones for about $400 each. That may be the best deal so far.
JR
Go with Firestone I have good luck with them and Bridgestone on the trucks they are a hard compound tire may not give you the ride of the Michelins but will last longer. I blew a Michelin today and the dealer said for me to pay for it and he would check to see if Michelin would warranty it so I bought 2 new Bridgestones 465.00 each at taxes and all at GRC Tire been there with Michelin before they don't warranty nothing. Save your money Michelin is a overrated and over priced tire for trucks and buses in my view
David
I have about decided tire warrantiees are very hard to collect on.
JR,
Unless you have a weight problem on one or more wheels, there is no need to go with the 315s -- 12R22.5 will fit the same rims. They will generally have lower load limits, but hard to imagine you're anywhere near them with a 35k coach. The 12R is a much more common size, so they are much cheaper than the 315s. The ultimate difference will be that you will have to run the 12Rs with higher air pressure than the 315s for the same load, per the load tables. That may mean a slightly stiffer ride (although I expect you will not even notice), and somewhat poorer performance on soft surfaces like sand and mud. Only you can determine if these factors are worth a 25%-30% premium on tire prices, which is what the 315s will cost over the 12Rs.
Remind me what chart you were talking about, and I will see if I can dig it back up. I know I've ranted here before about much misinformation that constantly circulates about tires.
-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com
If your not stuck on Goodyear or Firestones - you might try pricing Kumho's in the 315's - FWIW
my coach his the 315 they are about the same tire only wider but if i am not wrong they require a 9 inch wheel mine are 9 inch. I am going to change to 12r because of the weight on my coach i see problems now with the 315 on mine when they start blowing at less than 20,000 miles
David
Quote from: VanTare on February 03, 2009, 06:42:51 AM
my coach his the 315 they are about the same tire only wider but if i am not wrong they require a 9 inch wheel mine are 9 inch.
Most 315/80R22.5 are approved for fitment to 9' or 8.25" rims. 9" is preferred. You need to check with the manufacturer of whichever tire you are looking at to see if 8.25" is an approved rim.
Generally, 12R22.5 can be mounted to either size rim without problem.
Quote
... I am going to change to 12r because of the weight on my coach i see problems now with the 315 on mine when they start blowing at less than 20,000 miles
This statement I did not understand. Generally speaking, in any given make and model of tire, the 315/80R22.5 will be a much higher-rated tire than a 12R22.5. Loads for single 12R22.5 are commonly in the 7,200 lb range, and for the 315/80R22.5 they are commonly in the 9,100 lb range.
-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com
Sean the 315's have never worked for me on the trucks or the bus so far and the 12r has could be the brand Michelin and the wide tires on the steering are going to leave also. I just feel better about the 12r tire
David
Sean, the tire chart that I believe you posted was one page with various sizes of bus tires and the loads and load range codes.
You just picked a nerve with the weight capacity difference between 315 and 12Rs..? With that information, I may stay with 315s on the steering axles and 12Rs on the drive. In any event, the 12s are rated higher than my front axle..by a few pounds.
I don't have any excess corner weight issues. I store the adult beverages in a central location. ;)
Van, if your 315 blowouts were on the drive axle, could be the tires are rubbing on each other, or rocks are getting between them. They are close together on duals.
What started this tire search was a blowout on the LH inner drive. Initially shopped around for a good takeoff to put back on the drive.
Tire guy said I've got a bad air valve on the rim. He thinks that the faulty valve caused the blowout.
Whatever, my dates are stretched so it's tire time. That blowout was a warnings shot across the bow! My tires look excellent. This grieves me...
JR
The main problem with 12R-22.5's is that they are considered to be bus tires, and most bus companies hoard the tires making them hard to find out on the road. On the other hand the 315/80R-22.5 is the newer metric version that not only is the standard of the industry for trucks and buses in Europe, but is the preferred tire here. The 12R will go up to about 7,200lb per tire, and the 315 goes to 9,100lb per tire at 75mph and a 10,000lb version with 55mph limit for heavy construction equipment. Personally, would use the 315, since no further research is being done on the 12R's since the 315 is the newer metric equivalent. Good Luck, TomC
TomC,
Yes that is a big deal. The 12R's are hard to find. For that reason we carry a fully mounted spare.
God bless,
John
Tomc I just looked at the new Toyo 12r at GRC Monday that will be on the market here in June and it was rated 9000 at 120 psi and I am sure other manufacture will follow as these buse are getting heavier each year.FWIW I know of no H-45 owners that is not having a problem with 315's on the drive axles they flex to much so I am told.This could be a Prevost design problem also I am not putting all the blame on the tires this thing is heavy 51,000 lbs. Any good tire dealer will have the 12r I have used them for years with no problem ever finding the tire
David
I bought my tires from White Tire in Roanoake, VA. They have locations across Virginia and West Virginia. I bought 11R24.5 Firestone FS590 Plus tires for around $360 each fully mounted and old tires disposed of including taxes and fees. This was in 2006 and prices have certainly gone up since then.
After reading about blowouts and such here I am wondering if my pressures are too low. I had each tire weighed last fall and the shop lowered them to around 75 PSI based on the weight.
Hey JR if you would have come down to Arcadia, you would have seen a great deal on 2 almost new Michelin XZX 315's mounted on polished Alcoa's for $500.00 but since you weren't there, I went ahead and bought them! LOL
Ace
Belfert,
We run 120 all the way around. I know I might get in trouble for this from some guys here ( ;D :D ;D), but I do that because we are pretty heavily loaded, and because I don't want blow outs.
YMMV
God bless,
John
Belfert & John- Have your bus axle weighed and I can look up your tire pressure if you'd like. For instance, I have 11R-24.5 16ply Michelin XZE's all around that are rated at 7,200lb @ 120psi for the front and 6,600lb @ 110psi for the rear (per tire). But since I only have 10,500lb on the front axle and 20,500lb on the rear axle, I run 90psi all around. Nice riding. Good Luck, TomC
Quote from: TomC on February 03, 2009, 11:41:25 AM
Belfert & John- Have your bus axle weighed and I can look up your tire pressure if you'd like. For instance, I have 11R-24.5 16ply Michelin XZE's all around that are rated at 7,200lb @ 120psi for the front and 6,600lb @ 110psi for the rear (per tire). But since I only have 10,500lb on the front axle and 20,500lb on the rear axle, I run 90psi all around. Nice riding. Good Luck, TomC
I did have each tire weighed. The 75 PSI is based on the Firestone weight/PSI table. 75 PSI just seems really low to me.
Quote from: belfert on February 03, 2009, 12:24:19 PM
I did have each tire weighed. The 75 PSI is based on the Firestone weight/PSI table. 75 PSI just seems really low to me.
Brian -When you had the coach weighed, was it in "ready-to-roll" trim, or did you not have all your "stuff" inside?
If you feel that 75 psi is too low, adding 10-15 psi would probably not make a significant difference in the ride of the coach, but would certainly help relax those feelings you're experiencing.
Quote from: John316 on February 03, 2009, 11:39:48 AM
We run 120 all the way around. I know I might get in trouble for this from some guys here, but I do that because we are pretty heavily loaded, and because I don't want blow outs.
John -You say that you're pretty heavily loaded. . . have you run your coach across the scales to see how heavy the bus actually is? Until you do, you really don't know if your tires are inflated properly, and, in fact, you might actually be INCREASING the wear on your tires by running over-inflated - blow-out protection or not. As usual, do it your way. . . ;)
JR -Another tire possibility is either 11R22.5 or 11R24.5, especially if your coach is pretty light. I saw quite a few coaches down in Quartzsite three weeks ago with these sizes on them, including on several 40-footers. Very, very common truck tire size, readily available nation-wide, and often less expensive than the 12Rs or 315s.
OTOH, 12R22.5 was the stock OEM tire on your MCI. . .
Remember, too, that changing tire sizes will have an effect on the overall accuracy of your speedometer & odometer, and some effect on fuel consumption.
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
Posters often mention looking up tires on charts. What is a chart? where does one find a chart?
Here is one http://www.firestonetrucktires.com/us_eng/home/index.asp
Click on load and PSI tables I'm not recommending Firestone, I would not buy them. I am not going to spend $600 on a tire that will sit and rot.
Type in search bar type tire you are interested in Brand XXX truck tires or commercial truck tires or medium duty tires and it should take you to a site where you can find all the info you need on tires, load range, rated speed, rim size needed, RPM's inflation pressures etc.... HTH Jim
RJ,
Thanks, good point. I will reconsider, after we weigh...
God bless,
John
I didn't see any steering improvements after lowering the PSI in the tires. I'll put more air in before my first trip of the year.
I'm going to need to check into the proper adjustments for the torsilastics, but everyone says I have lots of adjustment left.
Hey guys,
On the subject of tires, here in Indianapolis FEDEX has ( I guess from what I see) are disposing there older trailers at a
recycling center. There is unbelievable amount of tires taken from these trailers. THERE NOT RECAPS, and for sale.
The recycle center is OMNISORCE on Holt rd. Might be worth checking out!
Steve 5B....
JR;
I forgot to mention on the phone the other night about the best advantage of the 3:15's. After my 17 years experience of driving ,I retired with (2) very important lessons on safety.They are: keep a good folowing distance;and these coachs will slide! The three axle coachs are likely to slide/or skid on the front axle,and the two axle,on the rear. Using the 3:15's on the front will give you a couple of extra inches of grip(which could be a life saver)I'm not talking about Icy,or snow covered roads,but just plain wet ones.
Thanks ;Bill
You guys realize that you can buy from truck tire dealers used guaranteed tires for the drive and tag for around $150 @ You will never wear the new tires out but age will so why pay all that money for new?