Chinook RV

Put a set of 6 on my premier about 4 months ago, bought at discount for $150 each. The Trans force HT are now HT 2. 4000 miles so far still looking new. They ordered them in and all were less than 60 days old on build date.

FatBuoy wrote: June 15th, 2020, 12:05 pm Holy Crap! I've owned my rig for a month or so. Checked the "born on" date for the first time when 100 miles from home this weekend. 2007. Scary. I was so paranoid on the drive home. Made it, though. And to think I drove that thing 1,000 miles home when I bought it. Needless to say, next thing up- tires. I think I'll go the Firestone route. That's what's on it now, and look how they did.

In most things in life, the less you know, the happier you are.... This is why I am happy all the time .

Jlfchinook wrote: June 15th, 2020, 12:18 pm Put a set of 6 on my premier about 4 months ago, bought at discount for $150 each. The Trans force HT are now HT 2. 4000 miles so far still looking new. They ordered them in and all were less than 60 days old on build date.

What tire pressure are you running in them?

That's like when you drive blissfully along and then look down at your gas gauge and realize it's practically empty. Now suddenly you are leaning forward trying to make it get there sooner and with less wind resistance, whereas moments ago you were throttling along without a care

Anyway, whew! That could have sucked. Glad it didn't.

A tip: Ask to see the date codes on every tire you buy before you buy it. I have seen places try to sell two or even three year old tires May not matter on a car where you wear them out soonish, but they often do age out on an RV. Before I travel again, I'll be replacing tires that have perfect looking tread, but are 6.5 years old. At the price and hassle, I sure don't want to give up a third of that.

I put my "line" at six months old at purchase. I'd rather see 4-8 weeks, but will go up to six months if I have to for some reason. I've always been able to get the younger ones except when I bought the Chinook and was in another city, needed to get going, and had really old tires that I was not going to drive home on. There I settled for 6 months old at purchase.

FatBuoy wrote: June 15th, 2020, 1:12 pm

Jlfchinook wrote: June 15th, 2020, 12:18 pm Put a set of 6 on my premier about 4 months ago, bought at discount for $150 each. The Trans force HT are now HT 2. 4000 miles so far still looking new. They ordered them in and all were less than 60 days old on build date.

What tire pressure are you running in them?

Now i’am running 60 rear, 65 front, have not had it weighted. If you put new tires on you need to buy a dually valve stem kit
For rear, they are pricey but well worth the money. $140 these mount in the rims. Have had some sort of motor home for about 35+ years, these work, screw on extensions are junk, have tried different ones and none are realible,leak,come lose, chafe and everything else. These make checking rear tires a breeze, have them on all of my motor homes.

Jlf,

I totally agree on the extended (solid metal) valve stems. My Chinook came with those rubber extension hoses and I drove with them for a few months. I never had a problem but I had my fingers crossed the whole time - I know a few people who did have issues.

Only note is that a friend had Discount Tire put them on and apparently the directions were too complicated He had to go back and basically read them aloud. So when I put on new front wheels I did the (replacement) stems myself before taking them in to the tire shop. Not too hard and I knew they were done right. But the main thing is to get them. Dually issues are no fun.

Anyone try/investigate the Corsa Highway Terrain tires? Discount Tire recommended them when I was getting a quote on the Firestones. Firestones $157, Corsas $80. I realize you typically get what you pay for, but I've had pretty good luck with their recommendations in the past. The Corsas seem to get good reviews.

Beyond reliability, and longevity, the last thing I want to get into is a rougher riding tire.

Walmart, has the Firestone’s listed for 150.99, tell discount and they will match. Had 2 discount recomended put on front Of my chinook, left them on for about 2 months and had them taken off and replaced with Firestone’s, made coach wander all over road. Have not had this since.

I just called my local Cooper tire dealer where I bought my Mastercraft Courser HXT tires. Todays price is still $1050 for 6 tires mounted/balanced/tax and all . That was drive out price at $175 each!! Even though my tires were reaching 6 years old the tread was great. I sold them to a neighbor for I believe $150. That's like getting one tire for FREE!! Every little bit helps!

Regarding the discontinued Michelin Ltx m/s and defender series.

I just went with Michelin Agilis CrossClimate 225/75/16 ...
could not find a lot of reviews cause it’s a newer Michelin offering.

After 1000 miles.
I have a mixed review.

It’s a good quiet tire as you would expect from Michelin.
But in my case a did end up with a annoying vibration at around 50 mph and also 58mph.
Took it back to my very good tire store.
Had A very experienced tire guy ( Gabe ) mix and match the tires looking for the cause of the vibration. Rebalanced every tire checking rims and tires for out of round tires. True and straight rims etc.
Partial solution was to put the very best ....
Straight , true , perfectly balanced tires on the front wheels.
But still resulted in some vibration around 50mph.

The tire guy (Gabe) thinks it may be the new tread design by Michelin. I don’t know....I do know it annoys me to have that vibration as my previous Michelin’s LTX M/S were perfect in all ways...

My 2003 only has 13000 miles on it so the front end is in pretty good shape. During alignment the alignment guy said everything is tight and good to go. So don’t know what to think.

Another trip coming up in July so will see how it goes.

I do see that Mainerv wrote previously on this thread that he has had a good experience with this this tire.