Price check; new tires?

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Skookum

Skookum

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Dec 19, 2018
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I'm looking at an RV this weekend, tires are original (2005). Called Les Schwab for a quote of $3100 all-in for 6 new Toyos (245/70/19.5) or $3500 for Michelin XZE's. Good to know ballpark in general, for anything older we look at.

I don't know commercial tires, so I have no idea what's good, or who else would be a good bet near the Portland, OR area. Recommendations on brands / pricing / ?

If we buy it, it probably needs new tires in order to come home. That's 180 miles of freeway. Not sure I'd chance it? What say you?

I did talk to our insurance company today and discovered an RV is absolutely not covered, no grace period, like when buying another car, or replacing a car on our existing policy. They said we need to insure it in advance of driving off the lot if we buy it. The more I know....glad I asked :)
 
What kind of balancing did those quotes include?

For sure I would replace those tires right away.  Had an inside dual blow out on mine...$12,000 in damage. 

Ironically I had new tires waiting to be installed the next day after we were getting home from a short 130 mile trip. . 
 
Try Tire Rack. They have them for around $2,500. Then you would have to pay to have them installed. Doubt it would cost $1,000 to have that done. Good Luck.
 
On our old motorhome with 19.5 inch ties, we purchased 6 Hankooks for about $1850.00.  That was 5 years ago.  In mid 2016, we bought a set of 6 Sumitomos for our new motorhome.  Larger 22.5 tires for about $1650.00.  We put about 30,000 miles on the Hankooks.  Have only put about 8,000 on the Sumitomos.  So far no problems. 
 
Too high. I went to Belle Tire in Burton MI (They are all over southern lower MI) and 2230 for 22.5 Toyos. roughly (I rounded a few dollars. less than 10) a few months ago.

FMCA has a deal where I could have gotten Mitchlins for 2700 Plus install (About 300) but the Toyos were out the door at about 2230.
 
I just bought a set of 6, 22.5 Uniroyal's  for $2300 balanced and mounted.
 
Check Discount Tires. I have always been a Schwab customer, until my mechanic had me try Discount. Good service, good tires, good prices (significantly lower than Schwab).
 
Scwab isn't real cheap, though they do have good service.  It's difficult to compare with what others paid for different sizes because prices can vary a lot by size, with the widely used ones cheaper than less common sizes.


If you shop around, I think you can get Toyo M154 or M153 in that size for about $450-$475 each, mounted and balanced and "out the door".  There are certainly cheaper brands, the so-called China bomb names, though the days of exploding Chinese tires are probably gone. Sailun, Double Coin, etc.  Cooper (a US brand) Roadmaster might be a good, less expensive option, probably under $400 each.  Go to commercial truck tire shops and get quotes.


If you are (or might become) an FMCA member, you can get Michelin and Continental tires at a substantial discount via their fleet buying program. However, premium brand names like those have a high price to begin with, so the discount only gets them more reasonable.
 
I got six top-rated tires from Discount for less than $1200, though I don't know without looking what size they were -- Winnebago View 24'. Their service is excellent.

Once I went to Discount to have a tire repaired that I had bought at the Toyota dealership. They said they couldn't legally replace it because the tire was not the proper tire for my car! The dealership admitted their error and replaced all four tires. Anyway, I vote for Discount for both price and service. (The $1200 price was a special deal, as well as agreeing to open a credit card which I have never used.)
 
I recently got a set of Toyos, same size as yours, all 6 balanced and installed for $2250.  I think you may be able to find a lower cost dealer than Schwab.
 
I am running 19.5 Samson's on my rig for going on 5 years now with no problem. The last 2 came from big O tire at about $225.00 each mounted and balanced. That was in Arizona.
NO PROBLEMS with them after 7 three thousand mile trips and many short trips about 25000 miles total. They Had recent manufacture date and were made in Mexico.
I recommend them highly

Make sure you check speed ratings as some of the tires manufacturers put a 68 mph speed rating on their tires.
and make sure the tires are made very recently within 90 days if possible.
 
For 19.5" tires your quote sounds high.  Southern Tire Mart just quoted me $379 each for Firestone 275/70R22.5 (Load Range J) plus $35/tire installation (plus balancing).
 
I got a set of 6 22.5? Sumitomos AND 4 Alcoa rims for not much more than that.  The rims were $1200 plus shipping.

Shop around.  Go to a truck tire shop.

I?m not a fan of Chinese tires.  Not a fan of Michelin?s either.  Sidewalk cracking killed three sets of mine, motorhome, CRV, and Honda Element.
 
Wow.  I can get a set of (6) decent 16" tires for my motorhome for $91 each ($700 total) at Discount Tire.
 
Rust.  Our coach lived a couple hundred yards from the surf for its first 5 years.  (That?s my story for the wife.  But between you and I it was 99% looks.)
 
8Muddypaws said:
Rust.  Our coach lived a couple hundred yards from the surf for its first 5 years.  (That?s my story for the wife.  But between you and I it was 99% looks.)
Click to expand...

:))  ;)
 
Skookum said:
I'm looking at an RV this weekend, tires are original (2005). Called Les Schwab for a quote of $3100 all-in for 6 new Toyos (245/70/19.5) or $3500 for Michelin XZE's. Good to know ballpark in general, for anything older we look at.

I don't know commercial tires, so I have no idea what's good, or who else would be a good bet near the Portland, OR area. Recommendations on brands / pricing / ?

If we buy it, it probably needs new tires in order to come home. That's 180 miles of freeway. Not sure I'd chance it? What say you?

I did talk to our insurance company today and discovered an RV is absolutely not covered, no grace period, like when buying another car, or replacing a car on our existing policy. They said we need to insure it in advance of driving off the lot if we buy it. The more I know....glad I asked :)
Click to expand...
I would take a look at the FMCA tire program. They have just added HANKOOK to the available manufactuers.
HANKOOK 245/70R19.5 base price $279.96
BFGOODRICH, 245/70R19.5 ST230 LRG base price $282.83
This is before taxes and mounting.
See https://www.fmca.com/ for more details.
Bill
 
Thanks for the comments....the quote I received from Schwab did feel a bit on the high side.

We decided to pass on the particular RV mentioned, and its immediate need for tires. However, we did purchase another one with the same tire size, mfr date May 2011. Visually they are OK, but good advice seems to be to replace them sooner than later. With the above information I think I'm comfortable bringing it home from where we bought it, but do have some time to shop around a bit more.
 
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