Everyone has their opinion about tires, kind of a Ford vs Chevy thing, so might as well throw in mine all though I have no intention to flame other opinions. As far as I'm concerned we used Michelin at work for many, many years on the OTR fleet simply because they were the best cost per hour. Michelin will recap their casing for 10 yrs, no one else will do that because their casing won't last. The casing is the heart of the tire and the durometer and mixture of the rubber used will determine how long the tread will last, how smooth a ride, how quiet, etc, etc. RV's never wear out the tread, we almost always time them out. If you are in the camp that says because of immanent catastrophic failure you have to replace at 5 yrs. then you don't need to read any farther, use the best tires you can find at the lowest price and replace every 5 yrs.
If you don't mind looking at your sidewalls a couple times per year and you actually pay attention to things like overloading and, are going to use the tires by actually putting miles on them you might want to rethink the cost of Michelins. I run mine 8-10 yrs based on my travel schedule without ever having a problem (last set was 9+ yrs.). Do the math, the cheap tires every 5 yrs or the Michelins every 8-10 and see which is the best cost per hour. Again, you need to know you are not overloading, you need to be able to get under with a flashlight and look at the inner dual sidewalls and you need to treat tires like any other mechanical component on your rig. If you take care of them you will not have any issues. If you just sit in a CG and only put on 4-5k miles per year you are going to get superficial sidewall cracks. These are not a big deal but you need to understand the reasoning behind them and know the diff between a superficial crack and a sidewall cut. If you don't know the diff then go to a dealer and have them take a look. You do not have to break down the tire for inspection, just look at the outside. You should also be using a TPMS system just in case you pick up a nail etc and keep driving for 4 more hrs, how do you know if that tire is getting low on air and getting hot? Not paying attention means it gets hot, blows out and now you have a problem.
I have always been able to replace my tires by purchasing at Discount tire then bringing them to a local shop for install (app $25/tire) and by adding for the Counteract beads ($75 for all 6 bags incl filtered valve stems), Dyna beads are the same just more $. I also went from the stock 235's to the 255's XRV. There are a lot of options when it comes to tires and there are a lot of great mfr's out there (Toyo, Goodyear, Goodrich), you have to decide based on how you are going to treat the tire (mileage, speed and loading practices) and what makes you sleep good at night. I know this is an expensive purchase but you can make it a reasonable cost if you think it through, just part of the purchase (you didn't buy a truck with a canopy right). I've no connection with any mfr but I'm sure I'll get flamed anyway. Good luck with it either way. ;D
