comuntierra
Member
Greetings and thanks in advance for any advice, I have very little experience buying tires and am here in Peru where it's harder to get good information...
I am driving a class C Rockwood motorhome through South America... it sits on a Ford Econoline 350 extended van chassis. When i bought the motorhome (used) in 2010, it had Michelin LTX A/S tires, type LT 215/85 R16, manufacture date being 2001 ... this exact tire: (http://www.tirepackage.com/Tires/LT215-85R16-LTX-A-S-by-Michelin.aspx?t_c=13&t_s=458&t_pt=100902&t_pl=100280&t_pn=MIC41550).
Original purchase was in California, and we have driven some 15,000 miles down to Peru, the tires perform pretty well, and still have decent thread. To my knowledge, the motorhome sat for a few years being I purchased it (not good for the tires as I understand), but the tires have low usage. Every tire shop I have shown the tires to during the trip say they are in good shape and do not need to be replaced, however standards down here in Latin America are definately lower that I am used to in the States.
So now to the question: we are entering the Andes, with steep climbs and drops up to 15000-16000 feet sometimes, and a lot of rural areas where tires and mechanical help in general are not easy to get. Right now we are in Lima, Peru, a big commercial city so we thought as a precautionary measure maybe it's time to buy new tires!
Our options are limited. Searching through several dealers I have found 3 options that could work for us:
Dunlop LT5 215/85R16 115/112 L - 990 dollars for 6 tires - This is by far the best-matching tire in terms of specifications, which are identical to the tires we currently have except for the speed rating which is slower but this really doesn't bother me as I never drive my rig over 65 miles an hour for fuel economy.
Michelin Synchrone 225/75R16 104 H - at about 1500 dollars for the set of 6, this tire is a slight modification in size, and holds less weight (i'm in the process of calculating the total weight of the RV...) . Obviously pricier, the question here is whether Michelin is a better enough tire to be worth the extra investment???
Roadstone 215/85R16 - 920 dollars for set of 6 - The salesman with this tire will get back to me tomorrow with the Weight and speed capacities. This is a Korean tire company which I've never heard of, a bit of Google and I can see that it is a large brand, but if anyone has experience with them I'd love to hear it.
Like I said, the old tires are in decent condition, so we could put this off for another few months until we get to Argentina or Chile, but I bet it would be nice to climb through the Andes on a new set of tires...
Whatever advice anyone can offer is greatly appreciated, we are hoping to decide this in the next couple of days.
-Ryan Luckey
I am driving a class C Rockwood motorhome through South America... it sits on a Ford Econoline 350 extended van chassis. When i bought the motorhome (used) in 2010, it had Michelin LTX A/S tires, type LT 215/85 R16, manufacture date being 2001 ... this exact tire: (http://www.tirepackage.com/Tires/LT215-85R16-LTX-A-S-by-Michelin.aspx?t_c=13&t_s=458&t_pt=100902&t_pl=100280&t_pn=MIC41550).
Original purchase was in California, and we have driven some 15,000 miles down to Peru, the tires perform pretty well, and still have decent thread. To my knowledge, the motorhome sat for a few years being I purchased it (not good for the tires as I understand), but the tires have low usage. Every tire shop I have shown the tires to during the trip say they are in good shape and do not need to be replaced, however standards down here in Latin America are definately lower that I am used to in the States.
So now to the question: we are entering the Andes, with steep climbs and drops up to 15000-16000 feet sometimes, and a lot of rural areas where tires and mechanical help in general are not easy to get. Right now we are in Lima, Peru, a big commercial city so we thought as a precautionary measure maybe it's time to buy new tires!
Our options are limited. Searching through several dealers I have found 3 options that could work for us:
Dunlop LT5 215/85R16 115/112 L - 990 dollars for 6 tires - This is by far the best-matching tire in terms of specifications, which are identical to the tires we currently have except for the speed rating which is slower but this really doesn't bother me as I never drive my rig over 65 miles an hour for fuel economy.
Michelin Synchrone 225/75R16 104 H - at about 1500 dollars for the set of 6, this tire is a slight modification in size, and holds less weight (i'm in the process of calculating the total weight of the RV...) . Obviously pricier, the question here is whether Michelin is a better enough tire to be worth the extra investment???
Roadstone 215/85R16 - 920 dollars for set of 6 - The salesman with this tire will get back to me tomorrow with the Weight and speed capacities. This is a Korean tire company which I've never heard of, a bit of Google and I can see that it is a large brand, but if anyone has experience with them I'd love to hear it.
Like I said, the old tires are in decent condition, so we could put this off for another few months until we get to Argentina or Chile, but I bet it would be nice to climb through the Andes on a new set of tires...
Whatever advice anyone can offer is greatly appreciated, we are hoping to decide this in the next couple of days.
-Ryan Luckey