On the way home from FL this spring, I noticed excessive outside tire wear on both front tires. To me, on a car that would indicate tow in alignment issue. At 30k miles, has any one else experienced this, and what was your solution? When I replace the tires, am going to up size the fronts from factory stock. Thoughts on GY vs Michelin?

While back tires are 5 years of age their is no cracking or other type of rubber deterioration. ( coach stored in doors and tires covered when in sun.) Should I still replace?

Live today, George

George,
Your description of the excessive front tire wear on your coach sounds like excessive toe-in on the front axle. If you increase your front tire size, be certain that you have the clearance necessary for the larger tires. Several coach owners have increased the tire size on their coach and ended up with damage from the larger tires because there was not enough clearance, but most of those were SMC era Patriots.

As for as your question on Goodyear vs. Michelin for replacement tires. The Michelin tires will be more expensive, but worth the extra money. You may also want to look at Bridgestone. They are only slightly more expensive than Goodyear on average, but give much better service than Goodyear tires normally do.

Tire prices vary with some size tires, because all manufactures do not make the same tires (load range, speed rating, and tread design) in some sizes. So you will have to be sure that you are comparing apples to apples, when you are tire shopping.

As for replacing the rear tires, I replace my tires every seven years, regardless of the condition. On commercial trucks (18 wheelers), they are required by law in most places to be replaced before the cord body is 6 years old regardless of the recapped or original tread condition. For this reason, be sure that you get fresh tires by the DOT date code that is molded into the tire sidewall.  

Gerald  

I second Gerald's recommendation of Michelin (never thought I would say that). We had 255/70/R 22.5 H and did change to 275/70/R22.5 H Good Year in G159 and then G670 Tires. We suffered erosive wear on both models. Erosive wear is accelerated wear on the second rib in from the outside edge and seems to show at 18,000 plus miles in our case. We suffered a sidewall failure last summer of one of the G670 tires on the right front at about 60 mph and the tire came completely off the rim (that was fun) and Goodyear stood behind their tire and covered the damage.

When we got home, we replaced the fronts with Michelin XZA II Energy 275/70/ R 22.5 J tires, and find that they ride smoother and are rounder. So far we are very pleased, but have not gone far enough to comment on wear issues.

One note: When we went to the larger tire size, we had to reposition the front axle, and I was able to obtain from then Beaver (before Monaco) Magnum chassis a step by step procedure to do it.  I had it done by Central Frame and Axle in Tampa, FL. They have done a lot of Motor Home work, including American Coach recalls on their front suspensions.

George,
One comment about Richard's previous post on the necessity of moving the front to axle to accommodate larger size tires. That procedure was necessary on early model Magnum chassis equipped coaches especially the Patriot (the Marquis did not use a Magnum chassis until late 199 because the front tires were not perfectly centered in the wheel well and a larger size tire would rub through the rear of the wheel housing and damage the air bag. Also a lot of them were overloaded on their front tires and needed larger tires. That procedure should not be necessary on your 2006 Monterey.

Gerald  

We have an '06 Monterey with Goodyear tires and the same wear problem. Had the front aligned in Yuma, but the wear seemd to get worse on the way back to Illinois. We have a neighbor that is a tire distributor, and sells all makes but Highly recommends Toyo over GY or Mich because of ride and wear as well as price.  He also recommends that you request tires from them designed for the steer axle, if you are going for front tires.  I didn't have time to get details the other day on tires for the steer axle, but he said there is difference. He talks of independant studies of Toyo vs Mich. with Toyo being the winner. They are made in the good old USA which is also a factor for me.
Just curious, if anyone else has had any history with Toyo

Roger

I am with Gerald on this one. We switched to the Michelins from Goodyear and will never go back. We're very happy we made the change even though it was more expensive.

After one of my Toyos blew, I switched to Michelin.  I am sooo glad I made the switch.  They ride smother and steer straighter and carry more weight than Toyo.  Another factor is that Toyo no longer makes tires for RVs.  Michelin is well worth the money.  I waited to long to switch, and missed a more pleasant ride for several years.

Larry

Rodger,
Beaver coaches were factory equipped with Toyo tires in most of the SMC era. However Toyo no longer supports the use of  their tires on motorhomes, primarily because of the liability problems that they incurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s from their tires failing on overloaded coaches. Most of these failures were on Country Coach, however there were failures on other brand coaches also.

Back then coach manufactures were bad about under-sizing coach tires to save money until the liability started being placed on them. Country Coach even had to recall a lot of coaches and replace the front tires with new larger tires because they were overloaded so badly.

The answer is yes, I have used Toyo tires since my coach came with 11/22.5 Toyo tires. However, I replaced them with 295/80/22.5 Bridgestone tires, after three years, because they were overloaded even though they gave me excellent service until I replaced them..  

Gerald

I have the same Goodyear wear problem.  Lazydays said they'd take my $300 and align the front end, but I should't expect any changes until I change to Michelins.

Gil 08 Contessa

Thanks to al for ur input. I have an appointment for front end allignment in two weeks. Glenda had surgery when we got back from FL in the spring and I'm ready to get back to coaching. Have a tailgate in Sept at PSU to attend at Beaver Stadium.

The tires have 30K miles. I would like to get another 5K (2 years) on them before I replace.

I think if I have the fronts demounted and inspected then have the same tires put on the same rims with the feathered edge on the insade rather than outsideof the rim this allow safely another 5k. Thoughts?

Recently in FMCA mag there was an article on tie rod issues in Monaco coaches, but my research discovered nothing on '06 Beavers.

Just my two cents on this tire thing.... My coach came with Toyo tires.  They were badly out of round becasue of sitting for long period on an asphalt parking lot.  Toyo give me new set of tires at no cost.  I was happy until the inside rear blew at 40k miles (road hazard?).  Priced Michelins, Goodyear, Bridgestone, Firestone and Hankook.  Did a lot of research and called several "over the road" Tour Bus companies for recommendations.  The most hightly recommended tire was Hankook A12s.  I bought six installed (dealer came to me) balanced with tax and new stems for under $2,000.  That was about $250.00 per tire cheaper than the Michelins in 275/70-22.5.  The Hankook tires are wonderful (higher load range) and have no complaints after 25k miles.

Don't know if this will happen on your coach, George, but when I discovered excessive edge wear on the front tires of our toad, I had an alignment done.  The front end was out of whack alright, but the realignment itself caused another issue;  the car now has a slight shimmy it didn't have before.  Several tire people have said it is due to a correctly aligned front end riding on edge worn tires.  The change in ride was immediately and distinctly noticeable after the alignment to factory specs, so I have to figure the tire people are correct.

-Joel

By the way, if you're talking about Portland State U., it's no longer Beaver Stadium, nor PGE Park, since the *!@#&* soccer consortium booted our baseball team out of town;  now they're calling it "Jeld-Wen Field"   ... money talks louder than heritage anymore.  I never thought a European sport would ever trump the grand old American game.  At least the Vikings still play football there.  

Joel, I know on cars, I always like to have new rubber at alignment, and the the other way around.  I just looked at Michelin website, and they suggest the tire switching, so I think if tires are sound construction, I should be OK with "flipping" the tires. I'll be alert for the shimmy. Thanks for the heads up!

No, this is a Penn State game we are going to.  Joe Pa has lots of money for his program ,and there is no way they' take the "oo" out of futbol!

George,
In my opinion, dismounting the front tires and turning them over and remounting them on the same wheel, is a waste of time and money. If the front end is aligned properly, the tires are going to wear at the same rate regardless of what side faces out.  If your problem is the erosive wear that is common to Goodyear tires, swapping sides will not help.  

If your tires are worn enough to be a safety concern, replace them and do not just swap the tires on the wheel.  If you are only driving 2,500 miles a year, you can probably just continue using the tires the way that they are, if they are within safety standards, until age requires replacement, or swap the front wheels, for the outer two wheels on the drive axle. This will at least save you the cost of dismounting and re balancing the front tires.  

Gerald

George, I don't know which coach you have, but I had a serious wear problem on mine caused by the tag axle being out of alignment, which caused the coach to try to steer itself to the left. BTW, I had had an alignment done in Tampa when I bought the coach, but nobody ever told me to check the rear drive axle and tag. I had Jo-Sam in Orlando do a three axle alignment, replace the badly worn front tires, and now can almost let the rig steer itself down the road. It wasn't cheap, but the place was impressive, and did a great job.

Both of the Beavers I have owned were dog tracking when I got them.  Both the front and read axles were out.  How the previous owners could have driven them that way is a mystery to me.
I realigned both coaches, front and rear at Beaver in Bend and after replacing the front tires on my current coach, the problems went away.

Butch

The technician at Jo-Sam told me that over 75% of the motorhomes he works on have rear axles that are out of line. He attributed it to the fact that the chassis manufacturers buy the axles from suppliers, then weld their own suspension parts to the axles, and don't properly cool them to insure alignement. This is something most of us never think about.

I agree with both previous comments.

My 2006 Monterey had an "odd" wear pattern on both front tires at 30,000 miles. The outside edge of the right front tire and the inside edge of the left front tire both appeared to be wearing abnormally. The owner of a local truck shop immediately suggested that this could be caused by improper alignment of the rear axle. So, he checked the front alignment and toe-in to assure that all was OK in front and then checked the rear alignment...it was off almost on inch from axle centerline to axle centerline. The rear axle on my coach has adjustable control arms on both sides to allow for proper axle alignment but unfortunately, the threads in the arm on the side which needed to be adjusted had siezed up over the years and there was not enough adjustment remaining in the other side for correct alignment. I ordered a new control arm from Coburg and had it air shipped to me but unfortunately, the mounting bore on the new arm was not the same ID as my old arm so I needed to source a new arm locally. Once installed and with both axles properly aligned, I installed new tires on the front and so far (<6000 miles), my coach handles better and the wear pattern on the front tires appears to be normal.

As mentioned by the OP, rear axle alignment may be as important as front axle alignment to assure proper handling and good tire life of all tires.

Jim  

On my '98 Patriot, after many alignments over 5 years, I discovered the rear axle was installed by the factory 1 1/2" too far to the right.  The rear axle was square with frame, but shifted to the right.  Correcting that, ended my long standing problem.  Beaver paid for the fix even though it was far out of warranty, because even their magnum service people could not find it.  I have since discovered at least 2 other Beavers with the same improperly installed rear axle problem.  In the case of a Beaver with a tag axle, the tag had to be cut off the frame and re-welded, to align with the repositioned drive axle.  Just aligning the rear axle did not solve the problem.  There are many causes of poor handling and tire ware.

Larry

Gerald, that's what I thought re wear after allighnment. The Michelin  tire guide recommends this procces for uneven outside wear.

There was a thread on a Michelin factory price program....FMCA's web page has info on this program...not sure where the best place is to post this.

George