Time for new tires -- recommendations?

[Troubleshooter]

I have one of the old CrossForce toyhaulers. The original tires that came with my 5th wheel are getting to the age where they are candidates for replacement. One of them in fact, had a partial failure, where some of the tread separated and I could see all the way to the cords! Fortunately we caught this in an RV park and the good folks at the tire shop just down the road swapped out for a spare.



I would prefer to replace the entire set with good American-made tires rather than the Chicoms which the factory supplied. I've been hearing some good things about the Michelin XPS Rib but they are about 1" larger in diameter than the factory-supplied tires (ST 235/80R16 stock tires vs. LT 235/85R16 for the Michelins). And yes, they're expensive but the Michelin brand has given me very good service on both the truck and previously on cars.



For those of you who have had your rigs long enough to replace the tires, what did you go with?



Would the slightly larger size be workable? Note that the CrossForce series seems to be built on a Cruiser frame, so what works for the Cruiser series should work for the CrossForce (I think).

[Hunter11]

I went with BFG Commercial TA's in LT 235/85R16. This is our third year with them with no issues.









Chicoms, man they are coming up with all kinds of crazy names for China junk tires now days.

[cwit]

Another BFG. fan

[PMSPKS]

BFG Commercial TA's work for us, too. I put them on as soon as I got our Cruiser home from the dealer. Just didn't want the potential for problems, especially during summertime in Texas!

[slouman]

Yet another vote for commercial TAs. I plan to put them on my new Rushmore soon.

[geondebi]

BFG's here too. think I will have to change them because of age not worn.

[Troubleshooter]

Thanks for the suggestions. Are you experiencing any problems with the larger tires? There's only 4" space between the two tires now. Going from the 235/80R16 to a 235/85R16 adds 1" of diameter to each of the tires, so I would lose half of that 4" space.

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by Hunter11

Chicoms, man they are coming up with all kinds of crazy names for China junk tires now days.

Hunter11, the term "Chicom" has been around for years; I believe since the Korean War. I've had 107mm Chicom rockets lobbed in my direction before. We knew that they were of Chinese manufacture when some of them fortunately failed to detonate. (Apparently their quality control for munitions is just as bad as on their tires).

[Canucklehead]

Just as a note. If you are increasing your tire diameter by one inch, you are only increasing the radius by 1/2 an inch on each tire. So you would only lose 1 inch of the 4 inch spacing between the tires, not 2 inches.

[Sirsea]

Staying at KOA in New Bern, NC for a few days; guy from Ft. Meyers, FL just pulled in to the site next to us and he had 3 blow-outs (Mission tires) with some heavy damage to the skirting and side of his camper on the trip from Florida.

[Troubleshooter]

You are of course, correct. I was writing about diameter when I should have been thinking radius. Sounds like I need to give the BFG Commercial TAs a try.

[Chazworth]

I have not tried them, but I have seen many good comments posted about Michelin XPS tires.They have several manufacturing plants in South Carolina ( my son-inlaw works at one of them ).
Edited by: Chazworth

[jererp]

I measured the distance on my '09 CF30SK Patriot, and I only have 2 1/4 inches clearance between the tires. That is with 235/80R16's. I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a new set of BFG (235/85R16 commercial TA's at Sams Club today, but got cold feet and decided to go home and measure. Now I'm thinking of going to a lower profile, maybe 245/75R16. That would be slightly smaller than what I have today. Any thoughts or comments?

[avvidclif]

Personally I wouldn't go wider, especially with truck tires with a stiff sidewall. It has a larger footprint and would try to twist the axle more than the stock. One of these days I'll be in the same boat with mine but hopefully it will be a few years. Same axle setup, 2" between tires...