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Old 02-26-2014, 09:13 AM   #1
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Tire Replacement for my Van

I was over at Sam's Club yesterday looking at tires for my van. I've yet to replace my recalled Michelin tires on the Airstream but the van uses the same size and rated tires.

I was in the process of getting a quote for the M/S 2 that Michelin is using for the replacement and the guy there also quoted a BFG Commercial tire in the same weight rating. (Interesting side line but reported in a different thread, Michelin for the recall is authorizing BFG replacements due to shortages of the MS 2 tires.) He noted that the BFG LT tires are built by Michelin and in his previous experience he worked for a school bus provider in the metro area. He noted that they had 3 tire choices which were BFG, Michelin, and Goodyear. They went through many tire tests before settling on the BFG's on all of their van cutaway busses. In there tests the BFG's out performed the other two tires. He basically noted that the BFG Commercial's are stronger tires and proceeded to pull two tires off the rack. One was a Michelin and the other was the BFG Commercial. Same size and weight rating. He asked me to lift each tire and there was no doubt that the BFG was heavier.

While I'm going to probably stick with Michelin (assuming I can find them) on the Airstream, I'm considering maybe going with the LT225/75R Commercial BFG on my 3/4 ton GMC van. Has anyone used this tire? Currently I have 10 years on the Uniroyal's which came with the van, and I'm replacing them due to age rather than tread wear. Current tires have 38,000 miles on them and with rebate I can pick up a set of same BFG's from DiscountTireDirect for a little over $600 which is about $200 less than Sam's price for the same tires.

Jack
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Old 02-26-2014, 09:40 AM   #2
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I am also at the point of needing tires, not due to tread wear, but because they are original to my 7 year old truck (I am afraid the original battery will go soon, also).
The tires only have 34,000 miles, but the sidewalls are cracking.
I saw some heavier looking 20's (Michelin, B. F. Goodrich, and Good Year) than my Bridgestones, but the size is larger. How much larger can I go until the speedometer is way off?
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Old 02-27-2014, 07:25 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jcanavera View Post
I was over at Sam's Club yesterday looking at tires for my van. I've yet to replace my recalled Michelin tires on the Airstream but the van uses the same size and rated tires.

I was in the process of getting a quote for the M/S 2 that Michelin is using for the replacement and the guy there also quoted a BFG Commercial tire in the same weight rating. (Interesting side line but reported in a different thread, Michelin for the recall is authorizing BFG replacements due to shortages of the MS 2 tires.) He noted that the BFG LT tires are built by Michelin and in his previous experience he worked for a school bus provider in the metro area. He noted that they had 3 tire choices which were BFG, Michelin, and Goodyear. They went through many tire tests before settling on the BFG's on all of their van cutaway busses. In there tests the BFG's out performed the other two tires. He basically noted that the BFG Commercial's are stronger tires and proceeded to pull two tires off the rack. One was a Michelin and the other was the BFG Commercial. Same size and weight rating. He asked me to lift each tire and there was no doubt that the BFG was heavier.

While I'm going to probably stick with Michelin (assuming I can find them) on the Airstream, I'm considering maybe going with the LT225/75R Commercial BFG on my 3/4 ton GMC van. Has anyone used this tire? Currently I have 10 years on the Uniroyal's which came with the van, and I'm replacing them due to age rather than tread wear. Current tires have 38,000 miles on them and with rebate I can pick up a set of same BFG's from DiscountTireDirect for a little over $600 which is about $200 less than Sam's price for the same tires.

Jack
Jack,

Just a couple of points worth discussing.

I hope you realize that Uniroyal is also by Michelin.

Also, since Michelin is marketed as a premium tire, I think the fact that the BFG weighs more, doesn't mean what you think it means.

And lastly, having spent considerable time in the tire industry, Michelins are built differently than other brands - and that includes BFG and Uniroyal. When Michelin acquired the BFG and Uniroyal plants, they certainly couldn't change the equipment in those plants right away - and while I am sure there have been improvements since that time, I don't think they are designing BFG's and Uniroyal's in the same way as the Michelins are designed. BFG's and Uniroyal's seem to be designed and manufactured along the same lines as every other brand of tire.
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Old 02-27-2014, 11:35 AM   #4
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It is possible that the BFG tire you are considering is a retreadable tire with steel belts, similar to the Michelin XPS. Such tires are heavier.
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Old 02-27-2014, 01:35 PM   #5
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I actually just took off my BFGs this last fall as the tread was getting a bit low for the winter we expected (and it turned out worse!!!). I put on LTX ms2 XLs. The ride and handling was quite noticeably better than the BFGs. Not sure when Michelin took over, but my BFGs were about 6 or 7 years old.

This was on my 2000 Express 1500 conversion van.
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Old 03-06-2014, 02:50 PM   #6
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Thanks for the comments so far. I'm still up in the air as to the tire brand. While I was willing to put the Michelin's on the Airstream the van might be a little different story. The only load it ever carries is when we tow and granted other than the load the weight distributing hitch places on the van, the tires just don't carry the same % of load that Airstream would carry, even though the tire size and rating on the Airstream and van are identical. We do no more the 4,000 miles a year with the van garaged most of the time.

The original tires on the van were Uniroyal Laredo's and have been on the van since 2003. 38,000 miles and tread still left. I'm replacing due to age, with no failures or punctures of the original tires in their history. So I'm having a hard time in my mind justifying a set of $800+ Michelins when I can for example, put on a set of E rated Cooper A/T3's with a bottom line cost of about $520 after current rebates.

Has anyone dealt with the Cooper brand? From what I have found out the tires are US built and the only complaint I've read on the A/T3 tire might be lower gas mileage.

Jack
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Old 03-07-2014, 04:15 PM   #7
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I have had 2 sets of Coopers, but they were P metrics. One on a Tracker and one on a compact sedan. I liked them fine...but not experienced with the truck tires.
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Old 04-02-2014, 12:53 PM   #8
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Tire Replacement for my Van

I'm sitting here at National Tire and Battery getting my new van tires mounted and getting the front wheels aligned. First set of replacement tires and alignment for my 2003 Savana 3/4 ton van.

It ended up I found some Cooper E rated tires at Discount Tire Direct. $155 each for the tires, free shipping to my house, $25 off for buying from the Internet. Cooper is also throwing in a $80 Visa cash card. NTB has a mounting and balancing deal with Discount Tire so it's $16.50 a tire which covers balancing, mounting, and disposal. Including the fact that I avoid the 8.5 percent local sales taxes, I ended up saving about $250 on the entire deal.

I did the same thing when I upgraded the Classic to 16" wheels and Michelin tires. I considered Michelin for the van but I just can't justify those tires on a van that has 37,000 miles put on it in almost 11 years. The OEM Uniroyals still had tread and have performed well, but I think I was pushing my luck trying to continue using them at this point. I did some research on the Cooper AT3's that I bought and came back with some pretty decent reports. We will see.

It's great to have options on sourcing out replacement tires. Discount is really competitive on pricing with free shipping on Internet purchased tires. Bought the tires on Friday night and they were delivered Tuesday afternoon via UPS.

Jack
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Old 04-02-2014, 12:59 PM   #9
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Good deal.
I can't justify the price of Michelins on the trailer, either, so when I switch to 16" wheels I am getting Firestone TransForce HT 225/75R16's.
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Old 04-02-2014, 01:05 PM   #10
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I bought the Michelin LTX tires from Discount in July 2012. Discount sold them for $200 each and Michelin sent a $70 Visa cash card about 4 weeks later. Was really a good deal.

Jack
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