It a simple plan and will only take a few minutes to lay-out. With the planning behind us we will be prepared to take advantage of any special deals or short term sales we might come across.
Now to follow this plan there are a few bits of information you need to have:
You need to know the exact size, Load-Range and DOT serial date for your current tires.
Sorry but just thinking you have 235-16 size tires that you bought in 2009 doesn't cut the mustard.
If you are not sure how to get this information I suggest a quick refresher is in order so you might read the post on "Reading a Tire". So lets assume you have collected the details on your tires so you know exactly what you will be looking for over the next few months.
Here is how my suggestion works.
If all your tires are the same size I would suggest you plan on replacing the two oldest tires first. The new tires would go on the front positions and the others in dual position in the back.
Next year I would buy two more new tires, place them on the front and move the tires that were on the front back to one pair of duals.
Then the third year buy two more tires, place them on the front position and move the older fronts back to the rear.
The above schedule serves a few purposes:
1. It spreads out the purchase over a three year period.
2. It has you running on the newest tires on your front position.
3. With this plan you can spend months shopping for the best deal and avoids the need to accept tires that may be years old before you even buy them. Since you know you have a plan and you know that over a six to 10 month time period to do your shopping.
4. When you are done you know your oldest tires are three years old and if you plan on changing tires when they get to seven or eight years you now have a four year period to set aside some cash for when you start the cycle over again. You can continue this schedule for as long as you own your RV and never be confronted with having to buy more than two tires in any year.
Now if your fronts are different size than your rears as seen on some large Class-A units you can't do the front tire rotation but you can still limit the purchase of your rears to just two a year
With a little planning no one should have to buy more than two tires in any one year. It just takes some thought and planning.
Subscribe to the weekly RVtravel.com newsletter or one of our other newsletters about RVing. Great information and advice. Now in our 14th year. Learn more or subscribe.
I like your thinking, it's a great plan. I think you need to stress that people should never run different tires on opposite sides (L/R) due to the potentially different diameters. This can cause uneven drag and steering effects.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a pretty good plan if you don't want to or don't have the money for a large purchase all at once. However this isn't necessarily the most economical plan. If you purchase all at once, the large $ total gives you more leverage to negotiate a better price. Also the tire mounting, balancing and installation on the vehicle of all tires at once saves the hassle of having to visit the tire dealership each year for the same routine. Doing all at once might save $ on the installation as well as the tire price if you're willing to negotiate for a better deal. Also, if you're a full timer travelling around the country, spreading out your purchases increases the chance of getting a bad service experience if you're not going to be in the same location each year when you're due to add tires.
ReplyDeleteLast week I sent in a response to this article. It didn't appear and I thought you took the weekend off with President's Day and all. Yet now a week later my response still does not appear. It dealt with "take off" tires. There was no flames or any other reason not to post my response so I'd like to know why it was censored?? If you're not going to post legitimate responses then you shouldn't be asking for them.
ReplyDeleteWe apologize, Anon. We do publish every legitimate comment from our readers and greatly appreciate them. I have just looked in the file of deleted comments and don't see one which looks like it could be yours. Possibly it ended up in "cyberspace"? If you would like to re-post your comment, I'll be sure to publish it when we receive it. In any case, thank you for reading our blogs and newsletters -- we appreciate it very much! (And no, we don't take weekends or holidays off. ;) ) Diane at RVtravel.com
DeleteGot your response, Anon. Thanks! Yes, I know your name well and we appreciate all your excellent tips for our readers. (Russ sends all tips to me and I drop them into the newsletters). Sorry for the inconvenience on this one -- I guess we'll never know where it ended up! Take care. Diane
DeleteBTW, Anon. I couldn't publish your kind response because I am unable to take your name out of it, and you requested your name not be published. Diane
DeleteIf all six tires are the same age and you start this at age 5, the last 2 will be 8 years old. I dont think this is good, right?
ReplyDeleteHarry
Harry, good thought, and interested in the answer.
ReplyDelete