After 14 Years, First New Set Of Tires (Plus Alcoa Wheels)

If my comment that it’s not something I’d do come off as disrespectful, I do apologize, it was not intended.

"GOOD GOLLY", I never thought that from your comment....not one bit, so "PLEASE" do not be concerned.  All is well. Joseph.

Thanks Ron, too often things get lost in translation with text.  I didn’t want that to be the case.

Thanks Ron, too often things get lost in translation with text.  I didn’t want that to be the case.

I do understand.

Sometimes I get to the point in typing that I can come across as a self-proclaimed know-it-all of which is "never" my intention.  One thing certain.....I am NOT a know-it-all.  I just share my determination & experiences.

Quote from: CalCruiser on May 21, 2021, 06:44:00 pm

    Did it still take a routine alignment with the drop springs?

The jury is still out on the alignment.  I am in the middle of working through it with the alignment shop with plans to post my alignment challenges in my softer-front-spring post.

Tada!  Good News!  Wheel Alignment Done Right!  All Is Well Now!
I added the details to the end of my "Softer Front Springs" opening post.  CLICK HERE to read about it.

Hi Ron, I saw this older post and have a question.  I have a 2350 2019 year and looking to replace the wheels.  Did you keep the inside rear steel wheel or buy 6 wheels?  I am hoping to learn from your upgrade :-)
thanks
Rob

Hi Rob,

I replaced 4 of the 6 wheels per the kit offered.  The inside rear wheels remain original Ford steel.  This is "standard practice" across the class B+/C RV industry.  If you want to have inside rear alloy wheels, then you must replace the rear wheel lug studs with longer ones to accommodate the combined increase in alloy wheel thickness.  The steel is thinner than the alloy.  The original lug studs are long enough to accommodate replacing one steel wheel with one alloy.  But replacing two steel wheels with two alloy will require longer studs.  Make sense?

FYI:  About the polished alloy wheel finish.  Since only one surface is polished to a fine luster, this dedicates each wheel to either the front or the rear position.  You cannot rotate fronts with rears without the rig looking ugly.  This is a mute point for most people like myself who never rotate their tires anyway.

Keep reading if you struggle with the expense.  Being the frugal guy that I am, I recovered $500 of the expense by upgrading my wheels when replacing my original 14 year old 2007 model year tires.  I sold on Craigslist, the discarded four original rear steel wheels with original tires that had the best looking treadwear, and also the four wheel simulators.  I did advertize the age of the tires.  A fellow who owned some E350 DRW box trucks for his small business, bought all four wheels with tires for $400, for emergency use spare tires.  Another fellow bought the wheel simulators for $100.

The wheels and tires did look like new.

Hi Ron, Excellent and thank you for your reply.  I will be pursing this soon :-)
Thank you again for your explanation and continued support on this Forum.
Sincerely,
Rob Waples (robwaples.com)

You are very welcome Rob!  I sincerely appreciate your comment.

When I bought my used motorcycle I checked with Dunlop. They recommended new tires at 6-8 years. I have a low mileage Mustang. I replaced the tires at 10 years, even though they still had tread, and the car has never seen winter, and is stored inside. I did replace my boat trailer tires at 16 years, but I won’t go over 10 years in the future. DonC13 is a credible source.  You should heed his advice.

I do not recommend that other RV owners stretch their tire life for 14 years as I did.  My situation is the exception, not the rule.

1) Our rig is stored indoors under climate controlled conditions, when not in use.
2) The tires get minimal sun exposure.
3) The load on the tires is far below the tire max rating.
4) The absence of sidewall and between-thread cracking, encouraged me to keep the tires so long.
5) None of the tires were punctured/repaired, or otherwise damaged in any way.
6) Given only 40,000 miles of use, there was still a very generous amount of remaining thread.

I found it interesting that our 2007 Ford E350 chassis that was built in 04/2007, the date code on its original tires was 5006 meaning the 50th week of 2006.  So the actual age of my tires was 5 months older yet.  When I bought my replacement tires in 2021, I managed to find 6 identical dated tires with 2 month old date codes when I bought them.  I feel I got lucky with that.

Nice job.  Can't wait to see full view pic of front and rear mounted.

Going through this old thread, I see I never followed through to include the results.  Here they are.

As planned, I sold the original 4 wheels with 4 original tires for $400.  I also so sold the original 4 wheel simiulators (wheel covers) for $100.  Everyone was happy including myself offsetting the Alcoa wheel purchase by knocking off $500.

The 4 wheels and tires were quickly purchased by a fellow with a small business.  He owned 3 or 4 small box trucks he used for delivery.  He wanted emergency spare tires.