Continental Tires

[mbulriss]

Does anyone have any experience with the Continental Conti HA3 tires? They are an all position highway bus tire.

They are on the FMCA plan now and have real discounts versus the M brand. The Conti Coach HA3 in 315/80R22.5 is $544 WITH FET included. That’s about a solid $200 less than the major competitor on the FMCA plan. It’s also about $100 under the BFG ST230 that I had excellent experience with on my 91WB. Specs look identical, including a 7 year warranty with 100% coverage in year 1. Their plant is in Mt. Vernon, IL.

No need to register a credit card over the phone. Just find a participating Continental dealer and show your FMCA card to get that price.

Thanks for any input!

[davidbrady]

Mike,

What would you buy, the Conti Coach HA3 or the HSR2 SA?

[mbulriss]

David,

After talking with the Continental rep at length, he recommended the Conti Coach HA3 for RV/bus apps. His rationale was they are designed as more of a long distance over the highway tire while the HSR2 SA is more of a regional delivery tire with high sidewall scrub protection. He said they would both work but the HA3 had a better ride while still having sidewall scrub protection (not as heavy as the HSR2, again for softer ride on long haul). He also said the Coach HA3 was compounded to better tolerate long periods of sitting after a long highway ride, which as he put it kind of defines RV bus use.

I also talked with a wholesale distributor who put the HSR2 SA on the steer axles of his racing toterhome hauler after he had Michelin XGA2 NRG edge wear issues. He said he did no mechanical changes to his hauler and the wear issues totally went away. He did however recommend the Conti Coach HA3 for the bus as the HSR2 was pretty stiff riding and he thought the HA3 would be better for a bus from a ride perspective. He said he had not personally used the Continental before even though he sold them so he did it due to the other brand wear issues and a desire to test the Continental. He said that now, based on personal experience he enthusiastically recommends the Continental as an alternative.

My real concern is the sidewalls on the M brand. I was inspecting all the sidewalls again yesterday. The steer tires aren’t safe to go cross country on. The drive axles are fine - you have to search under a strong light to see a hint of weatherchecking. I have the 16,000 front axle and it is appearing to me that the M brand sidewalls are too weak for steer axles on a heavy rig. At least this particular set of XZA2 NRG seem to be telling me that. Check out the steer tires pictures below. And yes, I keep them at about 120-125 psi.

Anecdotal evidence says it’s maybe not just mine. Another friend has much newer same M brand tires on his toterhome. He kept complaining about the driveability and took it in to get an alignment and front end check out. After an hour or two, the mechanics came out and told him they couldn’t align it. They then said let us show you why and proceeded to show him how out of round his steer tires were. When contacted, Michelin told him something similar to it was ‘the truck’s fault’.

I know that there is a lot of talk about the soft M brand sidewalls and that lots of folks are talking up and switching to Toyos. I have a good out the door price on the Toyos also but I’m still researching. I just haven’t run into anyone using the Continental tires other than the wholesale distributor. Toyos are South Korea and the Continentals are Mt Vernon, IL as a side issue.

Anyway, more than you wanted to know? BTW, I saw a 385 somewhere in my searching. Too much for the P bus? LOL

[cmillsap]

Mike,

How old are the tires with the sidewall cracks? Looks weather related to me? It would be nice to save $1600 on a set of tires if the Continentals would just perform well.

I think there are some variables in the tire compounds of most tires resulting in variations of tire performance ranging from good to poor. I.E., the tires made in week 10 may not perform as well as tires made in week 20. Some manufacturers may be better at controlling the variables than others. There’s no concrete proof of that except that some people get good performance out of a particular brand and model of tires and others get lousy performance out of the same tire.

I’ve owned 4 new sets of “m” brand tires over the years and have been fortunate to have received good performance from them, therefore I never considered switching to another brand.

Conversely, I have owned Continental Conti tires that were OEM on three new cars I’ve purchased. All wore out prematurely between 10K & 20K miles. The last set on my 2016 Jeep had chunks of tread missing after 10K miles. Continental Customer Service was great to work with and replaced them all at no charge which I appreciated. Since they also own General Tire, they gave me the option of switching to General’s Altimax RT which (so far) seems to be performing well.

Because of the poor performance of the Continental Conti tires on my automobiles, I’d be a bit leary of putting them on my coach until there was history of users showing them to be a dependable and long lasting tire.

[mbulriss]

Chuck,

Thanks for the input. To answer your question they were about 5.5 years at the time of those pics. They started developing those cracks between 4 and 4.5 years and have just gotten worse. My son started complaining about the steer tires at 4.5 years.

They are all identical same week of production tires. Remember, this is only happening on the steer tires. My feeling is weak sidewalls on the over weight bus. I too have had many sets of Michelin’s that never looked like this. And I pushed them close to 10 years.

I’m thinking the LXi front needs stronger sidewall tires. That’s what all the Toyo converts are saying also.

FWIW,

[rrueckwald]

Another data point:

Michelin 315/80 R22.5 XZA2 ENERGY

Date Code 0413

Installed 4-12-13

Today 5-3-18 33,000 miles on the tires since new. There are no indications of cracks.

However, while on gravel in Florida they are covered. While on concrete in Michigan they are inside a building. In both places a piece of conveyor belting is under the tires.

Never had a problem with Michelins. Keeping several fingers crossed.

[mbulriss]

For anyone that cares, here’s the interesting tread pattern on the Conti Coach HA3 in 315/80R22.5. They are touted as excellent wet weather performers. Another interesting data point is they say 5 steel plies on the tread face. The others I have looked at say 4. Same 1 steel ply on the sidewalls as everyone else. Sidewalls say “Designed in USA” like Apple, but unlike Apple that also say Made in USA. I'm leaning toward being the guinea pig since no one else seems to have tried them.

FWIW.