Tires for (new to us) 2000 LXi

[pattic777]

I've been reading fora entries, but am struggling with knowing what applies to our soon-to-be new-to-us rig. I hope you'll forgive a newbie...

We are about to acquire Corey's 2000 LXi. We know that we want to put new tires on it (drive and tag are 9 years old; steer are 2 years old). We would move current steer tires to tag and put 6 new ones on steer and drive. We think we need to do this before we drive it from North Carolina via Virginia to Texas.

We are planning on getting Michelin XZA1's 315/80R22.5 through a Michelin Advantage program. I have done some reading about using different tires on the steer axle (365), but honestly, we're in the midst of such a steep learning cliff that I think we will wait until we research/know a bit more and possibly do something different on the steer axle the next time we get new tires.

Would anyone say, "Oh no! That's a horrible thing to do!"?

What additional things besides mount and balance should we expect the tire shop to do? Should they do an alignment? Should we make any special requests of the shop, e.g. mount the tires with the date code facing outward, anything special to ask for with regard to valve stem extensions?
Anything else that the shop might ask us that we should already have an answer in mind for?

Finally, any recommendations for a place to do the work near Hendersonville or Asheville, NC? Or, possibly, near Richmond or Williamsburg, VA?

[davidbrady]

Hi Patti,

You would get the XZA2 Energy 315/80R22.5 tire. I would definitely stick with the 315 for the steer axle. Let others with more experience experiment and report back to us with proper part numbers before jumping on the 365 bandwagon. AFIK, we have only one member who runs 365's on his steer axle. Also, you'd want to weigh your coach to see if you need the extra capacity. My LXi was relatively light on its steer axle; I got away with running 100 psi in my 315 steer tires.

I run Centramatics and have for years. There's evidence that tires can slip on their rims rendering traditional weight balancing useless. Some folks prefer not to balance the drive and tag axle tires but I run Centramatics on all axles. Stay away from Equal, which is a package of beads poured into the tires to facilitate balancing. Equal requires special valve filters to prevent schrader valve air leaks. Centramatics takes the beads and puts them in an exterior rim mounted between the Alcoa wheel and the brake drum.

I've never had this type of work done in the Asheville, NC area. A Michelin RV Dealer locator search brings up:

Snider Tire Inc.
4989 Hendersonville Rd
Fletcher, NC 28732

I put a call into Jim at Snider and asked if he had six fresh XZA2 Energies. There's a problem with backorders but he's checking for me. I'll let you know.

[cmillsap]

I would replace tires with Michelin XZA2 ENERGY. These LXi have been running and steering/driving beautifully on 315/80r/22.5 tires for years.

Changing to 365s is an unnecessary expense. I would invest the money in adding a Safe-T-Plus steering unit to the steer axle if Corey has not already done so.

Also, I would weigh the bus for axle weights and inflate the tires to carry the resulting weights. With the weight distributed properly across all three axles, many LXis are light enough on the front axle to run Michelins @ 100psi or not much more than that.

[pattic777]

Thank you for the responses.

We did a front/back weigh last week:
Steer axle: 13200 lbs
Drive axle: 32060 lbs

We didn't record the information from the weight rating label.

[davidbrady]

Hi Patti,

Was that with full fuel, full fresh water tank, empty grey and black tanks, and you and Duane sitting in the seats? I ask because your steer axle is quite a bit lighter than what most LXi owners report. At 13200 lb you don't need 365's, 315's are plenty adequate.

[ernie ekberg]

I have Centrimatics on all wheels, also.[/b]

[pattic777]

Regarding the weighing - it probably was not full of fuel nor of fresh water, and only one occupant (driver). We'll try to do better before we weigh it again (and will probably try to do a 4-corner weigh too).

Regarding Centramatics - do most tire places have them? Do we purchase them and take them in with us when we get the tires done?

We are now thinking that we will drive the bus from North Carolina to DFW and get the tires here.

[davidbrady]

Patti,

Jim at Snider Tire in Hendersonville, NC got back to me and said that they can't get them, but Arlington TX has 23 315's in stock and Michelin is going back into production on July 5th but new production tires won't be available till 3 to 4 weeks later.

[cmillsap]

Patti,
The next time you weigh your bus, weigh each individual axle to determine the weight distribution between the drive and tag axles. Of the 32,060#s combined weight, no more than 23,000#s max should be loaded on the drive axle.

The 13,200#s light load presently on the steer axle may indicate that the tag axle is not carrying its fair share of the load and the drive axle is carrying too much of the load.

Not to get too technical, suffice it to say that if you increase the air pressure on the tag axle air bags, it will result in adding weight to the tag and steer axles and removing weight from the drive. The tag axle is rated to carry 13600#s max.

If you get the weight distributed properly across all three axles, the bus will drive the best.

[davidbrady]

Hi Patti,

You need to order Centramatics directly from the manufacturer: http://www.centramatic.com/ They're located in Alvarado TX.

Centramatic is a wonderful company to work with. I've had tire shops damage the rings when servicing tires; Centramatic has sent me free replacements!