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Mis-Mounted 365 Tags…Now what?
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Greetings from near Kennebunkport, Maine
Aside from having steering wheel wander, since delivery of our new to us H3, I have felt vibration in my seat and floor board when traveling at interstate highway speeds. My wife can feel it also. This is despite the fact Liberty Coach had new Michelin tires installed all the way around immediately prior to delivery. (this coach has 365 steers / 315 drives / 365 tags & also has centramatics on each axle – they were not brand new)
I think (after having read several old threads here) I may have discovered the problem. It is clearly evident the 365 TAG tires were not centered when inflated / mounted as indicated by the small circles on each tire that are next to the wheel rim, therefore, it would seem each tire is now somewhat oblong as opposed to round.
I have informed Liberty of this issue and they, without any reservation or hesitation, let me know they will have the tire company check the issue. I have always been told Liberty pays extra to have all 365 tires “true-ed” to ensure they are round.
Soooooo, at this point, wondering what the long term “fix” is….
Is it RE-truing and RE-balancing the tires the fix, or something else? Upon return to Stuart, the tires will have about 4,500 miles on them.
Sincere thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience!
P. S. – all other tires appear to have been properly mounted
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8 Replies
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First, there is a correct way to mount tires and a wrong way. When tires are mounted the wheel should be horizontal and preferably sitting on something like a 5 gallon pail. Then when hit with air and the beads seated the wheel and tire should be concentric eliminating runout. As you point out there is a ring molded into the tire and it shows near the wheel rim. It should be equally spaced from the wheel rim all the way around. If it is not the tire bead should be broken and the tire reinflated with the wheel horizontal so you do get the concentricity needed.
But runout can also be associated with the wheel not being concentric with the hub. Your coach has hub piloted wheels and to ease intallation there is space between the wheel and the hub. With the wheel off the ground and using a dial indicator running along the tire as it is rotated you will see if you have any runout. If you do rotate the tire so the greatest amount of runout is at the top, loosen the lug nuts which will let the wheel and tire assembly drop a little, re-tighten the lug nuts and recheck for runout.
If I am not mistaken Michelin has an allowable limit for runout and I think it is 80″. A competent tire dealer will know what it should be. The number I gave is a guess.
If you have done all of the above and you have runout greater than the Michelin limit you have a tire problem and it needs to be replaced.
BTW, any tire dealer that doesn’t understand what I described above isn’t worth much.
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The first photo shows the circle at the top of the tire. Sorry, my arrow should have been extended past the top of the chrome wheel, but that is the thin rubber circle edge above the wheel edge.
The second photo shows the bottom of the tire reflecting the circle cannot be seen / is covered by the wheel.
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100% with Jon–hope the bad mount didn’t ruin tire. Like driving on a egg. Sorry for the rain on your problem but simple things that could be avoided bug me. I know JON did/does mount his own tires and wouldn’t let that slip. Might be just that tire–Good pictures..
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Thank you both… so, shaving or true-ing the tires will not work?
(I of course will pursue as recommended above, yet ignorantly guessing they will simply want to shave them…?
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Learn something every day as I didn’t know there was a right and wrong way to mount a tire. Just had (8) 12R 22.5’s Firestones mounted a couple months ago and they run like glass. Just like the Bridgestones i took off.
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The topic of tire runout is fairly broad and often is masked by uninformed tire people by balancing. If the miles on the tires are not extensive simply mounting and checking for runout as I described above is all that is needed.
But if not corrected the bottom line is there might not be much you can do to salvage the tire. Shaving is a short term solution, but guess what happens when you shave material off of one side of the tire to make it round? It ends up weighing more where you didn’t shave it.
Michelin has a commercial tire handbook that is almost 300 pages and if I have time I’ll find and post a link here. But do a search and find the book on line and study the section about this topic so some ill informed tire changer doesn’t cop an attitude with you and lead you down the wrong path. These tires are very technical and if mounted properly are going to perform very well.
BTW, the eccentricity you experience is a result often cased by tire changers leaving the wheel on the vehicle (in a vertical position) and mounting the new tire which gravity pulls down on one side when inflating.
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We mount hundreds of tires per year on my trucks and use Murphy’s Tire Soap. It looks like grease and apply it by hand concentrated (we do not dilute). Most tire shops dilute and spay it on. Very seldom do we break the bead and re inflate because the bead seating ring gap is not consistent but this is something everyone needs to check.
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If your photos were taken with the tire under load (on the ground), then the photos are of a normal tire/wheel assembly… you need to jack up the tire and then measure the distance between the “beauty ring” and the wheel flange. Using a steel ruler, look for a variance beyond 2/32″.
St. Lucie Tire and Battery in Stuart FL is a longstanding Michelin dealer and they have great service technicians. Ask for John or Woody and they will take care of you and your Michelin tires.
Pat
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