Tire Effect On Ride Quality

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:26 pm

I have the 23' rear kitchen. Weight (fully loaded) is about 12,300# with gross weight up to 14,000#+. I currently have the Bridgestone steel wall tires and will need to replace soon.

I am concerned about ride quality since there is not much weight in the unit - if the road is rough the ride can be harsh but on a smooth road the ride is great.

I was wondering if the difference in tires without the steel sidewall would help the ride? Someone told me it didn't make the ride more firm, but stopped side to side sway.

When I switch shocks I'm going to try the Bilstein model (soft ride).

Anyone with experience in this unit with both tires??

whemme · Post by **whemme** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:21 pm

Brent,

Have you weighed individually all four corners of your coach? With these individual four corner weights, you can then determine the correct air pressure for each tire and it may be significantly less than the pressure you are currently running. If you are running 80 psi in the rear duals on a 23' rear kitchen coach, you will have a rougher ride than necessary. I would venture a guess that you should be running in the area of 65 to 70 psi in you rear duals and approximately 50 to 55 psi in your fronts.

Download the tire inflation graph in the Technical Library section on this website. Use it to determine proper inflation pressure for each tire on your coach assuming that you have weighed all four corner.

I think some think that the tires with steel belts in the sidewall may ride somewhat harsher than tires with fabric sidewall belts but I have no real definitive information on that.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:44 pm

Bill, thanks for the advice; I haven't weighed the four corners; I've weighed the two axles and adjusted tire pressure based on that weight.

I've put about 45M miles on the coach and for some reason I don't notice too much difference in ride quality with 10-15# less pressure. I do notice more side to side movement at lower pressures.

bill crommett · Post by **bill crommett** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:18 pm

Brent: Remeber this one axiom: A harsh ride from well inflated tires is a lot softer than the harch stuff you will find in the ditch if a tire blows because of inadequete inflation.
For this reason I carry an infrared temperature gauge that I got from the Sears store for 40 some dollars. It takes me 35 seconds to check all of our ten tires (including the dinghy). Experience has shown that the tires on the sunny side will be 5 -10 degress warmer than the ones in the shade.

I am not arguing with Bill Hemmme's scientific approach, but I like to leave a little margin for human error (mine).