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Finished the other side and took it for a drive. YES! Success!
Totally obvious difference in handling. Way more responsive and far less "floaty". Ride is no more harsh than the stock tires were. Big difference in how easy it rolls and coasts though. Re-calibrated speedo for the taller tires and took it up to 70mph. Super smooth and totally quiet. RPM's at 70mph were only 2200. The coach just cruises straight and steady without constantly correcting the steering.
It's unfortunate that the trend in RV's is to leave the wimpy little tires that come on the E350's and E450's when putting a giant motorhome body on it. Blow-outs are common and most just think it's a normal part of the RV experience. It doesn't have to be. Most of these tire blowouts are simply because the tires aren't spec'd properly. And on top of that, they use All Season light truck tires. I can see using All Season tires where you NEED them, but on an RV you're talking about picking tires that aren't ideal for 90% of it's use just in case you need them in those 10% situations. I'd much rather have highway rib tires on something I'll be using on the highway 90% of the time.
Anyway, I'm happy with the "experiment" so far. In theory it had a lot of advantages, and now that it's done the theories held true. Like I said, the only downsides were cost and some mod labor on my part. Unfortunately for any of you that would consider doing this on your coach, you'd probably never find anyone that would do it for you. I had to beg the wheel distributor to even sell me the single wheels for use on a dual front end. Liability crap and all. I've done all kinds of wheel and tire swaps that aren't "supposed" to work or are "by the book". As long as the physics and theory is solid, there's nothing wrong with doing something that's a little out of the ordinary. I'm glad I took a chance and did this mod!
Here's a couple last pics. Before and after on the front, and a shot of how much better the brake cooling should be.
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