Thor Forums

[Joe-FL]

I have always believed that one of the most important maintenance and safety issues on any RV was the tires.

As many have suggested, weighing your RV is the first step. If you can find a place to weigh each corner that would be perfect for tire inflation guides. But in reality most of us simply pay the $10 at a truck stop to run over their scales. The print out they will provide you will have front/drive axle weight, rear axle weight, and total weight. Make sure you are loaded for travel when going over scales. If you are pulling a toad or trailer then you can weigh once with it and once without it, all for the same $10 at most truck stops.

I try to set my psi when the outside temps are in the 70's and no sun is directly on my tires. If one side of your RV is in the sun and one side is in the shade, the sunny side tires can register 2 to 4 psi more.

I purchased a good TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) several years ago which came with 6 sensors. It has been on 3 RVs and served me well.

Anyone traveling in the summer, especially out west, will always observe RVs pulled over with blown tires. There are numerous reasons for these failures, but the main ones seem to be: (1) underrated OEM tires on new RV. The RV may have come with E rated tires, but after the new owners load 2,000 pounds of gear the RV now needs G rated tires. (2) running too fast in high temps cause tires to overheat. (3) old tires that still "look" good haven't been changed for over 5 or 6 years. They become dried out and can't handle the increase in psi and temperature that comes with pulling a load in high summer temps.