Tire Ride. What is important?

I was recently asked my opinion of Michelin tires for giving good ride. The person started with some statements to the effect that Michelin was the best manufacturer in the world and only recently had other tire companies managed to make tires that would keep their belts attached. 

This is my reply:

Not sure if I completely agree with some of your statements. I agree that Michelin will tell you that they are the best in the world but sometimes I think they say that in an effort to justify their price which many times seems to be the highest in the world.

Here is list of top 5  tire manufacturers in the world from 2012 based on sales.

Clearly the ability and technology to keep belts attached is tested severely in NASCAR (Goodyear), Indy CAR (Bridgestone/Firestone) and F1 (Pirelli 2011-2014, Bridgestone 1996-2010 ).

Does Michelin make good tires? Yes they do, but so do a number of other companies. Painting every size and type tire from any company with the same brush, is just as invalid as saying that since GM made the Vega, today's Cadillac is not so good or that since the Bugatti Veyron is the fastest car in the world they are the best in the world.

I think for large heavy duty tires with 100+ psi inflation, the sidewall is almost irrelevant for day to day ride comfort. I believe the tread area construction plays a much larger part in ride comfort than many believe.

I have heard from some Class-A owners that do use truck tires, and they say they have no problems with the ride of their tires. Having personally done ride evaluations on prototype GM, Ford, Mazda, Toyota, Fiat, and Honda cars and some trucks, for both short 2 to 8 mile evaluations as well as cross country 10 car multi week evaluations, I can tell you that tires are part of the equation but so are springs, shocks, suspension bushings, seat mounts and even wheel design.
 I once did a back to back comparison using the 4 same tires on the 4 same positions on a new Lincoln with the only a change being the style of the cast aluminum wheels and I could feel a ride harshness difference in the first mile of the evaluation. I was definitely surprised but was also convinced.

When people say "I changed from 5 year old abc tires to new cba tires the ride changed". I say why are you surprised? Your tread depth tripled among other changes, so of course the ride changed. You simply can not do a tire ride evaluation without comparing New abc tires to New cba tires on identical road under identical conditions. You certainly are not doing a valid comparison if you try and compare "long haul" tires from one company with "regional service" tires from another company. I bet than less than 10% of Class-A owners have bothered to compare tread depths when they compare tires. Most simply shop on price. Some on availability and others on company name but they seldom differentiate on type tire. They had good luck or bad luck with a tire from one company a number of years ago, so they paint all sizes and type tires from that company with the same advantages and disadvantages.

You might as well compare the ride of a Chevy Impala to a Cadillac STS (both made by GM) and ask why one is different from the other as to use the experience from someone in a Winibago 34' front gas to a Monaco 38' diesel pusher.  You need identical chassis, identical age, usage and  miles on the shocks and identical loading along with identical tread depth while driving on the same road to make a valid comparison. Oh yea, be sure you have the AC and radio off too as noise and ride comfort are related at certain frequencies.

Tires are not simple black round things. They are complex bag of compromises with ride, wear, noise, traction, fuel economy, handling, Ozone, heat resistance, and price being the interacting variables.

Morning Vibration. Why do you have it? Why does it go away? How do you minimize it?

So you get up and after a nice hot cup of coffee you finish packing the motorhome. You have enjoyed the last couple of weeks at a real nice campground and were glad you had that nice concrete pad to park on but now it's time to hit the road.
You say your goodbyes and then pull out. The interstate is only a couple miles down the road, so soon you are on that nice smooth ribbon of asphalt. Then it hits you. Just as it does almost every time you start out on a days drive you feel that vibration.

What is wrong with the RV? You had the tire tread trued just a month ago and an alignment a month before that and you even had the tire tread trued the month before that, but you still get that d....m vibration almost every time you leave a campground. There must be something wrong with the new tires as you didn't have the vibration on the old worn out tires last year.
The biggest problem is that after driving for 30 minutes to an hour the vibration goes away so when you go the the RV center or tire shop you can't show the service manager the problem.

Does this sound like you?   Do you have a "ghost" vibration that is real bothersome but almost always bothers you in the mornings. It that what's troubling you bunky?
Well I have news for you, there is a good chance what you are experiencing is tire "flatspotting".

When rubber,  Nylon or Polyester are warm and you place them under load or deform them as happens when you park and the portion of the tire in contact with the ground is flat not round, these materials take a "set" and when they cool down and the longer they are deformed the firmer that "set" becomes. Later when you start up it takes a combination of heat and flexing to work the "set" out of the tire. New tires with heavier tread rubber will need more exercising that a worn out tire. High Performance tires with Nylon cap ply will need more exercising than a tire with no Nylon in the tread area. Passenger or LT tires with Polyester body ply will need a bit more flexing that a steel body tire does. Other major contributors to the level of flatspotting the the length of time the vehicle is parked, the temperature of the tire when parked and the amount of deflection the tire takes when loaded.

There really are very few things you can do to completely eliminate this flatspotting but I can provide some suggestions on how to decrease it.

1. Ensure you have at least the minimum inflation needed to carry the load. More deflection due to overload will generate more heat. More heat means the "set" will be more pronounced with the warmer materials.

2. Give your tires as much time as possible to cool off before parking. Coolers tires take less of a "set" than warn tires. Maybe move to your campsite but park a couple feet forward of your final spot then after a couple hours move back that last couple of feet.

3. Decrease the load on the tires. Get rid of the extra load of that bowling ball collection you are hauling around in the basement storage. Less load means less deflection which means less flatspoting.

4. If you are going to park for an extended time you can inflate your tires to the max inflation they are rated for. More inflation means less deflection....see #1 above. This is something I do when I am parking for the Winter.

5. Consider running 5 or 10 or maybe even 15% more inflation than the minimum needed to carry the load but do not exceed the tire or wheel max cold inflation.

6. Cover your tires with a White tire cover. This will help keep them from heating up while parked.

7. If you have an older coach and it is on it's 2nd or 3rd set of tires you should probably consider a new set of shocks. They will help control the vibration due to flatspotting.