Ensuring your car's tires are in good repair is a vital part of proper maintenance, of course.  It's even more important for an RV, for two reasons. 

First, the higher weights and tire pressures involved due to the size of the vehicle mean that your motorhome's tires are less tolerant of poor care.  Additionally, RV tires frequently suffer from ozone degradation, which causes the rubber to crack and break down.  Your RV may not have driven very far, but the tires are under constant stress, even when it's in storage.  Tread wear is not the most reliable indicator of age when it comes to RV tires.  Most manufacturers recommend replacement of RV tires every five to seven years, whether they appear to need it or not.

The Incorrigible's tires clearly fell into this category.  Though the tread looked fine, the tires were easily ten years old, and time had taken a toll on the sidewalls.  Note the difference in the condition of the rubber between the sidewalls that were exposed to sunlight and the edge that was protected by the wheel, above!  Running a hand around the sides of the tires revealed dangerous bulges on all six of them.  When tires are this far gone, they might as well be time bombs, and the consequences of a blowout in a 17,000-pound, 36-foot long vehicle aren't very pleasant.

To update the Incorrigible's shoes, we got a set of Goodyear tires.  Goodyear produces a range of tires for large trucks and motorhomes.   Reinforced sidewalls and modern rubber compounds improve the service life of the tire, enabling them to better sustain the stresses of high loads and long periods of storage.  

Up front, we chose Goodyear's Unisteel G949 RS tire.  The GS949 features an easy-rolling tread pattern that's designed to evacuate water and prevent hydroplaning.  "Penetration protectors" in the tread reduce the danger of punctures and unexpected flat tires.  The four G933 tires we installed at the rear have a very aggressive tread with squared-off, reinforced shoulders.  At a glance, they look like mud tires. 

The Incorrigible, like many older RVs, lacks traction control, and we've come close to getting stuck on a couple of slick RV dirt roads.  We're hoping that the heavily lugged tread of the G933s will boost our traction without negatively affecting our fuel economy.  

Many maintenance gurus recommend covering your tires with purpose-made tire cozies when parked for extended periods, to reduce the danger from ozone and ultraviolet (UV) damage.  There are also products designed to protect rubber and fiberglass from sun damage.  Rather than worry about the additional storage space required by a set of tire covers, we picked up a bottle of 303 Products' Aerospace Protectant to spray on the sidewalls.  We'll keep you posted as to how well it works.  

Additionally, the Incorrigible arrived in our driveway with cheap, mismatched wheel covers.  One of them even fell off.  Another slipped and cut one of our valve stems.  After this, we removed all four of them, which left us with rather unsightly painted steel wheels.  Something clearly had to be done.   Replacing the wheels with fancy new aluminum rims was out of the question, as that would cost thousands of dollars and put our RV budget far into the red.  Fortunately, just like with a car, there are aftermarket hubcaps and wheel simulators available to bring the shine back to your wheels.  

The wheel covers from Dicor are fortunately nothing like the cheap plastic "Wal*Mart Special" hubcaps often seen decorating unfortunate hoopties.  These 304L stainless steel full-wheel covers are available in several sizes and styles, and they're rust- and pothole-resistant .  Dicor's chrome VersaLiner wheel simulator offers the look of a new wheel and fits over your battered steel wheels without requiring the lug nuts or wheels to be removed.  

We chose a set of 16.5-inch full wheel covers, to give the Incorrigible a smoother look.   Our RV has smaller wheels than most modern motorhomes.  The 16.5-inch wheels came standard with the Ford heavy-duty chassis that underpins the Dolphin, but most Class A RVs are running nineteen- or twenty-one inch alloy wheels these days.  We've even had other RVers comment that the Incorrigible's got tiny wheels.  Dicor's big chrome wheel covers help give our wheels a bit more apparent size, as well as dressing up the rig's appearance nicely.