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Fall 2019 - Tire Roundup Request for 185R14


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****  added later: scroll down approx 30 lines to see a "round-up" ****

Hi all, my '86 New Horizon has 16 years old tires - obvously, time to replace, I plan all 7.  I think I'll only put 2-3k miles at most for the next 5 years (full retirement at that time!) so I am good with budget tires.

Reading many past articles, I see many good candidates & a lot of great info.  But it's been a few years since we collected a "buyer's guide".  Please tell me what you know & we can make a good one now!

If y'all can share your wisdom, or at least your recent observations on available tires (include full size spec), source (if known) and approx prices, I'd be happy to turn this post into a table of tires as-of Fall 2019.

So bottom line from prior articles gives me some nice basic guidelines - note, yes options can be taken, this is "basic".  (Could go slight bigger or smaller circumference, could go slightly narrower or wider - lots of technical info is in those earlier articles too.)  Feel free to include tires that vary slightly from the basic size.

FRONT:  185R14 at least 8 ply, Load C or D
 REAR:  185R14 at least 6 ply, Load C or D

Question One - does 8 ply usually shift a tire into "D" Load Range?  (I plan to get 7 same tires all the way around, unless prices skyrocket to do so.)

Question Two - do modern Light Truck tires come in 6-ply & 8-ply....combined with Radial?  In my day, radials only had belts not the criss-crossing plys, so multi-ply tires were bias ply & "6-ply radials" did not compute.

Question Three - What brand & model & price are good to get?  (I'll compile into a nice list for others with the same question over the next couple years.)  Me, I'm looking for a budget tire - I'll do 2k-3k miles a year max for the next 5-6 years.

Question Four - Goforms brand still available in our 185R14, load range C/D spec?  I'm having a hard time finding them.

Thanks all!
.

.

************************************************
*  Tire Brief Round-Up
*  September 2019
* **********************************************

Thanks to great advice here, I quickly settled on the Hankooks.  We didn't wait for Walmart only because we needed quicker delivery & did not get a warm & fuzzy from the Montrose, Co Walmart service dept - instead we used Big O tires in the Denver metro area, they could find & replace 7 tires on a days' notice.

Walmart    "Hankook VanTRa LT RA18 185R14 102/100R D Tire"
    $74 per tire, plus $15 install fronts/spare or $25 on duallies, add $10 per tire for road hazard.
    HINT Walmart briefly posts widely different prices, if you see $68 or lower, IMMEDIATELY BUY WHEN YOU SEE IT.

Big O      "Hankook VanTRa LT RA18 185R14 102/100R D Tire"
    $85-ish per tire, plus $25-30 each for install.  We paid $850 for all 7 tires out-the-door.  Road Hazard is only good for 3 years, so we skipped it.

Tires-Easy: "Hankook VanTRa LT RA18 185R14 102/100R D Tire"
    $106 per tire, shipping might be free might not, find your own installer

Tires-Easy.Com    Goform G325 185R14C D/8PR BSW Tires (Load D, 8 ply)     
    MUST CALL for price...tell them a friend paid $60 a year or so back (thanks Linda S!), see what you get
    This was THE budget go-to tire a few years ago here on toyotamotorhome.org...

TireRack.com    Yokohama Y356 - Size: 185/0R14 - Load D, belted not ply? ask about it
    $117, shipping extra, they recommend installers & possibly this price includes it, this was the only offering I found at TireRack

************************************************
*  End of Brief Round-Up  
* **********************************************   

Edited by tstockma
add results of my tire search
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For example....I am hoping for tires more in the budget price point, and yet this is an excellent tire:

Tires-Easy.Com    Hankook RA18 185R14 D/8PR BSW Tires      Load D, 8 ply    $106.16 (9/16/2019)

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How about your preferred tire for 68 bucks at Walmart. Pick them up at your local store so no shipping. Just ask first about installation. Many Walmarts can't do our tires anymore because they don't have the right equipment.

Linda S

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hkook-VanTRa-LT-RA18-185R14-102-100R-D-Tire/401349831?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227157705261&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=268131363569&wl4=aud-566049426865:pla-468216189834&wl5=9032372&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=401349831&veh=sem 

No gobbledygook about specs. We have been doing this for a million years and this is the right tire. Warning, don't expect this price to last long. If you want them buy them now

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To try to keep things simple, Toyota shipped the '1-Ton' DRW C&C (in 1986) to the motorhome manufactures with 185r14 Load Range C tires. At their maximum inflation pressure of 50psi they were rated to carry 1600lb in a single application.

A 185R14 load range D at their maximum pressure of 65psi are rated to carry 1875lb in a single application.

Compared to other sizes, the selection of 185R14 tires is relatively small. Most available are LR D. There are only a few in LR C. Other sizes in LR D that will work (but I see no point in them) are 195R14 and 195/75R14. I know of only 1 or 2 in each size.

To tell if they're LR C or LR D? Check the Maximum Inflation Pressure. LR C is 50psi. LR D is 65psi. There are no LR E in our size.

Way back in the last Century, tires were rated by the number of 'plies'. 6 plies = LR C. 8 plies = LR D. In this Century there is an International shift to refer to a tire's 'Load Index'. A 185R14 LR D (6 ply) is a 102/100.

Some tires are marked as 185R14C. In this case, the 'C' does not indicate LR C, rather 'Commercial'. They can be either LR C or LR D.

Some tires are marked as LT185R14. In this case, the 'LT' indicates 'Light Truck'. They can be either LR C or LR D.

You might be offered tires marked ST185R14. Here the 'ST' indicates 'Special Trailer'. You do not want these. They are not designed for 'steered' or 'driven' wheels even if they are rated as LR D.

Any tire whose size begins with a 'P' (eg P195/70R14) is a passenger care tire and does not have the load carrying capacity of an LR C or LR D.

That's all I can think of as 'pointers' for now. :)

Be prepared, when you walk into a tire shop, for the tire 'experts' at the counter to treat you like a fool by telling you that your '185R14' size request is "missing the middle number". They're just too young (or too old and have forgotten) that pre ~1968 ALL tires had no 'middle number'.

Searching online sites for the size, they'll also ask for a 'middle number'. Some sites will offer '-' or 'None' or '0' as an option, some won't.

Searching by 'Vehicle' will have no luck finding a Toyota 'Dolphin' or 'Sunrader'. I don't even remember any site showing a 'Toyota C&C DRW'. My best success is from searching for a 1986 VW Vanagon, which had as standard equipment 185R14 LR D.

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That is a great deal on those Hankook tires if you can pick them up.

I've been happy (so far) with my Thunderer Ranger R101 185R14 102/100Q TH0304

$66.50 each total with shipping and tax.  You take them to a local shop to install/balance

I had some issues getting my tires properly balanced.  Most car tire shops don't have the right adapters to properly hold our rims.  I had to go to a local truck tire shop to find someone with the right tools to properly balance them.

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4 hours ago, AtlantaCamper said:

I had some issues getting my tires properly balanced.  Most car tire shops don't have the right adapters to properly hold our rims.  I had to go to a local truck tire shop to find someone with the right tools to properly balance them.

I've heard that. When they buy a new balancer, I imagine many make the business decision to not buy whatever sized adapter we need if they only get to use it a couple of times a year.

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4 hours ago, Derek up North said:

When they buy a new balancer, I imagine many make the business decision to not buy whatever sized adapter we need if they only get to use it a couple of times a year.

I think you are exactly right here.  There is an add-on light truck tire adapter one can get but almost nobody has it for their car tire balancer.  The problem is that the largest diameter standard adapter can  just barely hold these tires and so that's what they try and use.  At the proper truck tire shop the fellow there went off on how bad of an idea this was because this doesn't offset the tire properly on the tool and so they put the weights in the wrong spot.   Begrudgingly, he said it was OK to use the car tire balancer with the correct adapter.  

You can look and see if your shop is using the right adapter because it will be a two piece adapter that is very deep to accommodate the offset of the dually rim.  If your rim is being held directly to the base plate of the balancer with an adapter that just barely fits it is NOT right.

I've always had issues with vibrations due to poor balancing at highway speeds, but now that I've been to the truck shop to do my balancing on all 7 tires I simply cannot believe how SMOOTH the ride is.  Really, it was noticeable.  

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Sweet - nice info!  Linda & Derek & Atlanta - you nailed it, the Walmart Hankook is pretty unbeatable.  I was about to call Tires-Easy for actual final price on the Goform, but that Hankook combined with actually being able to get service at any Walmart across the land after installation  is a no-brainer.

I'm contacting Walmart today to confirm prices & get set up.   I'll post "summary findings" in this thread, in my original post at top, so future readers can quickly find the "as of Sept 2019" info.

 

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I find that when you try to contact a person instead of just buying from the internet when there's a super cheap price like that, the super cheap disappears. One shot internet specials that don't last long. 

Linda S

Yup just clicked on that link again and the price I get now is 73.98

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Yeah - I got the $74 when i looked at Walmart as well - it's still good enough, but we're planning a trip to Western Colorado so need tires delivered to Montrose - and talking to the staff out there in the Montrose Walmart, I ended up with pretty low trust in the store's ability to install.  Not enough to have tires delivered 250 miles from home & depend on them during a roadtrip.

I found Big O here in southeast Denver metro area a bit costlier but they're able to install the exact same Hankooks before we leave town for the trip - so higher cost, but immediate peace of mind & assured safety.  So I'm reluctantly going with that.

It's been a rough summer for Diane & I on a couple fronts, and taking a week now in the rig will be an extremely welcome break.

Edited by tstockma
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Good thought Derek, and darn, no, I heard a price out-the-door that was "good enough" given our 3 day window, and pulled the trigger. 

$850 for all 7 installed & out-the-door.  Skipped an extra $100 (or a bit under) for Road Hazard, both Walmart & Big O said that would only go for 3 years & that's not long enough to be worth it - we'll be lucky to break 5k miles in 3 years.  One ruined tire of course would turn that into a bad decision, but we'll take our chances.

Edited by tstockma
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  • 2 weeks later...

Final word  - 9-day shakedown cruise of 700+ miles went fine, especially regarding tires - other than losing 2 hub caps from tire shop apparently not doing great job with those.  (Yes Big O will replace.)   The Hankooks "just worked" & with regular pressure checks, doubt I'll even think about them again for the next 10 years, when I'll once again replace, because of age not wear.

Here's the rig at 11,312 feet in elevation - and yup esp with the 3-speed automatic, it was a slow climb.

Monarch1_20190925_xsm.jpg.2ae592abdbba5f0bcb0fbdb59e392991.jpg

 

Edited by tstockma
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  • 7 months later...

Thank you, Linda S. for the no-nonsense link to the Hankook tires and plainly stating that these  are the right tires. I had 6 windows open trying to compare sizes, codes, and ratios.

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Priority tire is the current good selection winner.    I know my tires will rot away in the driveway instead of wearing out so want an inexpensive tire.   Remember we are in a world market,  because a tire is not heavily advertised in the US does not automatically make it an inferior tire or cheap junk.  I have had GoForms on my Toy for 4 years and 25,000 miles with no issues and they still look good! 

 

https://www.prioritytire.com/by-size/185r14-tires/?fbclid=IwAR2OrIsL21ayTxeXDBr0hoIYGp5tjk0uPkf3P1rckEOr9wYRiKdEqzZGl3c

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  • 1 month later...

I'm having no luck finding the preferred 195/75R14D Hancook or Yokohama tires for my Sunrader.  Have any of you tried or heard anything about these: Otani tires?

MK1000,  SIZE195R14,  LOAD INDEX106/104,  SPEED RATING Q,  LOAD RANGE D (8 PLY),  TYPE COMMERCIAL

 

We just got back from a 1654 mile visit to relatives through the flat country of southeastern coastal USA.  Experienced my first blowout in 64 years of driving.  On the inside rear at 60mph.  No control problems.  My own fault:  They were too old and I knew it.  Dumb.  

Otherwise, ran like a top.  Pretty darn impressive for a 35 year old vehicle.   16mpg @ 50mph.  14mpg mixed at 50-60mph.  

 

 
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My Sunrader had 195's on it when purchased. The drivers door says LT195R14.  But 185's are a lot more available.  I'm not too keen on being the first person to use Otani tires.  What do you think?  

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I've never seen a Sunrader with a 195r14 tag and I've seen tons of them. 185r14 is plenty of tire for your rig and since all the rest of us use them I would definitely recommend that you switch. If you really want the 195's here are the Hankooks for a reasonable price on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Hankook-Vantra-RA18-195R14-106R/dp/B01G2C14U4

Linda S

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736754650_20200618_064430(2).jpg.38b4a191c648226f0e2598a77cb4ee25.jpg

Derek, you and Linda are right so much of the time, that I know it is only because you pay a lot of attention and do a lot of research....so, I am posting a picture of my door card to remove any doubt of a typo.  I'm going to put four 185's on the rear.  (5 months ago, I put 2 brand new 195 Yokos on the front.)

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It says 195/75. Back in the day 195/75/14 tires could be bought with a D load range. The only one still made is the Yokahama. It has 150lbs less load capacity than the 185r14 and almost the exact same total diameter, 1/10 of an inch difference. It is not the same as a 195r14 tire. And yes I have seen that size on a Sunrader before. It's the size listed on my Nissan but tires have changed and the 185r14 is actually an upgrade

Linda S

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  • 1 month later...

So I had a look at the sticker on the drivers door on my "83 Shorty Sunrader and the Tires specified by Sunrader are F78-14s  all around [20 psi front and 36 psi rear]. Vintage tire conversion charts show two modern equivalents [or close approximations] for the F78-14s: P205/75R14 and P215/70R14. The P rating is obviously not applicable but the size and profile would be. This is quite a bit different from the 185R14s - as you can see below, based on an online tire size conversion calculator. I am guessing at the aspect ratio for the 185s. 

 

185/14 [70 or 75]

205/75R14

215/70R14

Dia

24.2/24.9

26.1

25.9

Width

7.3

8.1

8.5

Sidewall

5.1/5.5

6.1

5.9

Circum.

76/78.3

82

81.2

Revs/mile

834/810

773

791

 

In terms of choosing wheels and tires for my rig, would matching the original specs be a better choice? Admittedly, the F78-14s are a 'taller' set up in terms of final drive ratio. Better on gas - not so good on the hills. In balance, my rig only weighs 4500 lbs with full gas and water. Would I even notice a difference?

I have a 6 lug axle going in shortly and I will be adapting to 15 or 16 inch duallys unless some toyota 6 bolt dually show up soon. I can match the F78-14s with more options than the 185s.

Any answers or comments? Thanks.

I know I ask a lot of long winded questions. :)

Andy

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You could probably do singles on the back. Weigh the back portion of your rig. If your total vehicle weight is 4500 lbs. you should be fine.

Load rating and tire diameter are important. Usually the max diameter for tires is 27”. This is so it clears the wheel wells and bump stops. Each rig is different, so measure first.

I have singles and run Thunderer rangers with 15” wheels. Our weights are similar and I’ve had no problems in 5 years.

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11 minutes ago, Derek up North said:

You won't find any 15" or 16" rims that will bolt to a FF axle unless you pay $$$ for a custom made set. Everyone runs 185R14" 102/100 tires for good reason.

I think he was talking about a non Toyota axle installation if he couldn’t find a 6 lug ff Toyota axle. With his weight he could run singles.

Maybe I misread the post.

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No he was talking about a Toyota axle and yes he's not going to find any wheels that will fit. Singles would have to be custom made or adapters would have to be made. Nearest place I could find some Toyota duallies was here. 7 hour drive but in the world of finding axle upgrade stuff it's not that far. Of course always call first

http://recycler.car-part.com/Bridgewater/

Linda S

He could run singles without replacing the axle. The regular Toyota axle can handle his weight just fine and I already showed some tires that were wider and had a higher load range. 

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Sorry for the confusion about the axle. I WAS going with a single wheel solution, hopefully with a T100 axle. But a Toyota 1 ton full floater showed up for $500 CND. So I grabbed it. Didn't come with wheels. So now I'm on a wheel hunt and considering all options. Thanks for the link Linda. If that doesn't work out I am investigating a 6 to 8 bolt wheel adapter that would allow me to use GM 15 or 16 inch duallies. Or Ford. Or Dodge. The wheels are cheap and common. The adapters aren't. A 215/60 R16 tire wild give me a very similar circumference. Load rating are in the 94 to 99 range but I am still looking for ones with higher ratings.

 

My question above was whether in this process I should aim to match the original F78-14 diameter/ circumference  or those for the 185s. Is the difference significant?

Edited by akwcanoe
Clarity and spelling
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1 hour ago, akwcanoe said:

My question above was whether in this process I should aim to match the original F78-14 diameter/ circumference  or those for the 185s. Is the difference significant?

 

I don't have any specs for the F78-14 tires, but the 215/60R16XL is close enough to the 185R14 that you wouldn't notice any difference.

 

image.png.34c4254cffe5d0a4eea6bc110c55e674.png

 

image.png.db10b1ddd11d13ce5f5be4bfd1fa42e3.png

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No kidding!! Did that crazy stunt to get the Sunrader at the end of June when things were better. Not going to repeat it now for some wheels. I will ask about the cost of shipping. I did drive 8 hours to get the axle. :)

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