Tires: Mixing Tire Brands on Duals, bridgestone r187, dual tire


Question
Barry, I blew a inner dual tire on a motorhome less than 1/4 mile away from the location where I store it for winter (I live in the frozen state of MN).  So I limped it to the storage facility last fall and put the hydraulic jacks down to unload the axle so the other tire would survive winter storage.  Now, spring is right around the corner and I need to replace the tire.  My spare tire is a Michelin XZA (which is still unused, but more than likely original equipment which dates it to 1994 - maybe not safe to use) 8R19.5 and the tires currently on the duals are Bridgestone R187 8R19.5 (which are less than 50% wore out).  My question is can I safely mix a Michelin of the same size in with Bridgestones on the same dually axle? or is the risk to great of over stressing one or both tires which could lead to another blow out? or would I be better off replacing the inner dual with another Bridgestone brand new replacement?

By the way, the Bridgestone R187 tires claim to support up to 3525 lbs max at 110 PSI and my motorhome fully loaded (which is 95% of all miles I put on) in the rear is 13,500 lbs, so that would indicate the tires are almost at maximum load at virtually all times and I usually run the tires at 105PSI on the duals.  I have checked my tire temperature multiple times on 200 mile trips during the heat of the summer and never seem to get "hot".  Do you have a recomendation of what PSI should be used for my scenario?

I was thinking about putting on the Michelin spare tire mixed in with the other Bridgestones, equalize the tire pressures, and take it for a 50 mile drive and feel for any difference in tire heat.  Just trying to get by with the least expense, any input would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks and hear from you soon, Curt.

Answer
Curt,

Dualed tires should be matched up as close as possible - and different brands would be a deal breaker.

Work with a tire dealer to work out the details - too many unknowns to deal with using this format.

As far as the pressure is concerned:  105 psi seems OK, but it wouldn't hurt to use 110.

BTW, the temperature you are interested in can't be measured - inside the tire - but you can get an idea by measuring the pressure buildup.  You probably won't see more than a 7 psi buildup - and that's good.