Anticipating retiring...

[HoosierDaddy]

I have read many posts by my Newell friends concerning replacing tires on our Newells. I thought it would be interesting to know what the axle weights are on my '93as I try to determine the best tire choice for my needs. I took it to a local scale house owned by a friend of mine...He let me take my time and weigh each axle. The results are as follows:
front 13,500
front and rear 36,500
All 3 axles 40,200
rear and tag 26,000
tag only 3,740
I had the air pressure on the tag axle set at 24psi for above weights.
Varying the pressure on the tag axle resulted in the following weights borne by the tag axle only:
30 psi 4500
35 psi 4800
40 psi 5600
With the tag set at 40 psi I flipped the tag axle switch..It took 2 minutes for the weight carried by the tag to be reduced to 2850. At that time the tag gauge read approximately 10 psi but was venting very slowly and I had to move on.
My local dealer priced 11R24.5 Firestone FS 507 G rated at $527.00 installed. He thought H rated would be $40.00 more but didn't think I would need them.

[Richard and Rhonda]

I just looked at the Michelin load range chart because that is what I have saved on the laptop. Load range G will not get you to the 13500 you need on the front axle. This is a common situation with Newells, the front is near the top of the load range. You might want to do a search about front tires and look into the metric Michelin that will give some additional carrying capacity on the front.

[fulltiming]

Newell recommends that nothing less than H rated tires be used on the front of a Model 2000 coach (1990 up). As an alternative, 305/75r24.5 add extra load carrying capacity but officially you wheels will still limit you to 14,400. Fortunately, Alcoa's rarely fail but overloaded tires routinely fail. I have used the 305/75r24.5 with great success but they are hard to find and VERY pricey. They are too wide to be used anywhere other than the front and tag axles.

I am envious of the low weights you are getting. With my water tank 35% full, my wastewater tank 50% full, my fuel 72% full and my propane ~70% full and the part time 'stuff' I carry, I run about 14,000 pounds on the front and 44,090 total weight.