Newbie in Arizona

[Tucsonan]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a '94 B190 with 70K miles. The past few weekends have been filled with minor fixes and routine maintenance that are required when any vehicle is parked for a while. I am eagerly looking forward to getting it out on the road this summer and exploring the deserts with my son.

I'm sure I will have plenty of questions in the near future, ...and if there's another B190 owner in Southern Az, I would love to hear from ya!

Glad to be in the club! Rick

[Planck]

Welcome Rick, and enjoy the 190. I am on my second one, a 1993. Most important thing I would check is the age and condition of the tires. Tread depth means nothing. I have had body damaging blow outs on both 190s due to bad tires that looked good when vehicle purchased.

Phil

[Tucsonan]

Thanks for the info Phil,

I will check the paperwork when I get home from work and get back to you. They have full tread and I think they were put on in 2011. BTW, is there a recommended tire make/style?

I hope you did not have an accident when you had your blow-out. I've experienced quite a bit of swaying, so I installed some new heavy duty shocks which help quite a bit. I am also thinking about researching anti-sway bars and steering stabilizers, do you know if they are worth looking into?

So far I'm having fun with my wrenches...Thanks again, Rick

[Planck]

No recommendations on tire brand. Obviously go with what was original size. 2011 should be good to go. Check the archives here for swaying. Quite a bit of discussion on this a year or so ago. My second 190 came with the air lifts under the rear springs and the sway on this one is considerably less than my 91.

Phil

[Kentuckian]

Hi Planck,
Welcome to the forum. The best source of user tire reviews that I have found online are on "tirerack.com". I used those reviews to zero in on the tires that I just mounted on my '93. I was looking for a Made in USA tire with an aggressive tread pattern with excellent wet braking, excellent wet corning, was good on the road but also good on gravel, dirt and in snow. Most of my camping is off of forest service roads. But I wanted it well behaved on the highways between my home and the getaway spots.

My search showed me that the two top tires meeting my criteria were a Michelin and the Firestone Destination AT. The Michelins were at the top end of the price range and the Firestones towards the lower end of the price range. Based on the user ratings the Firestones were nearly as good as the Michelin's in every category. I only have about 400 miles on my new Firestones. But so far I like them. My biggest surprise was they are pretty quite on the highway. I was expecting a fair amount of roar with the aggressive tread. But I don't hear them at all. Great tires so far.

I'll just pass the Firestone Destination AT along in case you are interested in similar characteristics to my choice. By the way, be sure to have the tire place use high pressure valve stems. With 80psi in your rear tires, regular valves stems can blow out on you. I found some 2" 100psi valve stems that just reach through the hub caps.

Like you, I also just installed heavy duty shocks for a big improvement in calming swaying. Do a search on this forum for sway bars and you'll find some recommendations from other users. I have those on my wish list as well

Have fun with your B!

[Tucsonan]

Thank you both, Phil and Kentuckian,

After looking, I realized that I mistook the invoice for the tires with another one. They were put on in '04 not '11. I will start tire shopping today. Good thing really, ...I was wondering about the brand I had on it, "Chaparral, Highway"?? I am not really familiar with that brand, and they were only $105.00 each in '04. The tires only have 10K miles , ...probably why they fooled me. I will be using service roads as well, I will want something that will withstand a sharp rock or two.

Thanks again for the "tirerack.com and valve stem" advice, Rick

[Tucsonan]

Thanks again Phil and Kentuckian,

I just put a set of the F.S. Destination AT tires on. You were right, little if any tire noise for such a deep tread. They improved the overall stability of the rig too, ...I think the sidewalls are much stiffer than the set I had before. Of course, ...the previous set was quite old.

Thanks again for the advice, Rick