FWIW, As a former tire store manager and ASE master auto tech, racecar driver/fabricator, performance driving instructor, and RV'r... I'll share with you that I recently bought Bridgestone R500 to replace Michelins that came on my '97 Ford Class C (225/75-16 load E).
I never liked the squishy feeling of the Michelins on the RV. I couldn't feel the road, and semi's made my rig drive dog-legged as they would pass. I know everyone touts Michelins as 'The Shizzle' but I totally lost confidence in Michelin after peeling a tread and blowing a tire while heading to Quartzite last January. I'm an old tire guy, and I religiously inspect and air my tires even when out on the road traveling. I am totally obsessed with preventative maintenance and preparation because I never want to break down on the road. I'm even more concerned with the thought of a tire blow out on a 14,500 lb vehicle at speed. I had just aired the tires an hour earlier, the tire didn't strike anything in the road, we were on smooth pavement in cool weather, and the tire just peeled because it was time. Fortunately, the blow out was an inside dual, so it didn't take out the whole side of the coach, and I still had the outside dual to limp to the next exit. The tire took out the mudflap and damaged the wet bay but we were able to continue our trip. After the fact, I poked around on the forums and read Michelin light truck tires have a habit of peeling right at 4 years, and mine was right at 3yrs 11mos... according to the date of manufacture code.
Over the years, I've learned there are several tire brands that I will never buy or use. I've never liked Goodyears because I saw way to many of them come in with problems. Despite all the marketing hype, they were no better than generic house brands. Firestone's quality was marginal back in the day but they really improved right after Bridgestone bought them out.
I have consistently been impressed with Bridgestone on my trucks and I decided to buy the Bridgestone R500 highway tire. It's a commercial rated tire and the price was much better than the Michelins or Goodyears. I also wanted to stay with a national brand tire in the rare event I encounter an issue thousands of miles from home, plus they are speed rated to 112mph. Bridgestone supplies semi truck tires, so worst case I could pull into a truck stop and have the order a tire for me. So after buying my Bridgestones in June I put on about 5000 miles on road trip from California to the East Coast and back (July/August). I was particularly impressed with how quiet and smooth rolling they were on the RV. The tires have a very controlled stable road feel. My RV handling dramatically improved, and the rig feels so much better when Semi's blow past.
Shopping prices, I was surprised to find Costco and Firestone (company store) were the same cost out-the-door. I didn't go with Costco because they wouldn't install the tires on an RV, and they wouldn't provide their free road hazard coverage because it was labeled as a commercial tire. So, I ordered my Bridgestones through a local Firestone store, and they installed them no problem. You can buy an optional road hazard warranty at Firestone, but if you do the math you'd have to kill two tires before the money works in your favor. Since road hazard was dang near the price of another tire, I just bought a 7th tire as my 'road hazard' tire 'to-go.' I had them mount it as spare (I didn't want to keep any of the Michelins as spare). BTW, my second choice tire would have been the Firestone Transforce, for a few dollars less.
