Checking Motorhome tyre pressure

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Nickorchard

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Autotrail 590 EK
Hello
We recently bought an Auto-trail EK 590
I wanted to check the tyre pressures which need to be 75 PSI

Took it to local garage and the supermarket garage however the compressor max pressure was 60 PSI

Where do people take Moto homes to check tyre pressures or do I need to get my own compressor?

Cheers

Nick
 
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I bought the VonHaus inflator from Amazon when it was on offer and it arrived yesterday. And today I sent it back.

Advertised as being able to pump to 120psi. Worked OK on the front tyres at 3.8bar. But when I tried raising the pressure of the rear ones from 5.0bar to 5.5bar (about 80psi) it was useless. Run for a while then cut out, then started again and cut out again and so on. Pressure did not move much and the only thing that was going up was the temperature of the short connector hose which became almost too hot to touch.

Got our trusty Fiat pump out that came with the motorhome and it took a couple of minutes each side to get from 5bar to 5.5bar.
 
Upvote 1
peterc10 said:
I bought the VonHaus inflator from Amazon when it was on offer and it arrived yesterday. And today I sent it back.

Advertised as being able to pump to 120psi. Worked OK on the front tyres at 3.8bar. But when I tried raising the pressure of the rear ones from 5.0bar to 5.5bar (about 80psi) it was useless. Run for a while then cut out, then started again and cut out again and so on. Pressure did not move much and the only thing that was going up was the temperature of the short connector hose which became almost too hot to touch.

Got our trusty Fiat pump out that came with the motorhome and it took a couple of minutes each side to get from 5bar to 5.5bar.
Click to expand...
Had two Fiat pumps overheat and die.
Been using my Vonhaus one about a year without any problem.
 
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Got one for Christmas from my brother in law , bought direct from VonHaus, lots of fakes on Amazon for loads of things.

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Also, if you pumped up the front tyres at 3.8 bar, what time elapsed before you started to do the rears at 4.5bar? The instructions state that you shouldn’t use it continually for more than 10 minutes I think withour letting it cool. I’ve regularly topped up the rears on our van at 79 p.s.i. Without issue. I suppose it will also depend on the starting pressure. I imagine it would take several spells to get to 79p.s.i. from empty.
 
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Ingwe said:
Also, if you pumped up the front tyres at 3.8 bar, what time elapsed before you started to do the rears at 4.5bar? The instructions state that you shouldn’t use it continually for more than 10 minutes I think withour letting it cool. I’ve regularly topped up the rears on our van at 79 p.s.i. Without issue. I suppose it will also depend on the starting pressure. I imagine it would take several spells to get to 79p.s.i. from empty.
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About a minute at most on each front tyre. Then moved on and, as I said, I was increasing from existing 5bar to 5.5bar. Started playing up as soon as I tried it.

The good part is that I have now got my refund from Amazon.

I am afraid I was not impressed. Especially when my Fiat pump only took 2 minutes to put the extra 0.5bar in each tyre.
 
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peterc10 said:
About a minute at most on each front tyre. Then moved on and, as I said, I was increasing from existing 5bar to 5.5bar. Started playing up as soon as I tried it.

The good part is that I have now got my refund from Amazon.

I am afraid I was not impressed. Especially when my Fiat pump only took 2 minutes to put the extra 0.5bar in each tyre.
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Have you got any fillings left running at those pressures Peter?

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Nickorchard said:
Hello
We recently bought an Auto-trail EK 590
I wanted to check the tyre pressures which need to be 75 PSI

Took it to local garage and the supermarket garage however the compressor max pressure was 60 PSI

Where do people take Moto homes to check tyre pressures or do I need to get my own compressor?

Cheers

Nick
Click to expand...
Hi My moho needs 79psi at rear, 72 at front. I went online to and bought a dial gauge which reads up to 100 psi. Plenty of decent ones available.
 
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If you have DeWalt power tools, the DeWalt compressor shares the same battery, and I have found to be very good. It has a 12v cable, but not needed if you run it on battery and so much easier to move between tyres. Some reviews say it doesn't have psi display option, but that is incorrect.
 
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I have an Air Hawk Pro, which has worked fine for several years, and it is battery charged so not need to plug it into the lighter socket. It has normally enough charge to do all four tyres. Remember tyre pressure varies due to outside temperature, so when temperature changes check it again, however always on a 'cold' tyre.

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I tried this pump which is attacked to my Air Suspension = SENA Air Compressor 12V 150PSI, It couldn't handle the 80 PSI needed for the rear, took way too long to get to just 50 PSI, so I purchased an MAC07 Tyre Inflator/Mini Air Compressor 12V Heavy-Duty, and this done the job.
 
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Fiat specify 80psig / 5.5 bar for my 2 year old Ducato based Bürstner as they did for my previous Knaus. Suspension like a F1 car, hear that cutlery drawer rattle! I'm tempted to reduce to 70 or 75....or maybe 72 or perhaps 67. Question - does this invalidate my insurance? Has anybody asked?
 
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Our moho says the pressures should be 80psi front & back. We feel every stone on the road. Should I lower the pressures? We have tyrepal monitoring system on the tyres.
 
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Another tip is to use the onboard compressor and reservoir if you have air suspension, or simply upgrade air suspension with such. Just tee in a line to a standard gauge with about 10m of 5 or 6mm lighweight PE line with an isolator and hey presto you have an air line - you are free of ever needing any garage air line!

I've even used mine to lower front tyre pressures to 30psi to help me escape a muddy field, using the reservoir to boost them all back to the standard 75 in no time. Also come in handy for lilos's, air mattresses, inflatable rafts and awnings, air power tools, even using it as to blow debris out of stuff being fixed :)

Nothing worse than trying to inflate a large high pressure MoHo tyre with one of those little cheap garage units, which tend to burn out before achieving pressure in the 1st tyre.
 
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peterc10 said:
Are we talking about the same model? Mine is definitely called VonHaus, not VanHaus. It is the one in the link posted by Riverbankannie
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I started the mis-spelling off on this thread as I had just retrieved Christmas baubles from the loft. They are stored in Van Heusen shirt boxes - they are quite old!
Sorry your Von Haus did not work out for you.

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Being a cheapskate I have a Lidl pump a bit like the Ring version but much cheaper :xblush:. It works fine but I do double check the pressures with a separate gauge.
 
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Illbeburgered said:
Fiat specify 80psig / 5.5 bar for my 2 year old Ducato based Bürstner as they did for my previous Knaus. Suspension like a F1 car, hear that cutlery drawer rattle! I'm tempted to reduce to 70 or 75....or maybe 72 or perhaps 67. Question - does this invalidate my insurance? Has anybody asked?
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My Burstner manual specifies 5.5bar (80psi) for both front and rear tyres. This is idiotic. With a front max axle load of 1850kg, according to the tyresafe look-up https://www.tyresafe.org/motorhome-tyre-pressure/ the front axle tyres (at 1850kg max axle load) should be 53psi! The rears are supposed to be 80psi on the 2000 kg max axle load. This is on Michelin 225/75R 16 CP 116. But fully loaded I don't think I would ever have 2 tonnes on the back of a 3.5 tonne van! The whole topic is littered with jobsworths and misinformation. Surely the starting point must be to maintain and use the vehicle in a ro roadworthy condition (i.e. not to over-iinflate or under-inflate at any given axle load)?

Michelin themselves say "
On the front axle: refer to the manufacturer's inflation recommendations indicated on the vehicle and / or its handbook." So in other words, follow an idiot's copy-and-paste manufacturer specification and over-inflate the front tyres!!

Personally I would not even ask an insurance company about it. I too would be interested if someone has, and got sense out of them.
 
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I would recommend going by what the manufacturer recommends. You might think it is “idiot guide copy paste” but I assure you that any manufacturer producing road vehicles with all the liabilities this entails will not make their recommendations so lightly.

On the Agilis tyre Michelin specify a max load at 80psi cold. In my manual Hymer specify 80psi cold for all tyres. 80psi is not over inflation. Motorhomes run at or near full load capacity for their entire lives, whether unladen at 3100kg or fully laden at 3500kg it matters not much to the tyres which just always see near or full design loads, and much higher dynamic (bump/cornering) individual loads.

While the ride can suffer with high tyre pressures, it is part of the compromise of very stiff sidewall ‘camping’ tyres designed for a lot of standing around and always running at full load. It is much safer to run with the recommended pressure, especially on the rears. The tyres are designed to run at these pressures to minimise both rolling and sidewall flex friction which both cause damaging heat build up and tyre aging.

There is room for slightly lower pressures at the front, as other factors come into play. In addition to static loads being typically lower, the resultant increased contact patch of a slightly lower pressure improves both traction and braking performance, as the front usually providing the majority of brake force.

It’s why I run 80psi (cold) in my rears, and 75psi (cold) in my fronts. I’m always fully loaded at (uprated) 3700kg in my standard 6m Hymer B544. I don’t run TPMS, but do often stop in aires after a few hours on Autoroute at 60mph to check tyre and wheel temperatures by hand. The rears are always warmer, in July this year in full sun and 35C ambient, after 3 hours at 60mph my rear wheels and tyres became too hot to touch getting to around 75C - and this was at 80psi cold, which would be approx 95psi at 75C according to the laws of thermodynamics (I’m a chartered mechanical engineer)

If we start with a lower pressure we will have more friction and more heat, eventually reaching a proportionally higher end pressure for thermodynamic equilibrium - but we will be inflicting more damage on our tyres.

Simple advice? - just follow the handbook.
 
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Riverbankannie said:
I started the mis-spelling off on this thread as I had just retrieved Christmas baubles from the loft. They are stored in Van Heusen shirt boxes - they are quite old!
Sorry your Von Haus did not work out for you.
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I suppose it’s better than going back to Van Heusen and complaining that you couldn’t see how the shirts connected to the tyres. 🙂
 
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Inflation pressure specifications are for ambient temperatures and an increase during use is expected so factored into the recommendations. Ambient temperatures are variable so the cold pressure may need adjustment if the ambient temperatures change significantly. Fiat always say 80/80psi but I go by the tyre manufacturer’s recommendations which are usually 80psi rear and the front varies according to the axle weight. These will usually give a hard ride especially on a Maxi base hence peoples interest in upgrades to their suspension

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Richard J said:
Inflation pressure specifications are for ambient temperatures and an increase during use is expected so factored into the recommendations. Ambient temperatures are variable so the cold pressure may need adjustment if the ambient temperatures change significantly. Fiat always say 80/80psi but I go by the tyre manufacturer’s recommendations which are usually 80psi rear and the front varies according to the axle weight. These will usually give a hard ride especially on a Maxi base hence peoples interest in upgrades to their suspension
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Though, to answer the question, I have a high pressure gauge (like a ATsafepro Tyre Pressure Gauge 100 Psi from Amazon) and a Ring RAC900 along with TyrePals. I think that just about covers it:winky:. I bought them in that order and they have all proved their worth.
 
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Richard J said:
Inflation pressure specifications are for ambient temperatures and an increase during use is expected so factored into the recommendations. Ambient temperatures are variable so the cold pressure may need adjustment if the ambient temperatures change significantly. Fiat always say 80/80psi but I go by the tyre manufacturer’s recommendations which are usually 80psi rear and the front varies according to the axle weight. These will usually give a hard ride especially on a Maxi base hence peoples interest in upgrades to their suspension
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A handy chart I think I got from a related older MHF thread shows ambient as 18 DegC yy
Tyre pressure at diff temps2.JPG
 
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kevenh said:
A handy chart I think I got from a related older MHF thread shows ambient as 18 DegC (y)
View attachment 696607
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I can't quite get my head around this. Ambient temperature is whatever the air temp is at the time. This chart seems to me to be saying that as the temperature goes up then the cold (ambient temperature) pressure should be increased to compensate. That sounds rather dodgy. Or is it just showing the risks of not releasing the pressure in the tyre as the ambient temperature increases. I am confused.
 
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Richard J said:
I can't quite get my head around this. Ambient temperature is whatever the air temp is at the time. This chart seems to me to be saying that as the temperature goes up then the cold (ambient temperature) pressure should be increased to compensate. That sounds rather dodgy. Or is it just showing the risks of not releasing the pressure in the tyre as the ambient temperature increases. I am confused.
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You're right. We shouldn't be using ambient here.
Tyre pressures are specified for an 18Deg C temp.
If you want to check & adjust tyre pressures at when a tyre is at other temps, use the chart yy
 
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