motorhome tyres

tonyidle said:
Funnily enough there's an excellent and (surprisingly perhaps) honest article about tyres by one of the major manufacturers in this months MMM. It said that the design of camping tyres (as opposed to commercial tyres) is nothing to do with load rating. Tyres are designed to leech a substance that helps prevent UV damage and cracking and they only do this when in regular use. Camper tyres are designed with more of the substance to improve protection because they have longer periods of inactivity. The writer was also unwilling to recommend a life for tyres. He suggested that with regular checks for sidewall cracking they could easily exceed 5 or 7 years.

Worth a read.
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Well in that case what ever is supposed to happen sure as hell don't work with the bloody Mich's !!
That was why I had to change the tyres on the Miller. almost exactly 5 years old, 35k miles on them, barely used if you looked at the tread, and the side walls cracked to hell and back !!!!
 
Yes they are nice but worth as much as the van.
 
Agree with the sunlight degradation theory.. Seen it, but that was a few years ago, maybe tyre composition has improved..

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The front tyres will wear more than the rear,but the rear tyres on a Tri axle can be prone to wear if the torsion bars on the chassis are damaged,which can be caused by rough ground or a rock or stone bouncing up.
 
Has anyone got any comments on the Dunlop SP Sport Maxx, looking for 4 for campervan.
 
I have been following this thread with great interest:)I had four Michelin camping tyres on the Dakota when we bought it, at the recent MOT the two front ones definitely needed replacing, whilst the two back ones had excellent tread on them.
All tyres were 6 years old when we bought the van, when my local service engineer took all four tyres off to inspect them, he was able to show me cracking on the "inner" walls. This cracking was NOT visible until the tyres were removed. He said this was serious enough to replace ALL of them.......after much deliberation and talking to Autotrail, Fiat, the Police, VOSA, our insurers, other tyre specialists, our motorhome dealer and my van engineer (who also owns a motorhome), each one of them said as long as you have the correct tyre for the load rating/weight, then as far as they were concerned camping tyres were NOT necessary.

Each one of them asked me how often I would be using the van and was it going to be parked up for months at a time. The answer to this was no, because we use the van everyday, as it is our sole vehicle.

Like Jaws we went for 4 new Hankooks in the end.

The van handles well, we get around 28 mpg on long journeys, don't notice any difference in noise from the previous camping tyres. I have what I feel is a quiet 3 litre engine.

My motorhome engineer has assured me that if these tyres were not suitable for heavy vans (ours is 4250Kgs) he said he would never compromise safety
on either his van, my van or any other customer's van.

Just one last point, our local habitation service engineer has said that he has seen camping tyres on motorhomes which are parked up, not used much and he has still seen cracking on the walls.

Bill:)
 
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A further thing to keep an eye on is the valve, just replaced some on a trailer that sits around, it had a flat tyre which turned out to be the valve had perished, on checking it was decided to replace them all. This shouldn't be a problem on motorhomes as they should have metal valves due to the running pressure but that doesn't mean that they do.
 
JohnM said:
I need 6 new tyres for my hobby at a cost of around £1000 ouch,i would like your opinion on whether light van tyres of the same spec would do the same job?.What do you think.
JohnM.
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Check with your insurer.

End of story!:whistle:

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Shovelheadrob said:
For what it's worth & no one will believe me anyway, biggest problem for tyres is UV degradation when left parked, I've experienced this first hand with an occasionally used trailer, the tyres that were on the side of the trailer which was most exposed to the sun suffered from severe cracking whilst the other side was fine,
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I completely agree. Living here the effect is horrendous. :(

Shovelheadrob said:
A further thing to keep an eye on is the valve, just replaced some on a trailer that sits around, it had a flat tyre which turned out to be the valve had perished, on checking it was decided to replace them all. This shouldn't be a problem on motorhomes as they should have metal valves due to the running pressure but that doesn't mean that they do.
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Yep that's another thing that I've had since living here. 5 times now in total on 2 different vehicles.
Came back to find the 2 rear valves on car in a terrible state . You'd think they'd been slashed with a knife all over.:cry:
 
maison said:
Check with your insurer.

End of story!:whistle:
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I'm not sure that's "set in Stone" as most insurance company's don't know the legal requirements for everything.

Take the VW fraternity, They have vans weighing in from 2 - 2 1/2 tons and you would be surprised how many run around with car wheels and tires on, not commercially rated ones as they are twice the cost.

When insuring our old VW camper I always asked about correct load rating etc and it's a very grey area, loads of scare stories and doom and gloom, insurance won't payout in event of an accident ETC, BUT, never has anyone had that result,

Me I'd only run tires that are upto the job and for me it will be camper tyres, but thats what I'd be happy with, not critisising anyone for any other choice

Andy
 
Drexxer said:
I'm not sure that's "set in Stone" as most insurance company's don't know the legal requirements for everything.

Take the VW fraternity, They have vans weighing in from 2 - 2 1/2 tons and you would be surprised how many run around with car wheels and tires on, not commercially rated ones as they are twice the cost.

When insuring our old VW camper I always asked about correct load rating etc and it's a very grey area, loads of scare stories and doom and gloom, insurance won't payout in event of an accident ETC, BUT, never has anyone had that result,

Me I'd only run tires that are upto the job and for me it will be camper tyres, but thats what I'd be happy with, not critisising anyone for any other choice

Andy
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Once you have asked there is no "out" for the insurer. If they say it does not matter, tell them you are making a note of the query and answer, the time, date and the name of the person you talked to.

I may be paranoid(probably am) but have had bad experience of "reputable" insurance company wriggling out of a claim.

Still, the choice is with the individual.
 
I've read of people with tyre damage in France being threatened by the flick for incorrect tyres but then again Michelin is French :LOL:
 
If you are going to do 5k in five years why have a motorhome use a hotel and don't worry about tyres

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TheDentons said:
If you are going to do 5k in five years why have a motorhome use a hotel and don't worry about tyres
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It is amazing how many used vans there are with pityfull mileage which is good news for the buyer too.
We are only doing 5k per year while still working but even retired I doubt it would be more as if I went to Portugal I think like most it would be to spend the Winter rather than touring.
 
I had 6 Mich camper tyes from e tyres fitted on my Hobby Iveco, non in the UK and supplied from Germany, there was a amazing improvement in ride as I hab been told there would be, no doubt someone will dissagree but I was told that the Michelin commercial tyres which were original were much harder rubber.
 
We have had our new van for 7 months and have done 9k it's there to be used and enjoyed we work also it's not a driveway decoration
 
Hi All,

It's not that long ago that someone on here brought to our attention that Autotrail were selling wheels and tyres from their new vehicles where the new owner had stipulated Alloys.
The wheels were shod with commercial tyres and not campers.

That was enough for me to do likewise.

I will say that since going from Camper to Commercial I am aware of more movement inside the van when stationary but I'm yet to be convinced I have made an error.

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Yes but they don't transfer the steel valves too so you end up with rubber ones and they put a cheap tyre on to sell them cheap as spares.
 
We always use Vanco Continentals. No particular reason other than they stay inflated, don't make a noise, handle well in both very wet and dry. 'Delyth' is on only her third set of tyres since new (1991)... sorry, I meant two-and-a-halfth set - I bought a couple of new ones when in UK last September for future use because they were available for £188 the pair.

The old MB 608 did a 29000km trip to India & back + a trip to Mali on the same set of van tyres, with one puncture, caused by an errant length of barbed wire.
 
Techno100 said:
Yes but they don't transfer the steel valves too so you end up with rubber ones and they put a cheap tyre on to sell them cheap as spares.
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? The ones we've bought are the same as we have on our current PVC which is how it was sold by Swift/Autocruise originally ...
 

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