Urgent Help Needed Regarding Tyres in France

[RustyRuss]

Hi gang! We are near Orleans in France and my tyrepal registered 59 degrees C on a rear tyre. Pressure about 0.5 bar higher than the other rear tyre. We stopped and are parked in an aire. The tyre seems to have ballooned, it’s still round but seems to be a bigger diameter than the others almost egg shaped in cross section. I think it’s delaminated. I have a spare, but don’t think I have a jack (it’s 3am not going to look right now). I can’t get Google to search for and find a tyre depot that will be open near me in the morning, do any of you have French tyre depot experience or suggestions bearing in mind its Sunday morning!!
TIA!
Russ

 

[RustyRuss]

Lenny HB what pressure could I take it too then? Normally run the rears in the UK at 5.4 bar. Thats 78 psi and will probably rise another 0.5 bar when running. 85ish psi.

 

[Coolcats]

That's the problem when the OAT is high. Wall and tread flexing creates heat which degrades the tyre. Increasing the cold tyre pressure reduces the flexing effect and keeps the rise in temperature to a more manageable level.

If my tyres eat OAT’s I would throw a blanket over them and call them Dobbin

 

[Coolcats]

This is my uncritical comment but Breakdown cover is essential for any vehicle and more so if traveling on the continent.

This is even more important if you cannot speak French German Italian etc as the breakdown centres do have multilingual agents to help with any language barriers.

The above won’t help with the tyre issue but the question being asked is one for a breakdown service they would know of a local tyre supplier and even contact them should you decide to drive to the workshop or take your wheel to them via a taxi !!

 

[RustyRuss]

Got it all sorted in the end Coolcats, I had/have emergency breakdown cover, CBC Euro for £98 p.a. They were very good yesterday despite a hiccup on French side trying to locate us.

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[Jamesh]

Right then all you helpful souls out there! Firstly I thank you all for your helpful advice and suggestions during the course of the day. I phoned the Euro assistance cover people (CBC Euro Breakdown cover, cost me £98 for 12 months cover) at 7.40am French time. They were on the case straight away and advised that as we were in a safe car park location they would send a local firm out and they’d be with us in max of an hour rather than more or less instantly. I was very very pleased! We were near Orleans last night, a French guy phoned me about 20 mins after initial contact and in Franglais said he’d be 20 more mins. 20 mins later an anguished call from the same guy saying he couldn’t find me. A local spoke to him on my phone and the mechanic guy was in Lille! 200+ miles away! Something must have got lost in translation! Anyway more of the Euro rescue office bods phoned me…… But hang on a minute! There is more to this tale! I discovered that I DID have a 5tonne bottle jack after all! Must have bought it around the start of covidbollocks and forgotten about it! Even found the locking wheel nut socket! Vehicle duly jacked up, old, totally knackered tyre/wheel whipped off and new one installed. The remaining 3 are Kuhmo and the spare is a Continental max PSI 69-4.8/4.9 bar. The recovery office bod, Auberon (what a great name!) rang me back and apologised for confusion and said he’d started the process from scratch, we discussed it all and after a 3way consultation between him, me and SHMBO we decided to trundle down the road and see how far we got, keeping an eye on the Tyrepal temperature and pressure. Auberon said to make sure to ring him if we hit further problems. Well I have watched that Tyrepal like a demented being ALL DAY!! It consistently showed the spare to be at 5.8-5.9 bar (85+psi) so miles over 69psi and hovering around 49-51degrees C. Very scary! We stopped fairly regularly to let everything cool down, the tyre on the same, rear, axle was at a consistent 5.4-5.5 bar and 40degrees C. The air temperature here in France was always around 38-39C. After Clermont Ferand it gets super hilly and the temperature and pressure of the tyre would climb as we went up hill and drop a little but not enough on the brief downslopes. When we got to the eventual summit it was blowing an absolute whoolley and the air temp started to drop to around 28, the tyre pressure and temp dropped too, 5.6 and around 44C….. and we are now sitting in a campsite in Millau enjoying a cheeky beer! Happy Days! Next and final stop Beziers tomorrow. Once again thanks for all your support and suggestions people! Where would we be without MHF??

Cheers!

Russ & Kathryn xx

Don't forget to check the wheel nuts for tightness in a day or two...

 

[Lenny HB]

Lenny HB what pressure could I take it too then? Normally run the rears in the UK at 5.4 bar. Thats 78 psi and will probably rise another 0.5 bar when running. 85ish psi.

I would think its fine at 78 but wouldn't run the. that high unless you want a boneshaker ride.
Only CP tyres should be run at those pressures ordinary C tyres between 60 to 70psi depending on load.
I have Toyo winter tyres I run the rear at 69 the pressure recommended by Toyo for axle load of 2300kg.

 

[The Wino]

Unless you are lucky you will not find motor home tyres in stock unless it is a business that specialises in such. Garages in France do not often use local tyre suppliers as their prices are far higher than the online retailers.
If you cannot drive far on your tyre then consider using the following online services. They will be able to fit a mobile fitting service but that may delay things. They will list local garages who will take delivery and then fit for you.

Broken Link Removed
Excellent prices and we use them all the time. They give delivery times against each tyre.

CentralePneus.fr : Pneu pas cher | Pneus en ligne à prix discount

Achetez vos pneus pas chers chez CentralePneus ! Tous les pneus été, hiver, 4 saisons en ligne à prix discount, livraison gratuite, montage à proximité.

www.centralepneus.fr

Can sometimes beat Allopneu above on price but are a little slower to deliver in my experience.

A final point. There always seems to be anti Michelin bias on this site. Perhaps because of genuine poor experiences or maybe as an anti-French thing.
We use Michelin tyres whenever possible and have always been very impressed. We have one motor home and seven cars (don't ask why!). The motorhome tyres are four years old and we drive quickly. 30.000km and very little wear, certainly no 'cracking'.
Of the other cars we have one on Goodyears where we got a fantastic deal and one where the Michelin brand is not available in that size. All the others are Michelin shod with zero problems.
I absolutely swear by Michelin tyres but choose any quality brand and you will be fine.
Good luck and please let us know how you get on.
Paul

We have michelins on both our cars on a previous car we got over 60 k out of the originals. We have though gone for van tyres on the motorhome as on our previous one changing from Michelin campers to much cheaper van tyres was an improvement. Maybe all makes have the occasional duff product.

 

[pelican]

Got it all sorted in the end Coolcats, I had/have emergency breakdown cover, CBC Euro for £98 p.a. They were very good yesterday despite a hiccup on French side trying to locate us.

Interested to hear where you are staying in Bezier

 

[Lenny HB]

Interested to hear where you are staying in Bezier

When we stopped at Bezier we stayed at the vineyard up by the top of the canal lock flight also good wine at a good price.
It's in Camper Contact.

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[pelican]

When we stopped at Bezier we stayed at the vineyard up by the top of the canal lock flight also good wine at a good price.
It's in Camper Contact.

Thanks for the info

 

[Augusta08]

A jack lifting one corner will take half the weight, a bit more or less because the back axle usually has more load than the front.

Think of lifting a table on one corner. The furthest leg takes half the weight, the raised leg takes the other half, and two diagonal legs take no weight at all.

You would of course be right if the MoHo has no suspension, like a table.

 

[Andycap]

Didn't know tyers were so complicate

 

[Lenny HB]

Could be because your running on winters? I've noticed my new tyres ( same as yours) increase in pressure much more than my old campers used to.

I know we re on a different chassis but our tyrepal only runs at about the ambient temperature. I would be concerned at 70c

OK I was being a plonker and getting me pressures & temperatures crossed.
Today did 60 mph on the M4 for ½ hour, hottest tyre was 39°.

 

[RustyRuss]

We are at Les Berges du Canal in Villenueve de Beziers just outside Bez itself. Cracking site, plenty of shade, 10x8m pitch, nice pool, no kids (yet!) a BRILLIANT restaurant, shops close by, a commune winery and shop about 800m away (very acceptable rose for 1euro30/litre if you take your own bottle. We’re having a great time.