New caravan tyres
On my Feb 2017 van I'm running late 2016 Barum Vanis 2- 185 80 R14 100/102. The caravan has been garage stored on axle stands since new until this winter. With about 22,000 miles on the tyres obviously have lots of tread left, but despite looking in excellent condition it is time to replace for this year and I'll be doing so in a couple of months.
On another forum a member in a similar situation has been trawling the internet sites for home fitting etc. They are looking for a smaller size on a lighter weight van and are not happy with what they are finding. There is a lot of what we consider to be old stock available, with distributors saying tyres up to 3 years old being classified as new under tyre industry guidelines.
Being in a similar situation to myself they contacted there insurance company, Ripe I believe, and were surprised at the reply.
"So long as the tyres on the caravan are safe and road legal, this wouldn’t affect your cover."
Has anybody else experienced a similar situation?
Any suggestions for makes I should consider to maximise my chances of finding recent stock. at a sensible price.
At present, keeping at a sensible price of £70-80. I'm considering:-
- Falken Linam VAN01
- GT Maxmiller Pro
Colin
Comments
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there's no legal max age for a tyre for fitted to a domestic vehicle (IIRC the rules were changed recently for commercial vehicles in relation to a 20 yr old tyre fitted to a coach that crashed causing fatalities)
I tried to get an answer from the Caravan Club re tyres over this magical 7 years old & whether they would pay out in the event of a claim. All they would reply is that 7yr old is the suggested max age for replacement. Conversely, I've had to replace caravan tyres at around 4 or 5 that were due replacement because of cracking/crazing.
I bought Falken when I replaced my caravan's tyres a couple of years ago & told the supplier that as they were going on a caravan I wanted new-ish tyres. He understood why & supplied as requested. Maybe use a local dealer rather than an on-line supplier. As you imply, little point in premium brand tyres on a caravan that will get little wear.
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UV degradation is the biggie for tyres. It always pays to cover them when not in use and take the load off if stored for prolonged periods. Still good idea to change at 7 years max though as if you get a blowout it can take out most of your wheelarch and any nearby fittings.
I've just shelled out over £1K on a new set of MH tyres at 7.5 yrs old.
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I bought quit a few new tyres last year, the first being a set of 4 when I sold the caravan. I opted for the cheapest I could get online (chinse I think) and took the wheels to my local ATS for fitting. All 4 were already 2 years old but I wasn't bothered as the van was sold. Next was the camper, I went back to ATS to order a set of 5 with the insistence that all tyres were less than 6 months old. They came good, all were 5 months. Swiftly following that it was 2 front tyres for the car and once again they came good but 7 months old. So, if you order from a dealer there's more chance of a "new" tyre.
As CY states, covers are a good investment, you can get a decent set for around a tenner a wheel
JK
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I must admit I have a bit of OCD and this has been the case with the caravan. Even when it was in the garage it had a cover on it, in winter was on axle stands and the rest of the year on tyre savers.
Following a move in Sept it now has to be kept outside and you will see that with a small generic cover, the tyres are fairly well covered as a result of the van being a low profile pop-top. When not in use I plan to keep the cover on, mainly to keep it clean as we have a few trees around us and leave it on tyre savers.
Hopefully this will go someway towards keeping my tyres in order.
Colin
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Tyre deflation on trailers is certainly a problem, I’ve suffered three over the years, though never a total blow out with a shredded tyre etc. All have been at relatively slow speeds and close enough to the safety of pulling off the road. But those experiences are enough for me to replace tyres after 7 or 8 years. As to costs - whoever thought that caravanning was cheap?
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Given the potential for catastrophic outcomes for blowouts on caravan tyres, I wonder if there is any merit in fitting run-flat tyres. Can you even get them in caravan tyre sizes?
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I believe run-flat are only available on the lower profile sizes, as I expect the higher sidewall on an 80 profile would not be rigid enough.
Colin
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