Tyres
My van went in for service yesterday. It was first sold in Feb 2011 and the tyres were stamped Oct 2010 so they will be six in a few months.
General advice is to change at 5 years and never to use over 7 years old.
My tyres looked fine to me - loads of tread, no cracks etc. So I thought I'd look to change them early next year.
At the service they said that one of the tyres had a "deformed tread" and needed changing. I took the wheel off the van and again it looked fine to me. Took it to the tyre man who was full of praise for the caravan man for spotting that the tyre was indeed
in a VERY dangerous condition. With his trained eye he could easily see the said deformation and when he explained it, so could I!
Lessons learned? - Do all we can to ensure that our tyres are safe, especially after five years. Also the expense of the dealer service was worth it (Spinney North Staffs by the way) as I suspect that this would have been missed otherwise.
Comments
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Well I replace my caravan tyres at 7 years old if otherwise OK.
Same can't be said for my car tyres it would seem
I was checking the tyre pressures earlier prior to setting off on a
1 month break at the end of next week. When I came to the rear tyres I thought 'blimey they are shown signs of aging. Can't be more than 5 or 6 years old'! I assumed that they had been replaced at sometime in yhat sort of period. (Memory ain't that great).
Checked the date coding and they are 11 years old!! Ordered replacements for this afternoon. I check them 4 times a year on car and caravan. Seemed OK in April and in May ......... looking less good on the latest inspection.
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I was deliberating about whether to replace mine.....at least one was getting on for 5 years old, the spare was one of the dreaded exploding Matador tyres (and 10 years old, although only fitted for about 100 miles after a blow out) and I wanted some with
a higher load rating.Anyway, when the caravan was serviced in May, the engineer said that one of them was blistered - I could not see it but I'm sure he was correct.
Had three new tyres fitted at about £65 each by local dealer (Hankook Vantra) and they seem pretty good so far.
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An added complication for me is that there is a "this time of year" shortage of 175/14c caravan tyres. The guy rang round all his suppliers and couldn't find a single one. Finally went to Bridgestone and got their last couple which are going to cost £96
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Reynoray - I changed mine to 185/75 R14 (originals were 175/80 R14 - same as yours will be) because they have a load rating of 850kg per side instead of 775kg per side on the originals.
They are exactly the same outside diameter, so no problems with the mover etc.
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i got my tyres size (185 14) online from oponeo online tyre supplier
good prices quick deliver all in stock so check it out
get them changed every 5 years dont wait till 7
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