Continental VancoCamper tyre pressures
I have a Bessacarr motorhome based on a Fiat Ducato Maxi chassis with an Alco extension chassis attached. The vehicle is 7.5m long and has a maximum plated weight of 4005kg with a maximum front axle of 2100kg and the single rear axle of 2400kg. My Swift owners handbook stated I should use 5.5 bar pressure in all tyres.
Fitted as new are VancoCamper tyres, size 225/75 R 16 CP .116 R showing a max psi of 69 on the tyre wall although it does also say on the tyre wall that for camper vans the max pressure can be increased to 5.5 Bar.
After reading many comments on here and looking at the Tyre Safe Organisation web site I was still unsure of exactly what tyre pressures I should safely use. After reading a thread which indicated Continental Tyres were very helpful I decided to contact them and their reply was almost instantaneous from their Technical administrator, Ian Jackson, who sent me an excerpt from their manuals for my specific size of tyre. It showed the pressures to be used at different axle weights. I confirmed with him that the way I was reading the chart was correct and although I cannot insert the pdf document here I thought other users with the same type and size of tyre may find the information helpful. He also added that to run the tyres with a higher pressure as opposed to lower pressure would help reduce overheating of the tyres.
There is a minimum pressure of 3.00 bar which has to be applied to my front axle despite me generally never managing to get the axle weight to be more than 1640kg. The chart is for single wheel two axle vehicles, e.g. not tag axles or double wheel rear axles, all pressures are in Bars and weights in kilogrammes. One Bar is 14.405 psi.
For my normal running weights of 1640kg front and 2300kg rear I should use pressures 3.00 and 5.00 Bar respectively. I hope this helps others.
Regards, Roy
Pressure in Bars 3.00 3.25 3.50 3.75 4.00
Weight front axle single fitment 1730 1845 1960 2070 2180
Weight rear axle single fitment 1540 1640 1740 1840 1940
Pressure in Bars 4.25 4.50 4.75 5.00 5.25 5.50
Weight front axle single fitment 2285 2395 2500
Weight rear axle single fitment 2035 2130 2225 2315 2410 2500
Sorry but the chart would not appear as it had been typed in Word so if you take all pressure readings from the left and then marry them up with the weights also starting from the left you should be able to see the correct pressures. If you are unsure then please check with Continental Tyres direct on mailto:Administrator.Technical@conti.de
Comments
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Only just found your post.
I've been concerned about the apparent discrepancy between the tyre rating and the instructed pressures in the Swift manual and plate.
Very useful post and allows confidence in the lower pressures I've been using for a while. Now to go and check the axle weights 😊
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The original post is very old, and possibly pre-dates TPMS on Sevel vans?. With the advent of TPMS as standard fitment on a lot of vehicles including my Sevel van, and their inability for the settings to be adjusted by the vehicle user, it makes it very difficult now to vary your tyre pressurse. There is much written on this forum and others about Peugeot vans, but I'm guessing the same may very well apply to modern Ducato's.......
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As you say, there has been much written about this. The Vanco data is freely available and assuming you have the axle weights from a weighbridge you can generally set pressures to lower values than the plated numbers. In my case the front tyres could be nearly 2 bar lower and resulted in a big improvement in ride quality. My local Peugeot garage were unable to reset the TPMS monitor so it’s a case of either increasing the pressures or living with the warning symbol.
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Interesting comments about tyre pressures and I've read a lot of comments about weighing your vehicle and even one suggestion that each tyre should be set at a different pressure. So, I had a look on Tyre Safe Organistions website, which, after a lot of searching showed a load table for "Specialised Motorhome CP-type Tyres". I looked down the table for my tyres, being 225/75 R16 CP 116R, and it gives the pressures (from 3.5 to 5.5) for various weights. So, problem solved......
However, there is a little asterisk (*) against the REAR AXLE weights for EVERY tyre size...
and this asterisk reads; "For CP type tyres when fitted in a single formation on a motorhome REAR axle, set the inflation pressure to 5.5 bar (80psi)
So I know what the rear should be (5.5),and as long as I can visit a weigh bridge to, at least, get the front axle load measured I should be able to get my pressure reading from the chart.
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You will probably be able to reduce the front pressures significantly and the ride quality will certainly improve noticeably, although whether you can recalibrate the TPMS and get rid of the alarm is a different matter. Interesting comment on the rear pressures. My experience is that the rear is near maximum load anyway due to water and waste tanks and heavy equipment, however, when you contact Continental they just quote the load versus pressure figures and no mention of this.
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can any mot testers answer this question ? will an after-market TPMS kit pass an mot when there may be an issue with the vehicles original TPMS system ? That pesky low pressure lamp on the dash has caused untold annoyance on my MH and i would love to be shot of it if i could. I know this is not possible however.
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Apparently a faulty TPMS has been an automatic MOT fail since 2012 according to this website https://www.tyresafe.org/new-legislation-causing-uninformed-motorists-to-fail-mot/ I assume you have a problem because you have lowered the pressures? Can the built in TPMS not be adjusted by a vehicle dealer or perhaps a tyre dealer?
David
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