Check those tyres. Look in tread groove roots.
A very near miss here.
I had my wheels off yesterday and only at the last moment noticed the perished rubber at the root of the tread groove. No problems on the side walls. As you may be able to see, the steel ply banding is exposed at one point. This could have been a catastrophic blow out failure. I had just come back from a 400 mile, mostly motorway, journey where a failure in the middle lane could have been fatal.
I have over 40 years experience in the motor industry and have never seen a failure like this before.
My fault. The tires were on the caravan when I bought it, with a receipt for fitting dated July 2014, and a date code of December 2013 on the tires, so well beyond the 5 year recommendation. I'd just been checking the condition by tread depth and wall condition.
Tires are Chinese made 'Evergreen ES88'. Probably good for 5 years, but not 5 years and one month.
They will be replaced today, by more Chinese tires. Look at Halfords, https://www.tyresonthedrive.com for great prices and a good range of options, from economy at £73 to premium at £101.
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Why buy more Chinese tyres? What price safety? Sack your service engineer pronto.
JK
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A word of warning when buying tyres from the multitude of on-line suppliers.
They cannot guarantee the manufacture date and will not check stock as the tyres may be in one of many warehouses. Stock control does not include this one bit of data that is so important to us. Some are generally helpful in allowing you to reject them if they are to old..
A new tyre, warehouse stored, is classified as up to 5 years old.
A brand new tyre, warehouse stored, is classified as up to 3 years.
It has become so difficult for some owners to get a specific tyre with a recent manufacture date that I have heard some insurance companies will count the 5/7 years from the fitting date.
Colin
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New tires fitted by Halfords. All very efficiently done in my drive. Date code 1723, wk17 2023. No mention of 'Made in China' on them. You now need to research the DOT code to find out that 15W is GITI TIRE (FUJIAN) COMPANY, LTD. PUTIAN, FUJIAN PROVINCE CHINA. The Tires are branded GT Radial.
More research has shown that many of the big brand tires are now also from China, but they don't tell you. Some 40% of UK fitted tires are Chinese manufactured. Because they no longer have a 'Made in...." label, you'll not know where they are manufactured until you have that DOT code. Check it here https://wfirm.com/complete-list-of-tire-dot-plant-codes/
As for the service technician. I have to confess its me. Time served motor mechanic, 1968 to 1972. Tires were all good last year, but my pre trip checks never included the groove roots, they will now. And the tires will be off in 5 years, even if they look good.
If a few people read this, and check those roots I feel that I've done my bit for our safety.
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At nearly 10 years old the tyres didn't really owe you anything and should perhaps been replaced some while ago; however, the failure is interesting.
It's not easy to see clearly with the very reduced quality of photo allowed on CT but it appears to be a very recent sudden catastrophic failure. When you found the problem did you check the tyre pressure as my first thought was that the tyre had been run well under pressure?
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I was going to post something similar. On my last trip out at the end of last month, I got diverted and before I had realised the diversion had width restrictions. This resulted in one of my caravan wheels dropping off a kerb and leaving bad scrape marks.
Anyway, I decided to get both wheels refurbished as the Alko lock has left it mark over the years.
The tyres on my caravan were replaced just over two years ago. They look like new, not done that many miles. My caravan only ever sits on its wheels when it’s being towed or on site. At home I lift the caravan up with the E&P so that there is no weight on them.
On picking up my wheels from the refurbisher, i too have discovered splits between the treads.
If you research the recommended 5 year life of tyres, you soon find out that it’s 3 years for high load tyres on trailers caravans and vans that run on higher pressures of 50 psi.
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Tyres which are visually OK, and which have seen little or even no use are also recommended to be replaced when they reach a few years of age. As a general rule (and following guidance issued by the tyre makers‟ trade body, the British Tyre Manufacturers‟ Association), it is advised that caravan tyres should ideally be replaced when 5 years old, and should never be used when more than 7 years old. It’s also recommended that caravan tyres with a high inflation pressure (above 50psi) should be replaced at 3 years and never used beyond 5 years, according to The Caravan Club.
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Surely if the caravan was serviced every year you should have been in formed of there age Ie our mobile service engineer informed us after one service we had 12 months left on our tyres and he recommended they be changed before our next service which of course we did, which reminds I must book the van in for next years service
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The 3 year life of tires inflated above 50psi is very depressing in ecological terms, what a waste of our natural resources. I've come across 'Ozone Cracking' in rubber in my work life and know that there are alternative compounds. In the past car tires did not have this problem, do you remember 'retread tires' where the carcass was kept and a new tread bonded on. A standard technique for truck tires. I'd pay a lot more for a 10 year tire, and our world would be a lot better for it.
And there they still are:-
https://www.bandag.eu/en/think-environment
"Retreading for a better world"."70% LESS OIL. Bandag produces quality retreads with just 30% of the oil required to manufacture new tyres."
"REDUCED CO2 EMISSIONS. It takes Bandag just a fraction of the energy to produce quality retreads in comparison with new tyres, adding up to 80% less CO2 and other carbon emissions."
"RECYCLED & REUSED MATERIALS. Thanks to the re-use of all those tyre casings, retreads contain up to 75% recycled and reused material, contributing further to sustainability and circular economy. Premium new tyre casings are made to last a second or even a third life as a retread. Re-using the worn casing as main retread component allows to save up to 70l of oil, up to 32 kgs of rubber and 14 kg of steel*, that would have been used had the worn tyre be replaced by a new tyre.. Worldwide over the course of a year, that adds up very quickly!"
How can they retread something that is falling apart?
And ps, I don't work for, or have shares in Bandag
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Actually, my caravan was serviced in May 2023 and there was no mention of any problems with the tyres. I have made four trips since then.
The splits in between the treats are about a centimetre long and in a few places so I doubt that they are from rough road surfaces.
I’m wondering if reducing the pressures when not in use and re inflating only to tour may help increase the life of future replacements.
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All tyres have a code on them that shows the month and year of manufacture. Your service agent should have made a note of this, and brought it to your attention once it was approaching 5 years old. One wouldn't necessarily expect him to have noticed the splits, but to neglect to to check the date and not inform you is unforgivable in my view.
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I have had this fault 18month old tyres with less than 4000mile on them all 4 of them were fitted to my tow car (Mondeo) they were made in UK by Avon tyres ,l connected Avon but they said contact the supplier National tyres, which I did they said that they would return them to Avon but I still had to buy 4 new tyres eventually NAT tyres did give me a refund into my bank account less an amount for wear , spoke to a guy at pirelli who said this is an issue because certain products cannot be used in the manufacture of tyres as some are carcinogenic
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The problem with all tyres, but particlarly caravan tyres, is that you don't know how long they've been on the shelf. I've read of people buying 3 year old tyres for their caravan meaning that they need to replace after two.
Its wise to check the age of new tyres before the supplier fits them
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All tyres have a code on them that shows the month and year of manufacture as you said earlier, why therefore would they buy 3 year old tyres? I recently bought two new shoes for my MH and stipulated that they should be no more than 3 months old. My supplier complied.
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By pure accident they are mostly correct in their assumption as correctly stored tyres only deteriorate at a tiny fraction of the rate of installed tyres. But I agree not knowing and not checking on what you are being sold is not the best way to make a purchase.
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I don't fully subscribe to this five year from new theory as a while back I asked the question of both Michelin and Bridgestone. Both said in essence the following:
We recommend that after five years or more on your vehicle tyres should be inspected at least once a year by a professional. If they're still on your car ten years after they were manufactured then they should be replaced.
You can look up the advice on the Michelin website as well. I assume they know what they are talking about. Mr Google may even provide much the same advice if you ask. You can also find the accepted industry recommendations for various vehicles.
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Yet Google brings up varying advice?
However all do say that thread depth is more important than time, then most say that the usage is then as important. For low milage and low use, such as city driving or on caravans, five years is the recommended time.
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With respect to reducing the pressure when not in use. Ozone cracking happens when the 'rubber' is in tension, so reducing the pressure will reduce the stretch, and hence the tendency to crack. Without any tension they will last forever.
But then we have the 'however'. You have to get the wheel off the ground. My 1915 Model T Ford looses about 10psi a month in the garage. I noticed last year that there were very small wall cracks in the area where the wheels had bulged at the bottom. I now keep the pressures up to their normal 60psi.
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I tend to agree with you, my caravan tyres are very low mileage tyres and i do put covers on to protect them from UV rays which are the main cause of the walls going soft, and although i do not go for top of the range tyres i do not use cheapies, however, if your insurance company says 5, 6, or 7 years and you need to replace them, or else, then you need to replace them or suffer the consequencies if you should need to make a claim.
my mobile service engineer always checks the tyres and makes a note on the service sheet as to when he thinks they will need replacing
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I also agree, changing low milage tyres at 5 years is a little too early unless they have been mistreated which should show up on inspection.
I changed my last set on my motorhome at eight years. I think they would have gone longer but because I have no spare wheel I thought it wise to change them.
When I had a caravan, I had a flat on a 7 year old tyre, I then decided to replace both. To my horror the other tyre was coming apart at the rim. It was impossible to detect this without actually removing the tyre! Lesson learnt.
peedee
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I can only speak as a caravan owner where my tyres are static for the majority of the time. The caravan is either standing on them on the drive at home, or standing on them on a site. We only tour the UK currently, and most site visits are between 4 and 7 nights. It would take forever to wear them down to 1.6mm.
I can accept that tyres could last longer on a car or motorhome, which is what has been written above, but this thread is about tyres on caravans, and I'm not prepared to take any risks for the sake of a few quid. I've witnessed the results of caravan tyre blow outs, and its scary. If a 7 year old tyre is coming apart at the rim, doesn't that show that the 5 year recommendation is a reasonable one?
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+1
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The real problem lies in tyres beiing mistreated, not inflated properly or overloaded or even standing too long.
Fortunately motorhome tyres, unlike caravan tyres get thoroughly inspected every MOT and will constitute a failure if defective.
peedee
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