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How old should a caravan tyre be before being considered unsafe???

5 years old and then change them.some are this age on a 3 year old caravan.

Can't agree more!  Check those Tyres and Valves!

We were complete newbies to caravaning having bought our Elddis 1999 literally a week before we embarked on an epic journey to Hungary and Croatia this year. The caravan had had a full service with the advice that the tyres would need changing next season. Wish we'd checked them properly ourselves! First  tyre deflated rapidly on arrival in Hungary, thankfully we were on a minor road and cruising at only 30m/hr. The cause was a defective/worn valve. Second tyre was a complete blow out on the Motorway in Austria. Luckily our tyres are fitted with Tyron Safety Bands and we were using our Ford Transit Van as a towing vehicle which handled the blow out brilliantly and got us to the safety of the break down lane. We fitted the spare, but on closer inspection this looked as tired as the two other tyres with cracking around the valve area. We immediately got off the motorway, driving really slow and holed up overnight in a Raststation with numerous truckers. Next morning, we set off to find a tyre place to get all the tyres replaced, feeling quite confident that this wouldn't be a problem as it was a Saturday and we were right next to Linz a really big Austrian City. We were so wrong! Every tyre place we went to didn't stock the "C" class tyres we needed and all motorhome/caravan retail outlets were closed at weekends, in fact all the shops were ready to close by midday on a Saturday.  In despair we went to the headquarters of the Austrian road recovery services ARBO who inspected our rig from top to bottom, for no fee and managed to locate 2 new "C" class tyres for us from a tiny garage outside of Linz. Finally, after having negotiated two minor-ish mountains and having stopped about 5 times to ask for directions in my very bad german we found the tiny garage nestled snugly on a plateau with views that made you half expect to see Julie Andrews pop up at an moment singing "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music...". The Tyres were changed, the spare given a good inspection and swapped as a temporary measure with strict instructions to get it renewed as soon as possible and we were sent on our way with a feeling of immense relief and 240 euros less in our pockets, but well spent all things considered. I'd like to say our epic journey was problem free from then on, but dealing with a few electrical problems with our towbar connections and negotiating a dangerously flooded Rhine area were relatively a walk in the park in comparison.

So we are no longer newbies. On our return we have renewed the spare, bought a Caravan Haynes manual, bought a new set of spanners, ratchets, voltmeter, etc. I have also been receiving lessons from the Husband on how to drive the Rig (Van + Caravan = 12m in length), without adopting my usual 2 wheels on 2 wheels off approach to the pavement (or in this case 3 wheels).

Is there a moral to this story? Yes, put some time and effort into maintaining your Rig and double checking all the safety aspects before going off anywhere! I don't think I'd be here to write this if we hadn't had the bands and a big towing vehicle but more importantly if we'd checked the tyres before we rushed off we might not have had any problems whatsoever!

I was chatting to a caravaning mate after he had brought a brand new van.  The tyres fitted where just up to par for the size weight of the van.  I hadn't really considered it before, but checked mine which had been fitted by a recomended tyre fitter for caravans in my area, and found that the tyres fitted were of a much higher standard, than those fitted on the new van.  The tyre fitter recomended regular checks of valves, walls, for nails etc etc, and also sun/frost damage, ie, small cracks appearing on the walls etc.

TonyB

Hi all,

  I am the manager of a tyre center, in Garstang just outside Preston, and we sell quite alot of Caravan/Trailer tyres at this time of year, any tyre should really be replaced at 5 years of age, remember it may have only spent 3 years on the van and 2 years on its travels from china and in storage buts its still out of date!

Also if you leave you caravan standing on its tyres all winter the steel casing can become distorted so always jack it up or remove your wheels in the winter!

Any decent tyre center would replace the valves when new tyres are fitted but its alway worthwhile making sure they have.

Nathan

Quote: Originally posted by goron on 17/4/2011

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hi everyone just put the wheels back on the caravan for the  summer as I use winter wheels they are triangular in shape with slots in a plate for the wheel bolts and these replace the normal wheels making the van more secure and a chance for a little paint and a check of the tyre condition on the outside and the inside where if you rub your hands along the sidewall you'll be able to feel any distortion  

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Has anyone any idea why the valves should break?

Is it the effect of sunlight - it can't be the age because I had two snap off when I checked the tyre pressures, and both valves were under 4 years old,

Regards

Pete

Another possible cause has occurred to me. I bought a Thatcham-rated chain and lock to replace my Bulldog wheel clamp.  Our caravan has alloy wheels, so the valve seems to be more prominent that when steel wheels and trim disc are fitted.

When removing the clamp (for the last time), I noticed that I caught the edge of the clamp (it's circular to mask the wheel studs) a significant bump against the tyre valve.  Is it conceivable that this could inflict a weakening cut?

I have since had new tyres fitted, so any valves that may have been damaged have been replaced.

Bertie.

The 2 valves have leaked on my van,1 whilst on site, fitted spare myself.Checked the other one seemed ok.Then last year on the A40 west bound,I pulled into a layby after noticeing that the van wasn't behaveing right,saw that the tyre was low.Tried to inflate with the pump,but more air was escaping than going in.

Anyhow drove carefully to the next services about a mile away,tried to use their airline,and bang! the inner brass part of the valve shot out.End result was phone the AA to change wheel,van now to low to extract spare wheel from under van.

Lesson learned,PS Layby on A40 is not a safe place to change O/S wheel.