I came back yesterday from a weekend away and decided that I would change the tyres on my caravan, one is 5yrs old and the other is 6yrs old. So I took the opportunity of it being a nice day today to change them after work. However my spare tyre is slung underneath my van in an AlKO carrier, which I have never had reason to use yet; so I decided I'd look at the spare as well, plus I could see how easy it would be to access and use the carrier, getting it off easy, putting spare back more difficult.
However imagine my surprise when after taking my spare from the carrier to find it was 12yrs old, almost as old as the caravan itself, 15yrs, but it had obviously never been used and I suspect on the carrier since it was first purchased.
In the end put the 5yr old tyre back on the spare wheel carrier and replaced the 6yr old tyre and the spare. Had them fitted in same tyre place we use for our work vehicles, and they did an excellent job.
Just made me wonder how many others with spare wheel carriers slung underneath their vans know how old the tyre is in there, or check the age of their spare tyres generally.
One would hope they take out their spares regularly to check the pressure & rotate it in the carrier to avoid sidewall damage. Why would they not? theres no point in having a spare otherwise.
All the tyres on all caravans should be changed around every year.
Spare onto offside, offside onto nearside, nearside onto spare.
This is normal practise and assures even wear and a constant check of renewal dates.
Fair point Lobey, but I suspect the vast majority never do this. As this is only my second season with my caravan it's the first time I've had a good look at all my tyres.
Probably not necessary to buy 3 new tyres & rotate around, caravans with alloys will have steel rim spare anyway. Most economical would be as suggested to put old tyre to spare when changing tyres & obviously remove spare & check pressure regularly.
Alloy wheels in themselves invite steel rimmed spare not to be changed & risk spare staying on there for too many yrs. Arguably though if tyre is unused & kept out of sunlight tyre should not degrade so much anyway.
I suppose 'belt & braces' way with alloy wheels would be to change all 3 tyres every 5yrs including unused steel spare?
I was reading this thread with interest as we have only recently swapped our Pathfinder FC for our first tin top. Haven't even been away in it yet and never realised that van tyres needed rotating. So I thought, let me check my spare which I had not done since purchase. Turns out the spare is 6 years old so should be replaced although it looks unused.
Our van is a single axle, 13" steel wheel and 1300KG MTPLM. According to the sidewall markings on the tyre, the max load for the tyre is 545KG - which to my mind is less than half the weight so seems to be under-rated for the MTPLM. Tyre pressures are 64psi as per manufacturer.
My question is what type of tyres should I be looking at?
Are there tyres specially for caravans?
------------- Phil
Blood, Sweat and Beers.
The more I learn the more I know, the more I know the more I forget, the more I forget the less I know
Booked so far:
June: Charity Farm
July: Gullivers MK
August: Tregurrian, Cornwall
Sept: New Forest
What is the tyre size now, is it 165X13 or 175X13 ? Its sounds like caravan has been incorrectly fitted with car tyres. If you fit commercial van tyres, 165X13C 94 load rating or 175X13C available in 97 load rating these will sufficient.
There are no specific caravan tyres. you just need adequate load rating. Lightweight caravans can use car tyres, heavier caravans need commercial van tyres.
We bought our van 2 years ago and as I did not know how it had been used (or abused) in the past and as the tyres were already 6+ years old, I replaced all 3 tyres.
As they are on steel wheels, they are automatically swopped around every year. This not only gives me even wear on all tyres, but also makes sure the underslung rack is kept in good order.
I rarely looked at the caravan tyresbut recently we had a bit of an eye opener to say the least.
Van had been parked up over winter, and I notced the tyres had started to go flat. Went to invaesigate only to find that the valves on both tyres had deteriorated badly. Not helped by the metal spring tensioner of the wheel covers pressing up against the valve. Also when I took the wheels off I was very shocked at the condition of the sidewalls. Tread was more than enough.
Tyres were originals from manufacture 2003. Had not realised they should be changed frequently, no matter how many miles you make.
Quite frightening we could have had a double blow out at any timeand just thinking we were towing on M4 in October last year.
Lesson well and truly learnt, check tyres and their fate of manufactute, its stamped on tje tyre.
I did away with Cr#p under chassis spare carrier because it was such a bas~#%d job getting spare out with a flat tyre.
van had to be jacked up to access, and with van on jack and you trying to remove spare as far as I was concerned it was a NO NO
I still have carrier somewhere in garage, I made room for spare in front locker by down sizing gas bottles and I am still here to write this.
On the other hand, from a nose weight point of view, I had to move the spare wheel from the front locker to a wheel carrier underneath.
Because there was so many complaints about the old carriers, Al-Ko have greatly modified their new carriers and now they can be moved towards the rear of the van to allow more room to remove the wheel.
They have also modified the sliding mechanism to stop them getting glued up with road grit and dirt.
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Topic: Spare tyre
