howie Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 With our van now just over four years old and needing two new rear tyres I replaced the spare with one of the new ones. Given that tyre life is recommended to no more than 5/6 years, used or not, this means the new replacement spare is now right for a further similar period and I should hopefuly get full use from the original spare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 A good move I would say howie. The previous owner of my preloved 'van put the spare on the O.S.F. and a new tyre on the N.S.F. The dealer delivered it to me, about 150 miles, and the tread on the O.S.F. had cracked up with age and was almost all gone, luckily the walls held out OK. Age had killed the tyre not U.V. rays. As the spare tyre storage on a Transit is in the dark. On checking the dates the tyre from the spare was as old as the 'van.12 years old. The dealer should have checked the dates of course, but he went straight down to my local tyre man and had a new one fitted, before he took my old 'van away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 It's perhaps worth highlighting that there is no UK legal maximum age for a tyre on a vehicle. So, as long as a tyre appears sound visually, it is considered to be sound legally. Even if a tyre were 20 years (or more) old, as long as it meets MOT criteria regarding cracking, cuts, bulges, tread-depth, etc., just because it's an OAP won't result in a test failure. Although a motorhome dealer is obliged to ensure that the tyres on any vehicle sold conform to UK legal requirements, he/she is not obliged to replace tyres just because they are long in the tooth. In fact, I doubt if many (any?) motorhome dealers do check tyre-wall date codes - as long as the tyres look OK, then that will suffice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 Copied this from last months CCC magazine tech talk page relating to tyres, and seems to confirm the legality of older tyres. Q. I wanted a particular brand of tyre for my motorhome and my dealer has found a couple of tyres, but having checked the date of manufacture it indicates that they were manufactured in week 48 of 2005. Is this legal. A. You are obviously aware of the British Tyre Manufacturer Associations advice that tyres should be changed every five years - seven years at the latest - and the tyre you have been offered is just over two years old. On a normal car I would find this perfectly acceptable, since I know that within three years or so the tread is likely to be worn out, but not on a caravan or a motorhome which is used for far fewer miles. Unfortunately, there is no law to deal with the sale of tyres, although Tyresafe tells me most tyre manufacturers will only keep their stocks for 24 months before scrapping them. It pays to be vigilant and refuse a tyre before you use it. Otherwise you are unlikely to have any legal redress as it is perfectly legal on the road. Even when the tyre is over seven years old, unless it is showing signs of distress, it is perfectly legal, despite experience showing that it is likely to be more vunerable to failure. ----------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 I should think that if/when a motorhome is stored without moving for a couple of months or more over winter it must have some detrimental effect on the walls of tyres, and shorten their lives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 MalcIt does, which is why the standard recommendation is to take the van out and drive it at least monthly. It is not just the tyres that suffer when left for prolonged periods. These vehicles are designed to be driven, and that is how they are kept in generally good running order. They need to be driven far enough to ensure that all fluids reach their designed ruining temperatures (engine, gearbox and final drive oils, bearing and drive shaft greases, and power steering hydraulic fluids as well as the coolant), and the tyres are nicely warmed up as well. I guess that means around 20 miles or so at cruising speeds. That way, the brakes and clutch will also get a proper work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Howie - The rotation of your spare wheel should always be clockwise (assuming you have a RHD vehicle); and of course anti-clockwise on a LHD vehicle. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 BGD - 2008-01-22 6:17 PM Howie - The rotation of your spare wheel should always be clockwise (assuming you have a RHD vehicle); and of course anti-clockwise on a LHD vehicle. :D But only in the Northern hemisphere - rotation should be opposite to the above in the Southern Hemisphere. Personally speaking, as long as the wheels are round and they are made round to go round, and do continue to go round and round in a revolutionary way - I'm happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Tracker is perfectly correct of course - I ommited to mention that point; always remember that if you are crossing the equator you must of course stop at that point and reverse the direction of your spare wheel rotation before continuing into upside-down-land. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Hi Howie why have a spare wheel, mine was, as with most vehicles very awkward to get at and the furthest point from the rear axle and in lots of cases an area that can be utilised far better for other gizzmos we all carry. So I replaced it by using Ultra-Seal, a DIY job, simple installation and have travelled all over Europe, no problem, no point in going into all the details here but you just have to go for it, I saved in my case 65kg in wt, calculated from the formulae I have on my PC derived from MMM some time ago, easy peesy lemon squeecey Curly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 Quite a few threads on this subject Curly, and all offering different opinions as well. Go to the search option and type in "spare wheels" to find out more. More and more new vehicles are being supplied minus a spare, but I still prefer having one if only to cover those rare occasions where the tyre is either beyond repair or the actual rim is damaged. Products such as Ultra Seal will suffice in most cases I suppose, and most of us belong to a recovery service of some sort, but carrying that spare means that I can simply change over the wheels and be on my way without relying on anyone else. Let me add that I would normally ask, in my case the RAC, to do this for me, but without that spare there,s not a lot they can do, and invariably this will be on a Sunday, Bank Holiday etc, with no replacement to be found. Each to their own of course, but i,ll stick with my spare for now. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philman Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 The recommendations these days seem to be that you should not change tyres from one side of the vehicle to the other. When changed front to rear they should stay on the same side so that they always rotate in the same direction. I'm not sure how this affects the use of the spare. 8-) Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 Wish you wouldn,t pose questions like that Phil. My guess is that part worn tread, when reversed to travel in the opposite direction, might lose some of its road holding characteristics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Philman - 2008-01-23 8:30 PM The recommendations these days seem to be that you should not change tyres from one side of the vehicle to the other. When changed front to rear they should stay on the same side so that they always rotate in the same direction. I'm not sure how this affects the use of the spare. 8-) Phil. Only if the tyres are 'directional' and marked with a direction of rotation arrow should you absolutely never reverse their rotation. The old advice when I were a lad was to rotate diagonally, including the spare, to even out tyre wear - which is fine if you enjoy buying tyres 4 at a time! In recent years, rightly or wrongly, I do tend to swap tyres front to rear, including the spare if appropriate. With front wheel drive, the rear tyres last about 4 times longer than the fronts and run the risk of going out of date long before they wear out. I swap front to back same side when the fronts are about one third worn and, although best advice currently seems to be best tyres on the rear, I find that having done this swap the almost new tyres on the front will wear down to about 2.5mm (time to buy new) in about the same time as the rears will wear down to about half worn. I will then put the two new tyres on the rear and finish the rears out on the front (where they originally started). That way I always have decent tyres and never need to buy 4 at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 BGD - 2008-01-22 10:36 PM Tracker is perfectly correct of course - I ommited to mention that point; always remember that if you are crossing the equator you must of course stop at that point and reverse the direction of your spare wheel rotation before continuing into upside-down-land. As motorhomes in Australia and New Zealand are upside down do they have less grip on the road ? (?) (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Not a motorhome I know but the newest handbook I have is 2005 for the Suzi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie Posted January 24, 2008 Author Share Posted January 24, 2008 Interesting that diagram Colin, and while i,ve heard of the correct way to rotate tyres before i,ve really never given it much thought. Not that good when it comes to reading instructions, and can well imagine struggling through this procedure on a wet, cold and windy night. My original point was to highlight age re. the spare, and my normal procedure when replacing a punctured tyre would be to put the spare on whatever tyre need changing, have the damaged tyre repaired, and then in turn place it back to its original side, with the spare going back in the cradle so rotation as you have shown will not really be that important. Otherwise its only when I use the spare as I first stated that i,ll take rotation into consideration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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