M/H Tyres

[Guest peter]

Hi, we're off to Austria on saturday for 3 Weeks. So I checked the tyre pressures and noticed that they had small cracks in them, especially where the tread meets the sidewall. I therefore phoned my local tyre man and asked if he had any in stock.

I told him I had Michelin camping tyres on it and he said that he had some tyres that were just as good but that wouln't last quite so long, by the name of "Hankook".

When he told me the price there was no contest, as the Michelins were well over £100. But the Hankook's were £73 each inc' VAT. Same amount of plies and with Comercial rating. The compound seems a bit softer than the Michelin's but as I don't do mega mileages it doesn't matter.

The tyres I had replaced had most of the tread still on them. So it pays to check them before a trip if they are a few years old. The guy that changed them said they had a date code for 2001, so were 7Yrs old.

Good job I checked. Imagine having a blow out on a German Autobahn.

For the £140 odd quid it cost to replace them, it was well spent, for the peace of mind.

Anyboby on here used these Tyres?. They are a bit more rounded on the corners, so may corner a bit better and give a softer ride.

[Mike Parke]

I had Hankook tyres on my previous M/H. They replaced the factory fitted Michelins on the front after circa 40k miles and were still left with plenty of tread when I sold the M/H some 16k miles later. I am a great believer in expensive is not always the best!!

[LordThornber]

Whilst I wouldn't dispute Mike's comments about the most expensive not always being the best, I recently reshod our van with the following.

 

I replaced the original 5 Michelin Camping with their replacement, Agilis Camping, which were available at a hugely discounted price at Kwik Fit.

 

My goodness what a difference, just back from a 1600m hol, the road noise levels are much lower and we noticed an improvement in MPG too, which is always welcome but even more so at present.

 

Perhaps Mike & Peter may see these benefits too and good luck if you do but in this case our money has been well spent so far.

 

Martyn

[highwayman1]

Hi Peter

We fitted Hankooks all round about 5 thousand miles ago, straight away we noticed an improvement in ride comfort and a big increase in grip.

Off the road grip is hugely improved as well, so wet grass is not such a worry anymore.

 

regards...nige

[Ranger]

I've been fitting Kumho tyres for years, they supply VW with thousands of tyres per year. Perfectly good tyres at a fraction of the price of Michelin. I have also used Marshall, and Hankook. All very good tyres, good traction on and off road plus comfortable ride. You can buy a lot of diesel with the cash you save. It is an unfortunate fact that we pay a lot of extra cash for a name.

[Guest peter]

It's nice to see that there are others that don't fall for the myth that only Michelin Camping are suitable for motorhomes.

Thanks for you replies Guys. The Hankooks do seem to have a softer compound and rounded corners to the tread. So should give a softer ride.

The Michelins look more like lorry tyres. :D

[BGD]

I also got Hankook tyres for our MH last year.....because it's an ancient, 18 year old EuraMobil, it's got the old Peugeot J5/Talbot 14" wheels.

 

Can't remember the price, but it was damn good.

 

And can't fault the tyres; after about 3,000 miles they look good as new.

[Derek Uzzell]

Hankook is a reputable manufacturer (I believe Michelin have a share in the company) and I've seen their tyres factory-fitted to the wheels of Ford Mk 6 Transits. However, their general purpose tyres (or those of Kumho, Marshall, or any other tyre maker) aimed at the 'light commercial vehicle' (LCV) marketplace should not be confused with 'camping-car' tyres produced by Continental, Michelin or Pirelli with motorcaravans particularly in mind.

 

Every vehicle tyre will have a load-bearing range within which it is designed to operate. Although camping-car tyres usually match their LCV equivalents regarding their stated load-index, speed-symbol and ply-rating (which is nothing to do with the number of plies used in a radial tyre's construction) as displayed on the tyre's side-wall, the primary difference is that the camping-car tyre has been specifically designed to tolerate continuous operation near or at (or even above) its stated maximum load-bearing limit.

 

A camping-car tyre's ability to tolerate continuous high loading (and a degree of overloading) may well be unimportant if a motorhome places on its tyres loadings that are well within those tyres' design-capability, and this will almost certainly be true of Peter's dinky little Rapido. However, there are lots of motorhomes out there far larger and heavier than Peter's but using the same tyre size, and it's a racing certainty that some of their owners will be driving around with their tyres near, at or beyond their load-bearing design limits. It's for those motorhomes/motorcaravanners that camping-car tyres may prove to be worthwhile/life-savers and where it may be wiser to opt for a dearer specialised tyre than risk using a less expensive LCV-oriented product.

 

As far as I'm aware there are no independent comparative test-data for current LCV-type or camping-car-type tyres, so no sure way of knowing whether, say, a £100+ Michelin tyre offers sufficient performance benefits to justify its extra cost over a £70 Hankook. You pays your money...

 

The only 'technical' thing to watch out for when replacing camping-car tyres with equivalent ordinary LCV ones is that, if you've been accustomed to inflating your tyres above 70psi, you'll need to rethink that strategy so that the inflation-pressure remains below the LCV tyre's lower design maximum. (And, if you've been using 80-or-so-psi deliberately to handle high tyre-loadings, then you might want to ask yourself whether it was such a brilliant idea to fit LCV tyres!)

[Moncayoman]

Michelin Agilis XC Camping - £103 from Costco fitted.

They appear to be a different (and smooter riding) beast from the previous XC.

I am happy with them.