old tyres

[gulliver]

Hi -I'm new here but I thought I should share my current experience with you all.

 

This is the story :-

 

We bought a 2000 W reg autosleeper Pescara from Fullers near Nottingham in July. Lovely van - no problems at all. But last Monday a rear tyre delaminated and destroyed the side skirt on the van whilst driving at 55mph. The tyres were all at the correct pressures. When the RAC man arrived to put the spare on he was reluctant to do so because he said the tyre was too old and not safe! Both the tyre that failed and the spare were originals - ie 10 years old. The van had passed a MOT in July. Fullers were helpful and have offered to pay for new tyres which is good but didn't want to accept liability for the destroyed skirt as the replacement cost is over £1200. They said that this was an issue for my insurance company Aviva. Aviva have been helpful and have accepted liability but it will cost me my excess and loss of no claims bonus. I want Fullers to pick this cost up.

 

I did some research in the paperwork that came with the van and discovered that the previous owner had had a MOT failure for tyre delamination on the other side at the rear! He just replaced the failed tyre - and asked the MOT garage to put the spare on the other side. The MOT Garage refused to put the spare on because it was TOO OLD! We therefore got the van with a very suspect tyre on the rear offside. Not knowing about old tyres we only looked at the treads when we bought the van - which were fine. Nevertheless the offside old tyre failed and it was only by luck that there was not a serious accident which could have been fatal if the van had gone over. - the tyre did not deflate so the van was brought to a stop in a controlled manner. It could have been so much worse.

 

I would advise all van purchasers to examine the tyres on their prospective purchase very carefully and if they are over 5 years old insist on new ones regardless of tread wear. there are date codes on all tyres near the DOT marking they are year and week no.

 

Motor home providers need to ensure that all vans they sell have safe tyres on too! They would surely feel dreadful if some one was killed because they were too mean to spend a few pounds to make sure their vans are safe.

 

End of rant - thank you for listening - G

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Newell]

Hi G, I spend a lot of time and effort trying to inform motorhomers of the dangers of old tyres. Strangely tyre age is not an MOT issue, even more strange is that the spare is no longer a testable item. 30 odd years ago when I was a young upstart in the motor industry spare tyres were brought into the MOT test and if present had to meet the same criteria as the rest of the tyres, this is no longer so. Even stranger is the fact that tyres do not fail an MOT because of cracking unless the cord reinforcement is visible, I checked this with my local testing station recently and they showed me the testers manual.

 

Thankfully most of my customers take action when we highlight their tyres age and have them replaced although it can come as a shaock to owners of tag axled or twin rear wheeled motorhomes. Had a regular in today and we informed them a few months ago of their tyres being old, they took my advice and had all seven tyres replaced and got a bargain at just £540 for all seven.

 

D.

[mirage]

Unfortunately when it comes to motorhomes it seems to be a case of buyer beware and that applies to Brand New ones as well.

[colin]

I'm not sure how true the following is, but, I read/heard some years back that the reason there is many secondhand tyres availible for sale is in Germany there is an age limit and they ship the older tyres to UK. I also vaguely recall that it was expected that there would be an age limit in UK, but this seems not to have happened.

[Bulletguy]

gulliver - 2010-10-01 6:54 PM

 

Hi -I'm new here but I thought I should share my current experience with you all.

 

This is the story :-

 

We bought a 2000 W reg autosleeper Pescara from Fullers near Nottingham in July. Lovely van - no problems at all. But last Monday a rear tyre delaminated and destroyed the side skirt on the van whilst driving at 55mph.......

 

Reading through your post i'd personally recommend you pursue this further as Fullers amazingly handed you legal paperwork indicating that the tyres were suspect. As a trader they should have checked that themselves, which they obviously had not, BEFORE selling. It's not enough to stick a couple of new tyres on AFTER the event......that should have been done BEFORE the motorhome left their forecourt.

 

Worth going to have a word with your local Trading Standards people or CAB, neither of which will cost you anything other than a bit of time.

 

Im afraid delamination is a common problem with motorhomes, many of which spend months on end sitting doing nothing. The tread can be 100% but once the walls show sign of perishing through weather, usually hairline cracks, they are bin jobs.

[Brian Kirby]

Definitely enquire, but don't raise your expectations too far.  The problem is that you have had the van since July, so could have damaged the tyre during that time.  Since there is no legal limit on tyre age - although there is a generally accepted recommendation to change tyres after 7 years, some say 5 years, I think you would struggle to prove the condition of the tyres at the time of the failure was the same as at the point of sale.

It is true the tyre in question had a dubious history at the time of sale, but I suspect it would be almost impossible to prove that alone, and no other later event, was the primary cause of failure.  I think I'd be a bit inclined to thank Fullers for their offer, but ask them instead to consider doing the repair job at cost, in lieu of supplying tyres, and then source my own tyres.  After all, apart from a nasty experience and a scare, it is the damage to the van that has caused you the most loss.  Tyres always have to be replaced sooner or later, they are just part of your running costs.

[Rayjsj]

I have looked at the Michelin XC camper tyres on my Van, but am unable to find anything that looks anything remotely like a date. Bought the van home today, after having a PDI , so hope that the tyres were checked then. This is a very important safety issue, so why is it so difficult to see the date of manufacture ?? and why do they (tyre manufacturers) hide it in 'Code' ? I would have thought a Big bold 'Use by' date , should be how it is done. Especially as WE are responsable if a blowout results in someones injury or death. ? IF WE are to be checking this, they should make it easy for us. Ray *-)

[alan k]

Listed in a window on the tyre wall

 

 

To check the age of the tyre look for the DOT number stamped on the sidewall of the tyre, it will look something like "DOT XXXX 3207" and in this example the tyre was manufactured during the 32nd week of 2007.

 

I pick up my new van on Thursday and will be looking at tyre age

 

alan

[Keithl]

Ray,

 

The date code will only be stamped once on the tyre so S*d's law says it will be on the inner face. If so you'll need to get your crawling mat out to find it.

Chances are on a new MH all the tyres will be from the same batch but never less it's worth checking all of them, especially the spare, to make sure.

 

Keith.

[Bazza454]

Rayjsj - 2010-10-03 8:59 PM I have looked at the Michelin XC camper tyres on my Van, but am unable to find anything that looks anything remotely like a date. Bought the van home today, after having a PDI , so hope that the tyres were checked then. This is a very important safety issue, so why is it so difficult to see the date of manufacture ?? and why do they (tyre manufacturers) hide it in 'Code' ? I would have thought a Big bold 'Use by' date , should be how it is done. Especially as WE are responsable if a blowout results in someones injury or death. ? IF WE are to be checking this, they should make it easy for us. Ray *-)

Hopefully this will help -

 http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

[602]

I'm not sure how true the following is, but, I read/heard some years back that the reason there is many secondhand tyres availible for sale is in Germany there is an age limit and they ship the older tyres to UK.

 

Hi,

 

The story I heard is that, in Germany, if you replace one tyre, you must replace the other tyre on the same axle, despite there being nothing wrong with it. So all those odd tyres come to UK. I bought a pair once, for a small car, cost me £10 each about 15 years go. False economy, they wore out very quickly.

 

There seems to be thriving trade in part worn tyres in France. I know one tyrebay that sells nothing else.

 

602

[Rayjsj]

Hi,

Thanks for all the Info, have saved the links for further referance,

have checked my tyres, 3 have the 'dot' window on the inside, and as it has a 'low line' chassis there is no way i'm going to be able to slide under(even if i could physically !) so they will have to wait until it's next up on a ramp. i was able to read 1 and it's 2005. So it looks like they are the original tyres (week 20, 2005 ?) so I had better start saving up for a new set. When is best to change 6 or 7 years ? I know the sooner the better,

but i'm not into wasting money either, (or creating waste mountains of old tyres.....which are only slightly worn, tread wise. 13,000 miles).

I'm afraid I'm a 'baby boomer' who simply HATES to see waste, of any kind. I need wise advice with this in mind. Ray

[flicka]

Hi Ray

I quess the answer as to when to change, will partly depend on what you see when it's up on the Ramps.

That's the time to check the inner walls for crazing or bulges.

If all are OK, IMHO do the same next year in the knowledge that you may need to change but have had a year to save for them & haven't wasted rubber.