hobby Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Tyres on my motorhome are the michelin camping type 215/70r 15c but i have noticed that they cost the most,where for instance bradstone can be up to £20.00 cheaper, as any of you nice people used any thing other than the michelin type, and any advise would be great. Hobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 hobby - 2011-01-19 4:42 PM Tyres on my motorhome are the michelin camping type 215/70r 15c but i have noticed that they cost the most,where for instance bradstone can be up to £20.00 cheaper, as any of you nice people used any thing other than the michelin type, and any advise would be great. Hobby If you want 215/70 R15C 'camping-car' tyres (ie. tyres that are specifically aimed at the motorhome market), then your choice is restricted to three makes/patterns - Michelin "Agilis Camping", Pirelli "Chrono Camper" or Continental "VancoCamper". Cheaper (much cheaper if you are really strapped for cash) tyres aimed at the the general light-commercial vehicle (LCV) 'white van' market are readily obtainable, though not I think from "Bradstone". I'm guessing you mean "Bridgestone", that does not make 'camping-car' tyres, though its range of LCV tyres is well regarded. A 'camping-car' tyre from (say) Michelin will usually be offered at a higher asking-price than an equivalent size/load-carrying capability tyre from Michelin's LCV range. This is also likely to be true for Continental and Pirelli, though you can sometimes find bargains if you really shop around. "Camping-car tyres or LCV tyres?" is a question much argued about on motorhome forums. I guess the simplest solution for you would be swap like for like and hang the extra expense - replacing your present tyres with Michelin "Agilis Camping". That way you could be confident the new tyres should be capable of handling whatever load you place on them and you wouldn't need to be concerned about possible tyre-pressure alterations. Selecting 215/70 15" tyres on this website http://www.citytyre.co.uk/ retrieves quite a few LCV or camping-car tyres with a 109 Load Index (equivalent to your present Michelins) from various manufacturers and at various prices. Unless you are in the habit of driving your motorhome very heavily loaded, then LCV tyres from Uniroyal, Bridgestone, Firestone, Hankook, Dunlop, Michelin, Pirelli, Continental, etc. etc. should perform adequately and safely and save you some purchase-price money. (Really cheap tyres are available - often manufactured in China - but are probably best avoided. I don't think comparative tests of LCV tyres have been made that included 'super cheapies', but tests of the car-tyre equivalents have revealed shockingly bad wet-weather performance.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twooks Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I'm a big fan of Vredestein would recommend that you get tyres with Mud + Snow rating as well as any other requirements B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 twooks - 2011-01-19 7:42 PM I'm a big fan of Vredestein would recommend that you get tyres with Mud + Snow rating as well as any other requirements B-) Mud and snow tyres are good for grip in, er, mud and snow - but can be noisy at speed depending on tread pattern? Depends on how often you winter tour and whether you use sites prone to the slippy slidey stuff I suppose - although I have doubts that any tyre would pull you out of deep site mud as that is not their design function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 There are no 'ratings' for "M+S"-marked tyres. It's a marking used (often arbitrarily) by tyre manufactuers to indicate that they consider a particular tyre-pattern able to provide somewhat better grip in light snow and on mucky road conditions than a more 'summer-oriented' tyre. Genuine 'winter' tyres will usually be marked "M+S", but these will have a specialised tread-pattern and compound designed to perform especially well during cold weather and on snow and ice. The chunky tyres used on many 4x4s will normally be "M+S"-marked for obvious reasons. However, for motorhomes, the "M+S" marking is a red herring as (unless an owner deliberately fits full-house 'winter' tyres to his/her vehicle) all the tyres suitable for motorhomes will be 'summer' type. It is often suggested that fitting "M+S"-marked tyres to a motorhome will provide better grip on a grassed or muddy campsite due to those tyres' blockier tread pattern. This might be true if motorhome-suitable "M+S"-marked tyres always had a blockier tread pattern than non-"M+S"-marked tyres. If you look at the following camping-car-tyre-related web-pages http://www.michelin.co.uk/tyres/michelin-agilis-camping http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/automobile/themes/van-tires/summer-tires/vancocamper/vancocamper.html it's plain that the tread-pattern of Michelin's "M+S"-marked "Agilis Camping" is less 'blocky' than Continental's non-"M+S"-marked "VancoCamper". Both of these tyres are designated as 'summer' and there's no good reason to assume that either will be miraculously grippy on non-metalled surfaces. Similarly, there is no good reason to assume that a motorhome-suitable "M+S"-marked tyre will produce more road noise than one that is not so marked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Bulgaria Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Whether you go for a LCV or designated motorhome tyres make sure you get tyres of the correct Load Index. Tyresafe does a useful publication at www.btmauk.com. From this your tyre size 215/70R15CP gives a Load Index of 109, which should be good for an axle load up to 2060 Kg. If your maximum axle load from the vehicle plate is higher than this, you should consider increasing your wheel nominal section width (the 215 for your present tyres) to 225 to give a bigger Load Index of 112 to carry loads up to 2240 Kg per axle. Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twooks Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 never had a problem getting off crappy surfaces, mud, wet grass, sandy soil wouldn't touch Michelin with a long tyre iron [after living briefly in Stoke-on-Trent and knowing several of their employees] don't like their pricing structure either we use our van all year round and the traction is great on snow and ice [well perhaps not on ice - but it helps] don't find them too noisy either, perhaps we don't drive fast enough :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Whilst I accept most of Dereks comments above, one tyre often overlooked is Avons Vanmaster M&S which is designed to give better traction in mud slush and snow but is significantly cheaper than the Michelin and Continental counterparts. They feature the 'blockier' tread mentioned by Derek (probably more so than the other two) and do work well in slightly 'off road' mud conditions They are however only available in limited sizes so will not suit everyone. You would need to go upsize to 225 x 70 x 15 for instance. The ride is little different to normal tyres, strangely on ours quieter not sure why. Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Uncle Bulgaria - 2011-01-20 4:37 PM Whether you go for a LCV or designated motorhome tyres make sure you get tyres of the correct Load Index. Tyresafe does a useful publication at www.btmauk.com. From this your tyre size 215/70R15CP gives a Load Index of 109, which should be good for an axle load up to 2060 Kg. If your maximum axle load from the vehicle plate is higher than this, you should consider increasing your wheel nominal section width (the 215 for your present tyres) to 225 to give a bigger Load Index of 112 to carry loads up to 2240 Kg per axle. Richard. If a motorhome's VIN-plate indicates an axle-load higher than the load-index of the tyres fitted to the vehicle, then something is seriously wrong. Vehicle manufacturers will NEVER fit tyres as original equipment that have a load-index lower than the VIN-plate maxima. A tyre with a 109 load-index will be well-capable of handling hobby's 2003 Sundance's VIN-Plate maxima. Increasing tyre dimensions to gain extra load-carrying capacity is OK as long as the vehicle manufacturer has allowed sufficient clearance for a wider/taller tyre to be fitted. That may not be the case for X/244 SEVEL models with 15" wheels as (according to Michelin's technical handbook) a 215/70 profile was the maximum Fiat specified. And, of course, unless you swap all the vehicle's existing tyres to the larger size, you'll need to bear in mind the implications of having a mixture of 'small' and 'large' tyres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Basil - 2011-01-20 9:44 PM ........ They are however only available in limited sizes so will not suit everyone. You would need to go upsize to 225 x 70 x 15 for instance. .............. Bas Regarding "upsizing", apart from the issue of wheel arch clearances that Derek mentions, remember also the larger size will have a larger rolling radius, rotating a little slower at any actual road speed, so making your speedometer run slow, which just might land you in trouble! Never simple, is it? I think the best counsel is to stick to the size/load index presently fitted and, recognising that motorhomes always run much closer to their load limits, especially on one axle, than the van bases on which most are built, stick to reputable makes. If you have weighed your van fully laden, and know that neither the van, nor one of its axles, is close to its plated limits, there is no need to go for a CP rated tyre.However, if the van, or one of its axles, runs at, or close to, its limit, I'd say go for one of the CP rated tyres, because the CP rated tyres are claimed to be designed with this factor in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 If you need 4 tyres Kwik Fit regularly have an offer for Michelin and sometimes other makes with 25% discount. If its not running ask your local dealer. Mine told me when to call and I saved £150. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 There is another issue here - the unknown age of the tyres currently fitted to Hobby's 2003 Swift Sundance. There's a reasonable chance that, in 2011, a 2003 UK motorhome will still have all its original tyres. If that's the case here, and Hobby is only planning to replace (say) the front tyres, the motorhome would then be equipped with two brand-new tyres and three 8-year-old ones - not exactly an ideal mixture and, if the new tyres were fitted to the vehicle's front wheels, a potentially dangerous combination. More information from Hobby would be helpful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMC20_2 Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I have just changed all my tyres on my Rapido as the reg is 02 and certainly the tyres are the original, I have had Continental Vanco re fitted and the tyre fitter said had I seen my old tyres. They had done over 45.000 miles. I told him that there were just a few hair line cracks appearing on one tyre and they all had in excess of 5.5mm tread left, but they were old. The journey home was like driving a different vehicle. There were far less rattles and bumps (our roads are pretty poor) than before so well worth the expense. I used KwikFit on line and I think they had the best price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Replaced my tyres last year with the same Hankooks that I put on last time I replaced them due to age, thats three sets in 21 years :D I have to agree that there is an amazing difference with fresh rubber 8-) The 3 sets include the originals :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'm booked in tomorrow for 2 Firestone's £85 + vat each. He wanted to sell me some tyres I'd never heard of, made in China, cost inc vat £65 each.Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 nowtelse2do - 2011-03-01 8:18 PM I'm booked in tomorrow for 2 Firestone's £85 + vat each. He wanted to sell me some tyres I'd never heard of, made in China, cost inc vat £65 each.Dave Just an update on this. The price turned out at £220 with the vat but they look really good (time will tell) The van has only done 46000 miles (T reg 1999) and they are all the original tyres, 11yr old, so ordered two more for the back even though they have still got good tread depth, they are to old for my liking.Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclops2 Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Just ordered 4 new premium tyres Avon AV 4, 195R14C for my Transit from tyre shopper. £258.40 for 4 tyres fitted and balanced with new valves. Thats £64.60 each. Can't be bad!! Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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