kelly58 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 My Peugeot Autosleeper has done almost 15k miles and will be 2 yrs old in September , I checked the tyres to-day and the rear are 12mm and the front 7.5mm usually with the car I switch the wheels back to front to even out the wear after about 20/25k miles , has anyone done this with their motorhome or is it not advisable ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Never done it on any vehicle but cant see a problem doin it to MH if thats what you do with your car. You will no this of course but rears will prob not have been balanced so will need to be if putting them on front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duetto owner Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 switching back to front i thought was in the days of cross plys, dont think its done anymore on redials Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 On my van, the wear pattern is different between front and back, so changing them round would not be a good idea at all. The front tyres wear with, 'round shoulders', the rears wear flat across the tread. This is on a rear wheel drive MK7 Transit, but FWD or RWD, if the wear pattern is different, don't change them round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 The general recommendation now is to have the best tyres on the rear, and not to swap around. You could fit the spare, if supplied, on the rear, taking the best rear tyre to the front, but the wear patterns as spospe says are different, potentially resulting in accelerated wear on both as they bed in to their new lives. I'd say either allow the fronts to wear out and just replace both or, if a spare is fitted, replace the worst a little early, fit it and the spare at the front, and relegate the best front to duty as the spare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthomson Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Hi, Brian What advice would you offer regarding replacement of tyres after five years, even if there's still enough tread on them? Regards, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 mthomson - 2012-08-09 7:55 PM Hi, Brian What advice would you offer regarding replacement of tyres after five years, even if there's still enough tread on them? Regards, Mike I wouldn't! :-) They need properly examining, because they can crack between the treads as well as on the sidewalls, and sidewall cracks cannot properly be examined with the tyre inflated. It also depends on where the van has been (i.e. spending lengthy periods standing in hot sun) and how long at a time it has been left immobile. Five years is generally taken to be the beginning of the end of life of most tyres, though some say seven years. After seven years they are definitely on borrowed time, and I believe the absolute backstop is 10 years. The compounds progressively lose elasticity, and become increasingly stiff. Once beyond seven years they may survive short journeys, but will be very prone to catastrophic failure if taken on long, hot, motorway drives. You just have to know your own tyres, take good advice, and use your own judgement based on circumstance, how you use your van, and the advice given. New tyres are a lot cheaper than losing control of your van because of a blow-out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 On cars the difference in wear patterns between front and rear tyres can have a significant effect on handling and roadholding. I doubt most motorcaravan drivers get anywhere near the ultimate limits of tyre grip and it makes sense to swap tyres front to rear to optimse wear. On FWD motorcaravans covering the typical 5,000 miles a year if tyres are not rotated the rears will die of old age long before worn out. Just to stir the pot, I get about 40,000 miles from a set of economy grade tyres on my RWD VW LT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 GOOGLE-ing on "tire rotation" will produce plenty of information about the practice. Whether it's worth doing will depend on a) the annual mileage of the motorhome, b) the tyre-wear rate, c) who does it (DIY or 'professional') and d) personal preference. I used to do it, but now I don't. If you do it very regularly to even out the wear, eventually you'll end up with all the tyres worn down to the legal minimum tread-depth, which may not be considered a Good Thing as far as wet grip is concerned. When the 'chassis' on which a motorhome will be based comes off its manufacturer's assembly-line, all of its wheels (including any spare wheel) will have been balanced. Unless a wheel subsequently becomes unbalanced (eg. as the result of losing balance weights), rebalancing should not be necessary when 'rotating' wheels front-to-rear, side-to-side, diagonally, (whatever). Having said that, the presence of unbalanced wheels on a vehicle's rear axle(s) may not be apparent to a driver, but the imbalance will very likely show up if the wheels are moved to the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Just one further point to mull over. If you do as George says (hello George! :-)) , you eventually have to buy 5 tyres (4 if no spare). If you replace only the fronts when they wear, putting the new tyres on the rear, and bringing the existing rears to the front (or mix-in the spare as above), the most you should need to buy at a single hit is 3 (2 if no spare). It is no cheaper overall, but at least you can spread the cost over a couple of years! George is an extremely wealthy man, so will not have noticed this minor benefit! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Brian, Me wealthy , no, but tight as the proverbial ducks fert, oh yes. The thought of throwing tyres away due to their age but still with plenty of tread tread is the stuff of nightmares. Equalising tyre wear does mean buying four at once rather than speading the expense but my guess is that its more economic. My spare may be up to 8 years old but is only intended to allow for limping slowly to where I can buy a new tyre. On our size of vehicle once a tyre deflates while mobile it's no longer fit to use even if apparently OK as hidden damage has almost certainly occurred. In practice I do not need to rotate my own as wear is reasonably even all round and age and wear happily coincide and they are approaching the legal minimum tread depth at about 5 yearsold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 For some vehicles swapping tyres front to back is a requirement, I know because I've got one. For MH's it shouldn't realy be nessasary, BUT, so as to get best use from tyres on FWD vehicles which wear out fronts first on changing tyres I swap the part worn to front then put new to rear, this ensures rear always has best tread and the tyres are worn before they start to perish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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