Dave225 Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Can anyone give me advice, or comments regarding the life expectancy of a spare tyre. I have searched but there seems to be a lot of different opinions, as normal. When I bought my van in 2005 it did not have a spare so I purchased a wheel and tyre. Since then the wheel/tyre has sat in a closed locker and only sees daylight when I remove it to clean the locker. So no exposure to road dirt, rain or even light in extreme. It has never been on an axle or moved an inch in anger. Looking at it shows no signs of any sidewall cracking, in fact it looks the same as when I took it from the tyre fitter. However it is now 7 years since being made so although i could just bite the bullet and get a new one for £70+ it would seem strange to take an unused tyre back to be replaced don’t you think? However, I do not necessarily value my life so cheaply, but just making enquiries. As mentioned it is a spare and would only be used to get me from a puncture to a place where I could replace the punctured tyre. This I would do as the road wheels are alloys and the spare is steel. I have no intention of using it to cross Europe for example. So, any ideas when i should call it quits or am I already living on borrowed time. My van is a caravan so possibly slightly different, but I guess the same scenario applies to motorhomes. My own motorhome lasted 9 years and again the spare was never used and was sold with it as per coming out of Mercedes factory. Ironically my last car, and this one has one of those small wheels supplied as a spare and when I traded the car in after 8 years, the spare was still unused and never seemed to cause any issues. As far as I can tell the Law states that tyres must be in roadworthy condition, but age is not mentioned although everyone more or less follows the 5/7 year rule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Changed my spare a couple of years ago ;-)...............It was only ever used once after my wheel nut saga *-).........not because I'd had a puncture but because the steel wheel holes had so enlarged the AA man put on the spare............As we were on our way to Spain the next day we managed to a steel wheel from the Scrappy and the tyre place put that on the van ;-).......................as my spare was 20 years old :D I've since had a matching Hankook tyre put onto the spare...............and the odd tyre put on the works van :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Although most of us with Motorhomes recon on 5 - 7 years as the bench mark for changing tyres, a regularly used tyre will last longer than one on a van that has been layed up over the winter every year. Regular use keeps the side walls flexible and less prone to cracking. In your case as the tyre has not been exposed to UV and you only intend to use it as a get you home spare it should be OK up to at least 10 years old. Bear in mind if you have to use it take it easy don't steam down the motorway at 70 for a couple of hundred miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Dave, What make is it? I only ask because I recently found a quote on the Continental tyres website that said there tyres where good for 10 years. I have just changed all 5 Conti tyres on our MH as they where just over 9 years old. The 4 road wheel tyres had done 21,000 miles and the spare only 5 miles so I sold them as S/H on eBay and this paid for 2 of my new tyres! I made it quite clear the age of vehicle the tyres had come off in the ad so buyers where informed. Have a look for info on the manufacturers website to see if you can find any info. Keith. PS Lenny posted while I was typing but seems like we agree on 10 years as long as condition is ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave225 Posted October 29, 2012 Author Share Posted October 29, 2012 Keithl - 2012-10-29 5:44 PM Dave, What make is it? I only ask because I recently found a quote on the Continental tyres website that said there tyres where good for 10 years. I have just changed all 5 Conti tyres on our MH as they where just over 9 years old. The 4 road wheel tyres had done 21,000 miles and the spare only 5 miles so I sold them as S/H on eBay and this paid for 2 of my new tyres! I made it quite clear the age of vehicle the tyres had come off in the ad so buyers where informed. Have a look for info on the manufacturers website to see if you can find any info. Keith. PS Lenny posted while I was typing but seems like we agree on 10 years as long as condition is ok. To be perfectly honest I will have to go and look. When I bought it I took basically what was available and again as it was the spare, did not go into great detail. It was new etc etc. The only thing that concerns about the '10 year rule' is that this is not a commercial tyre per se, well it is a 'C' tyre so I suppose it is equivalent come to think of it. However I suspect that next year I will bite the bullet and get anew one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Dave The Continental website-based information Keith mentiions is probably this http://tinyurl.com/8dvzxu9 but the advice is at least 6 years old. It seems to be generally accepted that a tyre on a spare-wheel that's never fitted to the vehicle's axle will still degrade over time. However, there still appears to be no hard and fast advice as to what age a tyre should be considered 'unsafe'. The logical thing would be to address your inquiry to the manufacturer of the tyre fitted to your caravan's spare-wheel as, if there is a recommended throw-away age for that tyre, it will have been defined by its manufacturer. Appearance is no help in this instance. I have a VW wheel with a Goodyear tyre fitted to it that's well over 20 years old and the tyre looks in perfect condition. It was fitted to one of my Golfs in the 1990s, was run for a few hundred miles, then carried as a spare when the vehicle was driven abroad. When I sold the Golf I retained the wheel/tyre and it's lived in my garage ever since. Whether it would tolerate nowadays the sustained 130mph it was originally designed to handle is anybody's guess, but I don't think I'd want to find out! My own feeling is that, if one is to take the view that a regularly used caravan tyre may be considered safe at 7 years of age, it's difficult to argue that a 7-year old tyre that's never been used (and is in visually perfect condition and been housed in an enclosed locker) is likely to be any less safe, nor - if the spare-wheel the tyre is on needs to be fitted to the caravan in an emergency - that the unused tyre should be treated any dfferently from the caravan's other tyre(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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