tyres

[pagey]

has anybody fitted tyres that are not campingcar specific tyres as i have just been told by a tyre supplier that providing the load rating ie 109 is on the tyre it will be ok to use on a c/car, as an example continental vanco2 were mentioned,it seems that there is a shortage of michelin c/c tyres

[Puzzled]

Have used light commercial tyres in the past and they were fine. Just make sure that the load raiting is correct for the weight of your camper.

[Mel E]

Most motorhomes have ordinary van tyres rather than camping car tyres. Remember that the vans built on the same chassis work a lot harder with white van man regularly doing 85 on the m'way, and braking harder in towns, etc., often with a similar load to that of a motorhome body.

 

So you will be fine with tyres such as Vancos.

 

It's worth noting that the unavailability of all Michelin tyres (especially camping car) is a continuing problem.

 

Mel E

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[Brambles]

Hi,

The Michelin XC camping will be getting in short supply as it has been replaced by the Michelin Agilis camping. I have been told by Michelin there is plenty of stock available.

 

I would suggest your supplier is looking at XC stock and he has not yet got the Agilis on his system. Many suppliers use tyre brokers and do not source direct from Michelin, and not all brokers yet stock or have the Agilis on their sytem either.

 

Regarding fitting normal commercial tyres this is fine for many camping cars such as van conversions, but every camping car has its own weight characteristics and you cannot generalise.

To simplify if you need or not is to check if you Motorhome has uprated suspension. e.g the camping car pack for the suspension. If it does then it is because it is heavy and indicates Camping tyres should maybe be fitted.

Reason. The suspension is a lot stiffer so every time you go over a bump ot road undulation then there is more stress in the tyre as the suspension does not absorb so much of the forces.

In a coach built when loaded up, much of the weight is going to be distributed high up raising the centre of gravity, along with much of it over hanging the rear axle a long way. Also picture an over head bunk and maybe even a roof box, satellite dishes etc. When you corner or change direction or the vehicle all moves about on the suspension, this weight being further from the wheels is harder to accelerate/move and the effective dynamic weight on the tyres is a lot higher than in a typical commercial van loaded up. Every time you corner you apply much more effective wieght on the outside tyres. In effect you are overloaded, even though your kerbside wieght is fine.

 

Next comes tyre ageing. If you are not expecting to do high mileage you may well end up replacing tyres sooner because of tyre wall cracking.

Normal commercial tyres are only expected to be on a a vehicle for a year or two not 6 years, and so you need adequate strength in tyre to last 6 years. Michelin originally brought out the camping tyre to address these problems of failure of normal tyres as vehicles aged, along with the stresses of sitting unused for long periods, drving over rough ground, sitting on uneven camp site ground where one wheel may be heavily loaded, driving over large bumps and stones etc.

Now how can you expect every tyre fitter to understand that, as an engineer I find it hard to explain. So basically if you have camping car rated suspension you need camping tyres.

I have spoken to two large tyre suppliers last week and both absolutely insisted camping car tyres were fitted to my coach built and would not supply standard commercial tyres for such, they had seen too many tyres on campers they had removed that were well past serviceable use, but hardly any camping spec XCs that were lethal.

 

SO make your own mind up, but my view is....

Converted van - should be fine with normal tyres

Coach built - small - OK

Coach built medium low profile - debateable

Coach built medium over head cab/high roof - camping tyres preferred

Coach build large single axle - camping tyres

Coach build large tag axle - debateable - I do not know but would think camping tyres.

 

Jon.