Old tyres

[hunton69]

Not sure if this subject has been covered before but if not it is very important.

Motorhome tyres need to be changed between 5-7 years as they internally break down I guess to the constant standing in one place.

I have just come back from a 2 week trip in France and spent 5 days parked up in a small village with blown tyres. My motorhome is 10 years old from new and had passed its MOT the week before the trip.
Tyres were in excellent condition but after 400 miles one blew up 10 mins after parking up.
We changed that tyre made some phone calls and found out about the 5 yearish rule.
Drove very slowly to find a camp site and the inner rear blew up 15 km later
Some say its the sun light personally i don't believe that as the inside of the front blew and the inside of the double blew.

To make matters worse we drove into a small road off the lane and parked up in someones drive the bad luck continued as we punched a hole in his drive. Parked ontop of a drain.

Nearest town was 6km fortunatly had bikes. Chucked the old man 50 euros to repair the drain in return he gave us 2 lettuces and a bottle of wine,. By day 3 his son who livid next door let us use his swimming pool.
We were very lucky to of broken down where we did but still messed the holiday up.
Ended up changing all 6

So be warned..

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Wowsers.

Just a thought though - as the damage was on the insides of the tyres where it could not be seen...and almost looks like blunt trauma kinda damage...is it beyond the realms of possibility that it was done maliciously by someone with a grudge?

Getting in there with a knife and cutting a small slit in the sidewall could very well end up with a chunk blowing out like in the picture, once the tyres started moving?

[hunton69]

Is was in the middle of france and I had just driven 200 miles and came of the motorway that day and parked in a supermarket car park the kids oldest is 18 were sitting in the motorhome.

2nd tyre blew 15 KM later and that was on the inside of the rear.

Tyre companies know there is a problem

I have been in touch with VOSA and department of transport. There not interested.

[jagracer]

Are you sure you haven't hit a kerb or some object in the road with the inside of the tyres, were they on the same side. The inner carcass looks OK in that picture and when tyres blow due to degradation they usually do more damage than that. I do agree with you on changing them on a regular basis if they don't wear out, my mate has had the same on his motorhome and I've had it happen to me with trailer tyres, three blowouts on the M25 within 30 minutes isn't fun. I've also had a couple of HGV tyres have the inner carcass disintegrate and the outer walls hold it together but it still deflates although not as rapidly as a normal blowout.
As for the sun causing it, I'd think it's more likely a sudden change in road temperature that does it.

[hunton69]

Both tyres had the same hole blown out of them.
We drove from London to Macon on motorways. Not blowing my own trumpet but I never touched a kerb.
Never even went up a kerb.

During I never drove the vehicle from Oct 2011 untill a month before we left and it sits in my garden. Also at MOT they would visiually check the tyres as they do all my minibuses safety checks.

I still have the spare that has never been on the motorhome other than the 15km between blow outs. I want to get it tested.

[hunton69]

[jagracer]

hunton69 said:

Both tyres had the same hole blown out of them.
We drove from London to Macon on motorways. Not blowing my own trumpet but I never touched a kerb.
Never even went up a kerb.
I still have the spare that has never been on the motorhome other than the 15km between blow outs. I want to get it tested.

Is it an American or European MH? If the spare is the same age as the others then by your own reckoning you should probably ditch it and how would it be tested anyway apart from visually which can't see inside?
That tyre looks like it may be 11 years old judging by the date mark.

Edited by jagracer on Thursday 25th July 19:42

Edited by jagracer on Thursday 25th July 19:45

[normalbloke]

Very topical....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23320526

[hunton69]

My tyres were 11 years old I only found that out while sitting by the side of the road as i was told every tyre has a date mark. Mine were 2402 which means 24th week of 2002

It is an american weighing in at 7 ton.

were not restricted in speed either although I generally drive it at 60mph

I would not like to imagine what would happen if it blew at that kind of speed.

I made some phone calls to Vosa and the department of transport while sitting by the side of the road and got a very pathetic answer from the deparrtment of transport today My last sentence in my reply said that there will be serious road accidents if this practice continues. Never knew about that BBC report.

Not sure anyone would want to be heading towards 7 ton vehicle on an A road when a front tyre blows.

[hunton69]

jagracer said:

Is it an American or European MH? If the spare is the same age as the others then by your own reckoning you should probably ditch it and how would it be tested anyway apart from visually which can't see inside?
That tyre looks like it may be 11 years old judging by the date mark.

Edited by jagracer on Thursday 25th July 19:42

Edited by jagracer on Thursday 25th July 19:45

I will be replacing the spare but I wanted to bring it back. I have been told there are 2 test centres in the UK that can test tyres I shall be in contact with them.

[hunton69]

[Chrisgr31]

Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravaning Club recommend changing caraan tyres after 5 years to help avoid blowouts.

[hunton69]

Chrisgr31 said:

Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravaning Club recommend changing caraan tyres after 5 years to help avoid blowouts.

So how come MOT stations don't offer the same advice or inforce

[Piersman2]

hunton69 said:

Chrisgr31 said:

Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravaning Club recommend changing caraan tyres after 5 years to help avoid blowouts.

So how come MOT stations don't offer the same advice or inforce

Because it's not yet a legal requirement. There was a suggestion a few years back that MOTs would include a check, and fail any vehicle with tyres over 5 years old. as you can imagine this was put on the back burner once the press got hold of it.

It seems to me that you've now been educated that tyres may not last for ever, you'll know to change them in a timely fashion in future. That may sound a bit harsh, but who do you expect to care about your tyres and their condition more than you? Seems plenty of others are aware that old tyres are not for long, fast distances.

[hunton69]

Piersman2 said:

Because it's not yet a legal requirement. There was a suggestion a few years back that MOTs would include a check, and fail any vehicle with tyres over 5 years old. as you can imagine this was put on the back burner once the press got hold of it.

It seems to me that you've now been educated that tyres may not last for ever, you'll know to change them in a timely fashion in future. That may sound a bit harsh, but who do you expect to care about your tyres and their condition more than you? Seems plenty of others are aware that old tyres are not for long, fast distances.

I do now know but that isn't the issue.

How many more unsuspecting owners still don't know.

I had the vehicle MOT'd just before the trip I also mentioned to the garage about the age of the tyres as my accountant last year mentioned about caravan tyres blowing around the 7 year due to the sun.

These tyres are either 14 or 16 ply caravan ones approx 6 so i had no big issue and neither did the garage
In hind sight I should of researched the issue before my trip but why would I when the garage owner doesn't even Know. It should be his business to know
The amount of garages that can accomadate these Motorhomes are few and far between.

[Piersman2]

hunton69 said:

I do now know but that isn't the issue.

How many more unsuspecting owners still don't know.

I had the vehicle MOT'd just before the trip I also mentioned to the garage about the age of the tyres as my accountant last year mentioned about caravan tyres blowing around the 7 year due to the sun.

These tyres are either 14 or 16 ply caravan ones approx 6 so i had no big issue and neither did the garage
In hind sight I should of researched the issue before my trip but why would I when the garage owner doesn't even Know. It should be his business to know
The amount of garages that can accomadate these Motorhomes are few and far between.

Err... so your accountant mentioned to you last year that tyres start blowing around the 7 year mark, and yet you decided to not research it. And now you're miffed that the garage didn't advise you anything when it was MOT'd , despite the MOT having nothing to do with the age of the tyres.

I suppose I'm just a bit confused by your actions and what you're expecting to happen next? Are you expecting the garage or someone to apologise, pay compensation, something else?

If you think it's an issue for others to check out then maybe you should sign up to a few motoring forums and tell them your experience...

...ohhh, you have!

Just don't be expecting the garage or the VOSA people to be too interested as it's actually got nothing to do with them until someone changes the MOT to check tyre age.

[jagracer]

hunton69 said:

So how come MOT stations don't offer the same advice or inforce

MOT stations are for checking safety at the time and the best people to ask about tyre wear and safety would be a decent tyre company, A mate of mine had similar problems with an old American motorhome and the tyres were strange sizes and unavailable in the UK. He had to personally import them as they weren't EU marked and he got them from Texas. What he didn't know was that tyres for the Texas market are extremely hard compound to cope with the heat and every time he parked it up for more than a few days the tyres set with a flat spot which took a couple of hundred miles to run out.
One thing you could do it when leaving the MH for longer periods is to jack it up so no weight is on the tyres and also cover them up so they are not so affected by sunlight.

Piersman2 said:

Sarky stuff

There's always one with smart advice isn't there.

Edited by jagracer on Friday 26th July 14:07

[BigBob]

Talking to a tyre fitter yesterday and apparently he's seeing more and more vehicles with damage to the inside wall. He's ptting it down to the concrete type Speed Cushions they're installing around here.

When you try and straddle them the inside wall of the tyre takes the brunt. Combine that with a bit of age and the vicious nature of the bumps (around here it's almost like driving up a kerb) and Bisto ............

BB

[R TOY]

Had to swap fronts on mine last week as I noticed cracks running round the tyres inside the treads.
5 yrs old and 75% worn so not so bad.
Rears still look fine and only 25% worn so hope they last a few years yet.
Van had just been mot'd and no advisories on tyres.
New ones at 150 a pop iirc .

Certainly don't fancy a tyre looking like op's !!

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Glad the OP 'got away with it' - sure it spoilt the holiday but could've been a lot worse ad he says.

I'm well aware of the age issue as I worked in a reputable indie tyrebay as a school kid/student but its surprising how many people don't realise.

On a similar note, when inspecting our new (donated fixer-upper) caravan, one tyre was both 6 years old and just rated for cr use - don't forget to buy caravan/light commercial tyres with sufficient ply rating too!

It's not use that kills caravan tyres, it's standing unrotated on the same spot for months on end and to a lesser degree these days, the UV exposure that causes crazing in later life.