Old "new" tyres on caravans.
Submitted: Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 18:53
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kenhay
I brought a new Royal Flair tandem axle van in July 2007. It was fitted with "new"
Dunlop Adventurer 235/70 R 16 tyres. They have served me
well on several trips across the Nullarbor and in the Pilbarra - at least 50,000ks and still plenty of tread. Last week I discovered a screw in one with a slow leak. Took in to local tyre service who declared it could not be repaired as the
puncture was too close to the edge of the tyre. Fair enough. Then they rang their wholesaler to get a new one and were told
Dunlop stopped making those tyres ten years ago and they are no longer available. I got them to put on a Bridgestone tyre instead.
Now, the tyre gurus will always tell you that the life expectancy of any tyre is five years used OR NOT USED. After that they tend to delaminate or fail in other ways. My tyres must have been at least five years old when I took delivery of them. They are now at least ten years old and common sense tells me I am going to have to replace the other four before leaving on my next trip across the Nullarbor next month.
My message is to anyone buying a new caravan - find out exactly how old the tyres are.
Reply By: Wilgadene - Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 19:16
Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 19:16
Hi Kenhay,
just as a matter of interest, what was the manufacture date stamped on the side of the tyre? Our 2002 Kedron X country had
Dunlop adveturers on when we bought it S/hand and they were stamped 20th week 2002.
Cheers
AnswerID:
479990
Reply By: Member - Toyocrusa (NSW) - Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 20:04
Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 20:04
Hi. Most later made tyres now in oz have a date code. The serial no. cast into the wall of the tyre has the manufactured year as the last two no's. eg, my Yokohama's have NVN 4308, 08 being the year they were manufactured. Cheers,Bob.
AnswerID:
479993
Follow Up By: den57 - Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 21:29
Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 21:29
The 43 in this case is the week of the year of manufacture and as you have said the 08 is the year.
Den
FollowupID:
755484
Reply By: Member - Charlie M (SA) - Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 21:44
Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 21:44
Hi
On caravans and boat trailers I recommend to my customers they change their tyres at five years of age.
The reason being is that they are loaded and higher pressure's at all times.
It is a form of insurance that will save on damage or problems on the road if a tyre de laminates.
On a motor vehicle or trailer the pressures are lower and so is the weight.
In my own case I change at four years, and resell old ones second-hand for use on
farm equipment or trailer use only.
Cheers
Charlie
AnswerID:
480003
Reply By: Motherhen - Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 22:46
Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 22:46
Hi Kenhay
We put the tyres of our 2004 model F250 onto the caravan before touring in 2008 and 2009. Still with plenty of tread, one blew towards the end of the 2009 trip - although we had come onto a bitumen road while still having slightly reduced tyre pressures which may have contributed (running at a medium pressure for mixture of road surfaces). The tyre service we went to for a replacement spare would not have a bar of the 5-6 year tyre story, and insisted they will be fine. I said "We'll see". So far so good, but the caravan has done very little travel since then. Sure hope all is
well when we take it out next week after twelve months lying idle.
Motherhen
AnswerID:
480012
Follow Up By: snapper49 - Sunday, Mar 11, 2012 at 09:47
Sunday, Mar 11, 2012 at 09:47
I remember a story on accident investigations from new zealand where a gentleman put old new tyres on his wifes car
modern tryres are steel belted and the steel over a period of time had rusted within the tyre and caused seperation
the resulting blow out killed his wife
5 years max for me for tyres especially on my caravan
FollowupID:
755584
Reply By: Bush Wanderer - Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 23:35
Friday, Mar 09, 2012 at 23:35
Looks as though they may have been new to a vehicle but quite a while since they were made. Checking the date of manufacture on the sidewall will confirm age.
I would personally not go older than 7 years. Hi pressures sitting around for long periods, from what I have read on the net, are not a great combination.
Might be time to
shell out your hard earned, if you can afford it, for a new set. There are some examples on the net where insurers have not paid out due to age of tyres (the tyres were a contributing factor to the accidents)
AnswerID:
480017
Reply By: Member - nick b - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 05:15
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 05:15
Gooday all : I think some tyre shops work on " covering there back side 1st "
you say your tyre had a slow leak from screw , that would only be a small hole !!!!
I took a tyre in to tyre
shop for a repair wouldn't fix it as had a cracked side wall ( not bad) , went on to next
shop and they fix with out question .....I have also found that some will only put on the same size tyre as came off the car ...
If you worked on the five year plan for your vans etc I guess you would be throwing away tyres with a lot of tread .... unless you have a
farm ...but I would agree with the 10 years is most likely to old as you would have changed your vehicle tyre for that reason if going bush ...
cheers nick
AnswerID:
480028
Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 08:25
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 08:25
I would have pulled the screw out and plugged the tyre and kept on rolling. Those tyre plugs work miraculously, outlasting the tyres in my experience.
As you say you have had a great run from your tyres, I would be tempted to keep running them and se what happens, my muddies are ten plus years old and are still running fine.
AnswerID:
480031
Follow Up By: Member - Krakka - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 14:09
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 14:09
Bonz, that is sad that you have tyres that old. You need to get out more.....................hahahahahaha.
Peter
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Follow Up By: Bonz (Vic) - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 20:51
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 20:51
Theyre the extra muddies mate, the ones that howl and you only use them for extremer stuff. Hence the age and lack of wear
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Reply By: kenhay - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 11:10
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 11:10
Firstly, my thanks to all who responded to my first message and special thanks to Wilgadene for enlightening me about the date of manufacture stamp on tyres - something of which I was not aware.
I checked the remaining original tyres and found a number - 2607 - which I interpret to mean the 26th week of 2007. This fits perfectly as we took delivery on 27 July 2007. Therefore the tyres would have been brand new and hot off the presses - so to speak.
That means the information I was given, that
Dunlop stopped making them TEN years ago, is false and I apologize if my original statement caused any problems to
Dunlop, Royal Flair or any one else.
I now feel more comfortable about crossing the Nullarbor with my existing tyres - they are only 4 years and 9 months old.
The question of five year life span is not yet completely resolved.
AnswerID:
480038
Follow Up By: member - mazcan - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 13:17
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 13:17
hi kenhay
as an owner of 3 previous vans and now owner of a camper trailer and having done the big loop and over 2million k's in my driving career i would highly recommend this
a simple inspection of your own tyres will give you the pre-trip knowledge and confidence before leaving and can be done enroute if the trip is a long one
jack up each tyre and inflate it to 40psi then slowly rotate each tyre and take particular notice whether there are any inconsistencies in the shape of the tread surface or sidewalls /humps/ bumps or depressions if there is
from my experience and observations using this method
the tyres are not far off either blowing out or delaminating and its time to replace them and you can
check for any play in the wheel bearing as
well while at it
if you continue to use them and they do blow -out or delaminate it could happen while cornering or braking or going down
hill and could quiet easily put your life in danger
tyres usually go while stressed with out warning but if you practise the above it is a very good safe-gard and you also have the personel benefit of your own observations
i use the technique on all my vehicles /trailer s etc and it has revealed serveral faults over the years which i have been able to deal with before starting a journey instead of on the road somewhere
cheers
barry
FollowupID:
755543
Reply By: kenhay - Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 13:52
Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 13:52
Many thanks, mazcam - words of great wisdom.
I will put them into practice.
Ken
AnswerID:
480047
Reply By: Member - Glenys & Ken Taree - Saturday, Mar 24, 2012 at 11:59
Saturday, Mar 24, 2012 at 11:59
Get rid of them, it's one less thing to worry about, had the same tires on my van and at 5 years the started to wear very quickly, changed them to Roadian AT2 including the spare.....It's better to be safe than sorry, no fun having a blowout in the middle of the Nullarbor.
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - David M (SA) - Saturday, Mar 24, 2012 at 13:26
Saturday, Mar 24, 2012 at 13:26
Bought my off road single axle Coromal with tyres to suit the troopy in 2001. Checked them every year before heading off for 6 months. Still inflated,no cracks and plenty of tread. 2009 and 100km past Mt Isa things got really exciting.
Back to Isa for new set of rubber. 5 years will do me for the peace of mind.
Dave.
FollowupID:
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