All season tyres v camping tyres

hextal

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Hi guys.

Just a general brain picking. I've got camping tyres on the 'van at present but need to renew them. Basically my options are 'same again' or go for the all season van tyres. I'm inclined towards the latter as the grip, particularly in the wet/cold tends to be a fair bit better. The downside is that they are not CP rated, but my van conversion only weighs in at 2.7t fully fuelled, watered packed and 2-up, so I'm working on the assumption that it's no biggy in this case.

Anyway, just wondering whether I've missed owt?

Having moved to all-season tyres for the car, and touring tyres for the bike, the loss in hot weather grip seems negligible compared to the large increase in wet/cold grip. Would likely be different if I were hooning around like a nutter in hot weather on a track, but I'm generally not.
 
I have been running Conti Four Seasons for over18 months and well pleased with them👍
 
My local tyre guy says camping tyres are a big con.
I’ve been using Bridgestone Duravis van tyres for 20 years & never had any trouble including heavy snow in the Pyrenees.
In fact the rear Bridgestones have now been on the van for 11years & are perfect with 9mm of tread depth.
 
Last year i had the Black Circles local mobile tyre fitter here to fit 4 Goodyear tyres ( bought on a crazy Black Friday deal ) to my car.

Whilst he was here i asked him if he was able to supply and fit some specific Nexen tyres ( which i`m very happy with ) to my 4.1 tonne motorhome ?

The very quick reply was ...................................

NO, by law i`m only allowed to fit Camping tyres to a motorhome and if you fit commercial tyres to it the vehicle will be illegal and fail it`s MOT.

I replied BOLLOCKS and will not be using them again.
 
We’ll be fitting Continental Allseason 2 tyres later this year. I know where I won’t be getting them from.......
 
Ours is a Autosleeper on the sprinter chassis 3850kg and left Autosleeper factory with continental all season tyres as do all their sprinter based motorhomes and has never been mentioned at its mot.
I have never had specific camper tyres on any of my campers / motorhome and never had any problems with tyres or mots
 
There has been a few threads on tyres recently, in my opinion all are a compromise . If you consider all the tyres will market throughout Europe, you would assume designed to accommodate the diversity of climates, other countries experience more extremes of temperature and road conditions than the uk.

Re camping specific, and a comment made by a Michelin rep years ago when I was directly involved in the motor trade he mentioned two considerations in a tyres design , firstly the displacement of water to prevent aquaplaning , secondly maintains maximum footprint to do the former , which is where the strength of the sidewalls comes in to play.

It was suggested that were side walls are weak and correct inflation becomes important, the foot print becomes compromised the middle part of the tyre footprint bows ( look at the wildcamping w and imagine that’s the tyres cross section ) possibly why the ride can be less than ideal ?

The argument offered for camping specific seemed to be on a typical commercial it may have an unladen weight of 2000 kgs and maxload of 3500 kg typical Ducato or transit. And daily is used at both extremes. A motorhome however afte conversion may weigh 2800 kgs plated at 3500 kgs so the unladen weight is heavier with a payload a lot less. It is this anomaly that justifies a camping specific design bearing in mind the sidewall footprint

Contingency for overloading I suspect plays it’s part.

How much truth there is in all this is open to interpretation as any company worth its salt has a marketing dept to lure the punters
 
I think the talk about only fitting specific camper tyres is rubbish, it certainly isn’t illegal, but it may cut into the profits of those companies who would rather you buy their more expensive Camper tyres!
There are far more motorhomes in use on mainland Europe than the UK and many of those countries state the use of winter tyres is mandatory in the winter. As no company makes camper specific winter ( or all season) tyres, then the use of commercial tyres must be legal and they are presumably well able to cope with the unique conditions of well loaded motorhomes.
Bear in mind also that commercial vehicles spend the majority of their working lives fully loaded, so the argument that only motorhomes travel at or near their load limits is rubbish too.
You can’t buy specific camper tyres for large American RV’s either and I doubt any have failed an mot for having commercial tyres fitted.
So, commercial tyres, as long as the load index is correct for your motorhome ( or RV) must be perfectly safe to use.
 
I had 15 years as a tyre dealer In Australia , a very harsh environment for tyres ( and a few other things as well :) )
The biggest single factor in tyre life is the correct inflation pressure . Then load and speed rating . As long as you have the correct load and speed rated tyres , AND operate them at the correct pressure for the actual load you should have no worries of "sudden unintended deflation" tyre company speak for blow out :) .
 
The first time I came across camping specific tyres was about 20 years ago and because I am that sort of person I asked Michelin what was so special about them. The reason they gave then was that many motorhomes stand for long periods without use and were likely to develop flat spots. Since then I have heard they say it's to do with extra protection against kerbing (I think m'home owners are more likely to take care of their tyres than a lot of the white van men I know) and to allow for the overloading that they have decided motorhome owners of the world are likely to indulge in.
 
I think it’s generally the fact that most motorhomes in the U.K. are laid up for the winter and on campsites in the summer, whereas in the rest of Europe they are used all year round so don’t need tyres that withstand long periods of standing still.
Probably....
 
Snapster said:
We’ll be fitting Continental Allseason 2 tyres later this year. I know where I won’t be getting them from.......
Click to expand...

I`ve never used Black Circles either in depot or mobile before but the deal on 4 X Goodyear car tyres plus free mobile fitting was too good to refuse.

Looks like it`ll be my local independent tyre fitter Swift Tyres in Penwortham that`ll get my hard earned money yet again.

They`re happy for me to take just the wheels, 2 at a time when i`m doing the service down to them and fit them whilst i wait.

They also knock a couple of extra quid off because i don`t block the entire place up with the motorhome and they don`t have to take them off and back on again.
 
cronkle said:
The first time I came across camping specific tyres was about 20 years ago and because I am that sort of person I asked Michelin what was so special about them. The reason they gave then was that many motorhomes stand for long periods without use and were likely to develop flat spots. Since then I have heard they say it's to do with extra protection against kerbing (I think m'home owners are more likely to take care of their tyres than a lot of the white van men I know) and to allow for the overloading that they have decided motorhome owners of the world are likely to indulge in.
Click to expand...


My thoughts exactly, if the commercial tyres can stand up to the rigorous, violent and downright sadistic abuse that White Van man throws at them almost every day of their poor lives then they are more that adequate for the molly coddled, careful and very gentle use that the majority of motorhome owners give them.

Not withstanding the overloading abuse which some motorhome owners give them and White Van Man also does on a regular basis they are perfectly good and a much more economic way of retreading a motorhome IMHO.
 
channa said:
I ... Itwas suggested that were side walls are weak and correct inflation becomes important, the foot print becomes compromised the middle part of the tyre footprint bows ( look at the wildcamping w and imagine that’s the tyres cross section ) possibly why the ride can be less than ideal
Click to expand...
I'm sure that's what he told you, but it makes little sense to me.
When radial tyres first came in, we were told that the stiff tread section and flexible sidewalls allowed the tyre to sit flatter on the road. And I think it does: more or less all tyres are radial now.
If you make the sidewalls stiffer, surely that is going to make the tread more likely to deform under high load and/or low pressure, not less likely.
Or have I misunderstood what he told you?
 
in h said:
I'm sure that's what he told you, but it makes little sense to me.
When radial tyres first came in, we were told that the stiff tread section and flexible sidewalls allowed the tyre to sit flatter on the road. And I think it does: more or less all tyres are radial now.
If you make the sidewalls stiffer, surely that is going to make the tread more likely to deform under high load and/or low pressure, not less likely.
Or have I misunderstood what he told you?
Click to expand...
As I understand it the manufacturers are able to predict how each of their tyres will deform at the various loadings and pressures to give the optimum footprint. I do have Continental CPs on my van and will stick with them as they work well for me - I do a lot of motorway driving and rarely go onto soft wet ground. The important thing for me is that I am used to them and know how they will react in different circumstances (braking and cornering etc). I stick fairly closely to the recommended pressures from Continental and was pleased to see that when I replaced my fronts at 40,000 miles the wear pattern was near perfect. If this is typical of Contintal's attention to detail I'm happy to stick with their products.
 
cronkle said:
The important thing for me is that I am used to them and know how they will react in different circumstances (braking and cornering etc). I stick fairly closely to the recommended pressures from Continental and was pleased to see that when I replaced my fronts at 40,000 miles the wear pattern was near perfect. If this is typical of Contintal's attention to detail I'm happy to stick with their products.
Click to expand...
I can't say that I've ever noticed any difference in handling or performance between different tyre brands. I did notice a marked improvement when I went up from 195 to 225 width, with a matching decrease in inflation pressure. Better ride, better handling, better fuel economy, quieter engine.
Perhaps I just don't push the motorhome tyres to their limits.
I've noticed quite a big difference between tyres in terms of noise, though.
In my experience, wear pattern has nothing to do with tyre brand: it's solely a matter of wheel alignment and inflation pressure being correct.
 
I think the point I was trying to make was that the tyre pressures that were advised were accurate hence the even wear. This is at odds with the advice given by Michelin which is that whatever the load the rears on a m'home should always be 79psi. The reason they give for this is because they assume that all m'homers overload their vans. My little van would bounce down the road if inflated that hard.
 
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