Motorhome Tyres for Year Round Use, including Winter Travel to Spain

Got my Falkens just after Jeff got his BFGs I remember his being about £120 delivered and mine were £70 odd. Both sourced from Europe. To get a load rating at or more than the nylon Vancos originally fitted I had to go up one size in width. I checked the larger size was recomended for my wheels (Transit MK 7 chassis cab base with standard steel rims). The Vancos had zero grip on wet grass or light mud and not much more on tarmac but I was very surprised to find the Falkens were quieter on the road. If your seriously tight though, the Vancos on the rear of my van still had 6-8 mm on them after 28k when I sold them. I got £40 for the 4 and my mate fitted and balanced the Falkens for £30, mates rates. Win win.
Just checked the price of your tyre and the cheapest was 118 quid ouch lolol
 
Jeff I think we used the same site for our AT purchases. I can remember the prices fluctuating wildly day to day as the availabilty and exchange rate affected them. I,m sure the Falkens were about £10 more a week before I got them. As soon as the price dropped I bought them. This would make an even bigger difference at todays money. The only thing is I can,t remember is the name of the company. Some would say it,s an age thing but I blame the drink.
 
Doesn’t that mean that even with each axle at max weight your max total is 3180?
Always puzzled my why the combined axle weights didn’t equal max permissible. Someone probably explained it to me and I forgot though. I just work of weight plate and regard it as smoke and mirrors 😂😂
 
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Costco are doing a good price on Michelin Cross Climate 215/75 16s at the moment > £150 a corner.
 
I suspect this subject may have arisen before and that there may have been a variety of opinions, but here goes ...

The Van is in for MOT today and I suspect that there will be an advisory for the tyres, on age grounds [2016 Reg on original tyres]. Present tyres are Michelin Agilis with M&S markings, but they do give a quite harsh ride at the recommended 80psi. I'm thinking of changing to Continental 4 Seasons or similar, but I'm not sure if these will have the '3 Peaks' label. I'd rather avoid the faff of a set of Winter Tyres and a separate Summer set, not least because of storage problems.

We have a 5.99m Burstner Ixeo 590 [3500kg GVW] and the [almost empty] loads on the axles and individual wheels when we bought the Van were:

Front 1 660kg Front 2 625kg = Front Axle 1285kg Max Load 1850kg
Rear 3 769kg Rear 4 772kg = Rear Axle 1541kg Max Load 2000kg

Most kit has been weighed individually, and, if we travel with 2 passengers, full water tank, full diesel and full gas, and all the clothes, food and furniture for a long stay, the payload is around 615kg, against an available 706kg, so some 90kg spare capacity, after allowing for 2 standard bikes weighing 38kg on the rear rack. In practice, we'll travel with a maximum of 60 Ltrs of Fresh Water, not least because a full tank does make the driving heavy going [in terms of pedestrian performance, rather than adverse handling], so we should have closer to 150kg spare payload

All/any thoughts and opinions will be welcomed with open arms!

Steve
We have Pirelli All Seasons (They have 3 peaks) They are very quiet and very sure footed in the wet. BUT 80psi NO way!
You have your axle weights and the best way to get a pressure that will be comfortable, safe and give good tyre wear is to use the axle weights to calculate best tyre pressures.
You can either ask the tyre manufactures or just do the simple calculation yourself.
Taking wheel weight as half axle weight divide the actual weight by the marked max weight and then multiply the max pressure by that figure.
 
I only just picked up on this thread and noticed the frequent references to 80 psi for the rear tires. I first began looking into tyre pressures quite a few years ago and contacted Continental directly who sent an extremely helpful reply and a link to their manual. Without looking up my old correspondence I can't recall the exact details, but after weighing my fully laden m'home on a local weighbridge I arrived at something like 45 psi front, 60 psi rear. Fiat's recommendations, for ordinary tyres, were much higher.
For some reason I looked up comparable Michelin tyres and found that for the rear they recommended 80 psi. So did Pirelli, if I recall correctly.
Two or three yeas later I consulted the latest Continental manual and they too were now recommending 80 psi for the rear.
I queried this and to summarise what I learnt, it was that the relevant association had persuaded all camper tyre manufacturers to adopt 80 psi as the default value for rear wheels, I believe on the grounds that no one - at least on the Continent - could be trusted to keep the weight on the rear within the specified maximum axle loading.

About three years ago replaced my tyres with new Vanco tres and consulted the old manual for tyre pressures. I get a comfortable ride!

Oh! - and I forgot to mention that I filled my tyres with AirSeal tyre sealant as a precaution against punctures. There seems to be a lot of opposition still to the use of tyre sealant but why? What is so objectionable about being protected against slow - or even fast - punctures and keeping your tyres at exactly the same, correct pressure, only needing to check pressures once or twice a year, or less? I bought a Ring RAC900 pump when I bought my motorhome eight years ago and the last time I used it was to correct the pressures in my new tyres.
 
I only just picked up on this thread and noticed the frequent references to 80 psi for the rear tires. I first began looking into tyre pressures quite a few years ago and contacted Continental directly who sent an extremely helpful reply and a link to their manual. Without looking up my old correspondence I can't recall the exact details, but after weighing my fully laden m'home on a local weighbridge I arrived at something like 45 psi front, 60 psi rear. Fiat's recommendations, for ordinary tyres, were much higher.
For some reason I looked up comparable Michelin tyres and found that for the rear they recommended 80 psi. So did Pirelli, if I recall correctly.
Two or three yeas later I consulted the latest Continental manual and they too were now recommending 80 psi for the rear.
I queried this and to summarise what I learnt, it was that the relevant association had persuaded all camper tyre manufacturers to adopt 80 psi as the default value for rear wheels, I believe on the grounds that no one - at least on the Continent - could be trusted to keep the weight on the rear within the specified maximum axle loading.

About three years ago replaced my tyres with new Vanco tres and consulted the old manual for tyre pressures. I get a comfortable ride!

Oh! - and I forgot to mention that I filled my tyres with AirSeal tyre sealant as a precaution against punctures. There seems to be a lot of opposition still to the use of tyre sealant but why? What is so objectionable about being protected against slow - or even fast - punctures and keeping your tyres at exactly the same, correct pressure, only needing to check pressures once or twice a year, or less? I bought a Ring RAC900 pump when I bought my motorhome eight years ago and the last time I used it was to correct the pressures in my new tyres.
I (the OP) bought a Ring RAC 900 just before starting our latest trip. Not had to use it in anger, but am running 65psi on Front, and 75psi on rear on Michelin Winter Tyres bought in February 2022. Covered about 4100 miles to date, and wearing/riding well

Steve
 
I only just picked up on this thread and noticed the frequent references to 80 psi for the rear tires. I first began looking into tyre pressures quite a few years ago and contacted Continental directly who sent an extremely helpful reply and a link to their manual. Without looking up my old correspondence I can't recall the exact details, but after weighing my fully laden m'home on a local weighbridge I arrived at something like 45 psi front, 60 psi rear. Fiat's recommendations, for ordinary tyres, were much higher.
For some reason I looked up comparable Michelin tyres and found that for the rear they recommended 80 psi. So did Pirelli, if I recall correctly.
Two or three yeas later I consulted the latest Continental manual and they too were now recommending 80 psi for the rear.
I queried this and to summarise what I learnt, it was that the relevant association had persuaded all camper tyre manufacturers to adopt 80 psi as the default value for rear wheels, I believe on the grounds that no one - at least on the Continent - could be trusted to keep the weight on the rear within the specified maximum axle loading.

About three years ago replaced my tyres with new Vanco tres and consulted the old manual for tyre pressures. I get a comfortable ride!

Oh! - and I forgot to mention that I filled my tyres with AirSeal tyre sealant as a precaution against punctures. There seems to be a lot of opposition still to the use of tyre sealant but why? What is so objectionable about being protected against slow - or even fast - punctures and keeping your tyres at exactly the same, correct pressure, only needing to check pressures once or twice a year, or less? I bought a Ring RAC900 pump when I bought my motorhome eight years ago and the last time I used it was to correct the pressures in my new tyres.
If you contact Continental tech folks and give them your axle loadings or what they usually run at the will send you the reduced pressures needed. There is still a table in the big Continental spec book and all well under 80psi. They did give me the same pressures front and back though, or it may be I decided to use the higher (4 bar) all round for ease of remembering
 

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