Motorhome tyres are the most boring thing you will ever spend serious money on, and also the one most likely to ruin a trip if you ignore them. I have been touring for years, and in that time I have seen more tyre problems on campsites than engine problems. Most of them were avoidable.
This is what I actually check on our Swift Kontiki 774, how often I check it and the mistakes I see other owners make.
Why motorhome tyre pressure matters more than on a car
A motorhome carries a lot of weight on a small patch of rubber. Fill the water tank, load the bikes, add two weeks of food and you are close to the limit on the rear axle before you have left the drive. Under inflated tyres run hot, flex too much and fail without warning.
Over inflating is not the answer either. You get a harsh ride, poor grip in the wet and uneven wear. The right pressure depends on your loaded weight, not on a number you remember from the last van.
Find your correct pressure
Start with the vehicle handbook, which gives pressures for different loads. Then weigh your motorhome at a public weighbridge, ideally axle by axle, loaded as you normally travel. If you have not done this, my guide to motorhome payload and weight explains how to do it and why it is worth the few quid.
Once you know the weight on each axle, use the tyre manufacturer's load table to pick the pressure. Many owners find the rear needs more than the handbook suggests. Write the numbers on a card and keep it in the cab.
Check your motorhome tyres before every trip
Here is my routine. It takes about ten minutes and I do it cold, before we have driven anywhere.
- Check pressure on all tyres, including the spare if you carry one.
- Look at the tread depth. The legal minimum is 1.6mm, but I would not go below 3mm on a motorhome.
- Run your hand over the tread and sidewalls for bulges, cuts and cracks.
- Check valve caps are on and valves are not leaking.
- Look for uneven wear, which points to tracking or suspension problems.
A decent digital gauge costs very little. Do not trust the pump at the petrol station, because half of them are wildly out.
Motorhome tyre age is the one people forget
This is the big one. Motorhomes sit for months, do low mileage and often have tyres with loads of tread left on them. That tread tells you nothing about the health of the rubber.
Tyres age from the inside. The compounds harden, the sidewalls crack and the structure weakens, even if the van has barely moved. Many tyre makers suggest having tyres inspected once they pass about five years old, and replacing them at around ten years at the absolute outside. Plenty of motorhome specialists I trust say six or seven is a far more sensible limit.
How to read the date code
Look on the sidewall for the letters DOT followed by a string of characters. The last four digits are the date: the first two are the week and the second two are the year. So 3221 means the 32nd week of 2021.
If you bought a motorhome second hand, check this straight away. I have seen vans advertised as having plenty of tread on tyres that were well over a decade old. When we looked at buying a motorhome privately versus from a dealer, this was one of the first things I told friends to look at.
Van tyres, not car tyres
Most motorhomes on a Fiat Ducato base need commercial rated tyres, often marked with a C on the size. These have stronger sidewalls and are built for sustained heavy loads. Fitting standard passenger tyres to save a few pounds is a false economy, and in some cases it is plain dangerous.
Many owners also run all weather or winter rated tyres if they tour all year. I covered the practical side of that in my piece on winter motorhome touring in the UK. All weather commercial tyres have been a big upgrade for us on wet, muddy pitches.
Tyre pressure monitoring is worth having
A tyre pressure monitoring system with sensors on each wheel shows you pressure and temperature in real time. You get an alert if a tyre starts losing air, which can be the difference between a quiet stop on the hard shoulder and a shredded wheel arch.
Cheap systems exist and many are fine. I like having one because it removes the guessing on long European days. If you are planning a longer trip, you will find more in my first European motorhome trip planning guide.
Common tyre mistakes I see on campsites
These come up again and again. Nobody sets out to do them, but they happen when the tyre check slips down the list.
- Never checking the spare, then finding it flat or perished when you need it.
- Checking pressure after driving, when the tyre is warm and reads high.
- Leaving the van on the same spot all winter, which flat spots and stresses the tyres.
- Ignoring a slow puncture because it only loses a bit each week.
- Carrying no way to deal with a flat. Many modern vans have no spare at all.
On that last point, check what your van has. A repair kit will not fix a sidewall tear, so make sure your breakdown cover genuinely includes a tyre recovery, which I went through in my motorhome breakdown cover guide.
My simple tyre plan
Check pressures every trip and before any long run. Look at the date codes this week. Replace anything cracked, bulging or older than you are comfortable with, and do not argue with yourself about the cost.
Tyres are the only thing between a few tonnes of motorhome and the road. Spend a bit of time on them and you will rarely think about them, which is exactly how it should be. If you are weighing up what to spend on the next upgrade, my honest take is in upgrading your motorhome, and tyres belong at the top of that list.
