How To Enhance The Lifespan Of Your Caravan Tyres.

When did you last check your caravan’s tyre pressure, tread depth, or condition? Your caravan tyres are the primary contact points with the road. They handle heavy loads, acceleration, braking, and cornering. Understandably, this can cause a fair amount of wear and tear!

However, with a bit of TLC, your caravan tyres can stand the test of time, meaning you can enjoy plenty of caravanning adventures in the future. It can also save you money and ensure your safety. Simple tyre maintenance tricks can help your tow car’s fuel consumption and avoid poor handling, braking, and even dangerous blowouts while driving.

In this blog, we’ll go through basic maintenance to help you get the most from your caravan’s tyres for longer:

Check Your Caravan’s Tyre Pressure.

Over or underinflated tyres can affect handling and lead to deterioration and rapid wear. You should ideally check your tyre pressure before every journey. You can do this either at a garage or home with tyre pressure gauge.

After checking your tyre pressure, you should also ensure that the valves aren’t leaking and that the valve stem is undamaged and in line with the valve aperture.

Do Regular Maintenance Checks.

Ensure you regularly check your caravan’s tyres to keep them in good condition. This will involve regularly looking for wear and tear, finding out the age of your tyres and ensuring the tread depth is within the legal limit.

How to find the age of your tyres.

Before doing the following checks, you should also find out the tyres’ age and see if they need changing. This can be done by examining the DOT (date of manufacture) code found on the tyre sidewall.

Caravan tyres need regular replacement, even if they look like they’re in good condition. The Caravan Club recommends changing them every five years and never using them when they are more than seven years old.

How to check your tyre tread depth.

The legal minimum tread depth should be 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tread breadth around the entire tyre’s circumference. 

If that all sounds a bit complicated, you can simply check this with a 20p coin. Put the coin in the tread of your tyre and check to see if the coin’s band is visible. If you can see it, then your tyres are not within the legal limit.

How to check your tyres for cuts or punctures.

You should replace any tyre that has blistered, ruptured, been cut, or penetrated by an object – but first you need to learn how to look for these issues.

You can identify these problems by running a gloved hand over the surface of the tyre and searching for any raised areas. Look out for any stones stuck in the treads, as this will increase wear and the likelihood of a tear.

Invest in Winter Wheels – Even If Your Caravan Is In Storage.

If you’re not going to use your caravan for a long period of time, it’s still recommended that you regularly check that the tyres are inflated to the correct pressure. Along with the pressure, make sure to also turn the wheels occasionally to avoid the risk of flat spots and look for any signs of damage or degradation while they’re in storage – just as a precaution.

Alternatively, you could replace the caravan’s wheels with stands called winter wheels. It’s important to check with your insurer before doing this, as some policies can become void if the caravan’s wheels are removed during winter storage.

Caravan Insurance at Staveley Head

Along with tyre maintenance, you’ll also still need to make sure your caravan is insured. Whether you need extra foreign cover for your adventures abroad or have any questions about green cards and caravan insurance, we’re happy to help. Contact us on 0800 0815 024 to talk to our team of insurance experts today and we’ll sort out what you need.