New tyres: best provider

[Mel]

Hi. Need to replace the tyres on an Elddis 302; they are now 5 years + old. What, in your experience is the best way to do this. Take it to Kwik fit ( or similar), get a mobile tyre fitter to come out, get a service engineer todo it at the next service ( do they do this?)? Don’t want a muppet who doesn’t understand caravans jacking it up in the wrong place.
Thanks in advance
Mel

 

[otherclive]

Hi. Need to replace the tyres on an Elddis 302; they are now 5 years + old. What, in your experience is the best way to do this. Take it to Kwik fit ( or similar), get a mobile tyre fitter to come out, get a service engineer todo it at the next service ( do they do this?)? Don’t want a muppet who doesn’t understand caravans jacking it up in the wrong place.
Thanks in advance
Mel

I use a local tyre depot who lets me take the caravan around if its quiet. They just jack one side under the axle at a time. Alternatively I have ordered tyres online for home delivery and jack up the van to get one road wheel and spare changed, then take the remaining road wheel along once the other two have been put back into place.

 

[Damian]

Get a mobile tyre fitter like ETyres or similar to do the wheel change where the van is.(and insist on them being balanced)
Most mobile caravan engineers do not have the necessary tyre changing equipment and balancing unit.

 

[Woodentop]

Hi. Need to replace the tyres on an Elddis 302; they are now 5 years + old. What, in your experience is the best way to do this. Take it to Kwik fit ( or similar), get a mobile tyre fitter to come out, get a service engineer todo it at the next service ( do they do this?)? Don’t want a muppet who doesn’t understand caravans jacking it up in the wrong place.
Thanks in advance
Mel

I used Just Tyres who knew what they were doing and were the most competitively priced. I selected Avon van tyres 8ply reinforced and found them a delight to tow and a very good price.
Note if you go on line to order from anyone, if your tyre is, say, 185R14 you may have to put in a profile of 80 (i.e. 185/80R14) if the site demands a profile. [Ignore C after the 14, it just indicates a commercial tyre.] If your tyre is L104/102 (which are hard to find) it means the MTPLM on a pair must not exceed 900Kg per tyre on a single axle van or 850Kg per tyre on a twin axle. If your van MTPLM is less than 1700Kg you can opt for L102/100 which are much more accessible.

 

[Hutch]

I used Kwik fi mobile s they stated they could do the Tyron bands which i have. Next day they Called me saying what car are you fitting them on as the website cannot handle caravans, and only af ew of the mobile fitters can do it. I BASICALLY, had to talk the guy through it as he admitted he hadn't done one in a year and had forgotten.

But get the tyres balanced as the internals of the van survive better.

 

[Scorpy]

Blackcircles.com & have them fitted by mobile fitter. They will arrange it all and they are the best prices I have ever found. Used them on Car, Caravan, Bike & Motorhome.
They also recommend a tyre besides all the well known brands which are made for them by a main manufacturer-comes with all guarentees etc
Mike

 

[audiorob]

I used Tyre Medics who arrived to my home on time and did an excellent job swapping tyres and balancing. Their van was spotless and tidy. That saved me towing the van to a depot and any concerns regarding access with a towed vehicle

 

[JayTea]

Nothing to see here...

 

[Raywood]

Like Damian we used e tyres and they were competitive and replaced the tyres in the storage area, saving a tow to a fitting depot which might be tight for a caravan. Mobile is the best in our view.

 

[Olivegrower]

We used Kwik Fit mobile in our storage ste. It worked very well, would reccommend them! Same price as taking the van to the local branch.

 

[SeaDog]

Our caravan is now in its sixth year and needing tyre replacement. I rang all the local tyre fitters who gave me some good deals, but when I mentioned we have Tyron bands fitted, the replies were various from "what are they", to don't touch them, so I rang our dealer who advised me who they use. So it is a day out with the wheels while the van is still on axle stands and the fitter is fully conversant with Tyron bands.

 

[Hutch]

Seadog, I also have Tyron Bands fitted, But have bought a tyrepal sensor to monitor the pressures and temp, so the next time I have to change the tyres I will be ditching the bands, Kwik fit mobiles are the only people in my area that can change the bands, I do carry the Tyron band mobile kit myself.

 

[Anseo]

When the time comes to replace my tyres I too will be discarding the tyron bands.

I will advertise them on here, free to anyone who wants them.

 

[BaileyNiggles]

How, those of you who have seen tyre fitters do it, do they jack the caravan?

I'm agonising over replacement tyres (that's one thing .. what with Michelin discontinuing their 185R14C Agilis else it would be a straight swop, and it seems hard to find anything else but the search continues ...), and also the jacking.

Tried it once, stupidly, using the car jack with just the carvan with handbrake on and wheels chocked but the thing still started to move and was showing signs of twisting the car jack as it went, so I gave up. Yes yes I know the advice is do it with the car attached, but it wasn't practical that time.

Today, alarmingly unless I misunderstood, I rang a caravan service centre to ask if they could do tyres whilst it was in for something else and after being slightly disappointed that they fit "whatever they can get hold of locally at the time", if I wished to do it myself or have someone do it on-site, he said its very easy "you just put the stays down and jack it up". Now, does that mean he advocates lifting it on the corner stays alone, or puting them down then jacking more properly under the axle? If the former then have they any business announcing on their website they're a member of the " ... Approved Workshop Scheme (AWS) ... the benchmark for touring caravan and motorhome servicing" or if the latter then does that not put up to half the weight on the caravan on the non-jacked side's stays? Not just that, but at slanting twisting angle?

 

[otherclive]

Cannot see why you are finding it so difficult to find alternatives to the Michelin Agila which isn’t made in your size any longer. There are numerous quality makes in your size.

Regarding jacking why didn’t you ask the company how they fit tyres. It’s normal to use the steadies when jacking the van but to go around adjusting them as the van comes up or goes down. The jack though would be under or very close to the axle. I would be astonished if any approved workshop even attempted to lift the van on its steadies.

PS if you are concerned at the tyres the service center will fit why not buy them yourself and take them along fir fitting and only pay balance and fitting costs. I do it with cars and vans. It’s not a big issue.

 

[camel]

We have a firm in town that look after the local farmers and their trailers also horse boxes , I have used them in the past and they do not hang about jacking up the caravan, they normally have in stock a good selection of caravan tyres like Hankooks,

 

[BaileyNiggles]

Yeah, but, so how do they do it, then? What stops it pivoting away off the jack, for example?

 

[otherclive]

When I did it on the drive I locked the nose wheel into its slot and straight ahead. Then placed a breeze block in front of the nosewheel. Then double chocked the opposite wheel then went around adjusting the steadies as the van came up or down. My Swift service center just lift the whole van up on the big hydraulic lifts and the wheels hang free.

 

[Craigyoung]

I once helped a chap on the motorway as we had pulled into a service station for fuel , he had clipped his tyre on one of the service pump kerbs , we took it round the back , left it hooked up to the car took his jack out jacked , jacked it up in the appropriate place I think hmy: as well as putting his steadies down on his caravan which was fully loaded to , we got the spare tyre on within inches of the tyre off the ground within 25 minutes . Eazzzzy peeezy

 

[otherclive]

I once helped a chap on the motorway as we had pulled into a service station for fuel , he had clipped his tyre on one of the service pump kerbs , we took it round the back , left it hooked up to the car took his jack out jacked , jacked it up in the appropriate place I think hmy: as well as putting his steadies down on his caravan which was fully loaded to , we got the spare tyre on within inches of the tyre off the ground within 25 minutes . Eazzzzy peeezy

Craig

That’s the recommended method but the OP didn’t want to connect his car up to the van.

 

[thosoneill]

I bought my replacement caravan tyres from Camskill dot co dot uk jacked up the caravan at the designated points and had them fitted by a local tyre service - a tenner each wheel if I recall correctly - I used a trolley type jack - I think there are an abundance of you tube videos explaining how to jack a caravan up properly