Tyres Again... But A Bit Specific. (1 Viewer)

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi All,
My tyres are Michelin Agilis van tyres not Camping
225/70 R 15C 112/110
They are marked Max Pressure 65psi
Max Load : 1120 kg
The rear axles weights are 2240 kg as plated by VTech
At 65psi the rear tyres bulge significantly we are usually at maximum weight.
I inflate to 65 psi and make sure they are cold in the early morning as we live in the South of France.
I have a Tyre Pall system and the tyres quickly heat up and run at 73 to 75 psi rear, but with the sun on one side regularly reach 80 psi and sound the alarm which I set at 80.
The tyres are only about 18 months old we had them fitted in Marocco when the old ones suddenly cracked up and we had a total blow out. Van tyres were all we could get.
I wonder if I should fit Michelin Canping tyres but looking at their web site they only seem to have exactly the same numbers at mine but Camping and Conti don't seem to do 15 inch 225's
The fronts I run at 51 psi as recommended on the door pillar.
Would I be better with Agilis Camping on the rear to take the weight better and be able to inflate to 80psi which would go up to 95-100psi in the sun.
Is it ok to have van tyres on front and camping on rear?
I am in the UK at the moment and e-tyres are doing Camping Agilis at £115 each fitted at home for two. I would then keep the old ones as spares or sell them second hand.
Any comments, suggestions, experiences is it a good price?
Thanks for any help.
Steve
p.s. I have alloys on Merc base and metal valves fitted as I had two rubber valves fail in the heat and lost one tyre as a result. The local fitter said rubber valves should never be used above 55 in our location.

 

[Terry]

I often wonder how we managed for all these yrs without Camping tires -White van man has been running on commercial tires for yrs along with many M/Hs UNTIL some brain box came up with the idea that special tires are needed (for a lot more money) Not sure what they claim to have done / made -quieter,resist cracking after stood long periods etc,adds up to the extra price but people with campers seem to pay extortionate prices for camping tires only to take them off at 5 yrs and throw them away I had Agilis on my last van without trouble
terry

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Yes Terry, my thoughts exactly, but on reading, it seems that Camping tyres have stiffer walls so perhaps for me less saggy looking walls and they can take higher pressures so perhaps more able to take the extremes I am experiencing. I really don't know.
White vans spend most of their lives well below max weight so a different requirement to mine which spends all of it's life at max weight.
What I want I suppose is somebody to tell me that they changed to Camping Tyres and everything got better....
Having experienced a catastrophic blow-out I am very conscious of my heavily loaded tyres which is why I bought the TyrePal so perhaps I would get some warning.
We have driven 1200 km in the last two days and they seem stable but as I said the rears bulge a lot so perhaps for me stiffer walls will help.
Does anybody know the max load of my size of Camping Tyres?
Steve

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[s20hymer]

hya we had problems with our tyres being on the limit and were advised to fit 10 ply 116/114 tyres

 

[Terry]

Phone Michelin and ask ?Lot's of vans travel around at max load a lot of the time -in fact my old work van was probably well over max weight most of the time -Yep they claim to have thicker side walls but ask yourself just how much thicker/stronger would they have to be to stop bulging?I doubt a mm of extra rubber would do the job --I remember reading somewhere about max inflation pressures not mattering or for USA purposes ?Not sure on this but a call to the makers would sort you out --AND after you make the call come back and tell us
terry

 

[Peter A Forbes]

You are in a bit of a cleft stick with 15" wheels, as nobody seems to make anything higher rated than 112. What you need is 118/121 load rating.

The tyres should have some margin of loading over the axle, yours do not seem to have any margin at all, which would worry me if it was my van.

2240kg for the rear axle really needs 2600kg tyre rating for the pair, or thereabouts.

Maybe look at going up to 16" wheels where the available tyre choice is better?

Peter

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[DP+JAY]

sorry

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Hi All,
Sorry not to come back before, we are tied up in son's wedding preparations.
Yes Peter 16in wheels would be the ideal solution but the cost and ecu implications would be prohibitative I think.
I emailed Michelin and they came back very quickly. Basically they say that the stiffer walls and extra design to allow 80psi will make a great difference. And although they wouldn't recommend it, there is nothing wrong with using the van tyres on the front still but to up their pressures to 65psi rather than the figure on the door pillar. They were not concerned at all about being at maximum weight all the time. Nor were they concerned about the pressure or temperature rise I am seeing. So obviously there is a very large factor of safety built in.
Thanks for all your input.
Steve

 

[Emmit]

Regarding Michelin stating that there wouldn't be any difference in putting the fronts up to 65.

Far be it from me to tell them that they are talking bow locks but;
Last year we put van tyres on our Hobby instead of 'Camping Tyres' The fitter did tell me that the max we could run at was 65 psi but I found that the grip and cornering to be a nightmare.
After running them for a while I found the Continental tyre guide published by Bush tyres.
That guide gives chapter and verse on pressures and loads etc.
I found that they were suggesting an 8 ply van tyre carrying 1750kgs on the front should have a pressure of 53-54psi.
I lowered the pressure to that and got the front end 'feel' back again.
Despite our illustrious's Leader (On all Joy be heaped) warning of dire fuel consumption, nothing has altered.
Here's the Tech guide from Bush tyres.

http://www.bushtyres.co.uk/library/pdf/conti-technical-data-book.pdf

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[Lenny HB]

As Terry says the 65psi is fof the USA need to check with Michelin for max pressure.
The camping tyres are all season tyres the van tyres I think are summer tyres so you would have different levels of grip.

 

[OldAgeTravellers]

Summer tires are fine Lenny as we live in the South of France and the van spends most of it's life heading south.
I run the van tyres at the front at 51 at the moment quite happilly but will experiment a little when I have the new rear ones Emmitdb.
Steve

 

[Lenny HB]

Summer tires are fine Lenny as we live in the South of France and the van spends most of it's life heading south.
I run the van tyres at the front at 51 at the moment quite happilly but will experiment a little when I have the new rear ones Emmitdb.
Steve

I was pointing out you would have different levels of grip on front & rear axles.

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