Tyres and tyre pressures ? (1 Viewer)

[headlight]

Experienced people on here can you school me on tyres and pressures please.
MH is a Swift Suntor, 5.9m long on a 2.3 litre mwb Ducato.
V5 says 3,400kgs.
I'm unsure of the overall weight or axle weights as I've not been able to find a weighbridge.
Front tyres are Continental Matador Maxilla, 215/70 R15c.
Tyres state max 65psi and are at 55psi.
Rears are Rotalla Transporter 215/70 R15c again stating max 65psi and are at 65psi.
Not carrying much onboard and no fresh water or waste water.
The back of the van is pretty wobbly, side to side.
Any thoughts other than air assist to stop the rear swaying side to side so much?

 

[Otter Spotter]

Just got off the phone to them.
Managed to get them to understand what I want as the first time I spoke to them they told me I would have to take the axles off the vehicle.
They informed me it was £24 per individual weight so would be £72.

Don’t think that’s the case, you should be able to drive van fully on to w/bridge weigh it, then drive have off and weigh again, then subtract 2nd weighing from first to give you each axles individual weights.

You are not weighing the axles themselves you are weighing the axles and their load.
Hope that helps.

 

[headlight]

Looks like I have no choice as I can't find anywhere else nearby and I do need the axle weights really
I could just pay for 2 tickets, one for total weight and one for one axle and the difference would give me the other axle.
There is a big DVSA (was VOSA) place 15 minutes away but they no longer offer the service.

 

[headlight]

Don’t think that’s the case, you should be able to drive van fully on to w/bridge weigh it, then drive have off and weigh again, then subtract 2nd weighing from first to give you each axles individual weights.

You are not weighing the axles themselves you are weighing the axles and their load.
Hope that helps.

Yes I know, I'm just repeating what the council said and they are the ones doing the weighing and charging.

 

[Badknee]

I rang them and was told that they can't do individual axle weights only overall vehicle weight.

That will be a won’t then

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[bigwood]

I have recently weighed our coachbuild. The local council web site was hopeless for finding a public weighbridge. The nearest I could find was a local scrap metal yard.
The operator had never had to weigh individual axles but agreed to put the front axle on first then drive forward to get the gross weight. Then I drove forward until only the rear axle was on the bridge.
The weights I was given must have been fairly close because checking on the web site for tyre pressures the recommendation was what I have been running at , 50psi front and 60psi rears.
As a bonus I have 120 kg of spare capacity with a full water tank, full fuel tank and two passengers. That’s a lot of clothes, food and liquid refreshments.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

You can get just the one weight on the ticket, but perhaps be able to observe the readout from the cab, or have a passenger with you, which is good idea in any case,as it gives a more realistic use scenario. Drive on slowly stopping long enough to the get a weight, drive full on for the "ticket weight", drive off slowly , again stopping just long enough to get the rear axle weight. Should be doable, maybe ask before starting the process. TBO, you actually don't need the ticket, just the weights, that's all I ever do at our local scrappy. A couple of beer tokens lubricates the procedure.
Mike.

 

[ontheroadagain]

We appear to be fortunate here in Northern Ireland where we have a good number of self operated (and free) weighbridges.
Just drive up, get out and press a button, get back in and drive slowly over the weighbridge.
Axle weights come up on a display. Take a note of them and drive off. Total time = 2 minutes.

 

[Millcourt]

Similar problems at our local scrapyard weighbridge of only being able to get overall weight and not individual axle weights - but for good reason.

All the scrapyard wanted to do was to weigh vehicles in, then out, to get the weight of the metal being dropped off. Consequently when the weighbridge was installed it was above ground level with a ramp up to drive on and a ramp down to drive off. This means that if you only have one axle on the bridge the vehicle is not level and you can not get a true axle weight. This can be demonstrated by driving the front axle on and weighing, then fully on to get the overall weight, the drive forward to leave just the rear axle on. The 2 separate axle weights when added together will be found to be substantially less than the overall weight. However, if you are using a weighbridge which has been set into the ground when installed, such that the vehicle remains level when either axle is being weighed, the combined axle weights will be the same as the overall weight.

 

[headlight]

Well that was a waste of my time.
Had a half day to catch the council weighbridge before it shut at 3.00pm.
Got there, queued up for the weighbridge only to be told they could only do an overall weight as the weighbridge is raised with ramps either end.
Operator told me the council didn't know what they were on about telling me I could get axle weights.
Back to the drawing board

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

D.I.Y. , https://www.homesteadcaravans.co.uk...eich-caravan-weight-control-orange-1500kg.htm
Mike.

 

[headlight]

£184

 

[Ingwe]

Experienced people on here can you school me on tyres and pressures please.
MH is a Swift Suntor, 5.9m long on a 2.3 litre mwb Ducato.
V5 says 3,400kgs.
I'm unsure of the overall weight or axle weights as I've not been able to find a weighbridge.
Front tyres are Continental Matador Maxilla, 215/70 R15c.
Tyres state max 65psi and are at 55psi.
Rears are Rotalla Transporter 215/70 R15c again stating max 65psi and are at 65psi.
Not carrying much onboard and no fresh water or waste water.
The back of the van is pretty wobbly, side to side.
Any thoughts other than air assist to stop the rear swaying side to side so much?

Please don’t rely on anything I say as being advice, expert or otherwise, but your reference to Rotalla tyres on the rear and the van wobbling from side to side reminded me of an awful, terrifying experience with these tyres fitted on our car.

Cutting a long story short, we spun the car doing less than 30mpg coming off the A1 to the N104 at Charles De Gaulle airport. We ended up facing the traffic coming towards us and only narrowly avoided a head on collision by the other cars stopping and we were able to turn round and carry on. We left the road at the first garage to check the tyres expecting that there could have been an oil or diesel spill but there was no sign of either.

We then recalled several other instances of the car losing control on roundabouts, essentially low speed incidents. After a frightening, slow trip, we got to our destination and Googled Rotalla tyres. We found several posts of people having similar experiences to us with that brand of tyre. We drove to the nearest tyre centre and changed all four tyres. When we got back to the UK, SWMBO went to the car dealer who supplied the car and tore an almighty strip off the manager. Since changing the tyres we have not had another instance of instability, wobble, spinning etc.

I’m not saying this is the cause of your problem but you might wish to take it on board.

Hope you get it sorted in any event.

 

[headlight]

Please don’t rely on anything I say as being advice, expert or otherwise, but your reference to Rotalla tyres on the rear and the van wobbling from side to side reminded me of an awful, terrifying experience with these tyres fitted on our car.

Cutting a long story short, we spun the car doing less than 30mpg coming off the A1 to the N104 at Charles De Gaulle airport. We ended up facing the traffic coming towards us and only narrowly avoided a head on collision by the other cars stopping and we were able to turn round and carry on. We left the road at the first garage to check the tyres expecting that there could have been an oil or diesel spill but there was no sign of either.

We then recalled several other instances of the car losing control on roundabouts, essentially low speed incidents. After a frightening, slow trip, we got to our destination and Googled Rotalla tyres. We found several posts of people having similar experiences to us with that brand of tyre. We drove to the nearest tyre centre and changed all four tyres. When we got back to the UK, SWMBO went to the car dealer who supplied the car and tore an almighty strip off the manager. Since changing the tyres we have not had another instance of instability, wobble, spinning etc.

I’m not saying this is the cause of your problem but you might wish to take it on board.

Hope you get it sorted in any

I must admit that I haven't noticed any grip problems at either low or high speeds.
It's just that the back sways quite a bit.
This may be just down to the long rear overhang.
Air assist may be the answer but I thought I'd make sure my tyre pressures were correct first.

 

[Andacami]

-Broken Link Removed-

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Dunslow]

Go to your local motorhome mot garage, ask for a voluntary brake test. You'll get a printout of the individual axles and overall weight and a check that your brakes are up to the job. Sorted. (sorry, didn't see post until now), and they should also check your tyre pressures are correct too.

 

[headlight]

Update
I finally managed to get the van weighed.
Front axle 1411kgs
Rear axle 1690kgs
Total weight 3101kgs
V5 says gross weight 3400kgs
These weights are with the van fully loaded for a trip.
Tyres are 215/70 R15 C109/107.
Door pillar says the tyres should be 79.5psi and the tyre manufacturers site says 80psi.
These pressures seem high to me ?

 

[OldCodger]

Go to

Motorhome Tyre Pressure Calculator | TyreSafe

Our motorhome tyre pressure calculator gives you the correct pressures for your motorhome. Check your tyres regularly for your safety.

www.tyresafe.org

And put the data in - it will tell you the best pressures. It is likely the door pillar numbers are for the base vehicle, not the Motorhome. The 80 psi is an American thing I think they have a max pressure rating printed on tyre over there.

 

[headlight]

It says on the tyre wall max 65psi ?

 

[Otter Spotter]

What make are your tyres?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[headlight]

Go to

Motorhome Tyre Pressure Calculator | TyreSafe

Our motorhome tyre pressure calculator gives you the correct pressures for your motorhome. Check your tyres regularly for your safety.

www.tyresafe.org

And put the data in - it will tell you the best pressures. It is likely the door pillar numbers are for the base vehicle, not the Motorhome. The 80 psi is an American thing I think they have a max pressure rating printed on tyre over there.

That link opens Tyresafe but it won't let me put any information in ?

 

[headlight]

What make are your tyres?

Front are Continental Matador Maxilla and rears are Rotalla Transporter.

 

[Otter Spotter]

Front are Continental Matador Maxilla and rears are Rotalla Transporter.

Ok If you contact Continental by email administrator.technical@conti.de and give them your axle weights they will tell you what pressure to use for your fronts and based on previous posts about traction issues I would replace your rears with Continentals

 

[Bailey58]

Update
I finally managed to get the van weighed.
Front axle 1411kgs
Rear axle 1690kgs
Total weight 3101kgs
V5 says gross weight 3400kgs
These weights are with the van fully loaded for a trip.
Tyres are 215/70 R15 C109/107.
Door pillar says the tyres should be 79.5psi and the tyre manufacturers site says 80psi.
These pressures seem high to me ?

So in theory you have 300kgs to play with. But as has been said before, were these individual weights taken on a raised ramp which can give a false reading and/or did you get an overall weight?

 

[OldCodger]

Front are Continental Matador Maxilla and rears are Rotalla Transporter.

Worked for me:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[headlight]

So in theory you have 300kgs to play with. But as has been said before, were these individual weights taken on a raised ramp which can give a false reading and/or did you get an overall weight?

Flat ramp and overall weight 3101kgs.

 

[headlight]

Worked for me:

View attachment 666116

Running at about those pressures the tyres looked under inflated and the van felt soggy with rear swaying quite a bit.

 

[headlight]

I was told previously to ignore the max 65psi written on the side walls ?

 

[Otter Spotter]

Running at about those pressures the tyres looked under inflated and the van felt soggy with rear swaying quite a bit.

Check your rear suspension, you may need some support such as new springs or Sumos etc

 

[headlight]

When I bought the van, Swift Suntor 590RL, I was told they always ran 65psi all round and they'd just checked the pressures.
I've been using it assuming that those were the pressures.
However I checked them recently and the fronts were 72 and 70psi and the rears were 52 and 50psi.
I have dropped the fronts to 65psi and the rears upped to 70psi.
This has improved the handling.
The rear doesn't sway as much and the front is not so hard over potholes, speed bumps etc.
I was thinking maybe reduce the rears to 65psi and the fronts to 55-60psi ?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[headlight]

Check your rear suspension, you may need some support such as new springs or Sumos etc

Rear leaf springs were replaced about 2 1/2 years ago and look ok from what I can see.