Motorhome Tyres: A Complete Guide to Sizes, Pressures, Ages and Brands

Most UK motorhomes need CP-rated tyres (not standard C-rated commercial tyres). The leading motorhome-specific brands are Michelin Agilis Camping and Continental Vanco Camper. Pressures should be set from your actual axle weights and the tyre maker's tables, not just the chassis handbook. Replace tyres by age before tread — most experts agree somewhere between 7 and 10 years is the right window, and tread should be kept above 3mm in practice rather than the 1.6mm legal minimum. Check pressures monthly, cold, with a decent gauge.

The rest of this article is the detail behind each of those points.

Why motorhome tyres are not just van tyres

Your motorhome might have a computer-controlled engine, ABS, traction control and stability assistance. None of that matters if the tyres aren't right. Every bit of braking, steering and cornering performance comes back to four small patches of rubber on the road, and those patches are working much harder than they would on a Transit van delivering parcels.

A loaded motorhome typically weighs more than a loaded van of the same body. It carries that weight high up. It often stands for weeks at a time on the same spot, then drives a thousand miles in a fortnight. Few vehicles ask more of their tyres while doing it less often.

Get the tyres right and you can almost forget about them. Get them wrong and they will quietly become the most dangerous component on the vehicle.

CP vs C tyres: the motorhome-specific bit

This is the question that comes up more than any other. The short version:

• C stands for commercial — designed for delivery vans doing high mileage with regular use
• CP stands for camping — designed for motorhomes, with reinforced sidewalls, a higher load index for extended stationary loading, and rubber compounds that resist flat-spotting
  

Most modern motorhomes built on a Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer, Citroën Relay or Ford Transit chassis are homologated to run on CP tyres. Some manufacturers will accept a properly-rated C tyre as an alternative. Some won't.

The arguments for fitting CP if your van was specified for it:

• The handbook usually requires it, and warranty cover may depend on it
• Insurance can become awkward if the wrong tyre type is fitted
• The reinforced sidewall genuinely helps with motorhome use cases — long stands, lateral loading from cornering with the weight up high, and the occasional kerb mount
  

The arguments people sometimes make for fitting C instead — softer ride, slightly cheaper — don't usually outweigh the above. Stick with what your van was specified for.

Reading the size code

A typical motorhome tyre code looks like this: 225/75 R16 CP 121/120 R

Decoded:

• 225 — section width in millimetres
• 75 — sidewall height as a percentage of width (the aspect ratio)
• R — radial construction
• 16 — wheel rim diameter in inches
• CP — camping pressure rating (or C for commercial)
• 121/120 — load index, single wheel / dual wheel. 121 = up to 1,450kg per single tyre; 120 = up to 1,400kg per tyre when fitted in pairs (rare on motorhomes outside tag-axle setups)
• R — speed rating (170 km/h / 105 mph)
  

Anything below the load index or speed rating your van calls for is unsafe and can affect insurance. Always replace like-for-like or higher-rated, never lower.

The size, load index and speed rating you need is on a sticker inside the driver's door, on the VIN plate under the bonnet, or in the handbook. Always check before ordering.

Tyre brands worth knowing

These are the names that come up again and again when motorhomers actually compare notes. None of this is sponsored — it's what shows up on forums, in dealer recommendations, and on real motorhomes parked next to each other on aires.

Michelin Agilis Camping — the closest thing to a default choice. Available in most common motorhome sizes, made specifically for camping use, well regarded for longevity and ride. Premium price.

Continental Vanco Camper — direct competitor to the Agilis Camping. Long-running motorhome specialist tyre, known for stable handling and good wet performance. Often a touch cheaper than Michelin.

Hankook Vantra LT — solid mid-range C-rated commercial tyre. Used widely on motorhomes where CP isn't strictly required. Good value for money.

Vredestein Comtrac — Dutch make, a quiet favourite among long-distance European tourers. Available in C and CP variants depending on size.

Pirelli Chrono — long-running motorhome-rated tyre, widely fitted as OE on older vans. Reasonable performer; some sizes have been discontinued.

Michelin CrossClimate Camping — relatively new arrival. An all-season tyre rated specifically for motorhomes. Makes a lot of sense if you tour year-round, do winter trips to the Alps, or simply want one tyre that handles everything reasonably well rather than a summer compromise.

If you're choosing between two reputable brands, the differences are smaller than the spread of opinions on any forum thread. The much bigger mistake is fitting a wrongly-rated tyre, or fitting an old one.

Pressures: how to find the right one

Tyre pressure does more than affect ride comfort. The amount of air in the tyre is what determines how much weight that tyre can safely carry. Run the wrong pressure and you can have the right tyre and still be effectively overloaded.

The proper procedure looks like this:

1. Find your axle weights. Take the motorhome to a public weighbridge — most local councils, recycling centres or HGV operators have one — loaded as you would for a typical trip, with passengers, water, gas, and everything you'd take. Get a printed ticket showing front axle, rear axle and total weight. This costs a few pounds and gives you the actual numbers.
2. Look up the tyre maker's load and pressure table. Michelin and Continental both publish these for their motorhome tyres. Cross-reference your axle weight per axle (divided by two for the load on each tyre) to the recommended pressure.
3. Email or call the tyre maker if you can't find the table. Both Michelin and Continental will respond to a polite enquiry with the optimum pressure for your specific axle weights and tyre size. Keep a copy.
4. Treat the chassis-handbook pressures as a starting point only. They assume a generic loading that may bear no relation to your actual load. They are usually higher than they need to be.
   

Pressures should be checked monthly and before every trip, when the tyres are cold (i.e. the van hasn't been driven for at least three hours). Use your own decent digital gauge — the ones built into garage forecourt pumps are notoriously inaccurate. Recently-driven hot tyres will read 4–6 psi higher than cold; that's not extra pressure, just a measurement error.

Never lower pressures below what the tyre maker specifies just because you're after a softer ride. The ride won't really get better, the tyre will overheat, the carcass will wear faster, and on a heavy motorhome the consequences of a sidewall failure are not theoretical.

Tread depth: 1.6mm legal, 3mm sensible

The UK legal minimum tread depth is 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tread, with no bald patches. Across most of Europe the minimum is the same.

In practice, on a heavy vehicle like a motorhome, wet braking distances increase rapidly below 3mm. The Caravan and Motorhome Club, Tyresafe, and most experienced motorhomers all recommend changing tyres at or before 3mm rather than running to the legal minimum.

Worth noting: most motorhomes don't wear tyres out before age does for them. If you're approaching 3mm of tread, your tyres are probably also old enough that age is the bigger issue.

Tyre age: when to replace

The honest answer is somewhere between 7 and 10 years from the date of manufacture, with most professional opinions clustering around 7.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club's long-standing position is replace at 7 years, mandatory by 10. The MotorhomeFun community position, after years of discussion, sits in much the same place — change them at 7, certainly don't run them past 10. Some makers, including Michelin, will say a well-stored tyre in good condition can be used for longer; in practice, by the time a motorhome tyre is 10 years old, the rubber has hardened, wet grip has fallen, and sidewall cracking is often visible whether you've spotted it or not.

Two complications.

First, the tyres on a new motorhome may already be 1–3 years old when you take delivery. Always check the date codes on a new van. They start ageing the moment they leave the factory, not the moment you drive away.

Second, tyres that look fine can be at the end of their life. Hardening, microcracking, and rubber compound breakdown all happen below the surface before they're visible. Don't let "they still have tread" lead you into running 12-year-old tyres on a three-tonne vehicle.

How to read the date code

Every tyre has a four-digit DOT date code on the sidewall, usually preceded by the letters DOT and a string of other characters. The four digits are what matter.

• The first two digits are the week of manufacture (1–53)
• The last two digits are the year
  

So 4218 means week 42 of 2018. 0124 means week 1 of 2024.

If you ever find a three-digit code, the tyre was made before the year 2000. Replace it immediately. It is older than some of the people fitting it.

UV, covers and storage

Sunlight is hard on tyre rubber. UV breaks down the compound, accelerates surface cracking, and shortens the working life. Most tyre makers build in UV stabilisers that help, but they don't make the tyre immortal.

The case for tyre covers when parked, especially when you're abroad in genuine sun:

• Cooler tyres, less UV exposure, slower rubber degradation
• Easy to fit and store
  

The case against, particularly through a wet UK winter:

• Wet covers can trap moisture against brake assemblies and corrode them
• A still-damp tyre under a cover can develop algae and surface marks
  

A reasonable middle path: use covers in strong sun and warm weather, leave them off through wet UK months, and pick covers that are breathable rather than fully waterproof. Some Funsters argue both ways on this and have done for years; the tyres seem to do fine on either approach as long as you're not sealing in moisture.

TPMS: tyre pressure monitoring systems

A TPMS is a set of aftermarket sensors that screw onto your valve stems and report live pressure and temperature to a small display in the cab. Brands worth knowing include TyrePal, Mantis, Avtex and FIT2GO.

For motorhomes the case is strong. A slow puncture in a back tyre is hard to notice until it's failed entirely; sidewall damage on a heavy vehicle at speed is dangerous. A TPMS gives you a few minutes' warning, which is usually all you need to pull over and avoid a much worse outcome.

Some newer motorhomes have OEM TPMS built into the chassis. If yours doesn't, an aftermarket kit is a few hundred pounds and one of the cheapest pieces of safety kit you can fit.

Spare wheel, space saver, or sealant kit?

Increasingly common to have no spare. Many new motorhomes ship with a sealant-and-compressor kit instead, on the grounds that a full spare adds weight and takes up space.

The reality:

• Sealant kits work for small tread punctures only. They will not seal a sidewall split, a large tread cut, or a blow-out
• A space saver "spare" is rare on motorhomes and isn't really suitable for the weight of one
• A full spare wheel is the most useful but adds weight and takes garage space
  

Whatever your van came with, know what you've got and what it can and can't do. If you have only a sealant kit, your fallback for serious tyre damage is recovery. Make sure your breakdown cover includes motorhome recovery, not just roadside assistance, and includes the weight class of your van.

Wear patterns: what they tell you

Wear that isn't even is telling you something:

• Both edges worn, centre fine — pressures consistently too low
• Centre worn, edges fine — pressures too high
• One edge worn — alignment / tracking issue
• Cupping or scalloping — worn shock absorbers, or possibly a wheel-balance problem
• One tyre worn faster than the others — uneven loading, often from a heavy item permanently kept on one side
  

Catch any of these early and you can fix the cause before you've thrown away tread depth or money.

All-season and winter tyres

If you tour year-round in the UK, an all-season tyre like the Michelin CrossClimate Camping makes sense. If you tour in mainland Europe in winter, you may legally need M+S marked or 3PMSF (three-peak-mountain-snowflake) tyres in countries like Austria, Germany, Italy, France and most Alpine areas.

Snow chains may also be required on certain mountain routes; check ahead. A good all-season tyre plus a set of correctly-sized chains in the locker covers most realistic UK touring scenarios without needing dedicated winter tyres.

Long stands and flat-spotting

Motorhomes that sit for months in the same position can develop flat spots — flattened patches on the tread where the weight has compressed the rubber. Modern tyres are much better at recovering from this than older ones, and most flat spots will work themselves out within a few miles of driving. CP tyres are specifically designed to resist flat-spotting better than C tyres.

If you genuinely don't move the van for more than three or four months at a time, options include moving it forward or back a metre every few weeks (the simplest answer), inflating to maximum sidewall pressure for the storage period, or using axle stands (controversial — the consensus is don't bother unless the van is going to be off the road for a year or more).

A decent tyre inflator

Most car-style 12V mini compressors can't reach the 4–5.5 bar (60–80 psi) that motorhomes typically need. For monthly checks at home, a good standalone digital tyre inflator, or a quality 12V or mains compressor specifically rated for motorhomes, is worth the modest outlay.

The one to avoid is the cheap mini compressor that takes ten minutes to add 5 psi and overheats halfway through. You'll only buy it once.

A short summary

• Use the right tyre type — CP if your van was specified for it
• Set pressures from real axle weights, not the chassis handbook
• Check pressures monthly and before every trip, cold
• Keep tread above 3mm, not just 1.6mm
• Replace by age — 7 to 10 years, ideally closer to 7
• Watch the date codes, including on a new motorhome
• Cover them in strong sun, leave them off in damp UK winters
• Fit a TPMS if you don't already have one
• Know whether you have a spare, a space saver, or just a sealant kit, and what each can do
• Move the van every few weeks if it stands for long periods
  

What real Funsters say

Tyre debates run continuously on MotorhomeFun and the threads are where the practical knowledge lives. Worth reading:

• Best Tyres for Fiat Ducato Based Motorhome (3,850kg) — long, detailed, with members reporting their own choices and outcomes
• C vs CP Tyres: Ride Comfort Only? — the fitment debate in full
• Replacing Tyres By Law at 10 Years Old — the age question, with strong opinions on both sides
• Michelin CrossClimate Camping Tyres — Any Good? — owners' experience after fitting them
• What Tyre Pressures, Please? — pressure-setting discussion across vans and weights
  

If you're choosing tyres now, those threads will give you a much better feel for the trade-offs than any single article — including this one.

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Further reading on MotorhomeFun

• Motorhome Payload — directly related; correct pressures depend on accurate axle weights
• Motorhome Habitation Check — annual check covers visible tyre condition
• The Motorhome Pre-Trip Checklist — pressure checks belong on this list
• The Cost of Running a Motorhome — tyres are a meaningful share of the budget
  

If you're not yet a Funster, joining gives you access to thousands of fellow owners who've been through every tyre decision you're about to make. Far cheaper than learning the wrong way.

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Disclaimer

This article is for general information and educational purposes only. Tyre selection, fitment and maintenance can affect vehicle handling and safety. Always follow your motorhome manufacturer's specifications, the tyre maker's published guidance, and current UK and EU laws and regulations. MotorhomeFun makes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability of the information provided, and accepts no liability for any loss, damage, injury or cost arising directly or indirectly from reliance on this guide. If in doubt, consult a qualified tyre specialist.

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Publishing notes (delete before publish)

Canonical URL: /motorhome-tyres/ (existing — no change)

Title tag (≤60 chars): Motorhome Tyres: Sizes, Pressures, Ages and Best Brands

Meta description (≤155 chars): Motorhome tyre guide: CP vs C tyres, how to read sizes, set pressures from axle weights, when to replace by age, and the brands UK owners trust.

Primary target keywords: motorhome tyres, motorhome tyre pressures

Secondary keywords: cp tyres, c vs cp tyres, motorhome tyre size, michelin agilis camping, continental vanco camper, motorhome tyre age, tyre date code, best motorhome tyres, motorhome tyre inflator, michelin crossclimate camping, motorhome tpms

Schema: add the FAQ block (separate file) at the bottom. Optionally add HowTo schema for the "Pressures: how to find the right one" four-step procedure.

Internal-link targets to add elsewhere on the site: add a link to this article from the Buyer's Guide hub, the Habitation Check article, the Pre-Trip Checklist, the Payload article, and the Cost of Running article.

Forum links: the five threads cited in the "Funster says" section came back as live ranking URLs from Ahrefs. Quick spot-check before publishing.

Image suggestions: the existing article had two image captions appearing as orphan text ("Protecting tyres from the Spanish sun" and "The cracks in the sidewall…"). Either restore the images with proper captions, or remove the caption paragraphs. The new article doesn't include image references — add them where useful and write proper alt text for each (images of date codes, sidewall cracking, tyre size codes, and a covered tyre would all make natural illustrations).

Brand links to consider: if you have affiliate or supplier relationships, the Michelin Agilis Camping, Continental Vanco Camper and Michelin CrossClimate Camping mentions are natural places to add affiliate links. None included in this draft.

Every tyre has a date stamp

Tyres carry a date code, they provide the date that the tyre was made. Up until the year 2000 this was a group of three digits giving the month and year of manufacture, if yours has three digits then it’s a dinosaur in tyre terms, so change it ASAP. Since the year 2000 the date code has been made up of four digits so a code of 4718 depicts a tyre made in week 47 of 2018

Motorhome Tyre Tread Depth

To ensure that you do not fall foul of regulation across Europe you should ensure you have a MINIMUM of 1.6mm across the full tread width. Should you notice any uneven wear then you should investigate immediately.

Check out the Tyre Discussion on our forums
Best Tyres for Ducato based Motorhomes
Michelin Cross Climate Camping tyres any good?