Trailer tyres!

[Jonzjob]

Or any other tyres really.

Yesterday we went and had the tyres on our trailer changed. They loked almost new, but they have been on there for about 14 or so years. The change was because of our move back to the U.K. I tokk the wheels off the trailer and into a local tyre place. The bloke asked if they were tubeless, I said yes, but he wasn't sure, so he went to one of them and bent the valve over a bit. Not a lot, about 45º and the dammed thing just broke off!

That was as much of a shock for him as it was for me! So the moral of this story is that even although the tyres on your trailer/caravan or even your vintage car look OK, if they are much over6 or 7 years old and have been out in the weather

Get them checked, it could ell save you having an accident!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I believe the law is or has been changed and tyres will carry date marks - after so long it will be illegal to use them.

 

[Jonzjob]

I forgot to add that the tyres will have degraded and loaded and on a long trip will get hot and will burst eventually. The caravan club recomend replacing caravan tyres after 5 years and shouldn't be used at all after 7 years! Just as well our trailer is lighter than a caravan?

 

[Lons]

It's more than the valves that suffer John, the sidewalls weaken and craze over time and if not used for a long time the tyres suffer distortion from standing in one place over time. Caravans are even worse and tyres should really be covered if in direct sunlight.
I't's pretty unusual to wear out the tread on those tyres so to the uninitiated they look ok but if a serious accident is caused by crazing or broken valves the police investigators and insurance companies take a very dim view with the relevant consequences.

Bob

#-o Didn't realise you had posted again !

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I just read that they degrade whether used or not, so that wouldn't make much difference.

 

[Jonzjob]

No worries Bob.

Phil, that's exactly my point. They can look fine, BUT!!!

Before we moved over we had a caravan and I bought a cover for it. One of these breathable jobbies. Wheel covers came with it and they were used. In fact I still have the covers and spent an hour this morning looking for the dammed things!

 

[sunnybob]

I spent 16 years driving up and down the M5. I hated the summer. I knew it was here when I saw the first overturned caravan of the year.

my biggest annual count was 12 caravans destroyed on the M5 alone, between birmingham and exeter. And bear in mind that was only the ones I had seen, no knowing how many more when I wasnt around.

I doubt 1 in 5 owners understand about old tyres (or about not travelling at 80 mph while towing).

 

[Jonzjob]

We had 2 caravans and they both had AlKo stabilisers and Tyron wheel bands fitted. 3 Tyron bands, one on the spare too. Why? Because the AlKo stabiliser is the type that clamps on the tow hitch ball and very effectively increases stability and the Tyron bands fit on the wheel inside the tyre and if you do get a blow out it stops the tyre dropping into the well in the wheel and keeps stability again.

Whe we came over here on holidays I was quite happy to tow at the legal 130kph, or as near as damm 80. That was because apart from anything else the van was loaded properly and that along with the stabiliser and wheel bands made sure that if anything did happen it wasn't going to throw the van all over the place. We also did a Caravan Club course on both driving and maintainence of the van and it was all kept up together.

It is the people who buy a caravan and then suddenly know everything about how to use it that have the problems usually and everyone else get tarred with the same brush. Another bitch against caravan towers is that they can't get past them. It was proved that the majority of the problems weren't caused by the caravan rig, but the clown driving too close up the backside of the rig and creating something the length of an artic wagon. The main problem I used to have was getting past idiot solo drivers who decided that they weren't going to be passed by a caravan rig!

 

[sunnybob]

On the M5 southbound, just below Bristol, is a pretty steep incline over the mendip hills. It was a 2 lane like the rest of the M5 at that time. lorries were in the inside lane doing 50 or less, but in the summer time, the caravans would pull out and try to overtake. Half way up the hill they would realise they did not have the power (V8 engines excepted) but wouldnt pull back in, just sit there and cause 10 mile tail backs as the holiday traffic slowed to 45 mph.

So the road was widened to 3 lanes, and every summer there would be a lorry, a caravan, and ANOTHER caravan in the outside lane, all doing 45 mph. The tail backs from that hill would reach 20 miles every friday during the summer.

I am very grateful to that motorway, it made me get out of the country before I died on it.

 

[Jonzjob]

That proves my point Bob. Caravans or any trailers are not allowed in the 3rd lane of any motorway and they should have been clobbered for it.

Just as a matter of interest. My daughter got married in Paphos and one of our group asked someone which side of the road the Cypriots drive on? The reply was 'the shady side" !! :shock: :shock: From the driving I did on our week there he was telling the truth?

 

[sunnybob]

The correct answer is, "any damn side i want to".

In the rule book, Cyprus has the same road system as the UK. drive on the left, give way to the right on roundabouts, etc. exactly same as.

In real life, Its hell out there. I bought my motorcycle with me when I came here, but soon became very wary of riding it. Cypriots have no concept of indicators, except when it rains, and then they put their hazard flashers on.

Its hell driving on the roads when it rains because you cant see any brake lights or indicators for the hazards. I was in a car full of Cypriots one day on the motorway in the rain and I asked them why they did this. The answer was... "To let everybody know its raining"
No, my mind was as blank as yours is right now.

Curved roads, oh boy, curved roads. As far as I can tell, there are two seperate reasons why cypriots cross over centre lines on curves.
1/ they are so busy talking on their phones they havent noticed.
2/ they are saving on steering and tyre wear on their 30 year old 4 x 4's.

But all that aside, i love this country, and most cypriots are good people (when theyre not driving) and I'm only going back to the UK when I'm too old to care for myself any more because Cyprus does not have social services.

Oh, by the bye, Paphos is the pits. Come to the other end of the island and see what all the fuss is about.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I went out with a girl in the '70s whose family were all Londoners (this is the pointy end of Cornwall). We were talking about caravan drivers being a menace and I said I suspected many people weren't used to towing as they had had hired the caravan - the guy I was talking to made a point which I hadn't thought about - he said not only are they not used to towing, they're often not used to driving at all let alone driving the car they are in - many of them live near city centres and don't drive for the other fifty weeks of the year. He knew this because he had many relatives who did it. Frightening.

 

[Lons]

I agree 100% with both the last 2 posts John made, including the standard of driving in Cyprus although only been 3 times so no expert.

How long ago are your experiences Bob? There will always be idiots who break the law by using the 3rd lane and speeding. In fact the law is one of the reasons caravans can hold up traffic because caravans are restricted to maximum 60mph on dual carriageway and motorway and 50mph on others, That especially takes effect on single roads where other traffic can travel at 60 and in practice more like 70. Anywhere rural exacerbates the problem where you get a little old person doing 35 to 40 in the middle of the road and won't move over, in those cases I always pulled over when possible to let others pass , after all if pulling a caravan you're on holiday and not in a hurry!

If you buy a new van these days, the dealer will first check your car against motormatch details to ensure it is suitable and if not they should advise alternatives. Modern caravans are very light and rigid for their size and a lot more stable, mine has both the Aalco friction and electronic stabiliser systems as well as standard electronic sensors and trailer stabilisation as part of my towcar equipment so things have moved forward a great deal since I was in the industry 35 years ago. My van is also twin wheeled which reduces any blowout effects.
My time working for ABI was in the days of timber frames stapled together then skinned with hardboard and aluminium, more like model aircraft construction and with serious weight issues. The manufacturers standard practice was to use a partly stripped out van on the weighbridge to validate stated u/l weights so the finished product rarely met the printed specs. Got away with it for years! :roll:

Cars are also much more powerful although weights have also reduced which is less desirable in a towcar but properly matched and loaded with a reasonable competent driver a modern outfit should apart from legal speed restrictions hold up little traffic except speedsters.

There is a multitude of information and advice available to any user these days and apart from refusing to sell to idiots, it's difficult to see what else can be done but that's true of anything on the road from cycles to lorries is it not!

As an example, my Audi A6 avant 2.0 tdi 180bhp quatro easily pulls my Elddis Crusader Zephyr loaded to its maximum 1800kg and keep pace with cars under normal acceleration circumstances, so it wouldn't be me holding you up Bob. :wink:

As an aside, I've just driven almost 4000 km in Canada which is so laid back and easy it's sickening to come back to British roads this week. Over there it's very polite and civilized even in large towns like Victoria and Vancouver. You cross multiple junctions in turn on a first arrival basis which is almost always observed and pedestrians are also treated with respect. Not a one off observation as we were there 4 years ago as well.

This is my van btw

cheers
Bob

 

[sunnybob]

I was born and grew up in inner London, left for somerset when I was 23. i know all about inner city traffic.
When I moved to somerset in 77, the county town (Taunton) had a "rush hour" that lasted 10 minutes. When i left somerset for Cyprus in 2008, the "rush hour" was 10 hours a day.

i had a service engineer job with unbelievable mileage from 91 through to 08. travelling an average of 70,000 miles per year in (mostly) an astra van. A normal day would be over 200 miles, a big day would be 500 miles, including weekend cover. i have driven a 360 mile day to change a light bulb. my biggest month was a february when i topped 7,800 miles.
I'm a "nexpert" on the road system between penzance and swindon, and bournemouth and hereford, and not too many caravans obeyed the rules of the road while I was watching.

Since moving here, i only return about once a year, and then my wife drives because its very expensive to put two people on a rental car insurance. I never ask to drive in the Uk now.
Here, i live in farming area, and I can drive 12 miles and more during the day without meeting another car, and caravans are rarer than rocking horse by products. Bliss.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I was working in the early hours of a morning when a courier dropped off some lost luggage from Heathrow. I asked him if he wanted a coffee, so we had a chat for ten minutes. He told me it was the first time he'd been out in his van since he'd put a replacement engine in it - he'd had the same van before written from a bad shunt and had bought it back and kept the engine. It was a Merc diesel. I commented that it it was fair trip Heathrow and back and he said he'd already done Heathrow to Cardiff and back before that trip. When he went I looked at the van and said that's only just three years old - how many miles has it done to need an engine transplant? Oh, it didn't do bad, he said, it's done 517,000.

 

[Lons]

I had a spell of about 3 years doing 50 - 60K a year Bob so I share your sentiments as I hated it but tbh only travelled North West across the country and through Scotland and main problem with caravans was 2 week factory hols and the Scottish fortnight. many caravanners then just hooked up without thought but I think it's changed a bit and people are generally more aware apart from the fact that it's not a cheap past time nowadays and most people having spent a small fortune on a van tend to take a bit more care.

Caravans turning over or jacknifing is generaly down to inexperience rather than rank bad driving if you check the statistics and there is no excuse for either. Poor loading is stupid as I said, info is extensively available to all. The other major factors are high crosswinds or more frequently being passed by large lorries who don't give enough room and create the same effect, however, this is minimised on a modern caravan with the stability aids I mentioned previously. Then of course there are always a few who blatently flout the law and travel far too fast and get caught out! :roll:

We seriously thought about buying a house in Cyprus although I confess it was in the Paphos area and that was the reason for our 3rd visit but we got cold feet mainly because of the situation with Turkey and the military installations on the island. My missus felt a bit insecure though we always enjoyed our time there so I envy you your lifestyle in the sun. Doubt I would come back either.

At least I live in the North East which is very much quieter than Cornwall even if the weather is cr*p.

cheers
Bob

 

[sunnybob]

bearing in mind my actual job was service engineer, I got a brand new van every 150,000 miles. that was 2 years. 16 years, 8 new vehicles.

I actually lost the company money because of my driving hours, but it was a national contract that required 4 hour response time on breakdowns, so they had to have me to cover the whole of the southwest and wales. They made their money up on the big city engineers though, who drove about 5,000 miles a year. It was a good time and i loved the actual on site hours, it was just the motorways that I could see myself dying on.

 

[sunnybob]

Lons, we can see across the border from our house.
We regularly cross it for holidays, evening meals out, and now, just to fill the petrol tank. Fuel on the turkish side is around 25 pence a litre cheaper at the moment than our petrol station. I can save as much as a tenner on a fill up even though the two stations are only about 2 miles apart in a straight line.
Our friends even go food shopping on the other side.
But my wife first bought me to Cyprus around 2003 or 4, and she took me to Paphos and I hated it. Noisy dirty, beaches you cant swim in because of rip tides. Worse than blackpool.

In 06 we came back originally to buy a small apartment as a buy to let investment, but that time went to the Agia napa area.
Chalk and Cheese.
Beautiful area. wonderful beaches. Wide open spaces between small villages. After two days of looking at stupid little apartments that I wouldnt want to holiday in I just told the girl showing us round that we now wanted buy to live. her eyes lit up as her commission just trebled, and we signed for the house 2 days later. had to wait 20 months while it was built, Moved in august 08 and have never once regretted it for an instant.

 

[Jonzjob]

THe Caravab Club taught that when you are on the motoway or dual carrigheways and a truck is coming past that as it starts to get closer you ease very gently out to the white line. That way the truck will move over to the right to allow room. As it gets to the back of your rig you ease back to the left. That way there is max room between the 2 of you and the bow trucks wave. It works. It even works here! :shock:

 

[bourbon]

And potentially push the truck over into another lane? I saw this advice on a caravan forum ages ago. I thought it was bad advice then, and I haven't changed my mind