Good one Mark! I carry my own tyre pressure gauge. Why because the gauges at servos vary by quite a bit. It's probably more relevant to cars & motorbikes. In my old job, preretirement, we had to check tyre pressures daily.
I've just replaced the tyres on my caravan after it was serviced and the engineer pointed out they were just over five years old. He said he wouldn't advise changing them at seven years and some insurance companies actually insist on five years. The annoying thing is, when I checked the date stamp on the "new" tyres one was 9 months old and the other 12 months old. Therefore, I have to deduct that from the life expectancy of my new tyres as the clock starts ticking from the tyre's date of manufacture, not the date they are fitted. When fitted to a commercial van the same tyres I have on my caravan need to be changed at ten years. The tyres I took off my caravan were hardly worn, no cracks in the sidewalls or other damage so they could actually be fitted to a van and used for another five years if, obviously they haven't worn out in the meantime.
Thanks for your comments, this is why we say 5-7 years, if you make a record of when the tyre is fitted then you should be safe for 5 years actually fitted to the caravan, it used to be that you would get tyres and they would already be nearly 2 years old, its difficult if you don't know when the tyre was fitted and its all down to condition but in theory you can run 5 years from fitting as you know when they were fitted, obviously with the normal checks each year to make sure they are in good condition.
When park up we take the weight off the wheel so if its not going to move for several month we would but the caravan on axel stands and lift the tyres off the floor so no flat spots.
If theres a significant difference between the tyres id be looking for a reason for it . And dont forget to check the pressures when the tyres are cold
I like to do pre trip tyre and wheel checks the day before we go away so there is time to resolve any issues before leaving for a trip. If you find an issue on leaving day at best its a delay and you know that one time theres an issue it will be 5 minutes past closing on a sunday bank hol weekend! !
This happens a lot when people have them in storage and if not visited regularly it could be low or flat for some time, so worth a real good look at. Thanks for your comments 👍
Yes depending on the situation its worth inflating then keeping an eye on it to see if it goes down again if nothing obvious. If its been in storage for a while they can sometimes lose air so always have a good look, inflate then see if it holds pressure. We may have let this one down for the video 😆
Yes normally if thy have dropped this low its possible of a puncture or the valve is leaking. It may have been let down on accident for the video on this occasion though 😆.
You said check in case you hit a kerb and took a chunk out And I'd say if you can not tow with out hitting any thing , you shouldn't be towing anything
Because if you put one on the front wheel and someone has a hydraulically lift able towbar they could theoretically life it up high enough for the front wheel to leave the ground
Hi Mark tyres are overlooked by too many caravaners sometimes to their peril.,I think I saw a Tyrepal monitor on the floor is that for another video, we have had one for a few years and wouldn't be without it now
Hi Graham, yes I was going to do a tyrepal video as they are very good. But I ran out of time and never got chance. Hopefully I will do one soon though.
