New Tyres = Vanlife GAMECHANGER!

[@M_and_M_in_a_van]

I'm not going to add anything about which tires are the best. I think you did a great reasoning in the video. Thank you for that, you actually saved me some time when choosing next tires for our van. Just one small tip from me to make your tires last longer. Try to unlearn turning the wheels while stationary. Always start rolling at least a bit before turning the steering wheel. Not only the tires but also the rest of the steering components will last you longer.

[@FreedomStrider]

Thanks, that's a good tip 🙂👍

[@nabarnes]

For me, you've missed off the most important thing - road noise. The off-road tyres are *MUCH* noisier and if you're anything like me, you'll be tearing your hair out if you do a long motorway drive! I put Agilis Crossclimate tyres on my car and was so impressed with them (a better drive than 'summer' tyres and so much quieter, despite having the same noise rating) that I've put them on the Crafter too. As for the sliders, you were lucky that the mechanic could knock them free - I had to get somebody out to do mine as they were seized so hard they needed taking out on a workbench with a gas torch to motivate them. My advice with this is that they will seize again and I really really really would recommend that you buy new slider kits and replace them all - it's an easy DIY job. While you're at it, you'll have had uneven wear on your pads, so you may as well change them too (cheap to buy and easy to replace).

[@FreedomStrider]

Thanks for the advice 🙂. We got the pads replaced with this tyre change but new sliders we shall have a look into, we didn't realise it was that bad - our mot mentioned it last year but not this year. Yes, noise rating is something we missed, although compatible by the stickers, it's very difficult as everyone's van absorbs different amount of noise depending on the insulation and furniture in the back. We've found these new tyres to be comparable to the old ones we had on. But off road tyres we've heard from others are indeed much noiser. Cheers 🙂

[@Jabber-ig3iw]

When we moved from the UK to Luxembourg I put Michelin cross climates on our motorhome, highly rated tyres with a high enough load rating whilst not actually being specifically motorhome tyres. They have been fantastic, great when the temps do drop, and perfectly fine in summer as it’s not as though a MH is a performance vehicle. When you go off road you need to drop your pressures to increase your footprint, this will give you more grip, but you will need a means to re inflate.

[@FreedomStrider]

Brilliant to hear recommendations and real use cases by others 👌👌👌 Yes we don't plan to off-road that much but if we do, down the pressure goes :)

[@mazzerattimike8695]

We got the general grabber at3 put on our ssangyong rexton around 3 months ago. Been driving mostly on wet Scottish roads, and they've performed well....no noticeable increase in noise . We carry our ikamper on top permanently. Not had snow yet, but fully expecting them to be at least better than normal road tyres

[@FreedomStrider]

AT3's we seriously considered but we heard MPG was lower on the vans, but I don't know how much of a different difference it truly is. How are you finding them fuel wise?

[@mazzerattimike8695]

@@FreedomStrider not noticed much change tbh......I'd assume any extra cost would be marginal, and worth it for the extra off road performance.....looking forward to some snow up here in the Highlands

[@Jabber-ig3iw]

I have general grabbers on my defender, really good so far. Way quieter than the old mud terrains that were on it when I bought it.

[@shmavitz]

If anyone is on a budget, I highly recommend Rotalla Setula van 4 season RA05. Currently they can be had for about £75 at black circles. They are not commonly available at fast fit centres but you can order them online for fitment at a garage near you. If you can afford them Michelin Cross Climates are outstanding, but the Rotallas are excellent for the price.

[@FreedomStrider]

Good to know 👍

[@philwilliams23]

It is the central 3/4 of the tyre where the tread depth is tested, min 1.6mm. Outside of this, inner or outer part of tyre is irrelevant for tread depth test. That said it's prudent to keep an eye on tyre depth across the whole of the tyre.

[@FreedomStrider]

Very true, we thought our tread was much lower (maybe 2.5mm?) But apparently not - I'm hoping these tyres last 4-5years at least! 🤞

[@RustyRoseAdventures]

Great video! Very helpful table for pricing!

[@FreedomStrider]

Thanks 😊

[@mazbob6380]

Hello, could you please let us know how you got on with the new tyres? Cheers Maz.

[@FreedomStrider]

2 years on, I would recommend them, they are quiet, good mpg and we offroad quite a bit so they haven't failed us. Any van will get stuck in wet grass or mud as vans are heavy, so offloading tyres are a waste. The only exception would be snow and ice. If you plan to drive frequently on it, I would look at BF Goodridge

[@bertholtappels1081]

It all comes down to risk. Full-time vanlife tire load is fundamentally different from regular van service, where the vehicle only infrequently runs at capacity. Therefore having tires with more headroom in the rating would have been a good idea. Rationally speaking, acquisition cost indeed barely matters. Truck tires, which are expected to run at their rating full time, are therefore constructed differently than van or passenger car tires. Yet, if you see a shredded type on the side of a highway, it is almost always a truck tire. Secondary, a tall and heavy van is at substantially higher risk of rollover in case of tire failure. In other words, you are not only much more likely to suffer from catastrophic tire failure, you are also much more likely to get severely injured by the effects of one. Statistics are hard to come by, but an increased risk of, say, a factor ten seems very conservative. Now you should be extra diligent in running load appropriate pressures and checking them regularly. We live in a converted city bus, which needs six massive tires soon, so I’m very aware of how absurd a “cost is irrelevant” statement sounds…

[@FreedomStrider]

Very true, full time vanlifers often run their vans way over capacity here in the UK/EU, since most licences only allow people to drive upto 3.5T, but this is very frequently ignored and overlooked. We have talked alot about the weight of our van alot over the course of our build as we took the weight very seriously and built as light as possible. Fully loaded we come in at 3.38T which is 1T lighter than a lot of other vans out there. It baffles me how different the "cheap" tyres are from the good ones - you can get "car tyres" that can fit on vans, load rated for much lower and still legally have them on the van which is crazy! We took alot of care to pick van-specific tyres, with good load ratings, 8 ply wall sides etc... Although I agree that the cost of the tyre is not as important as the quality, stating the honest fact of how much different tyres cost is still important when you have a budget, as not everyone can buy the best tyre out there. Still need to know what is worth buying and why, and what is a waste of time (and money). From where we are standing, we did not let price affect our choice as we didn't spend the minimum we could have. 👍

[@bertholtappels1081]

One more thing about the all-season rating. This is another difficult topic. The quality of a tire doesn’t seem to matter 99.9% of the time - it is only at the edges where it counts. The “noticeable parts”: braking distance in case of an emergency stop, traction that one time you need to take off uphill in the snow; and the “hidden parts”: resilience when run at max load, or at high or low temperatures. “All season tires” are not great under all conditions, they are a compromise. In Scandinavia, Canada and other inhospitable places, people know that all-season tires are not at all like winter tires. In an extremely simplified view, and all other things being equal: Winter tires work great from -40C to, say 10C. Summer tires tend to work well between, say 5C and 40C. All-seasons are only marginally better, and are designed to work best down to, perhaps, -5C, at expense of some performance at the hot end. For “moderate climates”, such as found in Central Europe or much of the continental U.S. year-round, this is okay, since the days that the weather is in this zone is close to 100%. But it would be very wrong to assume that all-season tires are good performers from Morocco to North Cape at all times - they are absolutely not. While they may have a symbol that makes them legal in more places during winter, it should not give you a false sense of confidence that your tires have as much margin as what frosty locals drive.

[@FreedomStrider]

True, all season tyres are a mid ground, and for our use in Eruope we'll not be going any crazy high or low, hence our choice of an all terrain tyre. Were we to go to extreame temperatures, we'd go with something more suited to the climate (KO2's or other good AT for the snow, AT3's for the mud and wet, etc...) If we were in Canada, or somewhere more extreame in the winter, then "proper" winter tyres, rated down to -30, 40C, that would be needed.

[@RustyRoseAdventures]

Alex Frood when to Scandinavia in-30 in bfg ko2’s and said they gripped well on snow and ice over there. Just saying

[@FreedomStrider]

He did quite well with them 👍

[@MispronouncedAdventures]

@@RustyRoseAdventures thanks. All-terrain tyres are fantastic in the dead of winter in the Nordics. Very little ice around at that time of year, it’s all dry compact snow on the which is very gripping. However, during the change to, and from winter when the temperature is more towards zero, there is a lot more ice around and you need studs. But I know a few who have large vans up there in the north and run all-terrain tyres are extremely grippy. But not all-terrain tyres are equal. But I find the KO2 particular good

[@keswickadventure]

Don’t pull numbers out of the air! I’m talking about your advice on load ratings for tyres… you can’t tell folk a number and tell them that’s ok for their camper as long as it’s not a 5T van! All vans have axel ratings as well as mgvw values - and yours may not be the same as theirs. As well as tyre ratings, wheels also need to be rated for each vehicle based on these figures.

[@FreedomStrider]

I don't recall pulling numbers from thin air. I've been told by manufactures of these tyres, and by companies which fit them, and by other full time vanlifers who have them. The info here I shared is no more and no less than the facts delivered by the manufactures and is purley the info I used in order to make my own decision for our personal situation. All the info in our videos is based on personal experience and used as guidelines and educational purposes only. Everyone needs to do their own research for their own circumstances, 115/112 tyres I've seen on vans that weight 1000kg more than us, the same axle, the same van type and they were told by thier tyre fitters that that load rating is sufficient for their vans.

[@deriusnorris4463]

First comment lol... Make sure they check your cast and camber seems to be balding on the side... But yes 8 years in different climate conditions old change them. Safe travels

[@FreedomStrider]

True indeed, we had the new tyres balanced when they were installed, we'll keep an eye on their eveness of wear as they wear down. Cheers :)

[@deriusnorris4463]

@@FreedomStrider and don't forget to rotate the tires (front to back left to right etc) periodically about every 10k or 20k km. This will give you more miles out of your tires. (Just read rotate the tires then laughed thinking the tires rotated as you drive lol...)

[@Jabber-ig3iw]

You can save yourself a bit of money by doing things like disc, pads and servicing yourself.

[@FreedomStrider]

We were going to do the brakes ourselves but since the tyres were coming off we only ended up paying £30 in labour so it was worth it 👌

[@philwilliams23]

You may notice your mpg is sightly worse than before tyre change as there's more grip contact with the new tyres on the road surface.

[@FreedomStrider]

Haven't done a full test yet, these next few refills will give us a good idea. We were averaging 28-30mpg beforehand, let's see what these ones give 😊

[@richardpickering2452]

Next time, WILDPEAK A/T AT3WA, Thank me later.

[@FreedomStrider]

👍

[@johnedwardculp6621]

🆗

[@FreedomStrider]

👍

[@griffdog7969]

Why did you delete my comment? Should I post it again?

[@FreedomStrider]

We didn't delete any comments, the KZbin filter sometimes catches them. Posted it again.

[@FreedomStrider]

I see that you are sending a link, KZbin is being overly cautious and deleting it as soon as I click on it.

[@FreedomStrider]

Is this the link you were trying to post? www.gov.uk/government/publications/use-of-tyres-aged-more-than-10-years-on-goods-vehicles-buses-and-coaches/tyre-age-restrictions-for-good-vehicles-buses-coaches-and-minibuses

[@griffdog7969]

@@FreedomStrider Yes well done. I was wondering if you had discovered the rules for under 3.5t?

[@FreedomStrider]

Cool, we got there ☺️. i can't seem to find much on under 3.5t vehicles, in terms of tyre age, it seems that they don't really track it. We were told that 8 year old tyres are at the legal limit (but now I think that's just a safety recommendation). Thanks for the link, it's good to know that HGVs have the 10 year limit.

[@paulg8524]

Hi, how have the tyres been in snow and rain, I am looking to buy some soon and was looking at ko2 originally but as my van is still under warranty I have decided to keep to a van tyre. The continentals do well in a review I found online but there is very little info on forums etc on real world experience, do they come with a mileage guarantee as I cannot find any info on expected mileage out of them, thank you

[@FreedomStrider]

10k miles later. Been down to -10C in ice, not much snow, but plenty of mud and semi offloading. So far, no issues, no reduction in MPG (still getting around 30mpg on motorway). No mileage guarantee from what I saw but they have a lifespan of around 30-40k miles from asking the garage we bought it from. Frankly, the offroad ko2 and at3 grabbers look cool, but unless you really go fully off road (rare in a van), its better to go with a road tyre. If I were to buy tyres again, I wouldn't change tyre :)

[@paulg8524]

@@FreedomStrider thank you for the response, did buy on fri for 130 a tyre, a van is not designed for off road mine stays away lol, main concern was road which it will spend 99% of the time on and maybe a bit of snow in Scotland hopefully, but the ko2 do look cool lol