Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[scooterdaz]

Hi All, After quite a few years of visiting steam fairs and classic car events and always admiring the old caravans ive finally dipped my toe in the water and bought a 1971 Sprite Alpine, or so im told. Does anyone have a manual for this caravan to sell. I currently have the wheels off and am taking them for powder coating, the tyres fitted where 155x13, is this the correct size for this van before i spend my hard earned. My local caravan dealer tells me i need a caravan tyre, but ive read on the internat theres no such thing.

[Fluffle-Valve]

Welcome to the forum...

I took my caravan to my local tyre fitters and ask them to fit two new tyres. 165 x 13 was the old size, but they fitted 165/80 x 13. I though nothing of it, as a straight 165 are hard to get these days.
A few months down the line, a friend tells me that there are proper caravan tyres that have extra wall thickness and these are the ones that should have been fitted.

4 years later and many, many miles later, the two CAR tyres that were fitted have been fine. I did go and tell them, that they had fitted the wrong tyres and their excuse was that I only asked for new tyres and I should have stipulated that I wanted proper caravan tyres.

One would have thought that if I drove in with a caravan and asked for new tyres, they should have known to fit the correct tyres.
_________________
Series 3 1972 LWB Truck Cab Pick Up. My daily drive.

[scooterdaz]

Thanks for your reply Fuffle valve, what ply rating were your CAR tyres you had fitted. Ive been told today by several tyre fitting companies that there indeed is no such thing called a caravan tyre, but what there is is heavy duty 6 or 8 ply tyres that are fitted to caravans and vans alike, instead of normal car tyres. Ive been quoted as little as £67.35 for a pair of 8 ply Federal tyres, but i need to check if this is all in, or balancing etc is extra, the highest price quoted was £80 for single8 ply Bridgestone fitted, all in.

[Uncle Alec]

The info that there is no such thing as a caravan tyre is correct as far as it goes; what there is is a load index that stipulates how much weight a tyre is designed to carry.
Here's a link to an easy-to-read table:
http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/load-and-speed-indexes-advice.html
What you need to do is ascertain the weight of your caravan (convert to kilograms if needed) then divide by the number of wheels (either two or four presumably) and that will tell you the minimum load index tyre you can legally use.
The load index will be moulded onto the side wall of the tyre; example "95N". 95 is the load index (690 kg) and the letter N refers to a separate index relating to maximum speed. Therefore (as an example) a tyre with the load index 95 can legally bear a weight of 690kg; two used on a caravan can legally bear 1380kg.
Most people err on the side of caution and buy tyres that will give a safety margin.
By the way, 165/80 -13 is the same as 165/13; 80 is the aspect ratio and 80% equates to full size in our language.
Those of us using older tyres will not find this at all helpful as they don't have the load index marked on them.

[scooterdaz]

Ok, first of all i need to know the weight of my caravan, its a 1971 sprite alpine, but i could do with this confirming as i have no hand book and i cant find a plate on the van eitherhttp://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz215/scooterdaz/Sprite%20alpine%20caravan/SP_A1480.jpg WOW i cant believe it, ive managed to get a photo on here

[scooterdaz]

Thank you uncle Alec, just looked at the link, should be usefull when i know how much my caravan weighs