It was pointed out to me earlier this year during the Eriba service that two of my tyres were 7 years old. An oversight by me due to the long touring layoff because of Brexit and Covid. It never ceases to irritate me when I have to swap tyres which have a perfectly good tread life left in them

As I needed new tyres for the car as well I decided to give our local garage a chance rather than travel 15 miles to our regular tyre garage. He was very competitive with the car tyres but I had difficulty trying to explain to him the fine line we tread when chosing the right tyres for the Eriba.(see what I did there? )

For all the years we've owned the Eriba we have always gone for the same size and rating on tyres as were fitted when new. This meant that there was only a 6% load margine rather than the 10% recommended nowardays and it does worry me. Also and because Hymer have raised the recommended tyre pressures on thier various Eribas including the older ones, it's been difficult finding a tyre that will take the extra pressure.

Eventually our friendly young garage owner came up with a commercial tyre with a huge load rating and as he had already fitted it to the wheel I didn't wish to upset him as he and his team have been a blessing to us and our ageing car over the last few years.

Therefore I've decided to join the ranks of other owners who run thier Eribas on van tyres. I've decided to lose some tyre pressure however so rather than running them at 44psi I've dropped them to 38psi (hope that'll do?).

Randa

Yes, that's the chart I've been using and it states that I should be putting 3 bar (44psi) in the tyres. It's worth knowing that this chart has only been around for the past 10 years or so and previously the recommended tyre pressure for my Troll and tyre size was 2.5bar (36psi) hence the problem of getting a tyre which will take the extra pressure.

As the flexibility of the tyre side walls is considered to help with an otherwise rudimentary suspension I am thinking of lowering the tyre pressures because the new tyres have a stronger and more rigid side wall and that's where the guesstimation begins,

Randa

Roger, as above. I would run them at what it now says in the locker. Your previous tyres wereI’m guessing car tyres and should run at lower pressures. The commercial tyres you have fitted should be run at far higher pressures. I recall when I had a service a couple of years ago I suggested a slightly reduced pressure as you are thinking of as I was not running at max load. I was told no, just leave them at the higher pressure.
Back in 2007 I started the ball rolling with Hymer on the tyres pressures. I had endured a repeated wobble on my new Troll when in France. I was running it at the book pressures but it transpired Hymer had moved on from lower pressure car tyres to higher pressure commercial and not updated the owners manual. I was most unhappy and they issued the list of new pressures.
I seem to recall somebody was not as lucky as I was at the time as they wrote off an Eriba, not sure about the car, on I think the northern end of the M6.
Please stick with the higher pressure which for 102 tyre is I believe 48psi for 1200kg and 44psi for 1000/1100kg

Colin

Morphs, you are correct with your pressures. Trolls differ in max weight from 1,000kg upwards and hence the confusement.

Colin

Hi Steve. Yes it's as Colin says.
Randa

The fitting of car tyres to caravans was I believe the norm and it is only really the “fairly” recent increase in caravan weights that has now meant it is the norm to fit commercial tyres.
If I could find a car tyre that would take my caravan load I would not have a problem fitting them. Actually I would as they would be more expensive.

Colin