One of the things we had to do while in Anglesey was replace our front tyres.
Paul had noticed that Bertie wasn’t driving quite as responsively as previously (if you can ever describe a motorhome as responsive) and when he took a look at the tyres we realised why. The tracking must have been out (in fact we discovered later that it was so badly out that it went off the scale) and the tyres we starting to become bald on the inside edges.
We had a little look at our options, and our research showed us that there were as many different opinions on the right tyres for Motorhomes as there were (often self-styled) experts. At least we knew we would be agreeing with someone, no matter what decision we made.
The key questions were; should we buy specialist motorhome tyres, should we buy Mud and Snow (M+S) tyres and should we buy premium tyres.
Specialist motorhome tyres are made with stronger sidewalls, the idea being that they are better (will prevent the sidewalls cracking) for heavy vehicles that spend a lot of time stationary. This is all very well for people who use their motorhome a few times a year and leave it stationary in storage for the majority of time, potentially less important for us as we will be moving frequently.
Mud and Snow tyres are usually ‘all season’ tyres intended for those mushy surfaces where it is difficult to get traction. They are not winter tyres. In some countries they are required over certain periods of time or in certain conditions, but these requirements would not impact our plans for the next twelve months.
And as you might expect there are varying opinions about the need to spend money on a ‘quality’ tyre, with many people swearing by some of the cheaper manufacturers and other people only going for the named brands.
In the end we opted to buy Michelin Agilis Motorhome tyres – so answered yes to all of the questions. With so many differing opinions, and little expertise ourselves, we had to rely on reviews and feedback. Michelin Agilis tyres had good reviews from both trade press and the general public and the only poor reviews we found were in relation to the cost rather than the performance, so we ended up spending the extra money on them.
Of course if we were spending money on decent quality tyres then we needed to sort out our tracking/wheel alignment. This was harder work that we’d envisaged.
The best price we could find for our tyres was through Black Circles, so we ordered them to be delivered to ATS in Llangefni. However, despite asking in advance, ATS couldn’t do our tracking. So they fitted them and we then had to find someone else to sort out the tracking for us. It took driving around a few garages to eventually find somewhere willing and able to sort it out; it felt like some garages just couldn’t be bothered with anything out of the ordinary. In the end we found A&R tyres in Gaerwen, and wished we had gone to them in the first place, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. It had been a frustrating experience but at least it ended well.