Covering the tires of your MH

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Campfire RV

Campfire RV

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Posts
755
Location
Ridgecrest, CA
Ok, I have noticed several owners of MH's in my neighborhood have covered the tires on their MH parked at their house. Is there a purpose covering the MH tires? We live in the desert so I'm guessing it may be something to do with the harsh sun light.

Thanks,
Josh
 
It supposedly reduces the deterioration due to UV light, but be sure to leave enough ventilation so the heat build up doesn't do more damage.  Personally, we don't cover our tires as they will age out long before the sun will damage them.
 
That's kind of what I thought it may be for. Another thing I have noticed with a couple owners around here is they have parked their MH with the tires on a carpet or on wood slabs. Does that help preserve the tires or protect them from something?

Josh
 
According to folks like these http://www.tire-information-world.com/tire-sidewall-deterioration.html tires use carbon black to protect against UV (from sunlight). Carbon black is sacrificial and turns grey as it loses its protective ability. Waxes are added to protect against ozone and "bloom" to the surface as tires flex when driven. Protecting from sunlight and driving as often as possible make sense to me. We cover ours if we are parked in the open for more than a few days.While in winter storage under roof we do not cover the tires. Supposedly, moisture and alkali from concrete can negatively affect tires. We use inexpensive plastic cutting boards under ours when we store ours for the winter on concrete. I am not even close to knowing whether any of this advice about protecting tires is true or not, but it seems so easy and inexpensive to do, I figure why not do it.
 
When I had mine in outside storage, I put covers on the tires. Since I have moved to covered storage, I don't cover the tires. I have noticed that some rigs in storage do have covered tires. If I went back to unprotected storage, I think I would cover them again.
 
I'm of the school that only paranoid RV'er cover their tires.  They're a pain to put on & off so the wind doesn't send them into the next county.  I coat mine with '303- SPF for your tires' and drive often enough to flex the sidewalls.
 
Two problems..

First the covers may well be transparant to UV (or nearly so) even though they don't look it.. .I've done a few tests that suggest this but alas, nothing proven.

Second, the best thing for a tire is rolling, Rolling, Rolling down the high way (Sounds like there should be a guitar riff following that).  So since I do just that every week or two,,, I do not (normally) cover.

Mid-November to New Years I do cover.. But that's only because the covers double as screens for my Mr. Christmas Projectors.
 
Wow I cover mine because I don't want people to see how dirty I let my chrome wheel covers get.
 
We don't cover ours, nor do we place anything under the tires. Others feel those are a necessity, but we do not.

I might put something under the tires if I were parking long term on grass or soils that hold moisture, but ours is parked on sand when not in use. If we are only parking for a few days or weeks, I wouldn't bother anyway.
 
It sounds like covering and placing something under the tires is really meant for long term parking. If I do purchase one I plan on taking it out at least once a month especially in the summer to go in the mountains to escape the desert heat. Thanks for all information everyone.
 
Hi,
I've been designing AND TESTING critical rubber products for US submarines for 30 years. My comments:

a. Carbon Black is used for reinforcement in elastomers, not to protect them (silica is also used in some cases, but its not as strong).

b. Ozone would seem not to be a big problem for tires.

c. UV is bad for most elastomers and they are compounded to resist damage from UV.

d. HEAT is the primary enemy of elastomers. Putting a tight cover on a tire to protect from UV is likely to be counter productive. Shade would be good when parked.

All of that said, I've never used tire covers and doubt that I ever will!

Ernie
 
I always cover the tires, mine are around 5 years old, still like new, not a sidewall crack to be found. and dont use armour all on them its dries them out.
 
vmax1 said:
I always cover the tires, mine are around 5 years old, still like new, not a sidewall crack to be found. and dont use armour all on them its dries them out.
Click to expand...

I used armour all on the tires and the dash inside of my first car I owned here in the desert and it only took about two years for the cracks to begin. I stopped using armour all after that disaster.
 
After a maximum of 8 years, tires should be replaced.  They deteriorate over time and their chance of failure increases with age, no matter what they look like on the outside.
 
Our 95 Monaco Dynasty  had 7 yr old Bridgestones with 50% tread left when the inner dual blew,with  the extra fine wheel wells I fixed up there wasn't enough area for the air to escape and it blew about 8' of the side off the coach $5k to fix ,not to mention four new tires for another $1500

cover em for looks
buy new ones to save $
 
Heat is indeed the enemy. A year or so ago I saw results of some informal testing a retired engineer did on use of tire covers and tire surface heat. The difference in tire surface temperature for uncovered tires vs tires covered with standard commercial black or white covers was quite significant. Although black covers got hotter, and allowed the covered tire to get hotter, than white covers, even black reduced the tire temp a significant amount.

I cover mine when parked for more than a couple of days, and I park on a vapor barrier when on concrete. I drive 5,000 to 10,000 miles per year. None of my RV tires has ever developed even the slightest surface cracking. I don't find the tire covers to be a particular hassle, I never use the attached bungees, and I have never had the wind blow one off in spite of being in high winds many times.
 
Ernie n Tara said:
Hi,
I've been designing AND TESTING critical rubber products for US submarines for 30 years. My comments:

a. Carbon Black is used for reinforcement in elastomers, not to protect them (silica is also used in some cases, but its not as strong).

b. Ozone would seem not to be a big problem for tires.

c. UV is bad for most elastomers and they are compounded to resist damage from UV.

d. HEAT is the primary enemy of elastomers. Putting a tight cover on a tire to protect from UV is likely to be counter productive. Shade would be good when parked.

All of that said, I've never used tire covers and doubt that I ever will!

Ernie
Click to expand...



Isn't the "enemy" a combination of HEAT and LOAD?  If so, what's your view of keeping tires at 90-100 psi in storage?  with the leveler jacks supporting the vehicle, it is probably feasible to lower the pressure in the tires if it would reduce the chances of cracks developing, i.e., shade and reduced load???
 
Yes we cover our tires because up here at this altitude, the sun will COOK them.  Im also a believer in covering your motorhome with a cover too.  All this takes some work, but it's worth it.

Oh, and we don't live in our motorhome.  ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 675 (members: 40, guests: 635)

Forum statistics

Threads
132,200
Posts
1,391,934
Members
137,909
Latest member
haziz
Back
Top Bottom