How Old Are Your Caravan Tyres? Why Age Blows Out More Tyres Than Punctures

Here's the uncomfortable truth about caravan tyres: most of them never wear out. They age out — parked in the sun eleven months a year, holding near-maximum load the whole time — and then they fail at 100km/h on the first big trip of the season. Tread depth tells you almost nothing about a van tyre's health. Its birthday tells you a lot.

Why van tyres die young

Your daily driver's tyres get replaced because the tread wears down. Your van's tyres might only see a few thousand kilometres a year — but rubber doesn't care about kilometres. UV, ozone and time break down the oils and bonding agents in the carcass whether it's moving or not. A van tyre spends its life loaded, stationary and baking, which is close to the worst retirement plan a tyre can have.

Read the birthday on the sidewall

Every tyre carries a DOT code ending in four digits: the week and year it was made. A tyre stamped 3921 was built in week 39 of 2021. Check it now — plenty of owners discover their "nearly new" spare is a decade old, and more than a few have bought a van with fresh-looking tyres that were manufactured before their kids started school.

The five-year check, the seven-year swap

The guidance most Australian tyre manufacturers and caravan clubs converge on is simple: from five years of age, have van tyres professionally inspected annually — and replace them at around seven years regardless of tread, earlier for heavy vans or northern sun. It feels wasteful to bin tyres with 90 per cent tread. It's considerably cheaper than what comes next.

The blowout trifecta

Aged rubber rarely fails on its own. It fails when three factors stack: age + heat + under-inflation. A slow leak drops pressure, the tyre flexes harder and heats up, and an old carcass lets go where a young one would cope. Remove any one factor and most blowouts never happen. Age you manage with the calendar. Heat and pressure you can watch in real time.

What a van blowout actually costs

It's never just the tyre. A caravan blowout at speed typically shreds the wheel arch and guard, tears out mudflaps and brake wiring, can punch through the floor, and occasionally takes the van off the road entirely. Repair bills in the thousands and a written-off holiday are standard. The tyre was the cheapest part of the whole event.

Your early-warning system

Visual checks catch cracking and bulges, but the failures that end trips start invisibly — a slow deflation forty minutes back, a hub bearing quietly heating a rim. A caravan TPMS watches pressure and temperature on every tyre and alarms within seconds of a change, which is the difference between pulling over calmly and collecting your plumbing off the highway. Pair it with the age rule and you've closed both doors a blowout walks through. The Aura A6 Tow Pack is the popular pick for single-axle vans; bigger rigs, see the full range.

The five-minute pre-season check

• Read the DOT date on every tyre — including the spare

• Five years old? Book an inspection. Seven? Replace

• Look for sidewall cracking, bulges and perished valve stems

• Set cold pressures to placard before the first trip

• Fit a TPMS so week-one leaks don't become week-two blowouts

Questions about your setup? Call 0448 626 964 — real person, real answers, 24/7.