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we had a puncture on our way home at easter. we still have the spare on but need to sort it out before our next trip.

we took the wheel to the caravan dealers where we bought the van and they quoted £119. and also advised us to buy two not just one.

so i thought i would ring around, i had quotes from ats, kwik fit and rapid fit where i usually go with my car. the prices were between £80 and £98. so i will go to rapid fit.

but now we have to try and borrow a trolley jack to fit it our selves otherwise we have to take the caravan to a garage to have it put on. no one will come to us to fit it. i was going to check if the AA would do it but im only covered for relay.

has any one else had problems like this or what have you done when you needed a new tyre.

Just checked the invoice from our last service (February) and we paid £124 including VAT and fitting for two new tyres.

I felt that was a bit steep at the time, but that was maybe because the total bill was a little over the £300 mark!  Given what you've been quoted, nora, I don't feel quite so bad!  Keep shopping around and good luck.

just bought 2 new Maxi Milers 175/80/13 6ply cost me £35.25p each fitted on to the rims

david

 nora, what size are the tyres on your van ??

                   Richard :)

ATS, Kwikfit and other large tyre dealers of a similar ilk are generally very competitive on tyres they sell lots of.  If you want a tyre for a Ford Focus or a Mondeo, they are bound to be cheap.  If you want something a little out of the ordinary, such as a caravan tyre or even worse, a tyre for a 4x4 they can be stupendously expensive. 

You are probably better off looking in Yellow Pages for the smaller tyre dealers, especially those who tend to do a lot of business fitting tyres to commerical vehicles, Transit vans and the like.   If you were local to me (which you are not), I'd recommend Ainsworth Road garage in Radcliffe.  They do caravan tyres for less than half the price that Kwikfit et al charge.

I well remember when I had a flat on the A9 about 8 or 9 miles south of Inverness in an Isuzu Trooper several years ago.  I went into Kwikfit in Inverness and they wanted nearly £200 for some cheapo tyre brand that they didn't have in stock anyway.  A much smaller tyre vendor I just happened across sold me a 245/70 R16 BF Goodrich All Terrain, which is one of the best, for half that price.  It pays to look around and avoid the larger tyre vendors. 

Cheers
Andrew

I have just ordered a spare wheel complete with tyre (175r13, 5 whole 112pcd) for £59, which includes delivery.  Thats a commercial grade tyre.  I think some places don't want to be bothered with caravans unless there is a large markup.

Brian

We replaced both our tyres recently for £86 at ATS.  They were quite happy for us to take the caravan to them - as long as they knew when we were coming they could ensure they had room for us.  But as we have a trolley jack and a spare wheel, and it is quite tricky to maneouver our van on and off our drive, we decided it was easier to take the wheels off and take them along to ATS.

I was quite surprised how accomodating ATS were, we haven't used them in a long time as they never seem competitive for car tyres.