The Best Tyres for a Motorhome in 2025?
Spring has well and truly sprung and now the annual pilgrimage to run the London Marathon is over, we’re gearing up our motorhome for a few weeks of wandering about. The poor thing’s been sat in storage neglected for many months, and needed some TLC, including a new set of tyres. Ours were getting old, two were fitted nine years ago, and although they looked OK we decided to play it safe and fit a new set.
Which brings us to the question of which tyres to get?
Motorhome tyres aren’t cheap. We don’t want to be spending more than we need to. But at the same time, having travelled across umpteen countries, we reckon the most risky thing about motorhome touring is driving. Out of all the stuff which has gone wrong for us (thankfully not much), a tyre blowout on a motorway in Spain felt (by far) the worse.
So these days we opt to spend more money on getting decent tyres for our 3.5 tonne A class motorhome.
There are a bunch of other considerations apart from the avoidance of blowouts:
- If you travel in winter, many countries outside the UK have legal requirements for tyres. Depending on the country, the tyres will either need the mud and snow (M+S) sidewall marking, or the three peak mountain snowflake (3PMSF) marking. In terms of grip, 3PMSF tyres have to pass standard tests, while the M+S ones don’t, so most folks only consider 3PMSF-marked tyres to be ‘winter’ tyres. More about 3PMSF and M+S markings here.
- Grip levels in the wet.
- How long they’ll last.
- The noise they make.
- How comfortable a ride you get with them fitted.
- How fuel economical they are.
- Whether they’re rated for the weight and speed of your vehicle.
It can get very complicated, very quickly. We’ve personally not noticed any difference in terms of ride or economy from different tyres, so our main drivers these days are legality and safety.
That blowout loosened our purse strings, and for the past ten years we’ve opted to use CP-marked tyres. These are specifically designed for motorhomes (CP stands for Camping Pneu, or camping tyre in French). Several manufacturers make CP-marked tyres, but the two we seem to come across the most are:
- Michelin – Agilis CrossClimate and Agilis Camping
- Continental – Vanco Camper
We’ve been using Agilis Camping for the past decade, but this year opted for the Michelin CrossClimate tyres. We specifically had to ask for the CP variant of these tyres, as Michelin market both C (commercial van) and CP (motorhome specific) variants under the CrossClimate label. We also noted these tyres need special high-pressure valves fitting as these tyres are inflated to over 65psi, but our wheels already had them.
Why CrossClimate? Because they seem to meet all our requirements, plus they’re 3PMSF-marked. They can be used all year round, including in winter across all of Europe. While we’re not currently touring in the snow and ice, we might in the next few years. These tyres were roughly £210 each fitted for our size wheels.
We’ve only driven about 50 miles on them so far and can’t tell any difference in terms of noise or ride. The tread pattern looks very aggressive, and we expect a good level of grip in all conditions. They’re supposed to last well even when used in summer conditions, and we’re not doing huge mileage these days, so they should keep us going for a few years.
Any thoughts folks? What tyres do you have fitted to your motorhome? How do you decide which ones to get?
Cheers, Jay
Fitted Michelin cross climates on my VW camper 18 months ago.
Improved ride above std Goodyears that were on.
Within a couple of weeks got caught in a snowstorm in Yorkshire dales , coped brilliantly.
Do notice a bit of road noise from chunky treads but all in all a great choice although wallet muscle still recovering
Good to know Steve. Yeah, not cheap… cheers, Jay
Hi Jason
We made the switch from Michelin Agilis to the Michelin Cross-Climates and have found a significant improvement in grip and road noise. Previously, we frequently spun the wheels when pulling off up a slope. We also had slipping wheels when starting from wet grass.
On the lovely French roads, we can hardly hear tyre noise.
Expensive yes but then what isn’t?
I just want the best tyres I can get, cost is not a consideration. I never skimp on tyre or brake replacement, both for obvious reasons.
We’re arriving back in the UK next week for another 3 months on The Continent.
Makes a lot of sense Frank. Safe trip back to the UK 🇬🇧 👍 cheers, Jay
Coincidentally, I just replaced an old set of Agilis Cross-climates with two more of the same earlier this week. That set had done about 75,000 km, much of it on winding, switchbacked, mountain roads. Consequently, although there was some tread remaining in the centre of the tyres, the edges were shot. I have bogged down with these tyres in desert sand in Morocco, but I’d say that was my fault, not that of the tyres. :-)
Ah, that’s some decent mileage! Thanks for the info Gerard. 👍
Thanks for this Jay. Our van is 5 years old now with 28k on the clock so we are rapidly approaching the time when we have to start thinking about tyre replacement. We’re recently returned from Greece and had one particularly hairy moment on a steep, narrow, wet road on the Pelion Peninsular where we lost traction so I’m currently weighing up whether to go with a direct replacement for the current Agilis CPs or go down the Cross Climate route. We haven’t done any full on winter touring yet but we do attend a lot of music festivals which can obviously get muddy and slippery at times so I think they could well be a useful investment.
Happy Travels
Cheers guys – that hairy moment sounds ‘fun’! I remember that area and it’s a tad narrow and steep, feel for you. We’ve only got up to Scotland on these tyres and lots of dry weather for the first few weeks so they’re untested in term of grip. For noise etc they’re fine though, happy with them. Happy travels, Jay