Why Caravan Tyre Failures Are Causing a 16 Percent Rise in Towing Breakdowns

Before you hitch up the caravan or take the motorhome out for the first big trip of the summer, the single most useful thing you can do takes about ten minutes and costs nothing: check the tyres. New figures show that tyre failure on towed vehicles is behind a sharp rise in breakdowns on Britain’s busiest roads, and the overwhelming majority of those incidents were entirely preventable.

Analysis of incidents on the Strategic Road Network found 16,705 events involving towed vehicles over the three years from 2022 to 2024, with the annual total climbing 16 per cent, from 5,088 in 2022 to 5,913 in 2024. Around 79 per cent of those were preventable breakdowns caused by tyre failure, very often after a leisure vehicle had sat unused through the winter.

The scale of the problem

The breakdown of which vehicles are involved is revealing. Trailers account for the largest share of incidents at 45.2 per cent, followed by caravans at 32.3 per cent and horseboxes at 21.9 per cent. What links them is how they are used. These are vehicles that cover relatively few miles and then spend long stretches stationary, which is precisely the pattern that does the most harm to a tyre.

A blowout on a towed vehicle is also more dangerous than a puncture on a car. A sudden failure on a heavily laden caravan or trailer at motorway speed can trigger a snake or sway that is difficult to control, putting the towing vehicle and everyone around it at risk. With the summer staycation season now underway and tens of thousands of leisure vehicles coming out of storage at once, the window for problems is wide open.

Why parked tyres are the hidden danger

It is tempting to assume that a tyre with plenty of tread is a safe tyre. On a caravan or motorhome, that assumption is the trap. Because these vehicles cover so few miles, their tyres rarely wear out in the conventional sense. Instead they age and degrade while standing still.

A parked tyre slowly loses air pressure, and the rubber hardens and cracks through oxidation and exposure to ultraviolet light. Sitting in one position for months can also create flat spots. When that under-inflated, brittle tyre is suddenly asked to carry a heavy load at sustained high speed on a hot motorway, it overheats, and the tread can peel away from the carcass in what is known as delamination, or let go entirely in a blowout. The damage is invisible from the outside until it fails, which is why so many owners are caught out despite their tyres looking fine.

Hot weather makes all of this worse, the same combination of heat, load and worn rubber that drives up car tyre failures in summer, as we set out in our guide to the blowout risk during a heatwave. On a towed vehicle, where the tyres are often older and the load heavier, the margin for error is smaller still.

How old is too old

Age is the figure most leisure-vehicle owners overlook. The British Tyre Manufacturers’ Association recommends that caravan tyres are replaced every five years and never used beyond seven years, regardless of how much tread remains. For tyres run at high inflation pressures above 50psi, common on heavier twin-axle vans and motorhomes, the advice is stricter still: replace at three years and never use beyond five.

You can check the age of any tyre from the four-digit date code stamped on the sidewall, which gives the week and year of manufacture. A code reading 2419, for example, means the 24th week of 2019, making that tyre too old for caravan use by current guidance. It is worth checking the spare at the same time, because a spare that has lived under a caravan for a decade is no use to anyone in an emergency.

The ACT checks before you tow

Stuart Lovatt, chair of the safety body TyreSafe, urges owners to follow a simple three-step routine summed up in the word ACT. The A is for air pressure: inflate to the figure in the manufacturer’s manual for a fully loaded vehicle, not the lighter unladen figure, because under-inflation is a leading cause of overheating. The C is for condition: look for spider-web cracking on the sidewalls, feel for flat spots, and watch for vibration on the first part of any journey. The T is for tread: make sure there is at least 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tyre all the way round.

To that, add a few sensible habits. Build up speed gently for the first few miles after a vehicle has been stored, so any developing fault shows itself before you reach a motorway. Do not overload the van, and pay attention to the nose weight, because an unbalanced load puts uneven strain on the tyres. If a tyre is more than five years old and you cannot be certain of its history, the safest and cheapest course is to replace it before you travel rather than risk a failure that could cost far more.

The legal and financial stakes

There is a legal dimension to this as well as a safety one. The same tread and condition rules that apply to cars apply to caravans, motorhomes and trailers. A tyre below the 1.6mm minimum, or one with dangerous cracking or a bulge, is illegal, and the penalty is up to £2,500 and three penalty points for each defective tyre. On a twin-axle caravan that could mean a four-figure fine for a single roadside check, a point we covered in our report on the millions of illegal tyres on UK roads.

The financial logic points the same way as the safety advice. A new caravan tyre typically costs less than the excess on a single insurance claim, far less than the recovery, accommodation and ruined holiday that follow a motorway blowout, and a fraction of the potential fine. For the sake of a ten-minute check and, where needed, a set of fresh tyres, the case for acting before you tow is hard to argue with. Make the ACT checks part of your pre-trip routine, treat any tyre over five years old with suspicion, and the most common cause of a ruined caravan holiday becomes one of the easiest to avoid.

It is worth understanding why load and speed ratings matter so much on a towed vehicle. Caravan and trailer tyres often carry a higher load index and a specific speed rating to cope with the weight bearing down on a small contact patch, and fitting a tyre with the wrong rating, or mixing types across an axle, can leave you carrying more than the rubber is designed to handle. If you are unsure what your van should be running, the figures are listed in the handbook and on the manufacturer’s plate, and a tyre specialist can confirm the correct fitment. Paying for the right tyre, correctly inflated for the load, is the difference between a tyre that runs cool and one that quietly builds heat all the way down the motorway.

Anyone planning to tow abroad this summer should be even more thorough. A failure on a foreign motorway means recovery, language barriers and costs that can dwarf anything at home, and many European countries carry their own requirements for spare wheels, warning triangles and reflective equipment. Check that your breakdown cover extends to a towed vehicle and to the country you are visiting, carry a tyre pressure gauge and a means of reinflation, and know the location of the date code and load markings before you set off. None of this is complicated, but it is the kind of preparation that turns a potential roadside emergency into a non-event, and it starts with the tyres long before the engine is even running.

Sources:

• Honest John: Caravan tyre safety warning as towing incidents rise 16%
• TyreSafe: The ultimate guide to towing safety and tyre care
• TyreSafe: Stored over winter, check your tyres before you tow