New owner + tyre pressures + noise level

We bought an 05 Nuevo a few weeks back and have just returned from our first trip. We were very pleased with the spaciousness and all the fittings. We used the single beds and found them to be comfortably and liked the free space that was still available.
Our only complaint was due to noise levels and rattles, I discovered that the tyres had been inflated to 81 psi and reduced this to 65 which lead to an immediate reduction in noise level. I also put draft proofing tape on the inside of the locker edges and this helped. Finally I lined the cupboard under the sink and the lockers above with carpet underlay. The only rattles left appear to come from the cooker even though we removed the oven shelf and the grill pan.
Any advice as to how to sound proof the cooker and comments on tyre pressure would be welcome.

I think your tyre pressures are still too high but the only accurate way of knowing is to refer to this chart

http://www.tyresafe.org/data/files/motorhome%2008.pdf

you need to load your MH to how you are when ready to go away and take to a weighbridge to get accurate axle weights but as a rough guide use the maximum axle weights off your convertion plate and then refer to the chart.

As to your oven rattle, we too suffer from this. Even when still on a site, if the wind is blowing in the right direction, there seems to be a metal plate behind the cooker which rattles with the wind. Anyone know if ther is such a plate? All other rattles come from the dreaded blinds, particularly the long ones in the high-top roof.

Paulmold wrote:All other rattles come from the dreaded blinds, particularly the long ones in the high-top roof.

Thanks for that tyresafe PDF link Paul

Don't know anything about cooker rattles, but have you tried Alf's tip regarding the blinds?
We did as he said whenever we travel, and our blinds are virtually silent now

Pic & tip courtesy of Alf

Yes I tried that tip but made no difference in our case. The lower blinds are much quieter if you pull them up to the first notch instead of leaving them right down but you can't do that on the upper blinds.

Only other thing we did Paul was stick some draft strip along the inside edge of lower blind cover, did this before I saw Alf's tip so it could be a combination of the two? but it has certainly worked for us.

Sorry for hi-jacking mikedepledge's original thread

Paulmold wrote:Yes I tried that tip but made no difference in our case. The lower blinds are much quieter if you pull them up to the first notch instead of leaving them right down but you can't do that on the upper blinds.

Paul look at the picture its the catch you fix on the upper flyscreen blind the first notch is the lower blind only
Simples !!!!
Alf

Alf wrote:

Paulmold wrote:Yes I tried that tip but made no difference in our case. The lower blinds are much quieter if you pull them up to the first notch instead of leaving them right down but you can't do that on the upper blinds.

Paul look at the picture its the catch you fix on the upper flyscreen blind the first notch is the lower blind only
Simples !!!!
Alf

Yes I know what you meant, when I referred to the upper blind I was referring to the blinds/flyscreen on the upper windows. I tried wedging the flyscreens under the frames of all windows but it didn't make any difference.

mikedepledge wrote:We bought an 05 Nuevo a few weeks back and have just returned from our first trip. We were very pleased with the spaciousness and all the fittings. We used the single beds and found them to be comfortably and liked the free space that was still available.
Our only complaint was due to noise levels and rattles, I discovered that the tyres had been inflated to 81 psi and reduced this to 65 which lead to an immediate reduction in noise level. I also put draft proofing tape on the inside of the locker edges and this helped. Finally I lined the cupboard under the sink and the lockers above with carpet underlay. The only rattles left appear to come from the cooker even though we removed the oven shelf and the grill pan.
Any advice as to how to sound proof the cooker and comments on tyre pressure would be welcome.

We have a purpose made bag for the glass lid under which we place a hand towel, the grill pan lives in another bag this one made from a hand towel so we have no cooker noise.

The only way to get correct tyre pressures is to weigh the van in holiday trim full tank of fresh water, half a tank of waste water all your holiday gear and driver and passenger weigh front and rear axles seperate and total weight Email the tyre manufacturers and get the pressures from them.
The Tyresafe website is OK but it does not take into account the weight it goes for most vans being on maximum weight.

Alf

Paulmold wrote:

Alf wrote:

Paulmold wrote:Yes I tried that tip but made no difference in our case. The lower blinds are much quieter if you pull them up to the first notch instead of leaving them right down but you can't do that on the upper blinds.

Paul look at the picture its the catch you fix on the upper flyscreen blind the first notch is the lower blind only
Simples !!!!
Alf

Yes I know what you meant, when I referred to the upper blind I was referring to the blinds/flyscreen on the upper windows. I tried wedging the flyscreens under the frames of all windows but it didn't make any difference.

the upper blind are the most noisy you can lift the bottom blind to the first notch.
Try travelling with them closed and see if that works
Alf

If you put your reg no in the box on the upper right you will get your van details shown and an estimate of the tyre pressure

Alf

Alf wrote:If you put your reg no in the box on the upper right you will get your van details shown and an estimate of the tyre pressure

Alf

Thanks Alf, that must be a new addition to their website , I hadn't seen that before. Only problem, when I enter my reg number it tells me my tyres are 205's when I've got 195's on.

Also, when I type in my M/H reg number, it says "no match found", but it finds my car. M/H is 56 plate, car is 07 so I presume it's not just an age thing...

Tony

Re the noise level. I found one very loud knocking noise comes from the Heki rooflight. One of the catches is worn and after a few minutes driving the perspex starts tapping on the roof. I made a temporary fix with pvc tape to wedge the catch tight.
Alf, ref tyre pressure. The tyresafe site I arrive at doesn't have any input boxes to put my reg. number into. And also my tyre size is not on the charts. I have 205 X 70's. I was told when I picked the van up they should be 60psi all round but the ride IS very hard. (2003 Symbol)
Bert

Tony,, our Windsor is fine on the door pillar pressures. It made no change after the airides were fitted.
Regarding the Nuevo pressures at 81lbs that's far too high even at Hot Pressure, have a look on the door pillar to see what's shown there

Bert,
My 2004 Symbol has 215/70 R 15C tyres. Weights on axles front - 1450kg rear - 1440kg
I was advised by Kleber [Michelin] that for those conditions the correct tyre pressures are Front 47psi and rear 44 psi

squip

bertb wrote:Re the noise level. I found one very loud knocking noise comes from the Heki rooflight. One of the catches is worn and after a few minutes driving the perspex starts tapping on the roof. I made a temporary fix with pvc tape to wedge the catch tight.
Alf, ref tyre pressure. The tyresafe site I arrive at doesn't have any input boxes to put my reg. number into. And also my tyre size is not on the charts. I have 205 X 70's. I was told when I picked the van up they should be 60psi all round but the ride IS very hard. (2003 Symbol)

Bert

Beth Look at the right hand side of the screen the box above the bloke with the tyres it says Access our tyre checker online you need to click on the check now button
Alf

squip wrote:Bert,
My 2004 Symbol has 215/70 R 15C tyres. Weights on axles front - 1450kg rear - 1440kg
I was advised by Kleber [Michelin] that for those conditions the correct tyre pressures are Front 47psi and rear 44 psi

squip

Thanks Squip. That's a lot different. I have done some research but got more confused. I found pressures ranging from 47 to 65! So far I only have the new plated axle weights that AS have put next to the original chassis plate. At the moment there is still a fair bit of tread on them so only a comfort issue. More looking required methinks....
Bert

Alf wrote:

bertb wrote:Re the noise level. I found one very loud knocking noise comes from the Heki rooflight. One of the catches is worn and after a few minutes driving the perspex starts tapping on the roof. I made a temporary fix with pvc tape to wedge the catch tight.
Alf, ref tyre pressure. The tyresafe site I arrive at doesn't have any input boxes to put my reg. number into. And also my tyre size is not on the charts. I have 205 X 70's. I was told when I picked the van up they should be 60psi all round but the ride IS very hard. (2003 Symbol)

Bert

Beth Look at the right hand side of the screen the box above the bloke with the tyres it says Access our tyre checker online you need to click on the check now button
Alf

The URL above is to the .pdf file with the charts on Alf. The correct one is:
http://www.tyresafe.org/ I'm sure I have used this site before.
This is what it says for my Symbol:
Tyre size: 205/70R15
Front tyre: 3.8 BAR / 55 PSI
Rear tyre: 4.1 BAR / 59 PSI

BUT, it is for the base vehicle which is a 290 Boxer(2900kg). AS have upgraded the chassis to 3300kg.
So my thinking is sites like this need to be treated with care. So your earlier advice I.E. get weights and phone tyre manf. is the way to go.
Bert

bertb wrote:

squip wrote:Bert,
My 2004 Symbol has 215/70 R 15C tyres. Weights on axles front - 1450kg rear - 1440kg
I was advised by Kleber [Michelin] that for those conditions the correct tyre pressures are Front 47psi and rear 44 psi

squip

Thanks Squip. That's a lot different. I have done some research but got more confused. I found pressures ranging from 47 to 65! So far I only have the new plated axle weights that AS have put next to the original chassis plate. At the moment there is still a fair bit of tread on them so only a comfort issue. More looking required methinks....
Bert

I forgot to add that the weights AS give are max axle weights. Front 1750kgs and rear 1850kgs. That's a fair bit different from your actual front/rear weights. At AS figures the tyresafe charts are ambiguous, nearest tyre size is 205 65 but the load rating is only102. My tyres have 106/102. And then the chart runs out at 1700kgs.
Bert

Bert my Symbol was the same as yours the base being a Boxer 290 here is a copy of a letter from Michelin
you will note the Actual Holiday weight and the Auto-Sleepers Plated weight. The differance in Touring and Plated pressues were only 5 psi front and 10 psi rear

Dear Mr Barker

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

We suggest that individual axle weights from weigh scale readings are used, in order to calculate pressure recommendations for each quoted load condition. These would be preferred, due to readings being taken in the actual vehicle 'running' condition - that is to say, with all water/fuel/baggage & passengers etc. onboard - and may result in better comfort if the vehicle is running way below maximum capacity.

The results of roadside surveys indicate that some motor homes have been found to be over laden, especially the rear axle, with potential for subsequent tyre related problems.

The overall tyre industry, therefore, tries to build-in a safety factor by fitting strong tyres, inflated to high pressure, in order to remove the potential for consequences of overloading &/or under-inflating the tyres.

The drawback of this safety factor, at the corresponding high pressure, may be an extremely hard ride. The contents of the motor home may rattle, but the tyres will cope nicely.

One 'overall' weight is of no use in calculating tyre inflation pressure levels, since the vehicle may appear to be within the maximum permitted, but in reality may have the rear axle severely over laden & the front axle very lightly laden.

As a guideline from the axle weights that you have supplied the pressures for those weights are as follows:-

Actual Weights
Front axle load of 1560kg the pressure should be – 55psi (pounds per square inch)
Rear axle load of 1565kg the pressure should be – 50psi (pounds per square inch)

Plated Weights
Front axle load of 1750kg the pressure should be – 60psi (pounds per square inch)
Rear axle load of 1850kg the pressure should be – 60psi (pounds per square inch)


We have allocated your message the reference number indicated above. If you need to contact us again regarding your message, we would be grateful if you could include the reference number.

Once again thank you for your interest in Michelin.

Yours sincerely
Michelin Tyre Public Limited Company

Thanks for that very comprehensive answer Alf. So it seems everyone could be right, it all revolves around the [/u]actual[u] weights. Where did you get yours weighed? We have two quarries locally, I 'spose a phone call would be in order.
Bert

Bert you need to be in as near holiday trim as you can full tank of fresh water,half a tank of waste water food etc plus passenger and driver get a front axle,rear axle and a total weight pay and get a ticket you may need this at some time the Quarries should be Ok but a local haulage firm or Council may have a weigh bridge Trading Standards keep a list of All weighbridges in your area but you may find this link helpfull
http://chrishodgetrucks.co.uk/useful-info/weighbridges.htm

The Tyresafe info box tells me my tyres are 205/70/14 yet I know they're 15 inch rims as standard - I wouldn't rely on the site's pressure info although I think their other detail is good

Thanks Alf. There are 2 in Burton according to that site,both scrap, sorry recycling, yards.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Bert

dandywarhol wrote:The Tyresafe info box tells me my tyres are 205/70/14 yet I know they're 15 inch rims as standard - I wouldn't rely on the site's pressure info although I think their other detail is good

It was the same for mine dandy - I have 15s aswell but the site said 14s or 16s

Stevo