AS YOU PROBABLY know, Tyron Safety Bands are a device which you fit to a wheel to minimise the effect of tyre failure. You can fit them to a car or a caravan but it’s the latter application which makes such a lot of sense. Tyron Bands are fitted to vehicle wheels to prevent a tyre from moving about and dropping into the well of the wheel following a puncture or blow out. Without Tyrons, it is likely that the tyre will deform enough to come off the wheel or simply break apart resulting in a serious loss of control of the vehicle. In the case of a caravan, that could mean it going into an uncontrollable snake. With the Tyron Bands, the tyre will stay in position, cannot deflect too badly and control can be retained.

I had Tyrons fitted to my previous caravan and having had a blow out – albeit when driving fairly slowly – can vouch that they did what it said on the label! I kept control of my caravan and was able to come to a controlled stop.

So when I traded the caravan in for a Bailey Pegasus 462BK, one of the first things I did was to take it to V&G Caravans, Whittlesey, to have Tyrons fitted because fitting them requires specialist equipment not available to the general public. Incidentally, I have fitted Tyrons to just the caravan, but they are very effective for the car as well, as the video below shows. 

 

Although the job took only about an hour – including taking the two wheels to a nearby tyre company for balancing – the total time was a day because V&G had to check the size of the well and then order the correct size Tyrons for overnight delivery.

 

Cost of installation

In terms of cost, caravanners can expect to pay around £160 to get a pair of Tyron Bands fitted and double that for twin-axle tourers which includes the fitting tool which allows tyre companies to remove the band when swapping tyres.

If you buy a used tourer with Tyrons fitted, but without the tyre chaning tool, you can buy these for £8. If you really want a DIY option, a special ‘spider’ tool for fitting Tyron Bands yourself is available for £40. To have an extra Tyron for the spare wheel costs £70.

 

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1. Having removed the wheel from the caravan, George Gale from V&G Caravans deflates the tyre and then uses this special attachement for his tyre machine to compress the top wall of the tyre so that the ‘well’ in the wheel was fully exposed. 

 

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2. Tyron supplies distributors with a set of sizing keys, covering all the well sizes of the wheels used by vehicle and caravan manufacturers. George tried various ones in the well until he found the correct one. This information is required to order the Tyrons for overnight delivery. 

 

Tyron - Caravan kit

3. The bands are supplied in pairs with all the necessary fittings and instructions plus, importantly, a long Allen key with a specially swaged end to fit the securing screws. The key needs to be left in the car or caravan so that it can be used to remove the band should the tyre need replacing. 

 

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4. To keep the Bands at the correct height from the base of the well, studs are fitted to space the band off the wheel rim. Each one is knocked through the hole using a small hammer.  

 

 

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5. With the tyre once more compressed the pair of Bands were fitted into the well, the studs keeping them at the correct height, relative to the wheel.

 

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6. The securing screws were then fitted and torqued to 7lbft (9.5Nm) using a torque screwdriver designed to fit the heads of the screws. With both screws correctly torqued the compressing tool was removed and the tyre inflated to its correct pressure.

 

[tl:gallery size=460×346]7. Before refitting the wheels to the caravan, labels were attached to them next to the valves, following which I had them balanced as I strongly believe that balanced wheels improve the towing of the caravan. 

 

 

Tyron Caravan Video

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Thanks to Tyron UK

Tel: 0845 4000 600
Web: www.tyron.com

 

Thanks to V&G Caravans, Whittlesey 
Tel: 01733 350580
Web: www.vandgcaravans.co.uk