New Tyres

[davec]

Need two new tyres for my 130ps gal and quoted

[whitty]

personally i'd buy the ones with the fat little man on the side ! but what ever you do make sure they are "extra load" tyres

[delboyt]

Need two new tyres for my 130ps gal and quoted

[El Dingo]

Hi DelBoyT,

 

What Michelins did you have? (So I can avoid them...)

[RCMillsy]

We've got Hancook's on our Galaxy and to be honest they are probably the best tyres that we have had on the 'Funbus'.

my experiences are :

 

Continental's = Absolutely Rubbish...the funbus would consistantly understeer.

Dunlop's = wear out too quick

Goodyear Vectra something = not made anymore and as good as the Hancook's

 

I would definitely recommend them but I'm sure we only paid about

[popeye2755]

Just had 2 new Bridgestones (ER30C) fitted. Total cost to company?.........

[wonkydog]

I agree about the Hancooks - I've got a set. Just got through the MOT with them on the limit so are on the lookout for some new ones.

I must check the loading figures as just quoting "reinforced" when asking for new ones is a bit vague.

Kwikfit currently state that there are 44 different values of tyre load index. Gals need around an index of 95-97 (690-730 Kgs per wheel)

Price seems to go up in proportion to tyre index.

[Scorpiorefugee]

I'm with delboyt on this. I've had Avons on my front wheels for 18 months and are now due for replacement after 45K miles. They are quiet and I've never had a nervous moment with them. I've just been quoted

[El Dingo]

I'm still waiting for my Dunlops to wear out... I may have to replace them due to age. :lol:

(This is the 'family' car, and is driven mostly by the wife). These tyres are damn noisy!

 

I've never tried the Hancook, or driven a car with them on.

 

The best tyres I've ever had were:

Continental EcoContact (on a old model A4 V6) - very quiet, yet grippy.

Continental Sport Contact II (on my current A4) - quiet, grippy with progressive breakaway (handy on a FWD car with a digital throttle response). Reactive to steering input (quick).

 

Generally, when I've bothered to look at the tyres on cars I've been driving...

Michelin (Primacy) - Quiet but not very grippy.

Pirelli (P-Zero Rosso) - noisy, but grippy down to 3mm then all over the place. Very reactive to steering input.

Goodyear F1 - very grippy, but rather quick breakaway and rapid wear (for the 'enthusiast').

Uniroyal Rain-thingy - utter rubbish, no grip and noisy

Fulda - noisy and poor grip (these tyres look like old Dunlop SP's)

Nokian - Not too noisy. Poor grip. One tyre carried a *huge* balance weight!

Goodyear NCT2 - Not noisy, but just no grip and vague steering.

Dunlop SP Sport 2000 - Screeched around corners, poor grip but wore out quickly (thank goodness).

 

I see that Contiental EcoContacts can be bought in Galaxy size and reinforced. Might try those.

[zeplin43]

Kumho

 

KW17 215/55 R16 97H RF asymmetric These seem to be a good choice after my Dunlops fade away.

[jkspoff]

My rear Dunlops 2020 are still on from new (2001), just moved them to the front after 70k ! But now they are on the front they are wearing very fast. The Avons are supposed to be very good for the money, pay no more than 50 quid per tyre for them.

[El Dingo]

What do people think?

 

Jkspoff has tyres from 2001.

 

Is 6 years a bit old for a tyre?

[NikpV]

even my back tyres are done before then, 6 years a tyre!!! Same age car had 3 pairs on the front 2 on the back (backs are still fine though)

[buford_t_justice]

Need two new tyres for my 130ps gal and quoted

[Ivor_E_Tower]

My old Scenic is still on the original rear tyres after 8 1/2 years. There's still plenty of tread left after about 45000 miles but they show signs of cracking on the surface of the sidewalls.

 

Last time I needed tyres for the Gal, I stuck Avons on the front. Around

[shepheap]

See the below link.

 

I have now been using these Fortuna F2000 215/55 r16s for 6 months. Very good tread wear. Quiter than the dunlops and HALF the price (

Edited March 3, 2007 by shepheap

[NikpV]

how many miles have you done in those 6 months ?? much tread left ?

[El Dingo]

Are there any tyre 'experts' in the house?

I'm sure that I read somewhere that tyres have a limited life - five years or something???? :wub:

[neiluk]

Thank you very much Buford for the Which Tyres review. It was very helpful for finally making up my mind what tyres to go with. I was oringinally going to buy 4 Nankang NS-2's before I saw your test report as I had read good reviews on them and I have 2 on my car at the moment, but I have now decided to buy Hankook Ventus Prime K105 97 reinforced as I have read manygreat reviews on them, they seem to outgrip even the Mitchelin's in the wet and I can get them for

[malcolm.dobell]

Can I ask everyone who speaks about tyres to quote the size.

 

older Gals have 195/65x15 reinforced - which are the smallest and they go up to 225/45x17 with 205's, 215's and 16" rims. Then there's those who fit even bigger rims. Each size has its fans and detractors and you can't read experience though to other sizes. You certainly can't make price comparisons between sizes.

 

My experience for what it's worth is that 195's had the least life, 215's next and 225's best. However cost per mile was about the same as the wider tyres are much more expensive than the narrow ones - brand for brand.

 

I'm not one for a rant; this is the nearest I get!

[neiluk]

Hi Malcolm,

Sorry about the lack of clarity in my earlier message . My tyres are 215/55/16's. I wondered what I'd put on my Gal when I came to the roundabout on the way home. It understeared badly on the way into and out of it ;) . I left the car cool down for a few hours then checked the tyre pressures. To my great relief they were 26 PSI all round!!! After MUCH pumping I eventually got the tyres to 42 on the front and 40 on the back, but my pump was close to overheating at this point so I'd better check the pressures again tomorrow incase I was blowing hot air into them therfore affecting the final pressures.

 

I'm gald to say that at close to normal pressures they seem to handle nicely. I'm still waiting for some propper rain to see if they were worth the extra money.

 

All the best,

 

Neil.

[Scorpiorefugee]

Re the finite life issue on all tyres, I have always believed that this was mainly due to UV induced deterioration. Aboyt 25 years ago I had a neighboutr who worked for the research dept at Rootes (Anyone remember them?) and he had a caravan which had the same tyres on for about 15 years and thay looked like new. He claimed that this was due to giving the walls a wipe over with waxoyl once a year to block the UV.

 

Personally, I reckon on 60K and a replacement every 18 months so it's not a problem for me but he may have had a point.

 

As someone who never checks tyre pressures I have been taken aback to find that I have wasted a considerable amount of tyre wear on these Gals because the garages and tyre fitters don't seem to be aware that they need up to 46psi and settle for 32 all round as a good average. If you're having new tyres it might be a good idea to check what they've put in.

[bus_boy]

Scorpiorefugee has a good point. As a novice owner i committed the sin of 'underinflation'. During 6 months of use the edges wore off of my Matador Aquilla MP41's on the front. The back ones did not suffer so badly. Since then i have inflated them to the max in an effort to get some wear onto the center section of the tyre. [My drop links are also shot - would these effect tyres in any way?]

 

I have now purchased replacements tyres from mytyres. I plumped for Matador Aquilla MP43's [215 55 R16 97] on the basis that the sales brochure asserted that they had the same decent handling properties but that wear life had been extended. They were

[Smilge]

Just fitted 4 Hankook Ventus Prime K105's (215-55-16) Load Rating 97

 

For around

[Biscuit]

Fitted 2 Dunlop sport SP01's at cost price of