tyres from t'internet

[beko1987]

I shod SWMBO's Meriva from MyTyres a few years back. The website booked me in with our local national tyres, who called me to confirm the appointment. We turned up, and they had them changed in 15 minutes, and as I;d paid online on mytyres was free too.

 

SWMBO had to go back the next week and get all the valves changed cos they were fucked but apart from that, was a good experience.

 

The place I get my part worns from swap tyres on wheels off the car for a fiver, tenner if their on the car. But they do grade A tyres for £20, so I generally just get another tyre if I need to go there.

 

Reminds me, must get the winters off on payday, not sure they like this heat too much!

[cort16]

I've used e-tyres a few times and the price has always been good and the fact the can come to me to fit the tyres is a mega bonus. One of my pet hates is waiting for tyres to be changed.

It once took nationwide 2 hours to fit four tyres to my Audi. These are tyres they had in stock and my car was the only one in the place bar one. I've made a point to avoid them ever since.

 

Also there are 2 non franchise local tyre places in my town. One of them doesn't open on a Saturday or Sunday and the other one shuts at lunchtime. Hopeless.

[makum101]

Tyre-Traders used by me the last time. I've used the mobile e-tyres as well along with the local.

This ^

I got a full set of 18" Hy-Fly's for less than £50 each delivered from Tyreetraders

[gtd2000]

What are re-treads/re-moulds like these days?

 

I've not bought any since using Colway once in the early 90's and for me it was false economy - half the price but a fraction of the mileage.

 

Are remoulds a good alternative these days?

 

I do tend to buy part worn tyres at the local scrappers but he's getting a bit expensive now and I'd probably just pay the extra for a new warrantied tyre...

 

Another thing I've learned in recent years in the USA is the treadware rating (i.e how quickly it will wear out.) but I'm not sure if many UK suppliers have this information to hand. This can also have a huge effect on the value of tyres as many people tend to buy on the price factor - however, they could be replacing the tyres 3 times over the slightly more expensive option with a higher treadware rating.

 

One of my mates had General Grabber tyres on his Mitsubishi pickup that managed an astonishing 80,000 miles before they needed to be replaced!!!

 

Most I've ever had was 40,000 on a set of Firestone Firehawks on my old Mitsubishi Celeste but they had the wet handling characteristics of hard plastic...fine in the dry of course but straight on in the bends, in the rain if you pushed too hard.

[gordonbennet]

I had good old Colways on a Ranger which i used and abused, bloody good they were too, remoulds still big business in the commercial market but few made for cars now, no need really if you buy carefully via the net and are not in a rush new tyres are barely any more expensive.

 

I try to buy so called mid range tyres, nearly always european made such as Vredestein, Nokian, Uniroyal, bought well these are only slightly more expensive than Chinese stuff, which i avoid whenever possible, but that goes for any Chinese product where poss.

 

Wear ratings have been stamped on most tyres for a long time, can't say as i've noticed a great deal of difference between ratings, but then wear rate doesn't bother me too much, i want the best wet grip possible with the quietest and most comfortable ride, and i tend to chuck tyres when they get down to 3mm, so long as they last reasonably and grip really well they'll do me.

 

The trouble with wear ratings and the new grip/noise/economy ratings is that the makers themselves test and rate their own tyres, i leave you to draw your own conclusions.

 

Those Generals you talked about, some Generals and other bigger 4x4 tyres come with 12mm tread depth to start with, normal car tyres are 8mm, standard OE Grabbers fitted to new Defenders were 12mm if i recall correctly, bloody big tyres too in 750 x 16 or equivalent, so will last a long time as they don't need many revolutions to cover ground as big as that.

 

Just out of interest the drive axle tyres (Goodyears, not my favourite) on my lorry were recut last month @ 170k kms, so approx 105k miles, now have 6/7mm again (14mm new) so should last another 50k with bit of luck, and a new set of Bridgestones just in time for next winter, perfik.

 

The best gripping summer tyres i've had in recent years were on the old Benz, Toyo T1R, but Jeezus the noise and crashing ride saw them dumped at 4mm, on the Hilux General UHP's were good too and cheap.

 

Best winter tyres so far were Vredestein Wintrac Extremes, had them on the Hilux, in snow bloody unstoppable but it was the cold wet grip that impressed most, a scary skittish tail happy motor on the Pirellis it came on (which i flogged within months of buying the vehicle they were so bad, some may recall that Elk test video of around 2009), but like it was on rails with the Vreds.

[HH-R]

I've had some right horrible cheap crap on cars when I've bought them but dislike throwing tyres with tread in the bin. I normally find they last last for years because they're so rock hard. My current car has a mix of Arrowspeeds, a Continental and a Hi-Fly on the front. It's terrible. If it has rained somewhere in the country in the same month, you end up wheelspinning out of side roads.

 

Quite annoyed though as it was in having work done recently and the garage replaced the Hi-Fly with some other absolute shit without asking me (it was legal, and I was waiting until they were 3mm then replacing the fronts). Sounds and looks like an off road tyre, I keep thinking the wheel bearing is knackered but it's that crappy tyre, it has absolutely no grip either. It's going to have to go in a month or two when the Conti is a bit lower.

[gordonbennet]

That would have pissed me off HH-R, i choose what tyres go on my car i'd have played merry hell at the garage that fitted shit without asking me.

 

I'm a bit of a twat when it comes to tyres, possibly bordering on paranoid, but then we all have our thing. and thats mine.

 

First thing i look at when i buy a car (even zoom in on pics to establish whats fitted) is the tyres and wheels, rubbish tyres and dented damaged wheels usually has me looking elsewhere, for i possibly wrongly assume that someone who cares so little about the arguably most important and visible parts of their car, will most likely not have given a tuppeny fuck about the bits that can't be seen, fuckin Mazola in the engine and box?

 

Even main dealers of prestige makes are fitting unheard of tat tyres to cars they are trying to sell on, not to me they wont.

[dugong]

I buy decent tyres if the stuff in my fleet is sticking around. To that end, the C4's on Michelins (bought either from MyTyres or Costco), the Amazon on Continentals (although they're expensive and the choice of 165\80s is small I refuse to run it on Firestone F-560s) and the 460 on Goodyear Eagle F1s. Whatever barge fender rubbish was on the latter, I swapped the wheels and tyres over and they're staying well clear of the car. They were Kamas (sic) I think. 6mm of tread and utterly useless. 

 

I'm lucky in that at home (S Manchester) I have a local tyre fitter who's mates with FATHA_DUGONG, a great place in Liverpool if I'm ever that way (PR Tyres) and a really good, cheap place in Hyde that's usually quiet. The Charade will be going there before I take it to Rockingham for a bit of Retro Cars-related track time.

And no, before you ask, I didn't get in for free. Buggers made me pay for it. 

[JohnDeere]

Last round of tyres (odd 18" jobs) I got some online prices, then found that Concorde Auto Centre (small East Angular chain) would match the price when I called them direct and asked... without the hassle of getting them delivered and finding someone to fit them.  I've also used etyres a couple of times, their mobile fitters seem good.