Daft tyre names

[PhilA]

It's funny, odd brand name stuff is difficult to find here.

 

Doesn't mean the sensibly named stuff is actually any good though. Current daily truck came fitted with brand new General Ameritrac tires- for a factory fitment they were abysmal. Even with the traction control in the wet all they did was spin, in on wet concrete they would tramp and in the dry they just shaved the tread off into fine black dust, none of which actually adhered to the road.

 

After 3 months and 7,000 miles they got binned with most of their tread left and the current set of BF Goodrich tires went on. They're just starting to get a little low now at 57,000 miles but with 11 years of sunshine and air they're getting rather cracked, to the point where I'm looking at them, then at the 3 ton of vehicle they're supporting and beginning to worry a little.

 

Here, in general, people get upset if their tires don't last upward of 30,000 miles. I never had a set in the UK that did more than 10,000 before looking rather bald.

Goodness only knows what people would make of Naofoken Grip Supremes.

 

Going back a few posts though, there should be a trade. China should be in the receiving end of Swindon Special Rain Grip or Prestatyn Happy Fun Lobster tyres in payment for the names we get.

 

Phil

[Rod/b]

Had primewell/triangle on my vectra. In the wet they had as much grip as a bar of imperial leather. Replaced with Falken ziex which were great.

 

Got dunlop sp winter sports on my audi - expensive but so good I have been put off shit wan.king ditchfinders for ever.

Had Falken Ziex on a Pathfinder. Good tyres initially but got really loud, really quickly, to the point they were binned off inside a year.

[Kiltox]

I laughed at Double Happiness because that is also a Chinese cigarette brand which I think share a factory judging by the taste

[Wack]

I know a guy that bought a Maserati Granturismo , the dealer pointed out that the car came with 4 new tyres , unfortunately they weren't on long as 400bhp arriving at the road through Talon Triangles probably wasn't a good idea

 

he did some burnouts then swapped them for something better

[5speedracer]

I asked for tyre recommendations on the Barryboys forum, years back, and went for these on advice given then. There's probably a much wider choice available now, but I was certainly pleased with the advice.

 

They're not the sportiest choice but we drive on public roads so really extremes of grip is not the main point. We do, however, live in Britain so wet performance is important. I felt that Uniroyals work as advertised and behave very much the same in wet and dry conditions.

 

Tyres are so important to safety and handling, but at safe and normal road speeds there's probably no need to spend a fortune on premium names where a cheaper option will be 90% as good.

Had a recent experience that involved getting punted off onto wet, short grass then having to steer away from a wall and stop before I landed on the road again.

Happy to report Uniroyal Rainsport 3 allowed me to do both. Tyre of choice from now on and not hard on the wallet either.

 

As has been mentioned it's surprising* how many quality cars are being run on an obviously tight budget.

 

Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk

[Talbot]

Uniroyal tyres are excellent. The first car I drove in the wet was shod with them, and I didn't appreciate that there was a difference in grip level in the wet. The first time I drove a non-uniroyal shod car in the wet was a bit* of a surprise!

[oldcars]

Marshall on the Reliant are good, better than the Kingpin tyres on it before. Toledo ones i fitted on the 75 are good too.

[5speedracer]

Marshall on the Reliant are good, better than the Kingpin tyres on it before. Toledo ones i fitted on the 75 are good too.

Toledo, brilliant!

Not quite Goodyear but close

 

Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk

[LC Torana]

Haven't Kingpin tyres been made obsolete by Balljoint tyres yet?

 

(sorry, I'll get my coat)

[3VOM]

After 3 months and 7,000 miles they got binned with most of their tread left and the current set of BF Goodrich tires went on. They're just starting to get a little low now at 57,000 miles but with 11 years of sunshine and air they're getting rather cracked, to the point where I'm looking at them, then at the 3 ton of vehicle they're supporting and beginning to worry a little.

 

Here, in general, people get upset if their tires don't last upward of 30,000 miles. I never had a set in the UK that did more than 10,000 before looking rather bald.

Goodness only knows what people would make of Naofoken Grip Supremes.

I think a number of people would be drawing a line at 10 years old. As to the UK wear rate, does it have something to do with cornering speed, perhaps?

[Supernaut]

 As to the UK wear rate, does it have something to do with cornering speed, perhaps?

 

Having just spent 2 weeks in Oregon laughing at the suggested speed signs for corners while happily driving round them at 20mph above the suggestion, in the wet, I'd say yes.

[martc]

I laughed at Double Happiness because that is also a Chinese cigarette brand which I think share a factory judging by the taste

 

There's a Double Happiness Chinese take away in Hull - their chicken also tastes 'rubbery'.*

 

*copyright 1970's Pub Comedian

[PhilA]

Having just spent 2 weeks in Oregon laughing at the suggested speed signs for corners while happily driving round them at 20mph above the suggestion, in the wet, I'd say yes.

Most are based on some 70's fullsize station wagon rolling on worn crossplies in the wet.

 

Coupled with the complete lack of road cambering in a lot of places, they're probably only about 15mph below the loss of grip. However, consider this: 4000 lb vehicle, making that curve blind, no ABS and having to stamp on the brakes, lock up wheels and begin to slide. At what speed are you not going to go off the street? That's the NTSB's opinion on recommended speeds for otherwise really gentle corners.

 

Phil

[bunglebus]

Kormorans. We used to punt them at Halfords when it was a garage attached to the stores, god only knows what they're like.

 

Continentals do seem to have a worrying habit of cracking badly, especially on the inside sidewall to tread area - I think it depends where they're made.

[Parky]

Looking at the full list of tyres on the TyreLeader site, there's a few crackers out there

 

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres-225-40-18/

 

Think my favourite is Membat because you just know they will be forever immortalised as Wombats

 

http://www.membat-tire.com/en/

[Shep Shepherd]

Can anyone else remember the Romanian tyres sold here in the late 1980s which were of an even worse quality and far more dangerous than contemporary Stomils? I can't remember their exact name, but it was something like Wanginorbu. Television South's "Coast To Coast" news programme ran an expose on them.

 

Naturally, my father had a set on his 1981 miniMetro, which he replaced with Stomils when one of them lost its entire tread one day 

[petermchugh79]

Kormorans. We used to punt them at Halfords when it was a garage attached to the stores, god only knows what they're like.

 

Continentals do seem to have a worrying habit of cracking badly, especially on the inside sidewall to tread area - I think it depends where they're made.

Not a thing wrong with them there s second stream Michelin manufactured in montenegro. Grip and Wear well side wall a little soft

 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[petermchugh79]

Can anyone else remember the Romanian tyres sold here in the late 1980s which were of an even worse quality and far more dangerous than contemporary Stomils? I can't remember their exact name, but it was something like Wanginorbu. Television South's "Coast To Coast" news programme ran an expose on them.

 

Naturally, my father had a set on his 1981 miniMetro, which he replaced with Stomils when one of them lost its entire tread one day

Stomil made great tractor tyre's! Would barrum be what your thinking of?

 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[Shep Shepherd]

They were definitely Stomils, but to be fair, I remember that they were pretty good for what they were i.e. £15 tyres on each corner of a £150 car. I had a set of Barums on The Volvo with no problems whatsoever.

 

Both brands have improved markedly since the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

[Partridge]

Most Chinese tyres seem to have daft names. It seems to be common practice to to use one prefix or suffix from established, good brands and then attach it a random word, giving us crackers like "Uniglory" which were on my Laguna, and "Roadstone".

 

On the subject of Barum, the 405 came with them. It still has them, and I'm a big tyre snob. They seem perfectly fine, even in the wet.

 Happy Fun Lobster

 

That's going in my signature.

[Squirrel2]

The Land Rover 101 came as standard with Goodyear 9.00 x 16 crossply ‘bar-grips’ that were, and still are lethal on wet tarmac. For a while in the 1990s it was difficult to get a reasonable replacement or radial tyre for to suit the 101’s rims and some dealers were offering Turkish made Petlas tyres that at that time were not even ‘E’ marked for on-road use in the UK (and maybe the rest of Europe also?)

I notice that Petlas is still a Turkish brand available here, so maybe they’ve had to sharpen up their act to compete with the Chinese?

 

Squirrel2

[dozeydustman]

I remember the garage that did my MoT's etc said I needed a new tyre to get a pass on my Felicia a number of years back. I said a budget would do until I could afford something better.

 

Jin Tong 165/70 R13. it cost £19. brand new. Had all the grip of a Teflon coated tea tray on ice.

 

Never again......

[louiepj]

On the car parked next to me it's a "membat passion" also says "smiling on the road"!!

 

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

[martc]

Stomil made great tractor tyre's! Would barrum be what your thinking of?

 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

Barum are a Czech company. Phun Phacts from their website - the name Barum is the result of a merger of three Czech tyre companies (Bata, Rubena and Mitas) Bata is probably a contender for silly tyre names. They became part of the Continental group in 1993. In 2017 they made 21 million car tyres, and just under 1 million lorry tyres.

 

The Barum tyres fitted to my Jawa where rubbish, and don't even think about the DDR made Pneument tyres used by MZ - the original ditchfinders.

 

Can't find the name of the Romanian tyre company but I have found an Argentinian manufacturer who makes the reassuringly named 'FATE' tyres. If they don't use the strapline 'trust in FATE' then I'll eat my mythical hat.

[chrisjvm]

When I was a nipper my dad rented out part of his 'yard' (which was a former ATV props store)

To a real character called Dicky Lloyd,he sold tyres ... The new ones were Mohawk but he also made his own remoulds in the chunky pattern of the old Goodyear G800,he called them KSD's

So when a customer came in he'd ask them 'Do you want a new 'un or a KSD?'

 

Customer would usually retort 'whats a KSD?'

 

Dicky would reply 'Kill yer stone dead'

[5speedracer]

For Northern European climate Nokian are pretty good. Serious about growth too, Google their high tech new factory.

 

Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk

[Vince70]

I found the two Pirelli P6000s on the back of my car crap in the wet but it could be because the things are 17 years and hard as nails but soon as the salt is off the road the car will be back in use and then it will get a couple of Toyo Proxy’s thrown on it as I’ve found the make a BMW stick nicely to the road.

 

Another tyre I found which is good is uniroyal rain sports as a friend stuck a set on her Bini and it really does stick like shite to a blanket.

 

I’ve got some 4x linglong things on the Rover though and to be honest their ok.

[Joey spud]

 

 

Kwality.. (they look ok to be fair).

[bunglebus]

as soon as the salt is off the road the car will be back in use and then it will get a couple of Toyo Proxy’s thrown on it as I’ve found the make a BMW stick nicely to the road.

 

 

Funny isn't it, I put a pair of Toyos on my 5 and they were just about OK on the back, and mildly terrifying on the front.

 

Excellent crap tyre name spotting everyone, going to keep 'em peeled in Asda's car park for more.

[martc]

20161220_125612_zpslzryhtsz.jpg

 

 

Happy Gallop tyres were factory fitted to the Horsey Horseless. Fact.