What tires to get

JohnBoy

Well folks winter is drawing in and the roads are getting wetter.

I'm thinking about replacing my tires, I have some basic cheapo ones on now, and the rears are less than a around 2.0 and the fronts are at maybe 3.0

I'm thinking of getting some pirelli p3000's was gonna get 6000's but figured I don't have the wheels for em.

I drive a peugeot 405 estate 1.9 diesel, doesn't sound like much but it does the job very well.

the wheels are 14x5 (maybe 5.5) and run 65 or 70 profile rubber.

I'm doing around 600 miles a week on some poor enough roads, so a little bit of extra grip is always welcome.

So, what do ye think of the pirellis? anyone suggest something else for reasonable cost, good life and good wet handling......

John

Farls

My advice is if your looking for grip go for yokohama's but the thing with yoko's is they don't have good wearing capabilities but grip they got buckets of!

I myself am going to make a change too i'm going for Pirelli wets mad looking tyre with two massive groves down the centre about the size of your finger so that you don't aquaplane across the puddles!...Again they don't wear as well as most but whats more important a few quid or your life?

P3000's are very good tyre i used to have a set of them...never had them in the winter tho

Farlz

Hellrazer

Originally posted by JohnBoy



I'm thinking of getting some pirelli p3000's was gonna get 6000's but figured I don't have the wheels for em.


the wheels are 14x5 (maybe 5.5) and run 65 or 70 profile rubber.



So, what do ye think of the pirellis? anyone suggest something else for reasonable cost, good life and good wet handling......

Pirellis are quite good but firstly find out the exact tyre size.Are the 14x5 or 5.5--this makes a big difference to tyre size also what tyres are on it are they 65 or 70.Again this makes a big difference.The best thing to do is go to a tyre fitter and explain that you want more grip etc.
But bear in mind that is you want more grip you use a softer compound ie softer tyre = faster wear.Which since you are driving on bad roads I presume you want your tyres to last longer than a few months.
The way I would do it is to use slightly wider tyres.
If your car has say 185/65/r14 on it then ask if you could use 195/65r14.This is a rough example BTW and not 100% accurate.What this does is make the tyre have slightly more contact with the road giving better grip.
Hope this helps.
Richie

kayos

Well I used to have a set of Uniroyal wets and I though they where very grippy and then I went and got a set of Goodyear Eagle F1's. Boy are they grippy and have a very nice tread design. The only problem with them is the price and they wear kinda quick but pirelli's dont last much longer.

kayos

yop

I have the P6000 on the back of the cart and they now have 27k on them and I will probably get another 3-5k out of them easily.

The front got me 18k - find them ok in the wet, not overly confident but I have had worse wheels.

Cost me 105 yoyos a piece though, feckin expensive

Borzoi

I've been using a set of Pirelli P Zeros (205/50ZR16 87W PZERO ASIMMETRICO) for 18 months now, they're probably good for another 6 months, total 22k milage

No complaints, except for the price, the last set cost me over £400 in a Kwik-fit half price sale.


But as Farls has siad "whats more important a few quid or your life?"

I'm in the spend as much as you can on the best tires you can afford camp.

Chimaera

A tyre test I read some time back in Autocar rated the Goodyear Eagle Ventura tyre highest in the family car category, especially in wet weather (which we get lots of). AFAIK Goodyear featured highly in the performace category as well. If I get time to go through my back issues, I'll try and dig out the details.

Like Hellrazer says though, going for a wider tyre will help grip no end - the car I'm driving used to have 155 section tyres, and changing to 165 made a huge difference to grip, especially lateral grip which is good for cornering.

I've heard Vredestein are supposed to make good wet weather tyres as well, but I've no experience of them directly.

JohnBoy

But won't fitting a tire wider than the wheel make the car feel weird, as you corner won't the car kind of roll over on the big baloony sidewalls?

is this not the point of lower profile tires on bigger wheels (apart from the looks)

John

Hellrazer

Originally posted by JohnBoy
But won't fitting a tire wider than the wheel make the car feel weird, as you corner won't the car kind of roll over on the big baloony sidewalls?

is this not the point of lower profile tires on bigger wheels (apart from the looks)

John

Yes it will feel strange ie a balooning effect.The reason I asked you to get the EXACT tyre size is because the rule is that as you go wider you also go lower.
So If you are using 185/60/14 then you could in theory go to 195/55/14.

As I said before a tyre shop will tell you the exact way of doing it.
Richie

Chimaera

JohnBoy - you can fit a wider tyre without necessarily going wider than the wheel.

Knowing the wheel size is very important here - consulting the owners manual should give you this. You will also find the approved tyre sizes for your car i.e. the ones the manufacturer has homologated for the particular make/model. It is not always a good idea to deviate from these approved sizes unless you know what you're doing - talking to a tyre fitter will help you a great deal here.

Here's a few useful links explaining tyre sizes and other issues to consider when fitting non-standard wheels/tyres.

These two are a bit biased to off-roaders, but the info is sound.
http://www.difflock.com/offroad/tyresizes.shtml
http://www.difflock.com/offroad/tyres_explained.shtml

http://www.topgear-sales.co.uk/tyre_size.htm
http://www.weballoys.com/HintsTips.htm

Hope this helps

Kali

The Vredestein Sportrac 195/65s came out top in a major Auto Express tyre test a few weeks back anyway..

Continentals Premium Contact and a Kumho tyre (which I can't recall) were second and third...

They done a lot of wet testing on the proving grounds but I was very surprised at the poor performance of both Pirelli and Bridgestone (both languised near the bottom in the tests)... and afaik the Bridgestones in a wet braking test were a good 15m or so off the Sportrac.

Was interesting reading anyway (as far as tyres go)

Bo Duke

I would never run Pirelli`s again.They are pure sh*te.I had a set on a Cordoba 2dr sport.They were 15ins.I got overall about 19k out of them.That was easy driving aswell.After I fitted Michelans and got just under 35k from the set which I couldn`t believe. The michelans were very sticky in both wet and dry and handle the cold well too.They are pricey but it`s worth it.Most tire places will tell you that pirelli are over rated.Hope I helped

Gerry

Johnboy, I drive the exact same car as yourself ( its me dads). The one thing that I like about it is its handling, it doesn't accelerate at all (I wish it had a fookin turbo ), but it goes round corners like its on rails, and gives you so much feedback through the steering, since its not horribly over assisted. You always know exactly what the car is doing, and it can be great fun throwing it around corners. Very stable at speed also.

So I'd get plenty of advice before making a move that could mess up the handling and ride.

You say the roads you are on are poor enough, so I wouldn't reduce the profile of the tire more than you have to, and definitely don't get bigger wheels. That would screw up your ride quality, though you would get better turn in.

My car is on 185/70/r14 tires ( can't remember the make ) I'm fairly sure that when we got the car, it had goodyear eagles, 175/70/r14. I think these tires may have more grip, even though they are an unknown brand. Goodyear 185's might be a good choice for you though. The wheels on my car are 5.5" wide, and its a 90 reg if thats any help to you.

JohnBoy

Oh, god for a turbo.......

but that's another post entirely.

Yeah the handling is spot on, rails baby, yeah.

And I've never come close to losing it in it, but there are some wet mornings when it is just a little bit too floaty for my liking.

The tires that are on it are just some regular standard radials, nowt fancy, keep on forgetting to check the exact sizes. I would like to get a set of 15 inch alloys for it, and lower it, and get a spoiler for it, some window tints....

wait, no, just some 15 inch peugeot alloys from the era, they had a nice one that was kind of a dish design, with a series of round holes inside the rim, they'd be sweet.

But I'm not gonna get alloys for my car.

Anyway. I'm gonna check out those kuhmo's someone mentioned, I actually remember seeing that in auto express now that you mention it, and I think they performed quite well, while still being quite good on price, but the vredstein is also a possibility, arrrrrgghhhhhh so many choices

JohnBoy

The inevitable happened.....

Had to go to dingle last night, in the horrible wather.

Things were going well, I was on the road from mallow to catsleisland, the far side of ballydesmond(for benifit of the locals) and there is this hooorish collection of hairpins. fine, I drove through them without any commotion, nice and handy, I knew they were there.

Coming out of the last turn I started to accelerate, and as I did, I came onto some mud that had run down the hill onto the road, ran a little wide, but that just took me onto the mud and gravel at the outside of the bend, and on into the bloody ditch. Broke my headlight, indicator, gave the passenger wing a nice knock, and the bonnet is slightly bent. all the damage is very localised between the beginning of the headlamp and the start of the wheelarch. but ****it I'm not happy at all with myself (or the state of kerry roads, way too many hairpins that have been resurfaced in the not too distand past, but yet have bloody negative cambers to them, FFS, put more tarmac on the outside of the bend than the inside, makes the damm corners a whole lot safer. OH yeah, there's I think three headstones in this set of corners, but no bloody warning signs. I knew it was there, but others wouldn't)

I know I should've been going slower, and I know I was in the wrong, but goddammit I'm annoyed. so many what ifs involved.

Anyway I'm off to feel sorry for myself, and try and find pug bits in the buy and sell.

John (if only I'd got tyres last week).

Gerry

bad luck man.. try and find a panel beater for the bonnet and/or wing maybe?

JohnBoy

Well the whole pranging the car thing has put things on hold for a few weeks, but, I ordered my tires today.....

Vredestein Sporttrac 175/70 14

63 yoyos fitted, balanced, including the VAT

Spankathon is what I say to that price. I'll be getting them on tuesday or wednesday of next week...... I'm all happy, getting one of the best tires on the road for 63 quid, sweetness.

And on the car itself, well the parts (wing bumper, headlight) have cost 160 so far, and the headlight is in, gonna be getting the painted bits fitted next week, ohhhhhh yeah....

John

Gerry

Looks like you got yourself some good deals there I'd say those parts would cost you much more in dublin.

JohnBoy

probabubbly,

one of the many advanteaes to not living in dublin, amongst others are not having to travel 3 miles in an hour to get to work every day, I'd kill people (lots of them) if I had to that every day.

Instead, I cover nearly 40 miles in 50 minutes each way, longer drive, but on good/great roads.

Being friendly with a good mechanic, and an even better scrap man is good, they are now my best friends.....


John