Tyres

[David Morris]

Hi All,

I have recently looked closely at all the tyres on our Javelin, my Astra and my wife's Renault. Very mixed results.

I replaced all the tyres on the Javelin in 2006, with Avon Tourists. The ride was transformed, much better and noticeably more comfortable. I guess the old tyres were really hard? Unfortunately, these are now getting in need of replacement, mostly due to the side walls showing signs of cracking; she has been garaged when not driving, so will have not been stood in the sun for long? There is also quite a lot of tread wear. This is surprising, as they have only done about 9000 miles. I shall have to bite the bullet and splash out on new tyres, but not radials, as the steering gets so heavy with them fitted and there is limited clearance under the rear wheel wings. Also, radials don't really fit into the spare wheel tray. I shall have to search out an old tyre place, as the modern workshops won't have the mandrels for the Javelin's wheels on their balancing machines, wherever I buy the tyres.

Looking at the moderns, I was struck at the difference between the makes of tyres and their wear life. I used to run an old Peugeot 406 estate and she did 160,000 miles with me. Fantastic engine, never used any oil and was like new when I exchanged her at 210,000 miles. No rust either! Anyway, I got through lots of tyres in that time. I used to fit what are known here in the UK as 'Budget' radials. These new and were probably made in the Far East and OK for moderate use. But I never got more that 25,000 miles from them. Nice and cheap though!

On my present Astra, the tyres are date coded and I can see that while the fronts are fairly new, those on the rears are dated 2014, which probably means they were original? They are Continentals, so I am guessing they have been with the car from new, which means they have covered 52,000 miles. They are still OK, but are getting close to the 2mm limit. This is in stark contrast to what I have been getting from the 'Budget's'.

My wife's Renault has only done about 20,000 miles in the 14 years since new and at the last MoT, there were advisories on the state of many of the side walls, even though the treads had plenty of depth on the Michelin's all round.

Does this mean that I should decide to buy better grade tyres, to secure longer life? Faced with buying tyres, it's always a balance between spending £45 or £85. Knowing that it only takes a high curb or a bad puncture to write off any tyre?

Any thoughts?

Take care,

David

[Keith Clements]

About 4 years ago I changed the crossplies on the Javelin after they had been on there for hhhum 40 years for Avon Turbospeed radials. They were not completely worn and the sidewalls were good. Not really much idea of mileage but I am guessing at 60000 miles. At the same time I spent hours getting the front suspension geometry correct.
This certainly improved cornering and braking. Oh I also put a band in the spare wheel carrier before we went to Le Mans so we had a proper spare.
So to answer your question for me...I would never go back to crossplies, simply on safety grounds. But if you only take the car to shows then it might be better to fit original looking crossplies.

I reckon these days tyres have built in obsellence and have to be changed every 5 years. So if you are only doing a small mileage, the cheapest is the answer. But if you are worried about somebody pulling out in front of you and not crashing into them, fit Avon Turbospeed.

A slightly different situation on the Jupiter which was fitted with King Pin remould taxi tyres since 1988 until 2018 on widened rims to give a flat contact area. These were a fairly soft rubber and chunky tread. I reckon I covered 100000 miles in that time on some pretty bad roads on gravel forest stages, the Sahara and Latvia as well as slinging it around loads of hairpins in the Alps. I had six tyres to start with but the five on the car at the end still had legal tread and the walls are still good. The newly painted original wheels now have the brilliant Turbospeed. I did occasionaly spray with silicone which may help preserve the walls.

[Chris Spencer]

David - You get what you pay for - no such thing has a cheap or budget tyre - if it only lasts 25,000 miles - that's 2 sets in 50,000 miles but if a good quality tyre is two thirds the cost of your 2 sets of budget tyres and covers the same mileage then your budget sets have cost you money rather than saved it - more to the point the budget tyres will have nothing like the performance / road holding / shorter braking distances & performance that a premium tyre can offer you - I have Avon Tourist crossplys fitted to my Javelin - they are very effective, hold the road very well and look right on the car to the effect that they fill the arch space exactly has intended - I will challenge anyone that thinks that a radial tyre will perform any better on the Javelin - its a pointless exercise you gain nothing - Whilst I don't thrash my Javelin I'm not light footed either and the Avon's have performed faultlessly.

Safety recommendations are that you change vehicle road tyres every 10 years regardless of mileage covered or the tread wear remaining on the tyre

Finally regardless of what your tyre choice is for the Javelin can I urge you to support the clubs spares scheme 'Jowett Car Spares' they can supply the tyres for your Javelin at a highly competitive price and have them delivered to your door (complete with new inner tubes if required) - Chris

[David Morris]

Hi Chris,

I completely agree with you about radials on my Javelin. My comments re 'budget' tyres was aimed at my experience with tyres on my moderns. I am coming around to the opinion about using better quality tyres on my daily cars, as you explain, the savings are spent away on having to replace the cheaper tyres more frequently.

By the way, if I purchased replacement tyres from JCS for the Javelin, would you recommend where these might be fitted and balanced? Last time, I had considerable difficulty in finding a tyre fitting depot that still had the mandrels for the sizes of the steel wheels fitted to the Javelin. Eventually, my local depot found some, covered in dust and obviously they had not been used for years.

Many thanks,

David

[Chris Spencer]

Hi David - My local tyre fitter has all the kit for doing Jowett rims but I'm a good way up the M4 from you - possibly the JCS supplier 'Longstone Tyres' may hold a directory of older type / old school tyre fitters that they supply to - it maybe worth an enquiry with Paul Beaumont who manages the tyre account on behalf of JCS

The deal with Longstone is that providing they supply via the club spares scheme that they supply the tyre (s) cheaper than what you can purchase from Longstone direct - hence the orders have to go through JCS for the discount to qualify