Tyre recommendations - LV TDCi Hatch

[Ratmick]

Hi all,

I'll be looking at a set of tyres soon for my Focus.

Any recommendations?

It currently has Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tyres on it. They don't seem too bad, though seem to be getting noisy. I also don't think they lasted as long as the OEM tyres I had on there which lasted forever but were even noisier.

I had them fitted thorugh Beaurepairs in Sunbury. On paper they don't look too bad per tyre, but four cost me $900-odd fitted/balanced/old tyres disposed off/whatever over fluffy charges that they could think of. I thought this was a rip-off of biblical proportions and I probably won't go back there.

Are Kuhmos any better/cheaper? If so, which ones?

thanks, Mick

[kevino]

I put Bridgestone Turanza on my LT TDCI at 150,000 kms. Prior to this I had Toyos and before that the original Goodyears.
The Turanzas are grippier and quieter and good in the wet -tyres have done 40000 and are wearing evenly, expect to get 80000 out of them.

[Franco Cozzo]

I've got Continental ContiSportContact 2s on my LV TDCI, I'm pretty happy with Continental Tyres, they stick like poo to a blanket, a touch noisy but I just turn up the stereo

I only got 25,000 out of the OEM tyres before the front two shagged out on the inside, got about 50,000km on a set of Toyo TEO PLUS but once they get to 50% wear they're junk, they've got no grip.

I got mine from Ebay but one of our forum sponsors is selling a different set of Continentals in our sizing through Ebay, you might be able to contact them through this forum in their section under sponsors.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CONTINENT...item418cf21641

Might be discount involved for us?

Also I have my tyres fitted, balanced and a 4 wheel alignment done at TyrePlus in Sunbury, they've always got my car steering bang on straight everytime, and customer service is excellent down there.

I just take them my set of tyres and they do the rest for me, last time I was there they were telling me they had 8 customers do the same thing.

[Ratmick]

Those Contis are pretty expensive mate, are they worth the money at $162/corner (minus 3%)?

These look ok, about 2/3 the price too:
http://www.tyretrader.com.au/kumho-2...l&sort=pd.name

Trying to reconcile an extra $61 (plus 3%) per tyre for the Contis, given I'm not that...spirited a driver are they really that good?

[FPVF6X189]

Ideally where possible you want a tyre with a symmetrical tread pattern as it can be rotated on the vehicle to any position and inverted on the rim if required basically can do anything you want to maximise life of tyre.

directional can only be moved back and forth on the same side of vehicle and only travel in a forward direction which means they have to be inverted to go on the opposite side of the car to run In the right direction.

Asymmetric treads offer abit of everything can be rotated anywhere on the car but if the inner or outer shoulders start wearing faster than the rest of the tyre you can't invert it to even put wear.

Obviously you can do what ever you want with the directional and asymmetric tyres but you won't get the best performance out of them. Personally I'd go toyo teo's if available in your size

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Ratmick

Those Contis are pretty expensive mate, are they worth the money at $162/corner (minus 3%)?

These look ok, about 2/3 the price too:
http://www.tyretrader.com.au/kumho-2...l&sort=pd.name

Trying to reconcile an extra $61 (plus 3%) per tyre for the Contis, given I'm not that...spirited a driver are they really that good?

Best set of tyres I've put on but I drive my car hard, I had the Toyo TEOs on before hand but I found them crap for the way I drive, could them to spin up the outside tyre without trying where as with the Conti's you need to be really trying to get it to do it.

Probably not worth it for you.

[Ratmick]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Best set of tyres I've put on but I drive my car hard, I had the Toyo TEOs on before hand but I found them crap for the way I drive, could them to spin up the outside tyre without trying where as with the Conti's you need to be really trying to get it to do it.

Probably not worth it for you.

What sort of mileage are you getting with them?

I do a few kilometres on dirt, this seems to wear them out pretty quickly.

I had a variety of tyres on my Magna, they never used to last much more than 20k, at least with the Focus they last a lot longer. I'd rather not buy a set of great gripping tyres that only last nine to twelve months.

[FPVF6X189]

What size are the tyres?

[Ratmick]

Originally Posted by fpvf6x189

what size are the tyres?

205/55r16

[FPVF6X189]

Toyo proxes 4 are also a nice tyre or kuhmo ku31's though both are directional tyres

[Ratmick]

Originally Posted by FPVF6X189

Toyo proxes 4 are also a nice tyre or kuhmo ku31's though both are directional tyres

The KU31s look ok but if you check their website it says they are 'summer tyres' and shouldn't be driven in snow or in icy conditions. It gets pretty cold here, well under zero multiple times per winter.

[FPVF6X189]

Or you could change your size to a 225/50r16 same rolling diameter so no speedo issues

[FPVF6X189]

I had ku31's on my old xr8 but I'm in perth so yea completely different weather

[Ratmick]

Originally Posted by FPVF6X189

I had ku31's on my old xr8 but I'm in perth so yea completely different weather

We've had 60mm of snow here (admittedly only once) but we get -3C to -5C quite regularly..and them's the days you need a tyre with grip (not comfort).

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Ratmick

What sort of mileage are you getting with them?

I do a few kilometres on dirt, this seems to wear them out pretty quickly.

I had a variety of tyres on my Magna, they never used to last much more than 20k, at least with the Focus they last a lot longer. I'd rather not buy a set of great gripping tyres that only last nine to twelve months.

I've had them on since 71,000km, at 86,000km at the moment still a lot of tread left. I'm 90% highway 10% dirt road driving though.

Same tyre was OEM fitment on my WS Fiesta and I got 33,000km out of them.

I got nearly 50,000km out of the Toyo Teo's on the Focus before I replaced them, and I was a fair bit above wear indicators on them but I wasn't happy with them, old man had them on his Mazda 323 as well and while long wearing still poor grip on that too.

I killed the OEM tyres on the Focus in 25,000km, completely chopped out the insides on the front.

[kevino]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I've had them on since 71,000km, at 86,000km at the moment still a lot of tread left. I'm 90% highway 10% dirt road driving though.

Same tyre was OEM fitment on my WS Fiesta and I got 33,000km out of them.

I got nearly 50,000km out of the Toyo Teo's on the Focus before I replaced them, and I was a fair bit above wear indicators on them but I wasn't happy with them, old man had them on his Mazda 323 as well and while long wearing still poor grip on that too.

I killed the OEM tyres on the Focus in 25,000km, completely chopped out the insides on the front.

I back up the comments on the Toyo Teos -they dont grip and cant handle the power and torque on the front steer/drive axle.
They might be a good tyre on other fwd,s but not the Focus TDCI.

[Ratmick]

Had a few bills all come in at once, and I still have my daughter's Uni books to go, so I ended up buying Kumho KH27s for the Focus from Tyretrader, just couldn't justify the Contis this time around.

Paid $412 plus change for four delivered...well ordered, I haven't had anything but automated 'thanks for your money, we'll get back to you...eventually' messages so far.

One of my mates at work drives a Jeep Wrangler, one of his tyres is more than all four of mine put together. He does actually go off-road with his 4WD so it's not a Toorak Taxi but fook me...

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Might be discount involved for us?

Also I have my tyres fitted, balanced and a 4 wheel alignment done at TyrePlus in Sunbury, they've always got my car steering bang on straight everytime, and customer service is excellent down there.

I just take them my set of tyres and they do the rest for me, last time I was there they were telling me they had 8 customers do the same thing.

The discount was 3% or around $10. The tyres were cheap and for some reason Kumhos seem to have discounted postage so it doesn't really bother me but for $10 it wasn't really worth trying to find the discount code . The vendor never did answer my query in his thread either...hmm.

Damo> How long did they take to be delivered? Just wondering when I should book myself in somewhere. I had a good look at the tyres on the weekend and the rears are gone to the wear markers (they were originally on the front) but the fronts have a few weeks left (I'll change them anyway). Did all four fit in your boot, or did you have stinky rubber back seat passengers all the way to Sunbury?

[Ratmick]

The Kumhos arrived this morning in the local Post Office, picked them up this afternoon.

It was odd getting four tyres as 'parcels' (TyreTrader just send you the bare tyre with a shipping label on it) and they did all fit in the back of the hatch...without the parcel shelf.

They did stink though...

Booked in locally in Kyneton 8:30am Saturday morning.

[Ratmick]

Well they've been on for two days across a mixture of dry, wet and dirt roads and they seem fine.

Very quiet, good grip in the wet and couldn't fault them in the dry. Haven't broken traction with them yet but I don't try that hard.

FWIW I rang Kumho and asked what 'summer tyres' meant and the lady I spoke to laughed and said that description was only for the cold parts of the US and northern Europe and has no context here .