RF Tyres Question??

[W8PMC]

Wife's got a 12th old Countryman Cooper S (Sports Pack) & it came fitted with RF tyres which i've hated from day 1 as makes the ride very crashy. For some reason i'd not been monitoring the tyres as i probably would on my own car so hadn't realised the difference in wear rate between fronts & rears.

After 15k miles the front are close to the wear limit But the rears have plenty left on them (should have swapped them round ages ago but don't really notice).

Question is, should i swap them over now & therefore given the need for 1 pair needing replacing have regular tyres on the back & when the RF's on the front need replacing put regular tyres on the front & then given wear rates all will be back to pretty much back to normal, or put new regular tyres on the front now to improve the handling & ride quality immediately & then when the rear RF's finally give up just replace with regular rubber then?

Any pitfalls of running non RF's on the front or rear with corresponding regular rubber?

Thanks in advance.

[W8PMC]

That's annoying as wouldn't have thought mixing RF with non would be an issue. I wasn't meaning on the same axle so fronts would be a pair as would rears.

I find the RF's dangerous on the Mini as when hitting a pothole or uneven road surface the steering wheel can quite easily be grabbed from your hands which isn't a great idea.

If i follow this tack then the car will always be running the horrific RF's & i don't like that idea, as i don't like the idea of binning 2 near new tyres as the car's running on 18's so would be at least £300+ wasted.

If i do have to replace the fronts with RF's though, is their a particular one that's worth looking for as really don't want to fit the Continental ContiSportContact (catchy name).

[W8PMC]

DavidLScott said:

Even on different axles, I would say it's a no-no.
4 real tyres shouldn't be much more expensive than 2 rfts and will justify the expense in ride and control.
I wouldn't want the insurance hassle either if anything happened as they have completely,different characteristics.
It's bite the bullet time IMHO.

Thanks. A tyre hunting i shall go then. No matter what they'll be a st load cheaper than my runner so i guess not a huge issue.

[W8PMC]

Thanks for the advice/replies.

As i missed the best time to rotate the rears & fronts (annoyed at myself about that) & given the wear rate is probably 75% front & 25% rear i'm going to take the easy option & replace the worn out fronts with the same OEM run flats. Not too bad at £145 each fitted for the 18" Conti's & only about £20 a tyre cheaper for the equivalent quality non RF's, so i'll run with these again, rotate in say 7k miles & get non RF's all round next time they need changing.