Cheap nasty tyres spotted

[anonymous-user]

thinfourth2 said:

I think you are 100% correct that all tyres must pass a set of tests before you are allowed to fit them to your car as its utterly ridiculous this current situation that your tyres must a set of tests before you are allowed to fit them to your car.

I DEMAND ACTION

think of the children

What?

[V88Dicky]

bmw535i said:

thinfourth2 said:

I think you are 100% correct that all tyres must pass a set of tests before you are allowed to fit them to your car as its utterly ridiculous this current situation that your tyres must pass a set of tests before you are allowed to fit them to your car.

I DEMAND ACTION

think of the children

What?

EFA

[carl carlson]

So you would be quite happy to pay a lot more on your stamp or parcel deliveries as long as the vans where kitted out with Yokohama AD48s?

[Pints]

I saw a Passat wearing a set of LingLongs in a Toys-R-Us carpark a few months ago.
Up until then I'd just thought they were a generic derogatory term used on the internet to describe st Chinese tyres.

[LMC]

carl carlson said:

So you would be quite happy to pay a lot more on your stamp or parcel deliveries as long as the vans where kitted out with Yokohama AD48s?

Missing. The. Point. Entirely.

[captain ash]

My Civic that I recently purchased has some crap chinese tyres on the front, they are actually marked 'For taxi', guessing the previous owner wanted to give me some decent tread depth but not fork out for a premium brand, fair point on a car worth around £1000.

They aren't actually bad in the dry, plenty of grip, but in the wet they are downright lethal, I'll be sticking any decent brand I can find back on when funds are available. Nothing to do with snobbery, just genuine concern for mine and my passengers safety!

[Acheron]

If you're not driving like a tool, it doesnt matter.

What are you people doing at roundabouts in the wet that makes you think budget tyres are so lethal, this?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXoHs_ckLms&t=0...

[Pothole]

VeeFour said:

I do wonder if those who think 'Triangle' tyres are perfectly acceptable have experienced the true horror of oddly named budget rubber.

I've had LingLongs, Roadstones and Dark Horses on used cars I've bought.

All of which were absolutely lethal.

and yet you lived to tell the tale, you consumate driving hero, you!

Edited by Pothole on Tuesday 10th May 14:44

[The Wookie]

I would have thought that if RM vans had a higher than average accident rate they'd notice that insurance premiums were costing them more than half decent tyres, and QED they'd have half decent tyres

[EDLT]

I've had roadstones on the front of my car for three years, I get killed every day.

[900T-R]

Going 30 mph+ at the point where you'd have been at a standstill with decent tyres when braking from 70 mph in the wet doesn't seem too beneficial to your health under some circumstances.

Even then, it's not the existence of inferior tyres and the legality of using them on the road in se that piques my interest, it is merely that I find this state of affairs quite ironic in the light of increasingly OTT safety legislation elsewhere. If I were out to 'save lives' on the road, I'd start with decent safety standards for the most safety-critical part on a car bar none.

[Crow555]

I think the point the OP was getting at was that for a vehicle that does more mileage than the average commuter, that some low rolling resistance, hard wearing tires would be better. You would think though that someone at the royal mail is assigned to work out the savings on certain tires (e.g. lower fuel consumption, lower wear rate) and inspect the vehicles on a regular basis. In reality, the driver is probably chucked £100 and told to get 4 new tires.

[Pothole]

Crow555 said:

I think the point the OP was getting at was that for a vehicle that does more mileage than the average commuter, that some low rolling resistance, hard wearing tires would be better. You would think though that someone at the royal mail is assigned to work out the savings on certain tires (e.g. lower fuel consumption, lower wear rate) and inspect the vehicles on a regular basis.

you reckon somebody at the RM is tasked with assessing costs? Fantasist!

[Pints]

Pothole said:

nd yet you lived to tell the tale, you consumate driving hero, you!

Edited by Pothole on Tuesday 10th May 14:44

This is PH. We are all driving heroes.

[Crow555]

Pothole said:

ou reckon somebody at the RM is tasked with assessing costs? Fantasist!

Sorry, that was the glue talking. Won't happen again.

[otolith]

Diesel Fury said:

otolith said:

Indeed, imagine car enthusiasts having a downer on stty tyres that don't work very well, the weirdos. Why pay for good tyres when crap ones will do a perfectly good job of keeping your wheel rims off the tarmac and get you through to the next MOT?

On Royal Mail vans? If someone drives past in a TVR with cheap and horrible rubber then yeah, by all means have a go, but personally I don't give a fk what the 10 year old red van that's used for carrying paper has on it's wheels. As long as it's road legal, what's the problem?

It was more a response to "another tyre snobbery thread" than to this specific example, but I would suggest that the ability of other vehicles to stop in the wet becomes a problem when you are in front of them.

Or does it only hurt if you are hit by a decent vehicle?

[Pothole]

Crow555 said:

Pothole said:

ou reckon somebody at the RM is tasked with assessing costs? Fantasist!

Sorry, that was the glue talking. Won't happen again.

I should jolly well hope not!

[LuS1fer]

900T-R said:

Mr Gearchange said:

I don't imagine that Pat and his black and white cat are out exploring the limits of grip and the nuances of tread shuffle while stopping at every third house.

As someone else has said premium rubber on a RM van would be a huge waste of money.

'Premium' rubber would be: better/more expensive tyres than the vehicle was equipped with from the factory. I don't think anyone is asking for that - but given the often very intrusive character of H&S regulations nowadays (not to mention all the EU-mandated claptrap that new cars have to comply with) I do find it kind of ironic that the most 'dangerous' tool that RM employees are likely to handle is allowed to wear poor quality and mismatchd tyres.

Have you seen their shorts? Serious risk of a chafed knee or even a very stingy paper cut if they accidentally drop unsolicited junk leaflets.

You would think that if they were saving money, they could pick up all those feckin' elastic bands they drop and recycle them into tyres. Litter louts.

[XDA]

Judging by the way the RM vans are driven (One of our posties used to do handbrakes turns/wheel spins every morning on the loose gravel outside my neighbours track ), its no wonder they are on cheap tyres. You'd be crazy putting on premiums, given the way the RM vans are treated...

[otolith]

For the avoidance of doubt in the minds of those who have only ever bought one or the other, there are actually very many tyres with price and performance between the LingLongs and the Michelin Pilot Sport Cups.