Are UK and American Tyres Different?

[scottish grinnal]

Just had a letter from my Insurance company about the
repairs that have been done to my TR, It had the same tyres allround
before the accident and when it came back they said they couldn't get
the same for the front. I found the tyres but they were in America, the
engineers who past the repairs said thatthe Tyres would be of a different
specification from UK tyres.
The pictures of the tyres in America looked the exact same and had the
same writing as the rears, is the engineer talking B*LLSH**E or is there a
differance?

Tyres in question are below
USA
http://www.wheelsnext.com/tires/Hankook-Ventus%20S...

UK
http://www.uk.best-price.com/productsearch/search/...

[anonymous-user]

Apparently there can be differences although I can't tell you whether that applies to yours. Whether it's just the rubber compound or the actual construction of the tyre I don't know.

[V6Alfisti]

It's normally a difference in the compound.

For example Eagle F1's are made in Germany, China and Thailand, only the Germany/Chinese ones actually had Silica added to the compound and the Thai ones are not officially imported into the UK by Goodyear (based on some knowledge of having a garage fit Thai made tyres to my old GTV and later getting them to swap them for the German made ones with a bit of involvement from Goodyear )

[sday12]

Yes.


One is a tyre.
The other is a tire.

HTH

[HellDiver]

I think tyres here need to be E marked, which you won't get on the majority of yank tyres.

[Hugo a Gogo]

there has to be a european number on them, E then 2 numbers telling you which country made them, then more numbers

tyres in the US have to have a similar DoT number

often, tyres have both numbers on them

[simonej]

There's definitely some difference between them. I seem to remember being told there was nylon or something strange in the American ones so that they are able to last absolutely ages - in fact I think some are guaranteed up for 50,000 miles so they obviously do something different.

From my own experience when I was living there I put a brand new set of tyres on my Z28 Camaro and did maybe 30,000 miles on them. Despite giving them a lot of stick they were barely broken in by the time I sold it. Not much grip though from a standing start!

Edited to add that I've always averaged about 6-10,000 miles out of a set of tyres in the UK (driven wheels).

Edited by simonej on Tuesday 1st December 16:12

[GreigM]

generally harder compounds used in the US - mean lots more miles in exchange for decreased grip....

[AndrewW-G]

American tyres have more squeal built in, whenever theres a US car on tv it's squealing as it goes round corners (even on grass \ gravel)