buying tyres

[jont]

Many years ago, I had a FWD vauxhall cavalier. It needed a pair of new tyres, and I was insistent they went on the front (with the old pair of rock hard ditch finders left on the back). The tyre fitter was quite insistent the new tyres ought to go on the back as having them fitted on the front could cause "interesting" handling quirks. A couple of weeks later I found out what he meant when I lifted off on a rather wet bend and found the car very quickly swapped ends. No harm done other than bruised ego, but I did then spend some time playing on an airfield learning just how tail happy the car was. What I probably should have done was swap the tyres back round

The last couple of cars I've had have had different size F/R (diameter as well as width on the current car), but being RWD the rears usually wear out rather quicker than the fronts.

[TripleS]

As a matter of fact we had an MR2 in the family until recently, and on that car the rear tyres were wider than the front ones.

Same for my Supra - so the tyres I order today will definitely go on the front wheels. But where that quirk doesn't apply, my impression is that the advice to put the new ones on the rear wheels is very common across the tyre industry.

Yes, so I understand; and their reasoning may be generally sound. Even so, it will not suit everybody, so I prefer to leave room for personal preferences.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[TripleS]

I think there should be respect for personal preferences on this.

Of course. Have you ever encountered a tyre fitter who refused to accept your preference Dave? I've always gone with the popular wisdom so I've no idea if they get upset if you decline their advice.

The tyre fitters have always done what I have asked them to do, so no problem has emerged.

I think the difficulty is that not all scenarios will be best catered for by having new tyres on the front.

Best wishes all,
David.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

Like Chris, nobody's ever volunteered advice to me on where to put tyres.

You say to one tyre fitter "replace the fronts", and he replaceth the fronts. You say to another "replace the rears" and he replaceth the rears ...

[TripleS]

Like Chris, nobody's ever volunteered advice to me on where to put tyres.

You say to one tyre fitter "replace the fronts", and he replaceth the fronts. You say to another "replace the rears" and he replaceth the rears ...

....and so it should be, for ever and ever....

....at least until it really does become clear that it is always best to have the newest tyres on the rear.

Best wishes all,
David.

[Gareth]

s/[newest|newer]/more grippy/

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

Except when they're brand new, when they're less grippy ... and this "new tyres on the rear" stuff only applies in the wet when the water level is higher than the capacity of the rears to shift it, AND there's some influence acting to unbalance the car and .. and ..

[Gareth]

s/only applies in the wet when the water level is higher than the capacity of the rears to shift it/only applies in slippery conditions/

[Kevin]

Whatever one's personal preference for where the best tyres should go, I think most tyre manufactures say the best tyres should go on the rear.

http://www.etyres.co.uk/flashmovies/new ... etyres.htm
http://www.tyreplus.co.uk/tyre-tips.asp

Regards,

Kev

[GJD]

There's another possible benefit that occurred to me when I first encountered the idea. Before that, in my ordinary FWD car, when the front tyres wore out, I'd put the new tyres on the front wheels. Being FWD the fronts wore faster than the rears and I went through a number of sets on the front without needing to replace the rears. Eventually I began to wonder if there was a point where the rear tyres might need replacing due to age even though they still had tread. I don't know how old a tyre can get safely, but I was slightly uneasy about it. Putting the new ones on the rear of my FWD car made the issue go away (although, as I say I don't actually know big an issue it was). The part-worn rears moved to the front where they wore out before age concerned me.

It smooths out the cashflow too if you care about such things as (still assuming FWD) in normal use you'll never need to replace all four at the same time.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

s/only applies in the wet when the water level is higher than the capacity of the rears to shift it/only applies in slippery conditions/

So how much tyre tread is required to deal with a diesel spill then?

[Standard Dave]

Ended up going to national they changed the fronts no questions about swapping wheels around or any other advice.


Some things I've discovered are that no one stocks 4 of the same tyre in the same size and none of the places I visited or contacted held the most expensive premium tyres in stock so if your particular or want a certain tyre you need to book at least 24 hours in advance and some places several days.

So it's got brand new Avons (premium budget or budget premium something like that) and the original tyres still on the back.


I've never been told to put the new tyres on the back and even at work with the police response cars the fleet management company and the tyre chain we use have never done that on any of the cars I've driven. I've never noticed a tendency to swap ends or anything like that even when driving them far inexcess of the speed limit and in truly awful weather conditions.

[TripleS]

best to have the newest tyres on the rear.

"best to have the newer tyres on the rear" If you want to play.

Yes, I really should leave you to sort these things out.

Best wishes all,
David - once again slinks away in an embarrassed state.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

What about the situation where you had:

1 tyre 5 years old
1 tyre 3 years old
2 tyres you had just bought

How would the two new tyres be described when comparing their age with that of the others?

[jasonh]

Another cheer for Event Tyres - they fitted a couple of Firestones to the back of my car a couple of weeks ago for a very reasonable price.