New Rubber

[Guest memphis]

The rear's on my ute are in need of deperate replacement (1 has a bubble, 2nd has been a large gash in the side wall). I am wondeing what you guys suggest in the way of replacements.

At the moment it has dunlop 9000's, they are good tyres, but at $580 each, that's a little pricy for my tastes.

I would like something quiet, and sticks well in the wet as well as in the dry.

The local tyre factory suggested some toyo tyres, TIR's for $460, or TPG's for $275, but couldnt offer much in the way of how they compare.

[XRBloke]

Well ive got Falkens on my new car, as I dont like Dunlops after a bad experience once before. They retail for about $250 a corner I think..

Ive also had a good run out of a set of Yokohamas which were well priced aswell.

[zd351]

Whilst on the subject of rubber, what sort of kms are drivers getting from their original rubber? I've nearly got 40,000 out of mine and they are still going strong.

[crisso]

about to replace mine after 27000kms

will get the Hankook Ventus Sport (k104) 245/40/18

I will let you know my thoughts after a week or so

[Guest]

40,000 WTF??? Is it a hovercraft ? nearly 30,000 and they are nearly rooted

vik

[XRBloke]

bout 24 out of the 17s on the old ute, didnt keep it long enough to find out how the 18s performed but im hoping about 30,000

[JB]

25,000 all ok, I would say at this stage between 40-50k, however tere is alot of hwy driving in these kays.

[Paranormal]

Up for tyres as well, 235/45/17s been shoppin round, as my T's used for work I'm after a more longer wearing cheaper tyre rather then a soft high perf tyre, been offered cheap deals sub $200 on Falkens, several other brands I've never heard of, then at Bridgestone found Firestone Firehawks SZ50s @ $175 if your NRMA mamber, visited a few other places and found same tyres @ $165 each great deal as other places have quoted $200 for same tyres. Obviously they wont perform like three hundred dollar tyres but check out some good reviews on google your self. Heres one - Firehawk reviews

Review Reviews

[NighEve]

I will share my experience with tyres of the 245/45/17 and 255/40/17 sizes. Prior to the T ute I had a XH ute. Had a set of 17x8 ROHs and the thing sat on its arse (seriously low). It was all done properly, ie camber kit, low bore shocks, wheel alignements regularly etc. Despite this, silly me used to drive it at one stage about 1300km a week on country roads with some mountain bits etc all high speed. Sorry about the length, but here is what I found with tyres over the 18 months I drove this car:

Tyres on the car when I picked it up - cheapie "Ultra" crap - no grip, dangerous wet, hard compound (supposedly had done about 30K and the fronts were looking in need of some attention after another 10K - rears still fine).

Conned into getting some Yokies (mid spec for 'supposed' mileage and decent but not ultimate grip) - paid 250 each. First 8k unbelieveably sticky and just damm fun! Ok in the wet. After this they were absolutely shot and with a total of 15k on them I had steel belting coming through on the inner edge (this must have happend very quickly as I had seen them when doing a oil change the week before and they were definitely looking worn, but nowhere near imminent danger like that!). Back tyres still going ok starting to look shabby - but really they were like a set of commericals and would not stick to anything so I decided for a whole new set.

Picked up some Federals 245/45/17 (f) and 255/40/17 ®. Paid about 175 and 213 respectively. Amazingly good wet weather tyre (saved my life once in greasy conditions when trying to dodge a truckie who was half asleep and on my side of the road). Still only got 25k out of them.

Got the sh*ts now and I got a set of the cheapest things I could find (starting to not worry about anything but the cost as it didn't seem to matter what brand). They were dangerous at speed around corners and quickly got shagged and at 15k 2 had failed with deleminating (didn't like high speeds for sustained periods I think!).

Found a nice place to get a really good wheel alignment (loosing faith in everyone else's attempts with the wear problems). Same time picked up some Kumo's. Paid 175 for them each. Wet weather ok, dry reasonable and good for the price, corner grip; liked to understeer a bit and then bite and grip hard when you thought it was all but gone (not my favourite but still worked ok). Importantly I sold the car after doing 13k on them and they were still looking like brand new and comparatively every other set were showing definite wear by then. Either when they go they go bad, or they are possibly the best all round cheaper tyre in that size for someone who does plenty of k's.

Got the T ute, car now has 42k on it - original dunlop 3000s on it. Rear are characteristically in need for a change soon but I didn't find that at all surprising and was in fact impressed that they have stood up to over 40k of a driver I knew liked to test it between lights. The fronts on the other hand have me absolutely amazed - they look like they have at least 75-80 per cent left on them (WTF I hear you say - me too!). I have only started doing the kind of driving I was doing on the XH in the last two weeks - give it a month and I will let people know what has happened to these freaky tyres (I'm a cynic when it comes to tyres so I reckon that I will quickly shag them under these conditions). Nevertheless I find them a fairly good gripping tyre, ok in the wet, and if they give this kind of mileage you couldn't be too unhappy with them.

Sorry about the length...........

[Benny]

I've had Yokohama, Marshall, Good Year and Dunlop and I've found them all to be second rate compared to the Bridgestone SO3. I'm about to replace my current set within the next week or so which I paid $330ea for. Just like any perfrormance 18" trye dont expect big K's, I get approx 24-25 thousand out of a set rotating them regularly. They are fitted to HWP vehicles so maybe our fellow forum policemen can tell us what they think.