Winter Tyres

[geoff]

I recently ordered four new tyres for my Berlingo M59  -  Michelin Energy same as my last set.

Unfortunately the garage fitted the wrong tyres ... they fitted a cheap set of " winter tyres " instead.

Anyway, after complaining loudly I ended up getting them for free !!  It was a result in some ways I guess or was it ???

Turns out these tyres are a real pain on the motorway as they cause the vehicle to wander all over the road at 65 plus mph and at 90 ish things can get a bit hairy to say the least and that is in the dry ! don't get me talking about them with wet road driving ... I don't scare easily so they must be bad !.....

One surprising side effect of fitting these tyres is the steering has now become really quite heavy at slow speeds and whereas before there would be a reasonable degree of self centreing of the steering wheel after a slow turn / manouvre the steering wheel now doesn't want to self return at all, you can feel the tyre hugging the tarmac, must be a really soft compound.

I can envisage in my minds eye the edges of these tyres getting scrubbed to hell and back .... Lol !!!

I can cope with all this of course but my wife is going bananas !!!

Anyway I'm now about 2k miles into the tyres, my wife refuses to drive the Berlingo and she will only sit in it as a passenger for local shopping runs, anything further afield on the open road she refuses to get in the car as to her it doesn't feel safe, well I did say it was hairy didn't I !

Normally I get around 15 to 18 k miles out a tyre like a Michelin Energy


Gotta say I'm looking forward to these " winter tyres " wearing themselves out so I can get some decent tyres on the wagon again.

If I wasn't so tight I have changed them out already 

Anyway, my takeaway is to think carefully about getting winter A/T tyres fitted, you may not like them if like me you like to get to your destination in double quick time.

I blame global warming and a lack of snow and ice 

[evdama]

In that situation Geoff I would get a set of decent tyres fitted,then either get some steel rims and put the winter tyres on for winter use,or once the clocks go back put them on ebay-they'll sell readily.
You can't really lose.

If look at increasing the pressures incremental style to see if that improved it

[geoff]

 I would get a set of decent tyres fitted

  Agreed

[LukeC]

I would have ensured the garage changed then for what you ordered, as it reads like they left the cheap ones on. I tend to just go for a semi decent mid-range all season/weather tyre. I've always done that and never had an issue with traction, tyre wear, or any hairy rides.

[npa]

I recently ordered four new tyres for my Berlingo M59  -  Michelin Energy same as my last set.

Unfortunately the garage fitted the wrong tyres ... they fitted a cheap set of " winter tyres " instead.

Anyway, after complaining loudly I ended up getting them for free !!  It was a result in some ways I guess or was it ???

Turns out these tyres are a real pain on the motorway as they cause the vehicle to wander all over the road at 65 plus mph and at 90 ish things can get a bit hairy to say the least and that is in the dry ! don't get me talking about them with wet road driving ... I don't scare easily so they must be bad !.....

One surprising side effect of fitting these tyres is the steering has now become really quite heavy at slow speeds and whereas before there would be a reasonable degree of self centreing of the steering wheel after a slow turn / manouvre the steering wheel now doesn't want to self return at all, you can feel the tyre hugging the tarmac, must be a really soft compound.

I can envisage in my minds eye the edges of these tyres getting scrubbed to hell and back .... Lol !!!

I can cope with all this of course but my wife is going bananas !!!

Anyway I'm now about 2k miles into the tyres, my wife refuses to drive the Berlingo and she will only sit in it as a passenger for local shopping runs, anything further afield on the open road she refuses to get in the car as to her it doesn't feel safe, well I did say it was hairy didn't I !

Normally I get around 15 to 18 k miles out a tyre like a Michelin Energy


Gotta say I'm looking forward to these " winter tyres " wearing themselves out so I can get some decent tyres on the wagon again.

If I wasn't so tight I have changed them out already 

Anyway, my takeaway is to think carefully about getting winter A/T tyres fitted, you may not like them if like me you like to get to your destination in double quick time.

I blame global warming and a lack of snow and ice 

Sounds like you are very hard on tyres if you only got 18K from Michelin energy I have just changed mine after 46k

[geoff]

Update ... should have updated some while back, sorry ...

I did a total of 3 k miles on the " free tyres " and changed them for Michelin Primacy

Sanity and confidence in enthusiastic cornering reinstated !

Previously I'd be going around my local roundabout to enter the M4 and would be slithering around in the wet at 40 mph but now with Michelin Primacy 65 mph is fine in the wet with no sign of wheel spin when putting the " power " down.

Heavy on tyres ... maybe ?

I get 15 to 18k on fronts and around 25k on rear tyres

NPA .... 46k miles out of a tyre ... is that on the fronts or rears ?