"Mortimer"  wrote:
>"Tony Polson"  wrote: 
>>
>> Perhaps you should be asking yourself why you have so many.  One every
>> two years sounds far too frequent.
>>
>> So do you wait until the tread depth hits the wear bars (1.5mm?)
>> before renewing?   Do you buy cheap off-brand tyres?  Do you live or
>> park next to construction sites (nails, screws etc.)?  Do you have an
>> unbonded gravel drive?  All of these are risk factors for punctures,
>> and they are all avoidable.
>
>If people like you haven't had a puncture for many years, maybe there *is* 
>something wrong. I change my tyres when the tread gets towards the legal 
>limit, rather than changing them while they've still got some tread life lef 
>in them. I buy medium price tyres - not one of the big names like Dunlop, 
>Goodyear or Michelin, but not the cheapest either. 


I buy only Michelin and Continental although I have also bought
Vredestein.  I shop around to get the best prices, and buy tyres on
special offer when available and store them until I need them.  I
replace them all when they reach 3mm, because the risk of a puncture
increases dramatically as the tread depth reduces.

They are expensive brands, but I buy only the low-energy types within
each brand (Michelin Energy E3, Continental Eco Contact 3) to obtain
better fuel consumption.  I would expect the reduced cost of fuel to
make it worth paying a little more for the tyres.

I also check tyre pressures every week with an accurate dial gauge
that is calibrated annually.  Every month I check all my tyres for
bumps, cuts, nails, screws and shards of fint, removing all sharp
items with a small, slightly blunt screwdriver.   This may seem
slightly obsessive, but with three vehicles covering a total of 60,000
miles a year (5,000 a month) I think it is time well spent.  


>I don't drive anywhere 
>where there are construction sites with screws or nails lying around. My 
>driveway is a communal parking area for about 10 cars with a slightly loose 
>fine gravel surface on a base of what looks like concrete or tarmac. 


The fine gravel might be the culprit.  It has to be worth checking
your tyres regularly for sharp objects, especially if you keep them on
the car until fully worn out.

"Tony Polson"  wrote in message 
news:jotmd45ptug14gsn1a627uh0n8a5a96ufn@4ax.com...
> "Mortimer"  wrote:
> I shop around to get the best prices, and buy tyres on
> special offer when available and store them until I need them.

Ah. I've never thought of doing that - I buy as and when tyres need 
replacing (because of unreparable puncture or more commonly low tread), with 
the garage fitting the tyre there and then. Are garages amenable to giving 
you a reduced price for tyre without fitting and then fitting it some time 
later?


>  I replace them all when they reach 3mm, because the risk of a puncture 
> increases dramatically as the tread depth reduces.

I never knew that. Maybe I should look at buying slightly more expensive 
tyres and replacing them before they are down to the legal limit, though 
paying more for a tyre that I change sooner is going to increase costs 
rather a lot.

David Jackson  wrote:

>Probably. I always had Continental Eco tyres on my Peugeot 306, but the
>spare was Michelin. On the one occasion I had to fit the spare I found
>that the car had lost its sense of balance when cornering, but all was
>well again when the normal road wheel was back in place. My VW Golf has
>arrived with Michelins all round and seems quite sure-footed and (so
>far) well-behaved when cornering at roughly the same speeds as I use
>with the 306. 


I've also had some peculiar handling when mixing brands, so I don't do
it any more.

i.g.batten@batten.eu.org wrote:

>>
>> Ah, the tyres that a friend in the industry said were likely to outlast
>> your car. But only because their lack of grip meant you'd write the car
>> off before they had a chance to wear out :)
>
>It wasn't unusual for tyres to need to be changed on 2CVs and Dyanes
>because the sidewalls had perished, rather than the tread worn
>down.    That's also why caravans have so many tyre failures: towing a
>tonne or more of metal 


Metal?  Only the chassis and the sink unit are metal!

In article 
,
 i.g.batten@batten.eu.org wrote:

> It wasn't unusual for tyres to need to be changed on 2CVs and Dyanes
> because the sidewalls had perished, rather than the tread worn
> down. 

I don't remember changing a tyre for any other reason in the 4 years I 
owned one.

Sam

Tony Polson wrote:
> David Jackson  wrote:
> 
>> Probably. I always had Continental Eco tyres on my Peugeot 306, but the
>> spare was Michelin. On the one occasion I had to fit the spare I found
>> that the car had lost its sense of balance when cornering, but all was
>> well again when the normal road wheel was back in place. My VW Golf has
>> arrived with Michelins all round and seems quite sure-footed and (so
>> far) well-behaved when cornering at roughly the same speeds as I use
>> with the 306. 
> 
> 
> I've also had some peculiar handling when mixing brands, so I don't do
> it any more.
> 
The explanation is likely to be in the "small print" on the tyre that 
displays various characteristics of the tyre construction that the basic 
tyre size number doesn't tell you about.