Front and rear tyres - same speed rating needed?

james_joyce

Hi

I need to get some new front tyres on my car

At present all 4 tyres are 'V' rating, but H would be cheaper and fine for me as I don't intend to drive that fast. Also my current tyres are budget ones and I plan to get a premium brand for the fronts.

Is it safe to have V rated tyres at the rear and H rated at the front? Or are they all supposed to be the same?

Thanks

jonathon

No if your car needs v rated it must have v rated

jimbo_the_jetset

For insurance purposes at least the tyres will need to be manufacturers spec

andy_c_2

james_joyce wrote: »

Hi

I need to get some new front tyres on my car

At present all 4 tyres are 'V' rating, but H would be cheaper and fine for me as I don't intend to drive that fast. Also my current tyres are budget ones and I plan to get a premium brand for the fronts.

Is it safe to have V rated tyres at the rear and H rated at the front? Or are they all supposed to be the same?

Thanks

You can safely put tyres with a higher speed rating on your vehicle. For example the reverse of what you're intending; replacing H rated tyres with V rated tyres.

However, you cannot do what you're asking and replace higher V rated tyres with lower H rated specimens. This wouldn't be wise from either an insurance or safety point of view.

maninthestreet

james_joyce wrote: »

Hi

I need to get some new front tyres on my car

At present all 4 tyres are 'V' rating, but H would be cheaper and fine for me as I don't intend to drive that fast. Also my current tyres are budget ones and I plan to get a premium brand for the fronts.

Is it safe to have V rated tyres at the rear and H rated at the front? Or are they all supposed to be the same?

Thanks

So, on your car, do the wheels at the front travel at a different speed to the rear wheels?

TheMiner

Actually I don't think you'd be breaking the law (tho I'm not recommending you do as you have suggested). Check this out...

http://www.kwik-fit.com/writing-on-my-tyres.asp

Think you'd only be at fault if you fitted H tyres and then drove at 131+ mph - obviously if you did that, I doubt they'd be checking your tyres whilst they were ripping up your license...

Disclaimer As I said I'm not advocating it - manufacturer obviously recommends a type of tyre for a reason, plus if you do get stopped and they spot different ratings of tyres, you might end up going through more hassle. Is it worth it to save a tenner?

neilmcl

Generally speaking there's not a great deal of difference between H and V rated tyres, apart from the obvious extra 19mph but for most people that'll be irrelevent. Personally though I woudn't mix the two, either have all H or all V tyres.

babyshoes

I wouldn't mix them, unless the new ones you are getting are over spec and you don't need to replace all your tyres, and contrary to the post above, I have always been led to believe that it IS illegal to have a lower speed rating than the manufacturer's spec, so unless the laws have changed, I wouldn't trust kwikfit on that one. Hmm, something to do more research on, perhaps.

cyclonebri1

Are there any tyres that are not rated for 70mph???, Ok, playing devils advocate but unless you get captured over the national speed limit it has to be irrelevant. Of course someone will know better.