Duro tyres?

jase1

The price of winter tyres is starting to go back down to more reasonable levels, and I have found some Nokians in my size for £71 which I will almost certainly buy for the front.

I have had the thought though that I can save a little more cash by buying some slightly cheaper rubber for the rear tyres, and have noted some Duro DW9100s for £53. These seem to get good reviews and certainly seem to be better than the typical £50 budget tyre. The company is Taiwanese by the looks of things.

I had been thinking of buying Winter Tact remoulds (£40 each) for the rear -- the main problem with these from what I have read is that they wear quickly, the grip is decent, so they'd make a decent rear tyre. But these ones seem good VFM.

Has anyone ever used them?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Nokian are the dogs bits in winter tyres, why risk the stability of the car for the sake of £36 when you already have the good judgement to get some quality winter rubber in the first place, spoiling the ship for h'aporth of tar.

Get 4 of them there Nokians, if they are NRG2's i have set for winter use and they are good, quiet smooth and very sure footed in all cold conditions...apparently some people use them all year round with great success, i haven't tried them all year round meself.

bigjl

I reckon I would go for four Nokians Jase1, sometimes saving money is counter productive, I reckon this is one of these times.

A car is always much better balanced with four matched tyres.

After reading your post i checked Blackcircles out of interest and they still have winter tyres in my cars size up for the stupid prices they put them up to in Jan/Feb.

Though the Michelin Pilot Alpin's we had fitted to all the Zafiras this winter do seem to be lasting well in these summer months, the lazy fitters where supposed to change them all in March/April but they have only done a few.

jase1

They are WRG2s yes, from Oponeo (newish Polish outfit -- might be worth looking at bigjl).

I think you guys are right thinking about it, especially as I had a little 'surprise' this morning -- I have Toyo T1Rs on the front and Pirelli P7s at the rear currently, both reasonable tyres, but going round a greasy roundabout in the rain this morning I felt the back-end come away a little. Now if anything I'd have thought that the wet grip of the Pirellis would have the T1Rs beat, but it seems not. If I'd had cheap-!!! tyres on the back it might have been even more entertaining than it was this morning!

gilbert_and_sullivan

jase1 wrote: »

They are WRG2s yes, from Oponeo (newish Polish outfit -- might be worth looking at bigjl).

I tried them for Vred Sportracs as fitted to wifey's car, they come up about a tenner more expensive than 'Tyremen' who i've now used 3 or 4 times with no problems at all.

Not surprising the slip you had, i run T1R's on my RWD MB and they do not budge an inch in the (not cold) wet, too noisy though.

mikey72

jase1 wrote: »

They are WRG2s yes, from Oponeo (newish Polish outfit -- might be worth looking at bigjl).

I think you guys are right thinking about it, especially as I had a little 'surprise' this morning -- I have Toyo T1Rs on the front and Pirelli P7s at the rear currently, both reasonable tyres, but going round a greasy roundabout in the rain this morning I felt the back-end come away a little. Now if anything I'd have thought that the wet grip of the Pirellis would have the T1Rs beat, but it seems not. If I'd had cheap-!!! tyres on the back it might have been even more entertaining than it was this morning!

Might be worth waiting, the Duro's are the same price I bought my WRG2's for last Autumn. They can come down a bit more yet.

bigjl

jase1 wrote: »

They are WRG2s yes, from Oponeo (newish Polish outfit -- might be worth looking at bigjl).

I think you guys are right thinking about it, especially as I had a little 'surprise' this morning -- I have Toyo T1Rs on the front and Pirelli P7s at the rear currently, both reasonable tyres, but going round a greasy roundabout in the rain this morning I felt the back-end come away a little. Now if anything I'd have thought that the wet grip of the Pirellis would have the T1Rs beat, but it seems not. If I'd had cheap-!!! tyres on the back it might have been even more entertaining than it was this morning!

I had a similar experience in my Mondeo, Toyo T1rs on the front and Pirelli P6000's on the rear.

One morning it was a bit damp and thought i was driving a Sierra, lol.

I think it goes to show how good the Toyo proxes tyres are, and how much better they are than Pirellis in dampish conditions.

I actually put two on the front and as the rear were over 6mm i left them on. After that slide i got two new Toyos on the back.

Sadly Toyos are now £6 more expensive each, so i am getting Vredestein Sportrac 3s for use till winter, if i still have the car i am hoping to get a set of winters on a set of steel wheels.

The choice is definately between Nokians and Michelin Alpin.

bigjl

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

I tried them for Vred Sportracs as fitted to wifey's car, they come up about a tenner more expensive than 'Tyremen' who i've now used 3 or 4 times with no problems at all.

Not surprising the slip you had, i run T1R's on my RWD MB and they do not budge an inch in the (not cold) wet, too noisy though.

Toyo T1Rs are the best tyres in the wet i have used. I first bought the older T1S tyre, which were noisier but gripped so well that i have fitted Toyo proxes since.

Actually the only time i have fitted anything else in the last 7 yrs was a set of Nankang NS2s on my 17" wheels on my Legacy, i heard they were good and they were, but the 16's had Toyos at the time i upgraded.

I always have to consider budget these days, and to be honest Toyos are normally one of cheaper.tyres aswell.

I think they grip a bit better than a Michelin Primacy, but obviously they don't wear aswell.

I am interested to look at cheaper tyres this time as i need four this month.

I can get Vredestein Sportrac 3s for £65 odd and a saving of £12 a tyre means i don't mind doing without my beloved Toyos.

Anybody else tried Vredesteins recently? They were popular in my home town when i was in Uni. They were very new to the market, but a lot of farmers were putting them on their family cars back then.

At £5 more than the cheapest budget at Elite in Rainham i reckon i can't go wrong.

gilbert_and_sullivan

bigjl wrote: »

Anybody else tried Vredesteins recently? They were popular in my home town when i was in Uni. They were very new to the market, but a lot of farmers were putting them on their family cars back then.

You'll be glad you bought them, as good in the wet as the T1R's, but quieter and smoother ride IMO, and they rightly always score very well in European tyre tests.

We have a full set of Sportrac 3's on our C2 VTS HDi, they replaced the original set of Michelin Pilote's, and yes i have factored in new for older/worn, i never run tyres below 3mm at any point on the tread.

The car had serious torque steer problems on the Mich's, they were noisy and gave a crashing ride, different car following the change to Vred's.

''The choice is definately between Nokians and Michelin Alpin''

Agreed both good but don't rule out Vredesetin Wintrac's or Snowtrac's, or even Quatrac 3 all season's, i ran Wintrac Extreme's as my winter set on my pick up, i only used 4WD to let the system run a bit, it went everywhere i wanted in RWD only.
Amazing tyres, in 3 years of winter use they have worn barely 1mm.

jase1

Cheers guys, I will wait a bit longer. Just that tyres in general seem to be more expensive than six months ago so I don't want to miss the boat