New tyres?

AliceBanned

Ok sorry I must have read your post in the wrong way. Thanks for explaining.

I am going to the tyre place this afternoon I think, so I will ask them what they think - as I was advised by the police I assumed it would be ok and trusted their opinion. If they were wrong then they may have been putting me in danger by advising me to drive up to 70mph?

If the tyre company can't shed any light I will try and post a pic.

Thanks and sorry again, some people do get a bit judgemental on these forums and it can be upsetting.

SteveJW

AliceBanned wrote: »

No, I covered 10 miles at 50mph before being stopped by the police, who had no problem at all with me driving another 90 miles to the coast and back,.

I am not trying to be judgemental either, but trying to offer advice

I to believe the tyre was a low speed tyre designed to get you home in an emergency, one of the reasons these are fitted is because the manufacturer does not desigh modern vehicles with enough space to carry a full sized spare. My experience of driving on one of these tyres is I would not want to drive any distance, 5 miles was enough for me

I sympathise with your lack of cash, most of us have been in that situation at one time but I think you need to ask yourself the question

What would you have done if you had got another puncture?
The police would have arranged to have the vehicle towed off the motorway (danger to yourself and other road users) You would have had to pay the towing fee, possibly £200, possible storage fees on top of that. You would have also had to make either your own way home or to your final destination

AliceBanned

SteveJW wrote: »

I am not trying to be judgemental either, but trying to offer advice

I to believe the tyre was a low speed tyre designed to get you home in an emergency, one of the reasons these are fitted is because the manufacturer does not desigh modern vehicles with enough space to carry a full sized spare. My experience of driving on one of these tyres is I would not want to drive any distance, 5 miles was enough for me

I sympathise with your lack of cash, most of us have been in that situation at one time but I think you need to ask yourself the question

What would you have done if you had got another puncture?
The police would have arranged to have the vehicle towed off the motorway (danger to yourself and other road users) You would have had to pay the towing fee, possibly £200, possible storage fees on top of that. You would have also had to make either your own way home or to your final destination

I didn't have another puncture, and I thought it most unlikely that I would have. Sure i took a chance on that. In a stressful situation that's what people do. I didn't have any other option. The police gave me the ok too and before that I was willing to drive the whole way at no more than 55mph. I had no choice. I could call out the rescue service if i got another puncture; they do come out for those things but I'd have to be extremely unlucky to get two in the space of a few days. The police considered me to be a danger to myself driving at 55mph, but not to other road users; it was the other road users who were not reacting to a slower vehicle that caused a problem. It wasn't ideal, I admit but I was packed and ready to go, had no money for a new tyre, am up to my ears in debt and particularly this month, so frankly I had to deal with it in the only way I could, or just not turn up for the volunteering.

I just feel this is going round in circles now; it's done - and nobody died or even came close to an accident, and I had enough reassurance from two friends and the police, that I wasn't doing anything wrong.

I am in the process of sorting out my debts which is pushing me to breaking point and possibly selling my flat, I've so had enough of working hard and then going through things like this. So don't think that i did what I did lightly.

Now I have £140 bill to pay for two new tyres tomorrow, and I'm going to find the money even if I hardly eat next week/month.

I need to work on a long term solution as something has to give, but I'm already doing that.

AliceBanned

OK so I asked the tyre place when I dropped my car in for new tyres today, and as that spare is a normal width it was right of the cops to inform me to drive up to 70mph.

Not sure whether this means the Ka spares are always like this, no idea but it seems the one that I have is ok for longer journeys and higher speeds.

Johnmcl7

Iceweasel wrote: »

And by my reading it was narrow spacesaver spare tyre clearly marked 80kph which is 50mph maximum speed.

Despite what any police officer said it is not suitable for 70mph on a motorway.

Not necessarily - full size spares can have the 80kph/50mph warning, this is the one from my mk 2 Octavia VRS which is a 205/55 R16 tyre:



The reason it has the warning is because it's a 16in steel wheel whereas the car is fitted with 17in alloys so when the spare is fitted it will be a slightly different size to the wheel on the other side. In practice I can't see it making that much of a difference, on the Octavia it certainly didn't whereas with a skinny spacesaver you would need to be more careful.

John

Iceweasel

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Not necessarily - full size spares can have the 80kph/50mph warning, this is the one from my mk 2 Octavia VRS which is a 205/55 R16 tyre:


The reason it has the warning is because it's a 16in steel wheel whereas the car is fitted with 17in alloys so when the spare is fitted it will be a slightly different size to the wheel on the other side. In practice I can't see it making that much of a difference, on the Octavia it certainly didn't whereas with a skinny spacesaver you would need to be more careful.

John

So what size are the tyres on the 17" alloys?

Johnmcl7

Iceweasel wrote: »

So what size are the tyres on the 17" alloys?

225/45R17

John

Iceweasel

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

225/45R17

John

That's what I thought you would tell us.

A 225/45 17 tyre is exactly the same diameter as a 205/55 16 tyre.

So there will be no imbalance as far as ride height is concerned - so the car would not be 'lop-sided'.

The 80kph restriction is solely because the car's handling will be abnormal with one odd tyre.

That is what I would expect and I still don't understand why any police officer would tell anyone to ignore a speed restriction on a wheel.

Police officers are not usually tyre experts so I for one would be very wary of following their advice.

The OP hasn't given us any tyre sizes so I can't really give any opinion on her spare tyre.

Johnmcl7

I don't know why you're trying to explain to me what I just told you, you were the one that believed incorrectly that the warning meant it meant it must be a spacesaver wheel. I know full well the diameter is the same and never made any reference to ride height however the width isn't hence why I said the sizes are different.

John

Iceweasel

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

I don't know why you're trying to explain to me what I just told you, you were the one that believed incorrectly that the warning meant it meant it must be a spacesaver wheel. I know full well the diameter is the same and never made any reference to ride height however the width isn't hence why I said the sizes are different.

John

Sorry John - I wasn't trying to be a smart !!! and explain anything to you - I'm trying to work out for my own benefit (and anyone else who is interested) as to why the wheel has a reduced speed restriction and why a police officer would have told the OP to ignore it and that the wheel/tyre combo was save to use at a higher speed.

Thank you for giving me info on your temporary spare.

Perhaps it doesn't make much difference, but I'm not sure of the precise reason that the speed is reduced.

You are right in that I did think/expect it to be a narrow spacesaver type of wheel - I haven't encountered this form of 'normal' wheel as a spare with a reduced speed label before.

Are these common then?