Mixing tyres on one car advice

kmb500

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

The generally-accepted advice - for most "ordinary" drivers - is to have the best tyres on the back. The reason being : If the front tyres lose grip, you get understeer which is reasonably easy to correct. If the rears lose grip, you get oversteer, which is much more difficult to deal with.


As DoaM says - for those who've been on skid training courses, and know how to recognise and control the different types of skids, then it makes sense to have the best tyres on the driven wheels. But for the majority of everyday drivers, best tyres on the back.

Hm, seems odd to me. In a normal front wheel drive family car or hatchback you really aren't gonna get oversteer. The front wheels do much more work so I would put the good wheels on them.




Last year my rear tyres on my (RWD) car were both virtually slicks, they had no tread at all. It was awesome as every single corner I could drift with ease, and if I gave it a lot of throttle off a traffic light I would get a ton of wheel spin and smoke. it was sweet then I replaced them with good tyres, so much more boring to drive! But at least I could drive fast round a corner without sliding.

Ebe_Scrooge

kmb500 wrote: »

Last year my rear tyres on my (RWD) car were both virtually slicks, they had no tread at all. It was awesome as every single corner I could drift with ease, and if I gave it a lot of throttle off a traffic light I would get a ton of wheel spin and smoke. it was sweet then I replaced them with good tyres, so much more boring to drive! .

I do hope you're joking ?

EdGasketTheSecond

On the driving wheels you ideally want tyres that are the same make and tread depth to limit wear on the differential. Possibly on the front you would want the same so that braking is balanced but if you drive slow enough and leave plenty of braking distance it doesn't matter much.

kmb500

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

I do hope you're joking ?

No it was great! Give a rear wheel drive car no grip and it is an absolute blast. I mean the car is still fab to drive anyway but still.


It's like the Toyota GT86, Toyota gives it crappy tyres so that it slides around more easily. Same reason Mazda gives the MX-5 skinny tyres.

takman

kmb500 wrote: »

Doesn't make a difference, you can mix and match tyres just fine and the car won't be affected. I mean if you were a racing driver you would probably want exactly the same tyres on all four, but it doesn't really matter in the real world. I would advise putting the best tyres on the front though (assuming its fwd) so if your rear ones are needing replacing, swap your fronts to the rears and put the new ones on the front.

I would never just change one tyre, they should be wearing down evenly on the same axle anyway. So you should change atleast two tyres each time.


Personally i think you should just get two new Landsail LS588 tyres. I've never tried them but they seem to get very good reviews for a budget tyre.

facade

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

The generally-accepted advice - for most "ordinary" drivers - is to have the best tyres on the back. The reason being : If the front tyres lose grip, you get understeer which is reasonably easy to correct. If the rears lose grip, you get oversteer, which is much more difficult to deal with.

This is correct, for Olden Days cars. (It is generally better to go straight on and crash into a tree, than swipe sideways into it)

With a modern fwd car, festooned with TLA's like ABS ESP TCC, I would argue that if you have a pair of ditchfinders, and a pair of decent tyres, the decent ones go on the front, as the fronts get to do all the braking due to the weight transfer , the TLAs will then prevent the ditchfinders locking up and pretty much stop any skid before it happens.

This is what I have done- put the expensive ditchfinders on the back, and move the stupidly expensive branded tyres to the front.
(Wouldn't mind £120 a tyre if I had a performance car, but for a mini-mpv?- £50 each for ditchfinders seems expensive enough)

Ebe_Scrooge

kmb500 wrote: »

No it was great! Give a rear wheel drive car no grip and it is an absolute blast. I mean the car is still fab to drive anyway but still.


.

There we are then. I do hope the next time you go drifting on public roads, you get pulled by Plod who will see your "virtually slick" tyres with "no tread at all" on them, and throw the book at you. :mad:

Joe_Horner

takman wrote: »

Personally i think you should just get two new Landsail LS588 tyres. I've never tried them but they seem to get very good reviews for a budget tyre.

This.

We've been using Landsails (LS288 all season) for a couple of years now on 2 different cars (one RWD BMW and one FWD Pug) and they're remarkably capable.

Wear rates aren't great - just passed 20k miles on them with the 5 series and reckon there's another 4 or 5k left - but that's on a big old tank of a RWD and they were £20 per corner cheaper than the next option at the time.

The only problem is no-one local seems to be stocking them anymore.

kmb500

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

There we are then. I do hope the next time you go drifting on public roads, you get pulled by Plod who will see your "virtually slick" tyres with "no tread at all" on them, and throw the book at you. :mad:

it was all fun and games until it was icy in winter and my car spun 180 degrees in traffic lol that was a fun experience.