Speed rating of tyres

wgl2014

It would seem unlikely that an insurer would be able to void a policy or refuse to pay out unless the tyre was shown to have been unsuitable or contributed to the accident.
Personally I wouldn't worry about it, if you are concerned a call to your insurer would be worth it for peace of mind before you buy your new tyres.

DoaM

Are there any notable difference between H and V rated tyres (apart from the obvious speed rating)?

For £5 a corner price difference I'd probably not bother with any potential hassle and stick with the correctly-rated* tyres.

(Which will come from the handbook, as already said a few times. H rated might already be OK, in which case - Yay! £20 saved).

AdrianC

DoaM wrote: »

Are there any notable difference between H and V rated tyres (apart from the obvious speed rating)?

For £5 a corner price difference I'd probably not bother with any potential hassle and stick with the correctly-rated* tyres.

(Which will come from the handbook, as already said a few times. H rated might already be OK, in which case - Yay! £20 saved).

It's also entirely possible that the lower-rated tyres will be Chinese ditchfinders - in which case, the more expensive tyre is better value, even without considering the speed rating issue.

seatbeltnoob

Both the tyres I'm looking at are the same model of goodyear, the costco website had 3 of them listed at difference prices with different speed ratings.

If they could void insurance over that than 3/4 of the cars driving around today are probably on invalid insurance.

On my car the manufactuer gives 4 different tyre profiles (for 4 different rim sizes), each of them with different speed ratings (higher speed ratings for lower profile tyre).

AdrianC

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

On my car the manufactuer gives 4 different tyre profiles (for 4 different rim sizes), each of them with different speed ratings (higher speed ratings for lower profile tyre).

And what size is given for the rims you have fitted?

z1a

" Yes, I have to agree with you - it seems daft to have a tyre capable of 149mph ( or even 130mph ) when any sensible driver would never get anywhere near that speed "

Umm, speak for yourself.

Ebe_Scrooge

z1a wrote: »

Umm, speak for yourself.

Please explain ? I didn't say it was daft, I was agreeing that it seems daft. I'm sure there's a sound reason behind it.

As I said, I fully agree that the tyres must meet the original manufacturer's specification. But why are my tyres rated to 140-odd mph when the top speed of the car ( according to the handbook ) is only something like 118 mph ? And in practice it never comes anywhere near to that speed.

Gloomendoom

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Please explain ? I didn't say it was daft, I was agreeing that it seems daft. I'm sure there's a sound reason behind it.

As I said, I fully agree that the tyres must meet the original manufacturer's specification. But why are my tyres rated to 140-odd mph when the top speed of the car ( according to the handbook ) is only something like 118 mph ? And in practice it never comes anywhere near to that speed.

It may have something to do with the load rating. Speed and load are linked.

For example, the load rating for trailer tyres can be exceeded by 10% in the UK because trailers are restricted to just 60 mph max.

Iceweasel

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

it seems daft to have a tyre capable of 149mph ( or even 130mph ) when any sensible driver would never get anywhere near that speed

It's that 'sensible driver' bit that I'm not happy about.

So sensible drivers don't ever take their cars out of the UK!

130mph on the Isle of Mann is not too difficult to achieve in safety - and legally.

Not to mention in Germany where I was driving for a fair few miles at just over 150mph this last Sunday and Monday.

My car is electronically limited to 155mph and my tires are Y rated - i.e 186mph.

Should I downgrade to W or perhaps V and save a few bob?

I think not. :cool:

Frozen_up_north

Regarding insurance and tyres, I came across a guy who had written his car off in a single vehicle RTC on a dual carriageway, his insurance wouldn’t pay out as they claimed he had a defective tyre. While it wasn’t a speed rating issue, if faced with a potentially expensive claim insurance companies will look for reasons to not pay out.

There was a case on TV a while ago where someone had purchased a second hand car fitted with a spoiler on the rear, the insurance company wouldn’t pay out on the write off, as they hadn’t been informed of the modification- the buyer wrongly assumed the car came as standard with a spoiler.