Tyres

[DJT]

There was some discussion recently about tyre availability for the Stag. 185/80 14H tyres are now virtually unobtainable except Vredestein at going on for £100 a pop, or Michelin for double that, from outlets such as http://www.vintagetyres.com/ or www.longstonetyres.co.uk.

One alternative that was discussed is using 185/80 14T, which I thought were more readily available.

However, today I had to get two new tyres for my Stag's original 14" wheels. This was as a result of getting a large, rusty nail in the sidewall of one of my rears during the Devon Area annual driving skills challenge on Sunday . I confidently visited my regular tyre fitter and asked for 2 185/80 14T Falken tyres that I knew he usually had, but found out that these are also now unavailable - despite them being listed on www.blackcircles.com.

He did some searching for me and found that all he could get were 2 Federal 185/80 14T tyres, no matter how hard he searched. His opinion was that 185/80 car tyres will disappear from the market in the not-too-distant future, with the only ones available being from vintage tyre outlets as above.

We discussed various options and he suggested 175/80 14 tyres. These are still widely available as H-rated and at reasonable prices. I will be collecting my wheels tomorrow, fitted with fresh 175/80 14H Firestone tyres at less than £45 each, fully fitted. These will go on the front, with my remaining 185HR14 tyres on the rear, until they wear out.

I will report back in a few weeks on how these tyres perform. This size tyre was factory-fitted to Stags during the last 2 years of production.

Dave

[Mike J]

I have had 175 Michelins fitted to mine for the last 3 years with no problems, now 12k mikes. The tyres are fine it's just everything they support!!!

[Stagdad]

He didn't try here then http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/...,R14,91,T.html

I got a set of tyres (not Falken) for mine from these guys ,well pleased with the service and got my local fitter to put them on for £30 all in.

Cheers Steve

[Firept]

Dave.
Interestingly I was sat in the car park on Saturday waiting for SWMBO and a young lady parked a VW golf next to me ...whilst looking............. at the tyres noticed that they were Avon 175/80 14 and thought at the time they must be still readily available it was on a 1999 V reg.
I have some Runway 185 80 14 at the moment seem to be OK but may have the friction coefficient of wet PTFE on ice if pushed!
Try Micheldever tyres 01962 774437 they are usually good for unusual sizes, long way from you I know but they may be able to help.

Paul.

[DJT]

Thanks for the pointers guys. Several online tyre suppliers list these three but if you actually check with them they may not have stock. The fitter I use is a 'Blackcircles' outlet and he can't get them even though they are listed as available. The reason for my post was to highlight that we may need to look at alternatives if 185 14 gyres become scarce in H or T rating and 175 is an option. Dave

[dasadrew]

Manufacturers such as Vredestein and Pirelli (and probably others) do batches of speciality tyres every so often. Sometimes the batch is sold out and the particular tyre disappears from their website too. Don't despair, these tyres generally do re-appear. I know it's not much use if you've got a puncture though!

Not only classic tyres, but also the "exotics" have problems from time to time (F-40, Countach etc.) until a new batch is produced.

[Paul Goldsmith]

We're running 195/70 R14 tyres as we had the similar dilemna about 5 years ago when needing to replace the full set. I found there to be more choice at this size at that time and a quick look on BlackCircles shows this to still be the case. We went for Toyo tyres under £200 for the set fitted & balanced (IIRC), since found they gave much improved grip (extra width helps) over our old Federals - which although loads of tread left were badly perished.

The running circumference of 195/70 R14 is less than 185/80 R14 (-3.5%) but closer to 175/80 R14 (-1.1%), so speedo will be marginally out but never been a problem and the extra tyres width doesn't cause any issues at at all.

The rolling circumference of 205/70 R14 is about -1% to 185/80 R14 but I'm not sure if this additional width might cause rubbing on the arches in some circumstances - perhaps some forum members can advise here

Tyre size calculator : http://www.brspecialtuning.co.uk/Tyr...calculator.htm (also provides estimated actual speed when speedo reads 70mph)

[Kevin Garrod]

I'm running 205/70/14 tyres, they don't rub at all, but the speedo under reads a little.

[Colonel Mustard]

Just taken a look at the tyres on our car. They are 185/90/14 can't say I've noticed 90 profile tyres before. This will perhaps explain why the speedo under reads very slightly. Although the gearing is still a bit short on the motorway even with the overdrive engaged so I wouldn't want to fit tyres that had a smaller diameter.

Anyone else got these tyres on their car?

Chris

[CLASSICCHAV]

No,185/80/14s on slotmags in summer, and 175/80/14s on original mk2 alloys for winter lay-up,

[GDPR]

I'm running 205/70/14 tyres, they don't rub at all, but the speedo under reads a little.

I had an under-read with the 205/70s and the 3.45 diff, so bad that when doing a gps 70 it only showed 63mph, so I got the speedo from a 2500S - 3% over-read now which errs me on the side of caution.... look for a 140mph speedo with 840 instead of 1000 on the face...

[Stag About Town]

All radial tyres are low profile so unless the aspect ratio is included in the size marking, e.g. 185/60/R14H the ratio is actually 82%. A 17R14H is really 175/82R14H and likewise for the 185s. When I was in the tyre trade the rule of thumb for going wider was you could go up 2 section widths to move from standard 82 series to 70 series so a 175R14 would be ok on 19570R14H and the 185 could go to 20570R14. The rolling radius is the critical thing and these conversions maintain that. All subject to clearances being ok. of course.

[Guest]

This is one of the reasons I changed my wheels to 15". 15" tyres seem to be more available!

Jason

[DJT]

This is one of the reasons I changed my wheels to 15". 15" tyres seem to be more available!

Jason

I did the same Jason, but the lacquer is peeling badly on my 15" MWS minilite copies , so I have gone back to the original alloys.

Dave

[new to this]

I did the same Jason, but the lacquer is peeling badly on my 15" MWS minilite copies , so I have gone back to the original alloys.

Dave

dave

i bought some 15 inch wheels yesterday and damp has got behind the lacquer
how can you get the lacquer of is it a diy job, or is it a refurb job

dave