T5 Tyres 17" what is available in OZ

[beachie1]

Hi there,Replaced original Michlin Agilis on Kombi Beach at 75ks with Goodyear Cargo.
A 4 for price of 3offer.
Cargos very quiet,good in wet,no sqealing in wet as reported with Dunlop Duellers.
Good luck with your choice.

[WambyMc]

Hi there,Replaced original Michlin Agilis on Kombi Beach at 75ks with Goodyear Cargo.
A 4 for price of 3offer.
Cargos very quiet,good in wet,no sqealing in wet as reported with Dunlop Duellers.
Good luck with your choice.

Hi Beachie, Are the Cargos for 17" wheels? I drive a hiace work vehicle with cargo tyres and rate them highly but they are on smaller diameter wheels. My T5 tyres are Conti VancoContacts and currently searching for a new set of replacements. Have considered Conti again, also Dunlop, Pirelli, and Yoki but will probably go for Hankook based on price point at this stage.
Does anyone have any suggestions for locating a spare 17" wheel. I would like a second spare to take with us on our upcoming travels around Oz.
Cheers Mal

[bobf]

I have these tyres also - GoodYear Cargo Vector, 215/60R17c - a LT construction, M&S 109 load rating. Cost $230 fitted versus $580 for the original Michelin Primacy - handles well, good off bitumen as fairly chunky AT type tread pattern, a bit more noisy than the Michelins perhaps, mainly at low speed roundabouts etc. I find that running at 46-48psi on bitument and 36 off-road seems to work well

---------- Post added at 01:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 AM ----------

I forgot to add, the Cargo Vectors are made in Germany, not Asia, and are the alternate size shown on the Transporter compliance plate so all legal etc. This is the same tyre that Trakka are fitting to their AT Trakkadu camper-van.

[Transporter]

I have these tyres also - GoodYear Cargo Vector, 215/60R17c - a LT construction, M&S 109 load rating. Cost $230 fitted versus $580 for the original Michelin Primacy - handles well, good off bitumen as fairly chunky AT type tread pattern, a bit more noisy than the Michelins perhaps, mainly at low speed roundabouts etc. I find that running at 46-48psi on bitument and 36 off-road seems to work well

---------- Post added at 01:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 AM ----------

I forgot to add, the Cargo Vectors are made in Germany, not Asia, and are the alternate size shown on the Transporter compliance plate so all legal etc. This is the same tyre that Trakka are fitting to their AT Trakkadu camper-van.

Did you buy them from tyre dealer or from O/S?

[bobf]

just got them from the local Beaurepaire dealer - got them in overnight.

[Kallistapete]

Hi All

Have just been through the process for my T5 Multivan 132kw DSG 4Motion, so perhaps an update is in order. I do about 50% road and 50% gravel so wear is an issue. The 132 Kw has big brakes so only a 17" rim fits. The DSG means that a larger rolling circumference will void warantee so we are stuck with the 235/55/17 profile. Placard lists 215/60/17 for "winter" tyres. The limiting issue is the 103 load rating. This allows a total vehicle weight of 3.5 Tonnes which is needed for a fully loaded T5 4Motion and knocks out most of the locally available tyres.

Vehicle was supplied with Dunlop SP Sport 01 tyres and have just discovered that the fronts are nearly finished at 15k!

So spent several days searching and found the following alternatives to the SP Sport:

Maxxis MA-P1
Yokohama Advan ST
Hankook DyaPro RA23

I haven't tried any of these so any experiences would be appreciated. I also see that there appears to be supply issues for the RA23, but my local dealer says he can get them.

They are all road tyres and I could not find any "gravel" tyres in oz, nor any 215/60/17s. (just noticed bobf's post re goodyear cargo vectors so will check them out)

Cheers

Pete

[Transporter]

The info an all 3 tyres is in this thread, so you can look at the previous pages.
I can sum up my experience with Hankook RA23 since I had them and was very happy with them. I think I got just over 40,000km out of them. They cost me $195 (with some trade discount ) then. Expect to pay around $240 today. I've rotated them every 5,000km since my van is loaded to the max. and I use the steering a lot to reverse and going around roundabouts.

I have Kumho KH15 at the moment and would not recommend them at less than 20,000km they're on the last mm before TWI. I will have to get new tyres before the end of June. I made some enquiry yesterday and was told to hurry up because the price is going up thanks to the carbon tax that we have to have.

Maxxis MA-P1 look good from the price point of view, I can get them for $220 ea. They have the tread wear rating of 380 and as some in this thread said they could have a reasonable life span.

I didn't ask what's the tread wear rating on the Yokohama Advan but I don't think that they would last longer than Maxxis.

Other than that, I've considered Goodyear Cargo 215/60/17 but just seeing that tread pattern I already hear the noise from them and I'm not sure that they would last much longer than Maxxis to justify discomfort.

---------- Post added at 09:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:24 AM ----------

As the post above says; the Goodyear Cargo 215/60/17 are sold by Beaurepair and also some Maxxis dealers have them.

[brad]

A quick look at tirerack gives a list of 7 possibles in 235/55x17. They run from USD113 -USD187.

Of particular interest is the Kumho Ectsa LX Platinum with a tread wear rating of 600 for USD131 - that would make them around AUD900 delivered plus $100 to fit & balance. Possibly worth the hassle for the potential extra mileage.

[hoddy]

Maxxis MA-P1
Yokohama Advan ST
Hankook DyaPro RA23

They are all road tyres and I could not find any "gravel" tyres in oz, nor any 215/60/17s.

Hi Pete, If you're looking for something that is not a road tyre, have a look at the Yokohama Geolander HT-S
I went with a higher profile ( 235/60/17), load rating OK, speedo then becomes spot on)
They seemed the best 4WD ish tyre that I could find that would still fit in the spare wheel section under car.

[Transporter]

A quick look at tirerack gives a list of 7 possibles in 235/55x17. They run from USD113 -USD187.

Of particular interest is the Kumho Ectsa LX Platinum with a tread wear rating of 600 for USD131 - that would make them around AUD900 delivered plus $100 to fit & balance. Possibly worth the hassle for the potential extra mileage.

The extra mileage would be good but judging on the price alone it's not worthwhile in the case of the tyre for the van.

brad, you're the wealth of knowledge when it comes to tyres and wheel alignments.
I was told by the bloke at Wise Choice Tyres at Lonsdale rather amusing thing and not probably wise from him to say about the tread wear rating; apparently the road surface in the USA is different to ours and the tread wear rating is not accurate for the tyres made for US market, when they're used in AU. I didn't want to start debating it with him; certainly the difference wouldn’t be measurable, considering the variety of the road surfaces in both countries. What do you think? Do the tyre manufacturers use that much different rubber composition for the different countries?

Another thing is the warranty and the liability, if something goes wrong and you've imported the tyre yourself.

[brad]

The tyre guy is kind-of right but I think the mileage differences would be consistently different, therefore you can still use the TWI has a guide (better than nothing IMO).

The UTQG tyre rating system is a USA thing from their Dept of Transport. AFAIK, Australia doesn't have a similar system. Therefore if a tyre has a 600 rating in USA, then there isn't an AUS TWI rating that supercedes it.

The TWI is only a guide within a particular tyre brand. ie: TWI of 600 on Brand X will last a different amount of time to Brand Y. This is because the testing is done by the manufacturer, not by the DOT, therefore it's easy to get some result differentiation either by design or accident.

Rather than me copy/paste READ THIS

re: legality of imported tyres.
In the past, it was illegal to fit self-imported tyres. You had to get them approved for use in AUS by the AUS DOT. The ADRs (ADR23/02) have been changed in recent years (i don't know when) and they harmonised with the EU (and the US DOT but I can't find the doco) and now the tyre just needs an E in a circle with the approving country number. (that's how I read the ADR). This is why it's been possible to bring in container loads of 2nd hand tyres and sell them legally or bring in parallel imports & sell them legally.

I guess with any of this type of thing, it's up to the individual to do the research & be comfortable with their own decision.

edit: re: warranty. I doubt there'd be any warranty for a self-import but warranty on tyres is lousy anyway.

[Diesel_vert]

A quick look at tirerack gives a list of 7 possibles in 235/55x17. They run from USD113 -USD187.

Of particular interest is the Kumho Ectsa LX Platinum with a tread wear rating of 600 for USD131 - that would make them around AUD900 delivered plus $100 to fit & balance. Possibly worth the hassle for the potential extra mileage.

Kumho Ectsa LX Platinum is an all-season tyre, which explains the high treadwear rating. I explain below.

The extra mileage would be good but judging on the price alone it's not worthwhile in the case of the tyre for the van.

brad, you're the wealth of knowledge when it comes to tyres and wheel alignments.
I was told by the bloke at Wise Choice Tyres at Lonsdale rather amusing thing and not probably wise from him to say about the tread wear rating; apparently the road surface in the USA is different to ours and the tread wear rating is not accurate for the tyres made for US market, when they're used in AU. I didn't want to start debating it with him; certainly the difference wouldn’t be measurable, considering the variety of the road surfaces in both countries. What do you think? Do the tyre manufacturers use that much different rubber composition for the different countries?

The majority of tyres sold in Australia are summer tyres - which simply don't work in freezing conditions.

And unlike us, the North American market experience real winters, so their tyres need to work in the snow and freezing conditions, thus all-season tyres are the norm. All-season tyres typically last longer, provide a better ride and are (mostly) less noisy. But they also feel like you're riding on jello - grip and performance generally suffers.

Tire Rack makes it very easy to compare summer and all-season tyres, and though treadwear ratings aren't directly comparable, there is generally a wide gap between the two categories.

Also, Americans tend to get angry if their tyres last less 80 000 km or something ridiculous like that.

Another thing is the warranty and the liability, if something goes wrong and you've imported the tyre yourself.

There's always a chance you might get a tyre with a defect or is out-of-round, but as with anything that's personally imported, it's just a matter of knowing the risks.

[brad]

All Season tyres are for places where it gets a bit cold & possibly a light dusting of snow on the ground. If you get a *real* winter then you'll be running summer rims & winter rims with either Mud & Snow or proper Snow tyres - unfortunately, the Americans aren't as keen on running 2 sets of tyres/rims as the Europeans & so they try & get by with All-Season for All-Year. That's why Australia was getting container loads of tyres from Europe - M&S tyres that had exceeded the mandatory life limit (6yrs?) that a lot of Euro countries impose.

Having said all that, I agree, an All Season tyre will not be as focussed as a dedicated summer tyre. Generally the tread blocks have multiple sipes cut in them (which causes the squirmy feeling) to aid traction in marginal conditions and other compromises to make them work all year round.

For the vehicle in question though, wouldn't an All-Season tyre be a good choice? All-Season should be a bit better on gravel & it's a heavy van so it needs fairly "hard" rubber. I'd shudder to think how short a lifespan the Yokohama Advan Sport (TW 180) would give - 10,000km?

[Diesel_vert]

All Season tyres are for places where it gets a bit cold & possibly a light dusting of snow on the ground. If you get a *real* winter then you'll be running summer rims & winter rims with either Mud & Snow or proper Snow tyres - unfortunately, the Americans aren't as keen on running 2 sets of tyres/rims as the Europeans & so they try & get by with All-Season for All-Year. That's why Australia was getting container loads of tyres from Europe - M&S tyres that had exceeded the mandatory life limit (6yrs?) that a lot of Euro countries impose.

Yes, that too.

Having said all that, I agree, an All Season tyre will not be as focussed as a dedicated summer tyre. Generally the tread blocks have multiple sipes cut in them (which causes the squirmy feeling) to aid traction in marginal conditions and other compromises to make them work all year round.

For the vehicle in question though, wouldn't an All-Season tyre be a good choice? All-Season should be a bit better on gravel & it's a heavy van so it needs fairly "hard" rubber. I'd shudder to think how short a lifespan the Yokohama Advan Sport (TW 180) would give - 10,000km?

Judging from the threads, I'd go further and say that all-season tyres would be ideal for most people in this forum.

[Transporter]

Thanks brad and Diesel_vert for explanation.

I had more on mind the rubber composition for the same tyre.
Is there actually that much difference in the rubber for all season tyre between tyre for US and AU?