Tyre question

[Digidick]

Where did you get them from?

[Chrispy]

I got mine from Tyre Leader - excellent pricing, just weird delivery if you can live with that.  Free but my fronts were delivered separate from my rears with almost a week gap in between (by DPD).

There's so much debate about the whole star marking thing, for and against, talk about what can affect rolling radius including pressure and wear, turning corners, running on the spare for extended periods, all of the above combined, etc etc.

I think when logic is applied, it makes sense for there to be as little as possible a difference in RR front to back if the Xdrive system is as sensitive as it is in detecting slip, thus it tries to lock things up a bit.  We spend 90% of our time driving in roughly a straight line and if it's spending all that time trying to fight what it perceives as slip between the rear and front, it's not going to be happy.....

Same applies to other 4WD systems really and if the chance to measure the tyres before fitting is taken out of your hands then it's much more pot luck avoiding star marking - god knows what you could end up fitted to your car as garages won't measure.  One chap on here took some Pirellis off to find a whopping 20mm difference between front and rear.......his transfer case was grumbling and changing the tyres fixed it.....

On a non staggered setup this sort of thing will be largely unheard of assuming manufacturing techniques are half decent as they "should" all be the same size, but go wider at the back and that's where things can drift.  It's a case of keeping that as low as possible (ideally zero, although I'm not sure even if * marked tyres get it that close, but they'll be near as dammit) and when going non RFT here (and non star marked for me as there are no star marked non RFT with the right load rating for the 7 seater) I think there is an element of due diligence required by you as the owner.

[Digidick]

Comes out at £600 for me?

[Chrispy]

Are you on 19" wheels or 20" ?  Mine are only the diddy 19's......

[Digidick]

[quote="Chrispy"]
Are you on 19" wheels or 20" ?  Mine are only the diddy 19's......
[/quote]

whoops! yes I am 

[Chrispy]

Doh!  I am slightly jealous as the 19's look a little lost in the arches but do mean cheaper tyres and a supposedly better ride.....

[Huxsta]

I’m also watching with interest. The only thing my old brain is telling me is those tyres you have fitted show an A rating for grip in the wet. My cynical side of me says they are soft as........ and mileage will be interesting with the weight of the X5 and how they fair on the shoulders..... ? Saying that I’ve no idea what my Rft Dunlop’s are rated at!

[Chrispy]

Read mixed reviews on the wear front.  Some saying they wear quickly, others saying they're up to 15k miles and still going strong.  Just had a 4WA done too last week so premature wear due to bad alignment shouldn't be an issue.

As I say, choice was limited due to load ratings.  Shame really.