New wheels for BMW X5 E70 - Advice needed

[Flog]

Don Coffey - slightly, well totally off topic, is that St Foy at the footer of your messages? If so did you get there this year?

[Shez1878]

Right so just put a deposit down on a set of brand new Kumho non-RFTs. £650 including fitting, balancing, tracking etc. Let you know how I get on....

[huck]

Will be good to get your feedback. Out of interest, have you got a spare tyre, compressor etc?


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Huck (iPhone mode!)

[Shez1878]

I'm still mulling over that issue. 7-seater so spare tyre out of the question. Where would a compressor sit? Shows how clueless I am. Don't even know what it does!

[Don Coffey]

[quote="Flog"]
Don Coffey - slightly, well totally off topic, is that St Foy at the footer of your messages? If so did you get there this year?
[/quote]

Nice spot there young man 

Unfortunately, that was 2006 and the last time I went skiing.  Keep promising to go back but other things come up!  We tended to stay down the hill and then travel to different ski resorts each day. 

Don

[MaXX99]

[quote="sarends"]
I just ordered summer tires and a set of 20" wheels.  I really wanted to try Vredestion Ultrac Vorti as the reviews are amazing, but the closest size is 285/35/20 and that is just too short (IMO).  So, I went with Vredestein Sessantas in a staggered setup (315/35/20 + 275/40/20).  I have a 97 M3 sedan with Sessantas and I really like them,so I am optimistic about how they will be on the X5.
[/quote]

I am also tempted to steer away from the RFT's on my 20" staggered setup (275/315). I did also look into those Vorti's as you could read in my previous post, and indeed all reviews are all raving about the tire. The do use it on sportscars mainly though (DB9, CLS, Porshe's etc). I wonder how they hold their own on our heavy SUV's ... When you look on the vredestein site you can see they do have the vorti's in 315/35/20 & 275/40/20 : http://www.vredestein.nl/autobanden/sea ... /35/20/all & http://www.vredestein.nl/autobanden/sea ... /40/20/all
Both with a correct load index and XL rating for our E70's ... I am curious about wear though because that seemed also the only complaint on the Sessenta's (10k miles etc).

I had looked into those Atturo's also and found very positive reviews about them, but they don't carry a 110 load index, nor an XL rating so I steered away from them.

Nankang AS1 on the other hand do have correct specs ... but I am quite hesitant for those.

If anyone puts the Vorti's on their E70's let us know

What real-life mileage are you guys getting on the sessenta's ?

[Caesium]

Looked through the entire six pages of this thread looking for some recommendations for tyres, and all I found was five pages of drivel! 

[X5Sport]

Try this.......

If you want to ensure your AWD system works without issues then go for '*' rated tyres, whether for winter or summer.

Avoid anything with large tread blocks such as those you might fit to a pickup as for some reason these are more likely to cause trouble.

Avoid large tread depth differences front to back as this is more likely to cause an issue.

That limits you to Bridgestone, Dunlop, Michelin, Continental and maybe a couple of others like Hankook.

Don't go really cheap and buy at that end of the market.  These cars weigh 2-tonnes and will not give you the handling and security that these cars need for good road manners.

[Graeme]

This is good advice from X5Sport.  You can also add Goodyear to the list of recommended tyres with (*) - some of the new cars are coming fitted with them on 19" wheels.

Graeme

[Cat Man]

All I can offer is my own experiences....

Last 18 months I've owned my car it has run on the standard factory Bridgestone HP Sport - grip is outstanding, so is wear (25,000 miles on a set give or take). Must say though, with sport suspension option and run flat tyres, the ride can be quite hard, which isnt so good sometimes living in Leeds (pot hole capital of the UK!)

During winter I've got Vredestein non run flat. Ride is definitely smoother but at a cost of the steering feeling a bit squishier.

[JimmySpeed]

On my last e&0 I change the Bridgestone runflats to the same tyre in non-RFT. Seemed sensible as it was going to be the closest non-RFT to the factory tyre.

Ride was excellent and handling didn't appear to suffer apart from the obvious extra squishiness which is inevitable going to non-RFT. Even then it was only slight and only noticeable when really pushing it. Normal driving was just much smoother and more comfortable. I would do the same on my LCI however (1) the LCI seems better on RFTs than my 2007 was and (2) the tyres it came with are damned near new.