Koleos tires recommendations?

Further to my post #19, the study prepared for UCSR takes into account vehicles of all ages, models of which may have been totally superseded by better performing vehicles, there is again no qualification. The age or condition of any of the vehicles involved in the study does not appear to have been recorded. For instance, the Lada Niva has been around since the mid-late seventies without any major changes.
 
Are you attempting to disprove basic physics? Good luck with that - centre of gravity is a pretty fundamental concept when considering how a vehicle deals with sudden changes of direction.
 
A very low COG behaves like this


A high COG behaves like this


I know what I’d rather be in when things go pear shaped on the highway....
 
We recently put Kumho KL 33 on the Koleos. V rated, nice and quiet, and happy to do our forays into bush tracks and climbs.

Dave
 
A very low COG behaves like this


A high COG behaves like this


I know what I’d rather be in when things go pear shaped on the highway....

I don't see either of the cars approaching the angle of the London bus........plus the Dacia Duster is an ultra cheap vehicle not sold in Australia so you'll need to go to Europe to avoid driving one. Talk about comparing Onions and Sausages....................
 
I don't see either of the cars approaching the angle of the London bus........plus the Dacia Duster is an ultra cheap vehicle not sold in Australia so you'll need to go to Europe to avoid driving one. Talk about comparing Onions and Sausages....................

Time to dig out your physics text books... A static angle test is virtually meaningless when considering how a vehicle behaves at speed.
 
Yeap, I was looking at the PC5s as well, and you are right, stocks seem low but what can I do? Will shoot some emails and see what happens.

Conti PC are good. But any of the premium touring tyres will be good. The Alfa has Bridgestones on it from the factory which I’ve been pleasantly surprised with (even though they are stuffed at 30K kms!) and some Goodyear EfficientGrip on the Megane (they were on sale and too cheap to ignore) that are quite decent.
 
Alright.

So I've had an answer but it says they can not tell me what the manufacture date is as Continental does not tell them (they probably order from Continental when someone puts an order in and the tyres ship directly to the buyer, that's what I suspect, anyway).

What to do?
 
Alright.

So I've had an answer but it says they can not tell me what the manufacture date is as Continental does not tell them (they probably order from Continental when someone puts an order in and the tyres ship directly to the buyer, that's what I suspect, anyway).

What to do?
Surely they have the 4-digit ID number on the sidewall? That gives week and year of manufacture. Just checked the R8 rears - eek, did I really buy them for that 2007 road trip???? :(
 
Time to dig out your physics text books... A static angle test is virtually meaningless when considering how a vehicle behaves at speed.

Regardless of which, you seem to have an irrational fear of vehicles falling over due to a high centre of gravity, particularly I suppose since many vehicles in modern times were quite renowned for their aerial feats, yet all of which had a conventional moderate to low C of G. Volkswagen Beetle, Renault 4CV, Dauphine, R8 and R10, plus the unforgettable Corvair. The limiting factor in all these was the design of the suspension which constantly changed the roll centre. As you would of course know, it is possible to design a suspension where the roll centre is below the surface of the road and whilst the roll centre is affected by the C of G a roll centre that low is not common in road going cars.

I have completed years of driving trucks, which have a much higher C of G than any SUV or 4x4 without myself tipping one over but I've also rolled an R12 and it had a much lower C of G than any truck, no different to any other car. No, your irrational fear can probably be explained by your penchant for reading things into specification sheets which do not translate into reality on the road but then again it might derive from your own unhappy driving experiences, but either way, your adulation of the centre of gravity as the be-all and end-all for purchasing a vehicle is a strange one.
 
Regardless of which, you seem to have an irrational fear of vehicles falling over due to a high centre of gravity, particularly I suppose since many vehicles in modern times were quite renowned for their aerial feats, yet all of which had a conventional moderate to low C of G. Volkswagen Beetle, Renault 4CV, Dauphine, R8 and R10, plus the unforgettable Corvair. The limiting factor in all these was the design of the suspension which constantly changed the roll centre. As you would of course know, it is possible to design a suspension where the roll centre is below the surface of the road and whilst the roll centre is affected by the C of G a roll centre that low is not common in road going cars.

I have completed years of driving trucks, which have a much higher C of G than any SUV or 4x4 without myself tipping one over but I've also rolled an R12 and it had a much lower C of G than any truck, no different to any other car. No, your irrational fear can probably be explained by your penchant for reading things into specification sheets which do not translate into reality on the road but then again it might derive from your own unhappy driving experiences, but either way, your adulation of the centre of gravity as the be-all and end-all for purchasing a vehicle is a strange one.

Face palm... You don’t want to get the point I guess. Tevs.
 
Surely they have the 4-digit ID number on the sidewall? That gives week and year of manufacture. Just checked the R8 rears - eek, did I really buy them for that 2007 road trip???? :(


Yes, they sure do, I guess it is the law here (or at least in Europe) if you want to sell your tyres on their market.

But these guys don't stock them so can't check. So they asked Continental. Continental would have to physically go in their warehouse, take a pallet, open a crate, take a tyre out and check and then check every other tyre in the warehouse or make sure they check every tyre that ships out. Which they don't care to do, I take it.

Continental may have some idea/details they received from the factory with their shipments/paperwork but someone needs to dig it out and look. I'll try calling Conti on the phone on monday.
 
Alright.

So I've had an answer but it says they can not tell me what the manufacture date is as Continental does not tell them (they probably order from Continental when someone puts an order in and the tyres ship directly to the buyer, that's what I suspect, anyway).

What to do?

If it’s a reasonably common size, they won’t be too old. Don’t worry about it. Besides, time for a new tyre in a warehouse is different to being on a car - even if it’s been in a warehouse for a year it will be fine.
 
Yes, they sure do, I guess it is the law here (or at least in Europe) if you want to sell your tyres on their market.

But these guys don't stock them so can't check. So they asked Continental. Continental would have to physically go in their warehouse, take a pallet, open a crate, take a tyre out and check and then check every other tyre in the warehouse or make sure they check every tyre that ships out. Which they don't care to do, I take it.

Continental may have some idea/details they received from the factory with their shipments/paperwork but someone needs to dig it out and look. I'll try calling Conti on the phone on monday.
Yes, I can understand that. Still, you're the customer...... I guess all you can do is order the tyres and explain to the retailer that you won't pay unless they are under, well maybe 2 years, when you can see the age from the 4-digit number. If they won't, find another retailer. Dunno about 2 years, that's a personal judgement. My 14-year Michelins don't have wall cracking (and I'm sensitive to micro-cracks) but I'd agree the compound has probably hardened and that their wet weather performance won't be stellar! It does drift on wet roads in slow motion....

These photos were taken in 2015 and I'm happy not to remember how old they were. They certainly owed me nothing..... I threw them away when I noticed.

Wall cracks 1 Oct 2015.jpg
Wall cracks 2 Oct 2015.jpg
 
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Yes, I can understand that. Still, you're the customer...... I guess all you can do is order the tyres and explain to the retailer that you won't pay unless they are under, well maybe 2 years, when you can see the age from the 4-digit number. If they won't, find another retailer. Dunno about 2 years, that's a personal judgement. My 14-year Michelins don't have wall cracking (and I'm sensitive to micro-cracks) but I'd agree the compound has probably hardened and that their wet weather performance won't be stellar! It does drift on wet roads in slow motion....

[...]

I can tell you've been here a long time.

Customers don't mean shit these days. Big business don't care.

Have you seen how much push and shove it takes to get something done even when it's a legitimate public concern like say the source of foods we eat? And even then all we get is some lame statement such as "90% Australian made". Don't say nuffin' 'bout what exact part of the making is the 10% or where was that "made".

I am willing to bet a full set of brand new Contisportcontact 5 SUV tyres in any size you choose the business in question is in fact only a website cleverly set up where people order and when the customer pays they take their cut and send an electronic message to the respective manufacturer to place the order and specify the delivery address and the payment probably goes out at the end of the month, again automatically. Such a business needs one employee who is most likely the owner of the business. Who might be in London or Tel Aviv or Guadalcanal for all we know. What do you think he cares about his customers?

And I haven't seen the tyres in stock elsewhere. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if I tried to order and they told me that in fact they can't get the tyres. It happens way too often and sometimes they tell you after they take your money and then they give you a gift voucher, so in reality they took your money and tied you to their shop. Because by law you're not automatically entitled to a refund. Can take months before you convince them you are if you do actually manage to and then more time to actually get your money back. Wasting your time and draining your energy is a tactic I would guess works 90% of the time otherwise they wouldn't do it.

That is what it is like to be a customer today at least in Oz.

I do however harbour illusions that if I pay with money well within its use by date I expect services and products likewise.

I shot an email to the guy explaining that I am willing to take the risk if they accept I return the tyres if they are more than 6 months old. We'll see what they say. Meanwhile I'll try to ring Continental and see what they can tell me.
 
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Customer care in big European companies isn’t any better from some recent experiences...

Are you looking at tyresales.com.au? I’ve used them a couple of times with no problems, and got actually new tyres.

Is it actually a problem though? How many kms do you do...? In my case I don’t worry about it as the Alfa is super hard on tyres and kills them in 30K kms (no chance to get old...) and the Megane does so few kms I replaced 80% tread tyres on age anyway (wouldn’t have mattered much if they were a year old when I got them...).

I think you’re overthinking the tyre age issue. You’ve got bigger safety and handling issues already....
 
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