Tyre

[VZCalais]

Originally Posted by domn8

yeah got them the morning (1hour) before i had to have my car on the truck over here, coz mate gave me his rims and the back tyres where down to the wire lol so yeah kinda needed them ;p

thats understandable

[domn8]

yeah the lucky bastard got 20" chrome, $4000 each... from his sister lol

[Blown355]

Gotta love IRS commodores LOL I'm so glad I've been able to get back on a live axle platform, only problem now is the locker is chewing them out like nobodys business (good thing i've got tons of them out the back LOL)

[CalaisBoy]

I've had Maxxis MAZ-1 Victra's and also currently have Nexen N3000. Both excellent value for money and great performance but I also reckon both have been a bit noisy - specially as they wear down. Of course this may not be an issue for you young blokes!!!! :-)

I am planning to try Falken 452's in a couple of months. A bit dearer but great reviews.

[Purple_Power]

How old were the tyres? There's a little rectangle on the sidewall somewhere, with rounded corners. It should have 4 numbers on it, and the first 2 numbers are the week (01- 52) and the next 2 are the year. Eg. if it says 0109 the tyres were manufactured in the first week, 2009.
My car had Bridgestones on it, which were awesome. To replace them would have cost over $600 each, so I got Dunlop. They're a little bit noisy, but even in the worst rain, the car handles like it's dry.

[Tigerv8]

Bridgestone made the B530 tyre especially for the VT Commodore SS and subsequent models. I liked those as they broke away slowly when you applied the power in a corner and were all right in the wet, too, but I could still get a quick break away at the rear in tight turns in the wet sometimes (eg roundabouts).

I also got 75,000km in wear from them. Unfortunately, they are not made any more but their replacement is called the Adrenalin and is about $90 cheaper than the B530. I have got them in both 17" and 18" sizes. They are also assymmetrical, which means they must be mounted a certain way on the rim so that a specific part of the tread is on the outside of the car at all times, but it can be mounted on either side of the car. They are not uni-directional.

Price only about $225.

[Blown355]

They are what I originally susgested fitting to that R33 & when he came back on the monday, that's what i fitted LOL managers should always listen to the guys on the floor. He came back a couple of weeks later and told me how much he loved them.

[Tigerv8]

And perhaps a mention should be made of the speed rating of a tyre. Always have tyres rated to the speed of your vehicle. Anyone with an SS will have tyres rated to at least 240kph, usually 270kph.

Although you may not travel at this speed very often, it is good to know the tyres won't blow up if you do happen to accelerate quickly to a high speed during overtaking in the Northern Territory.

The power applied to a tyre by a powerful car can also cause damage to a cheap tyre not designed for it. Tyre design is a complicated science and the forces applied to the tyres of your car when accelerating or braking are huge for such small patches of material trying to stop the forward momentum of 1 1/2 tonnes of hot metal filled with very squishy human beings. The laws of physics dictate that they can take only so much.

As Ben said, it is your tyres that provide the contact with the road. The best of brakes and engines are absolutely useless without tyres. Save up and put something suitable on your car. They may save your life when you are trying to avoid someone who didn't care about his tyres.

[VZCalais]

i think IRS is the biggest killer.. ive spent quite a few $$$ correcting it only for someone to add to much neg camber.. had an alignment done today and the tyre bloke couldnt believe how bad it was my tyres were 96% tread on the outer and 32% tread on the inner he wound the camber back out for me he fitted one second hand tyre for me till the tyres i ordered come in.. he ordered 2 sets of different tyres for me to look at and choose from the nexens and my usual maxxis (i also noticed the road noise was quite high with the maxxis.. i just compensate with high stereo volume id probably compare the noise to that of my 4x4 tyres but i havent had them let go on me yet even with my lead foot in the wet)

[VZCalais]

thanks everyone for the helpful advice

[VZCalais]

I took the Nexen N5000's.. the Calais is in for wheel alignment stage 2 today, The first one i wasnt happy with so of course the second one is free of charge thanks to my sweet talking mother (who has known the guy since school)
if your ever in need of tyres in Coffs Harbour
A & A Tyres
Next to Caltex
Orlando Street Coffs Harbour
verry helpful in emergencies, they will fit a second hand tyre to get you home quite cheap (cost me nothing and a few mates have got them for free also)

[VZCalais]

i take what i said about this company back, the nexens were $200 each (not to bad im happy with it)
As for the wheel alignment well i payed for it and its crap, they tryed again today and they said "because its lowered and your components are aftermarket we dunno how to do it". A tyre and alignment place not knowing how to correct negative camber or carry out a wheel alignment on a car absolute Tilly Waddle.
they also put normal steel wheel blance weights on the OUTSIDE of the mag instead of inside the offset dish, SURPRISE SURPRISE they flew off and hit some guys windshield and cracked it, however i made a phone call to A&A about there incompetence, they are paying for his windscreen. i asked to speak to the tyre fitter and i tore him a new one, im so sick of "qualified people" stuffing up GRRRRRRRRR
not to mention it took them 6 HOURS TO FIT 2 TYRES, they blamed my tyre wear ON TOWING, i dont tow anything (maybe its the negative camber i told them about)

[CalaisBoy]

Mate
if ever you are in Sydney, I would visit somewhere like Wholesale Suspensions Penrith who are real suspension specialists - ie not just a tyre place with an alignment machine.

There are other good companies on Sydney as well that some other members have been happy with too.

Cheers

[Blown355]

Excessive Neg camber is a unavoidable issue when lowering an IRS commodore & it takes heaps of work to kind of make it better (depending on how low you go). You need to fit all kinds of ecentric bushes to the rear cradle and control arms & then you'll find that there isn't enough ajustment to completly remove it without ALOT of modifying to the cradle, which can render your vehicle unroadworthy.

I spent months trying to get my last car sorted & still had to much neg camber, yet another reason why I made sure the new one was live axle. At least there is a toe ajuster fitted to most VY-VZ (and some earlier SS's) so there is a bit more control over the rear wheel movement over bumps & slightly better tyre wear until lowered.

As I tell all my customers who trully care about their vehicles handling & longevity of their tyres, take it to a well known suspension place who has the ability to do a proper 3D wheel alignment. Once again, you get what you pay for & this can cost you quite a bit, but it will be worth it in the long run.

[1996VS]

Hey Guys.On this VS i've just brought,it's got 235/45/17 supercat tyres on it.Made in Aussie,can anyone tell me what they're like.I've never heard of them before.I'm in NZ.