Tyre Tip

BigChange · January 20, 2017

Just replaced 2 tyres with Dunlop Sport Maxx (following favourable comment on the forum). Other 2 are OEM Yokohama Blu Earth and I have now noticed that the Yokos have a sort of overhang near the rim, to protect the wheels I guess, but the Dunlops do not. Have to be more careful now not to scrape the alloys.!

The-Acre · January 20, 2017

13 minutes ago, BigChange said:

Just replaced 2 tyres with Dunlop Sport Maxx (following favourable comment on the forum). Other 2 are OEM Yokohama Blu Earth and I have now noticed that the Yokos have a sort of overhang near the rim, to protect the wheels I guess, but the Dunlops do not. Have to be more careful now not to scrape the alloys.!

I've noticed that when ordering tyres some say "rim protection" certainly something worth looking for.

capese21 · January 20, 2017

The Dunlop sport Max on my GS do have a Rim Protector. Maybe it varies with size??

Ed

Rebecca · January 20, 2017

My is250 still has the original dunlop sport max fitted. Oddly enough only the 2 fronts have rim protectors.

BigChange · January 20, 2017

Had a quick look at the Dunlop website and they do have "rim protection" but built into the tyre rather than built 'outside' the tyre, as the Yoko. Not sure if it was a wise choice for me. Wasn't really looking for a "dynamic driving experience" ! Rather protect my wheels!

BigChange · January 24, 2017

Two new correctly inflated Dunlop Sport Maxx on front wheels. Seems like a much harder ride now compared to Yokos. Is it my imagination or is it just new tyres? Anyone had similar experience?

capese21 · January 24, 2017

2 hours ago, BigChange said:

Two new correctly inflated Dunlop Sport Maxx on front wheels. Seems like a much harder ride now compared to Yokos. Is it my imagination or is it just new tyres? Anyone had similar experience?

On my previous IS300H Fsport I changed from the factory Bridgestones to Uniroyal Rainsports and the ride was noticeably softer. Rainsports are known to be a soft side wall tyre as afaik as are Yokohamas.

Not sure on the Dunlops.

I have them on the GS and they seem compliant enough but then I have nothing to compare them to.

Ed

olliesgrandad · January 24, 2017

4 hours ago, BigChange said:

Two new correctly inflated Dunlop Sport Maxx on front wheels. Seems like a much harder ride now compared to Yokos. Is it my imagination or is it just new tyres? Anyone had similar experience?

I had these tyres on my Mercedes E250 cabriolet when I purchased it. Same size wheels. Awful harsh ride which seemed to pick up a washboard effect /vibration from the road surface. Changed to Pirellin PZero's and it transformed the car.

Haylands · January 24, 2017

I've always found Dunlops to be rock hard...

As to rim protection all it does is ruin the tyre as well as the wheel, if you curb it, it squashes a chunk of tyre wall against the rim, wrecks the tyre and damages the rim...

Got to change the tyres on my, new to me, 460 because of damaged side walls caused by rim protectors... They are Bridgestone Potenza's

tanimbar · January 25, 2017

Anyone yet tried Michelin Cross-Climates?

Chris111 · January 25, 2017

On 1/20/2017 at 10:18 AM, BigChange said:

Just replaced 2 tyres with Dunlop Sport Maxx (following favourable comment on the forum). Other 2 are OEM Yokohama Blu Earth and I have now noticed that the Yokos have a sort of overhang near the rim, to protect the wheels I guess, but the Dunlops do not. Have to be more careful now not to scrape the alloys.!

I had 4 Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2 tyres fitted last October and all 4 have rim protectors. I find them much better than the Goodyear Eagle F1's that were fitted before and especially the Yokohama Advan's prior to them. They are noticeably quieter and both myself and my wife think the ride is softer. To me the Yokohama's were very noisey and rock hard and the Goodyear's were noisy and firm.

1 hour ago, tanimbar said:

Anyone yet tried Michelin Cross-Climates?

Had these fitted to my wife's Polo in November to replace the standard Continentals. Living in rural Cumbria with lots of poorly maintained and poorly draining B roads there is a notable difference as the car now feels a lot more 'secure' on the road and they are much quieter. The only downside is due to the design of the tread lots of small stones get stuck in the grooves. I wanted to fit them to my Gs but they don't make them in the size it needs.

Shahpor · January 25, 2017

I have Sport Maxx RT2's fitted on the front of mine, and they do have rim protectors. Although, I am not sure how useful these are? I have managed to hit a curb a few times with them on, and I still get curbing on my alloy, but also a chunk of tyre gouged out now as well. Perhaps I am being too harsh on my wheels?

I have had the Dunlop's on my previous cars, but they don't feel the same on my Lexus. I just don't feel like they have a lot of grip and I tend to tip toe when the conditions are bad. Perhaps I am being paranoid.

I will say they are hard wearing, now if only I can get a tyre to actually last long enough to wear out...

BigChange · January 26, 2017

Shapor's comment regarding grip struck a chord. Sometimes I feel the front wheels (Dunlop) are 'floating' so also tend to go carefully in winter conditions.

tanimbar · January 27, 2017

More on Michelin CrossClimates ....

Q&A on HonestJohn website - http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/honest-johns-motoring-agony-column/2017-01/honest-johns-motoring-agony-column-27-01-2017-part-2/

Questioner relates that IS 300h with 16 inch wheels (SE - [the model I run]) is on CrossClimates and says, " Noise better but car feels unstable at speed. ".

Honest John answers, " feels unstable at speed is peculiar. First, check that the Cross Climates are all on the right way round (they are directional tyres). If they are, try reducing the pressures. I ran a Honda HR-V on them for 10 months and 10,000 miles at cold pressures of 31PSI all round and they were excellent. Quiet, soft riding and giving far better steering feel, which a Lexus tends to need. "

A peculiar exchange of information. Any one running CrossClimates on IS 300H SE care to comment?

Linas.P · January 27, 2017

On 1/20/2017 at 11:28 AM, capese21 said:

The Dunlop sport Max on my GS do have a Rim Protector. Maybe it varies with size??

Ed

Certain sizes does have it and some other don't. My old Dunlop SportMaxx had them, but new SportMaxx RT don't, I have seen SportMaxx TT/GT has rim protection on the same size. When ordering Dunlops be careful, because MFS rim protection is not the "overhang" thing, it is more structural enforcement to the walls, so if you hit pothole very hard, you won't puncture the tire or dent a rim, but it does not protect from kerbing.

Linas.P · January 27, 2017

On 1/24/2017 at 10:31 PM, Haylands said:

I've always found Dunlops to be rock hard...

Avoid XL/Extra Load, Runflats and similar.

200h · January 27, 2017

i am running cross climates on my IS on 17" and they are great ,in the wet you can floor it and the traction

is still realy good if you do get any spin it is inly slight,the tyres are quiet the only down side is that

they are only good down to -2 any lower temperatures and its like running standard tyres.

i would definately buy them again in the future.

capese21 · January 28, 2017

15 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Avoid XL/Extra Load, Runflats and similar.

Why? Virtually all top spec tyres are XL. Uniroyal Rainsports 3 are a fairly soft wall tyre but still rated as XL. I will likely fit Avon ZZ5`s to my GS next but they are XL or Pirelli Pzero another great tyre still XL.

Bridgestone Turanza are not XL but they are a hard tyre and I was glad to be rid of them on my previous fsport.

Ed

Linas.P · January 29, 2017

Because Dunlops XLs (and probably all others) has harder wall. I had an option to buy my current Dunlop Sportmaxx RT in XL and non-XL flavors and I bought non-XL ones for ~£3 more per tire, just because of reason you have described. Obviously, Audi, BMW, MB rated tires with technologies like "run-on-flat" and similar will always going to feel like wooden, so unless you have no spare tire they should be avoided like plague.

capese21 · January 29, 2017

8 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Because Dunlops XLs (and probably all others) has harder wall.

Uniroyal Rainsports are XL but a relatively compliant tyre. Different characteristics form different manufacturers makes more of a difference imho. The non XL choice is very limited for my GS probably because it is a heavy car that is specced to have them. Maybe true for the IS300H to.

I doubt anyone would retro fit runflats.

Ed

Linas.P · January 31, 2017

My point was that Dunlops XLs are hard hence the experience you are describing, I don't know what is specced for GS, but if you find suitable non-XL ones they are worth trying. When I was buying mine, I have looked to speed ratios and actual load and if I not mistaken (Don't quote me on that) the load per tire was something like 470kg for non-XL and 485kg for XLs... so not that much of the difference. The speed rating is as well kind of pointless... I believe on IS250 it is W = 168MPH, but car can only reach 138MPH.... and legally in UK you at least "should not" get over 70MPH.. being realistic hardly ever over 90MPH... So speed rating ... any... (though mines are Y = 186MPH).

Overall, looking at load and speed ratios is good thing, but knowing what they actually means is even better.

capese21 · January 31, 2017

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

The speed rating is as well kind of pointless...

Speed rating in far from pointless.I would rather fit tyres as specified (or higher) for the car as you risk invalidating your insurance if not. Dunlop tyres tend to be hard the XL makes little difference. Uniroyal Rainsports are a softer tyre still rated XL. Different manufacturers different characteristics.

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My point was that Dunlops XLs are hard hence the experience you are describing

I haven't described anything.

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Overall, looking at load and speed ratios is good thing, but knowing what they actually means is even better.

You said it!!

Linas.P · February 1, 2017

OK. that might have been somebody else who said they are hard... anyway.. I am not sure what you want to achieve, would you feel better if I simply say "no I disagree that Dunlops are hard" without giving any reason? What I am trying to do is to explain why my experience is different... but I can stop here.

Somebody said that experience with Dunlops is that they are "hard", I am saying that they are not.... except of XLs or run flats. I have not tried Uniroyals and cannot compare, additionally softness is kind of vague, for one it could be soft or hard, for other it might sloppy feeling in steering.

The point on insurance and invalidating it due to wrong speed ratios will require separate topic. In short - yes it could invalidate it if it is found that speed rating was the reason for accident ... quite unlikely if accident happened when you were travelling at any legal speed. Furthermore, I find most of new Dunlops with Y speed rating which is above what is needed.

capese21 · February 1, 2017

4 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I have not tried Uniroyals and cannot compare

So you dont know then. so why say:-

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additionally softness is kind of vague, for one it could be soft or hard, for other it might sloppy feeling in steering

. My previous Fsport drove superb on Rainsports.

Dunlop Sport Max are a hard compound tyre imho which is why they can do big mieages. XL or not makes little noticeable difference.

How do you find Bridgestone Turanzas? I found them to be a hard tyre.

If you have no experience of something why say things which are not true? or put imho!!

Linas.P · February 2, 2017

I have experience on hard tires... Turanzas are perfect example indeed, the other ones I had were Nexen N1000 or N6000, which were awful. If you thing Turanzas are bad you should try Nexens... I guess even Dunlops Run-flats going to look like soft after that. Then replaced Nexens with Pirelli P Zero - excellent tires, though I only made 6k miles before selling the car, so don't know how they wear.

Then I had Dunlops Sportmaxx SPs on BMW 328xi (run flats) and they were rock hard, replaced them with non-runflats Sportmaxx RTs XLs and they were almost as hard if not the same, then hit pothole cracked both wheels on right side (yes there are "proper" potholes in eastern-EU), dented lower control arm and obliterated both tires .... which in turn allowed me to change all tires on insurance/road maintenance company money, so I have replaced them with yet again Dunlop Sportmaxx RT's but this time non-XLs.... and they were day and night. Much more comfortable and compliant.

Same story again on my current IS250, it came with worn SportMaxx SPs XLs - as I normally run 38/40 instead of 35/38 I really noticed them being hard, but really cannot judge because they had like 3mm of thread left. Replaced with Sportmaxx RTs non-XLs, same pressure.. again day and night - quiet, complain tire.