Buzzer:
Remember one day the Michelin rep called in to see me and he was raving on about a new directional tyre they had just created and he wanted me to try a set, they had arrows printed into the walls of the cases so you put them on facing the right direction of travel well for a start they only had about 8 to 9 mill tread depth brand new so was not too sure about this, anyway we had a set at a price we could not refuse and they duly fitted these to a 400 Scania 4x2 unit which was almost new with one driver on it all the time but he didn’t half cover some ground and to be fair it was a lot of straight line work on motorways, we gave them a light recut on the drive and they did unbelievable mileage in the end about 280,000kms the problem being they were so good they never put them in full production as Michelin would not have made any money.
Another point IIRC going back the tyres you bought would take a good cut without fear of hitting any cords as the rubber was deep, is it me or did the thickness get less as the manufacturers got more greedy, just wondered if I am on me own thinking this, cheers Buzzer.
The budget brands have less base rubber, so there’s less to cut into. The major brands should all take a 3mm cut.
I think you are right Buzzer, shame everything is gradually made using less and less materiel but as long as they look visually correct when new. But as I’ve previously said we only put the odd cut around a tyre edge to make it look more presentable. I do believe it was false economy to cut below the base of the tread pattern. On a lighter note I recall an old haulier, no longer with us now, once telling me that “’ 'went canvas appeared I reckon I could get another 10,000 miles out 'oft tyre” no re treading those old cases eh! Cheers Dennis.
Buzzer:
Remember one day the Michelin rep called in to see me and he was raving on about a new directional tyre they had just created and he wanted me to try a set, they had arrows printed into the walls of the cases so you put them on facing the right direction of travel well for a start they only had about 8 to 9 mill tread depth brand new so was not too sure about this, anyway we had a set at a price we could not refuse and they duly fitted these to a 400 Scania 4x2 unit which was almost new with one driver on it all the time but he didn’t half cover some ground and to be fair it was a lot of straight line work on motorways, we gave them a light recut on the drive and they did unbelievable mileage in the end about 280,000kms the problem being they were so good they never put them in full production as Michelin would not have made any money.
Another point IIRC going back the tyres you bought would take a good cut without fear of hitting any cords as the rubber was deep, is it me or did the thickness get less as the manufacturers got more greedy, just wondered if I am on me own thinking this, cheers Buzzer.
The budget brands have less base rubber, so there’s less to cut into. The major brands should all take a 3mm cut.
I suppose you only get what you pay for but the secret is, or was in my day, to try and find a cheaper tyre mainly for the trailers which was a balance between price and performance i e Yokohama, Hankook and Toyo ! It’s great to have “Tyreman” active on the thread to keep us straight on the technicalities of this extremely important element of costs. Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
I think you are right Buzzer, shame everything is gradually made using less and less materiel but as long as they look visually correct when new. But as I’ve previously said we only put the odd cut around a tyre edge to make it look more presentable. I do believe it was false economy to cut below the base of the tread pattern. On a lighter note I recall an old haulier, no longer with us now, once telling me that “’ 'went canvas appeared I reckon I could get another 10,000 miles out 'oft tyre” no re treading those old cases eh! Cheers Dennis.
Your right Dennis ,I remember my uncle saying he towed someone in about 1959 and his reward was 2 tyres worn to the canvas !! which he was delighted with
When I started in the tyre business in the early '80’s it was common for trucks to still come home on cross-ply tyres. Zig-zag radial patterns were also common for all round fitments, including the drive axle. When 38 tonne vehicles became legal, hauliers started looking for traction tyres to be fitted to drive axles for better grip. The then new tri-axle trailers brought different axle wear ratios which the tandems fitted with twin tyres didn’t suffer with, and this spawned the birth of tyre management, with tyre manufacturers and suppliers giving advice on the best tyre for the axle, and promoting the benefits of recuts or remoulds for certain axles. Here is the Michelin XZT drive tyre leaflet. I’ll see what else I’ve got in my files and post some more during the week.
Good input, tyreman.
Back in my mis-spent youth, I ran a 1940’s Triumph 18TR which had 17 inch tyres. Luckily, the company I worked for had a caravan supply branch which operated quite a number of Land Rovers of various ages. I ran the Triumph for over two years on “self cut” Landy tyres on front and rear. When I left the firm and got rid of the TR I was able to sell a couple of sets of re-cut tyres to it’s new owner who was chuffed to bits!
Can’t imagine trying to get those tyres through an MOT, though!
Regular adverts for Continental Tyres keep popping up on my screen ! Now they were total crap in the mid late 70’s, I recall being persuaded to try some on the steer axles, I put a couple of sets of 1100 x 20 on two Scania 111’s and a set of 1100 x 22:5 on an 81 IIRC . From memory a couple of the 20’s failed within about 3 months and we mated up the two survivors onto one of the 111’s and one of those failed not long afterward. The two 22:5’s ended up on a trailer and disappeared into obscurity ! But all in all the Continentals were ■■■■■ so I don’t know how they have survived this long ! Cheers Bewick.
I always found Continentals to be decent tyres, many European cars had them as standard fitment and I have some on my trailer. Back in the 70’s a Dunlop rep told me that Goodyears had more rubber content than any other make and I used their G8’s on several cars with good results.
Hey, After buying several brand in th’ '50’s we went for Michelin till the and of the '70’s which gave the best serive and their Remix system was exelent too. And the '70’s Michelin gave us some Maroc produced once , told us same quality but cheaper production costs and included rims too, if you bought a lot of them. So said so done, a disaster. No tears we gave Bridgestone, coming up here in Belgium at that moment, a try. Cheaper and even beter were the results, so stayed with them for over 40 years till the and of bussiness.
Later had experiance with Hankook, Kumho, and Aeolus good results, even today have good results with high weights with the cheap Chinees Leao’s and Linglong’s, but do only short distances but always heavy loaded.
Eric,
windrush:
I always found Continentals to be decent tyres, many European cars had them as standard fitment and I have some on my trailer. Back in the 70’s a Dunlop rep told me that Goodyears had more rubber content than any other make and I used their G8’s on several cars with good results.
Pete.
The first set of premium car tyres that I could afford as a youngster were Goodyear Rallye Specials that I put on my tuned Mini van. Made the world of difference after years on second hand and remould rubbish!
MICHELIN ! Michelin were very jealous of what they perceived was their dominant position within the tyre industry although steadily thro’ the 80’s and into the 90’s their dominance was been slowly eroded by some of the other manufactures on both quality and in particular on price differential. Well although I always bought Michelin tyres regularly it was getting to the point where I believed I was paying over the odds so I got stuck into Michelin and told them that unless there was some downward adjustment in their prices I would more-or less stop buying their tyres ! However, Michelin being the arrogant French ■■■■■ they were came back to me with a proposal ! Basically they said Oooooo Noooo ! they couldn’t lower their list prices or allow larger discounts via our suppliers as this would be seen by others that they were having to compete head on with their competitors ! BUT !!! they were prepared to offer me an under the table “kick back” of £x per Mich case that I bought on production of the paid invoices from our tyre suppliers ! and the cheque would come ( and did) direct from Michelin Tyre made payable to Bewick Transport Services Ltd. I was most sceptical because I knew there was a problem with the sources where I bought my Mich tyres from but no matter because as far as I was concerned they were genuine Mich tyres wherever they came from as far as I was concerned ! Not so as it transpired ! I will relate what happened in another post but it wasn’t very nice especially for the Michelin rep who braved the “arctic” meeting in my office ! Cheers Bewick.
The end game ! So I get a visit from this Michelin Rep who had been the one that had put to me this wonderful “deal” of giving us a “kick back” per every Mich tyre we bought on production of paid invoice. So, I had added up the number of Mich cases we had bought over the period and it totted up to IIRC exactly £1700 due to us ! So this “weasel” starts spouting in my office about the cheque he had in his pocket but unfortunately Michelin were unable to give a “kick back” on all the Mich tyres on the invoices ! Eh! Why? Well this ■■■■ comes out with a Gem didn’t he just ! he says “We can’t give you a rebate on all the Michelins because “THEY AREN’T OURS” What are you saying you ■■■■ some of the cases are counterfeit ? “No no he says but they haven’t come through our channels in the UK” ! Well I knew this was going to be the killer because our Independent supplier didn’t deal with Mich direct but bought Mich of Brokers who shipped container loads into the UK at the right price I would add. So I reminded him that he said ALL Mich tyres ! he never said only from Mich UK ! So at this I bounced up out of my chair and asked the ■■■■ how much his cheque was for " £800” he says !! What ! “You and Michelin really are a bunch of ■■■■■■■ r’soles” So I said OK give me the ■■■■■■■ cheque ! By this time this Rep was not a Happy camper and he wasn’t too sure what to do ! So I said again “give me the ■■■■■■■ cheque” . Finally he very reluctantly got the cheque out and handed it to me, I promptly tore it up and threw it over him like confetti ! I then told him to ■■■■ off out of my sight and never, repeat never, visit our depot again ! End of ! I still carried on buying Mich tyres but I never saw another Rep from Michelin. Cheers Bewick.
which he was delighted with 
