Morning all, I want to fit 4 new tyres to my 79 Bay as the tyres on there are well over 5 years old and one of them has serious cracking on the wall. I've heard people mention that I need a certain type of tyre suitable for vans etc rather than car tyres. I'm looking to order online with fitting as cheaper. Can anyone confirm if an XL tyre with a load rating of 88 is suitable for my van? I'm looking at the Avon ZT7 185/60/R15 88H XL tyres. Many thanks Dan
I think H XL is for 4x4 and utility vehicles. The correct tyre rating for a bay is C for commercial. You could try those but for insurance purposes I’d always err on the side of caution.
Yes - I agree - Mine had ordinary car tyres fitted when I bought it - since fitted the C rated tyres which handle much better - I think they have stiffer side walls.
Before Halfords got involved with them, landsail did a cracking commercial tyre at a very reasonable price. They were slightly noisier than an high st brand but definitely good enough for my van’s usage and I have four on it now. Not sure I’d get the same deal at Halfords as I used to get at my local tyre garage though!
I would say not. The recommended C rating is 104. I have some experience of driving a van on car tyres when I was trying sizes, it's like floating on jelly, feels like if you turned a bit sharp the tyres would peel off the rims, not nice! In the end I settled on 95 rated fronts which were fine, it was a light tin top though. In all honesty it's hard to beat the stability of commercial rated tyres.
I always use Falken Linam 195 / 70 x 15 C with 102/104 load rating. Lovely tyres been using these for a good few years now.
88 is a load rating of 560kg; good enough for the front but not the back. If you want the same tyres all round look for a load rating of 92 or higher, but a ‘C’ tyre is better. 185/60/R15 is much smaller diameter than standard, is your bus lowered and you’re trying to prevent, or reduce rubbing? 195/70R15 is very close to standard and there is a good choice of ‘C’ tyres available.
I had the sidewalls of a pair of Cooper CS7. 185/65 R15 92XLs start splitting on me recently at the rear.. these were rated to 635kg.. Annoyingly the 88XLs from the same manufacturer wore down rather than split. I now have 185/65 R15 97 rated Goodyear Vector 4 seasons van tyres on the back rated to 730kg at 54psi. Finally because of EVs there are some commercial tyres that fit 15 inch rims .. soon the fronts will be replaced.. Basically £100 each at e.g. ATS Euromaster, who do vans as well as cars. My previous supplier only sold car tyres so the 92XL rated tyres were the heaviest they sold.
I think on a stock height Bay, the tyres effectively form part of the suspension. A new set of C-rated Hankooks on my Bay made it far more sure-footed
185/80x14 = 652mm diameter. Sidewall height = 148mm (standard tyre size) 185/60x15 = 603mm diameter. Sidewall height = 111mm (49mm smaller dia. than standard) 195/70x15 = 654mm diameter. Sidewall height = 137mm (2mm larger dia. than standard)
