Tyres

Anyone had any problems with KHUMO tyres?
I had some fitted to the rears on my VVC about 6,000 miles ago, now they are worn to the indicator bars pretty evenly across the the tyre width.
Pretty expensive experience here, this is the first time I have used this make. They were recommended to me by a friend (?) and seemed to be the only ones available at short notice at the time.

Mike:frown:

Oh dear hun :frown:

I don't know anything about KHUMO's but just had a look at David's recommended tyre guide and can't see any mention of them so looks like your friend may have accidentally steered you in the wrong direction.

The only Khumo's I have used were a race tyre, sticky and soft. I prefered for track day work Bridgestone RE55's again soft and sticky but whilst showing a tread pattern, road legal.

Only 6000 miles from a tyre is pretty poor.
Really, if the wear is even across the tread as you say it can only be two things.
Either you are a 'rip the tarmac up' type of driver, which I strongly doubt or;

The tyre material is particularly soft. Check the writing on the side of the tyre.
There are three gradings there, one for temperature, one for wear and one for something else that I can't recall offhand. Two are letters but the wear grading is a number.

Check the number and get back to us. In the mean time I'll pull up the details for the gradings.

Ok, Perry from Greece gave me this information when I introduced the Nexen N3000 tyre, so here goes:-

Uniform Tire Quality Grading System (UTQGS)

The Uniform Tire Quality Grading System (UTQGS) allows consumers to compare tire treadwear, traction performance, and temperature resistance. The federal government requires tire manufacturers to grade their tires in these three areas and place the information on the sidewall of the tire.
Tire Ratings - Treadwear

Treadwear grades are an indication of a tire's relative wear rate. The higher the treadwear number is, the longer it should take for the tread to wear down. A control tire is assigned a grade of 100. Other tires are compared to the control tire. For example, a tire grade of 200 should wear twice as long as the control tire. Of current tires:

• 15% are rated below 200
• 25% are rated 201 - 300
• 32% are rated 301 - 400
• 20% are rated 401 - 500
• 6% are rated 501 - 600
• 2% are rated above 600

Tire Ratings - Traction

Traction grades are an indication of a tire's ability to stop on wet pavement. A higher graded tire should allow a car to stop on wet roads in a shorter distance than a tire with a lower grade. Traction is graded from highest to lowest as "AA", "A", "B", and "C". Of current tires:

• 3% are rated “AA”
• 75% are rated “A”
• 22% are rated “B”
• only 1 line of tires rated “C”

Tire Ratings - Temperature

Temperature grades are an indication of a tire's resistance to heat. Sustained high temperature (for example, driving long distances in hot weather), can cause a tire to deteriorate, leading to blowouts and tread separation. From highest to lowest, a tire's resistance to heat is graded as “A”, “B”, or “C”. Of current tires:

• 27% are rated “A”
• 59% are rated “B”
• 11% are rated “C”

So its the treadwear and traction that we're interested in here.

For instance the Nexen N3000 has readings of
treadwear 340
traction AA
temperature A

for comparison the GoodyearGSD3 has readings of

treadwear 280 -thus nexus will last 21.4% more
traction AA
temperature A

6000 miles? Now that isn't good on a car tyre. I would be upset to get that on a bike tyre.

CJJ;5646 wrote: 6000 miles? Now that isn't good on a car tyre. I would be upset to get that on a bike tyre.

Blimey 6000! I got 20K+ out of a pair of Falken 452's on Meg... only the rears needed replacing due to total wear - the fronts will need doing in the spring due to bad alignment otherwise they'd be fine for a bit longer.

I have chacked things out with the supplier today, he's pretty shocked at the wear rate. To make things even worse, they have covered slightly less than 5,000 miles according to his records and this has been mainly motorway/ distance driving, very little in towns or lanes.
I am having the tracking adjusted (laser) and new Toyos fitted on Wednesday, these will match the new ones on the front which had to be replaced 2 week's ago when I ran over some scrap metal and wrecked both tyres, Goodyear Eagles. Needless to say these were both in good, hardly worn condition and were on the car when I bought it some 7,500 miles ago.
I'll leave a note on here when the work is carried out and I'll check out the wear/ traction ratings on the Khumo's and Toyo's.

Mike:frown:

Unless there is a problem with the tracking alignment which can be sorted, it looks as if I could be jumping from the frying pan into the flame grill.
Just been out in the rain and checked tyres.
KHUMO :-
Tread Wear 340
Traction AA
Temp A
TOYO :-
Tread Wear 280
Traction AA
Temp A

Lets see what happens on Wednesday.

Mike (P**d off)

KUON;5778 wrote: Unless there is a problem with the tracking alignment which can be sorted, it looks as if I could be jumping from the frying pan into the flame grill.
Just been out in the rain and checked tyres.
KHUMO :-
Tread Wear 340
Traction AA
Temp A
TOYO :-
Tread Wear 280
Traction AA
Temp A

Lets see what happens on Wednesday.

Mike (P**d off)

With a wear code of 340 I am astonished you got so little mileage out of the Khumos. Either you wheelspin everywhere or there's something wrong with those tyres.
The Nexen's have the same wear code and we got over 20000 out of the rears:dunno:

I would be approaching Khumo and asking questions.

Right!
Expensive lesson learned. Take note All.
Toyos now fitted on the rear and then we went on to the laser alighnment test rig.
At some time before I bought the car in April someone had had a go at aligning the set up, presumably after renewing the OS front wishbone.
Initial test indicated excessive toe-in to both front and rear beyond the point of being dangerous. At this point the tester complimented me on my apparent driving skills, purely on still being alive after 7,500 miles of car ownership. Seems I'm bloody mad or the Gods are well disposed towards me. Can this last??
Bill now paid and I'm hoping for the promised massive handling improvements.
Car goes back in 500 miles for fine tuning.
It would appear that, faced with these results, it would be impractical to try to claim against Khumo, so I must grin & bear the cost.
Groan!!!!!

Mike

KUON;6027 wrote: Right!
Expensive lesson learned. Take note All.
Toyos now fitted on the rear and then we went on to the laser alighnment test rig.
At some time before I bought the car in April someone had had a go at aligning the set up, presumably after renewing the OS front wishbone.
Initial test indicated excessive toe-in to both front and rear beyond the point of being dangerous. At this point the tester complimented me on my apparent driving skills, purely on still being alive after 7,500 miles of car ownership. Seems I'm bloody mad or the Gods are well disposed towards me. Can this last??
Bill now paid and I'm hoping for the promised massive handling improvements.
Car goes back in 500 miles for fine tuning.
It would appear that, faced with these results, it would be impractical to try to claim against Khumo, so I must grin & bear the cost.
Groan!!!!!

Mike

Wow, so how does the car feel now in comparison?

David Aiketgate;6029 wrote: Wow, so how does the car feel now in comparison?

Don't know yet. Only covered 35, very careful, Miles in **** poor weather.
I'll see how it goes over the weekend.
Cheers

Mike