Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Tyres choices and advice

This is topical, I always check my tyres for tread and wall damage but not age.....but on returning from Brooklands yesterday (great day out by the way)I for the first time checked the age....2008, obviously the orignals...now they look superb, plenty of tread, no wall damage, the car is always garaged...what to do...?

tuftie66: if it was my car I would change tyres tomorrow.

+1

+2

Don't compromise on tyres.
Remember..... they are your contact with the road with relatively small contact area.
Rubber degrades with age so keep good tyres on the car.
If you had a "show car" or historic where originality was needed then OK, for display only. Put new on if you want to drive it (second set of wheels?).
As for brand of tyre....up to you but there are many on here who can advise after their own experiences. I have Yokohamas on mine. All changed late 2014 when previous were down to 3mm tread. I did keep one for a spare, swopping the original spare when tyre was replaced on it. When I change next I will get all 5 done. Bought from Blackcircles home delivery and fitted for free at my regular ture/MOT place. Gave fitter £10 anyway.
Others use different brands.

When I had my rears changed at Paul Harris (Cannock), he used a gauge to determine the spring in the rubber.
It wasn't rocket science but if you are in any doubt about your current tyres (and if you are in doubt, changing them is the answer) the fitter should be able to do this if it is a decent business.
Hard rubber = squeal and cr*p grip in the wet

I have just changed the spare on mine for a non directional budget tyre. The puncture was on the 'wrong side' so I had to creap to the tyre depot with the tyre going the wrong way. Probably illegal and dodgy in an accident. There is a 50% chance of this happening with a directional spare yet most Morgans have them. No point spending on a good tyre when it is seldom used and it needs replacing every 6 years, plus it is increasing difficult to match patterns with your existing tyres.

Titus,
fair point. I never considered that
John

Maybe you'll have to fit the spare back to front..???

I do not doubt the wisdom of the advice to change tyres after a set number of years, however I do wonder why if it is considered so important that it is not part of the annual MOT Test.

I have an 11 year old Nissan X Trail 2.5 Petrol as my 'bash about vehicle' with 37k miles under its belt; it passed its last MOT in late July this year. Tyre sidewalls show no signs of cracking and the tread depth is still well inside the legal requirement. The tyres are the original ones fitted at the point of manufacture (tyrewalls are stamped Jan 05). The ride is probably not as compliant as perhaps it should be, especially when the tyres are cold, and the car does sometimes struggle for grip at junctions with loose gravel surfaces or when flooring the right foot. Following the advice on here perhaps I ought to be changing the tyres....

I have never thought about the rotational direction of the spare....it is a valid point....should all spares be bi-directional then?