Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Tyres

Totally agree with Hannes. Even though my fronts were still a good 3 mm+ I changed all 4 at the same time. Bought from Blackcircles.com at £53 each and had fitted and balanced locally for £12 per tyre. Balancing can be an issue. I concluded that not every tyre fitter appreciates nor understands how wire wheels need to be balanced. It is essential that you use cones that hold the inner spoke rim away from the backplate of the balancing machine, so that the wheel is held in the same way as it sits on the splined axle of the car. Our local club have the correct cones, so I first took along my spare wheel with the cones to several local fitters to try out their machine. ( all very helpful and accommodating) However, some machines would show up an error code if the machine back plate could not "feel" the wheel pressed against it. I suspect if I had not actually witnessed the fitting and balance operations it would have been done any old how with a result that may or may not have been satisfactory depending on how much run out the wheel rim had.

I recently changed my Tyres due to age, I was really pleased with the Good Year Eagle F1 GSD3's unfortunately they are no longer availible in the UK, to fit Plus8 16" rims. After a lot of research and advice I fitted Toyo Proxus, a Big mistake , they screeched all the time. Braking,cornering & taking off! I have increased the tyre pressure from 22psi to 25psi and would probably benifit from an increase to 26psi which I am reluctant to do,as I had to alter the dampers to stop the car bouncing all over the place, I suspect the Toyos are ok in an Ultra Low profile wall, but don't possess the wall rigidity for my tyre size, if I don't find a happy medium by the end of summer , they'll be heading off to Ebay

Try the Dunlop Sports.... (made by goodyear)!

I've had two experiences with the balancing cones. The first time with 4/4 wheels and the second time with Roadster wheels.

The inner cone was fine. A good fit on the balancer shaft, but in both cases we couldn't get the wheels to rotate concentrically using the outer cone. They had a wobble. So we did what you're told not to do, and used a taper cone which just fitted the inside of the wheel centre without fouling the spokes.

Using this, the wheels rotated absolutely straight, and the balance is spot on.

My local garage know what they're doing, but we just couldn't get the outer cone to work properly.

Note also that whereas most tyres these days come off the outer rim, with Roadster wire wheels, the tyre comes off the inner rim. This is because of where the channel is located on the rim, so is worth mentioning to a tyre fitter if you have Roadster wires. Not sure about Plus 4 wires, and it never came up with the 4/4 wires so I'm thinking that they are conventional.

Not all wire wheels for different cars have the same hub diameter, with variations of maybe 10mm or so? Is it possible that your outer cone is for a different sized hub, I wonder? It's possible that the inner cone might fit a range of hub sizes due to the taper.
Anyway, think your method is just as good for centring the wheel, and of course the proof of the pudding is in the result.

Well it should work, but the outer cone wouldn't locate the centre properly, as if the groove wasn't deep enough. It fits over so it's the right size diameter.

I didn't expect the metal cone to work, but it has on nine wheels to date. An inner packing sleeve made from the same material to imitate the splined hub would probably make it work.

Has anyone tried the 165/80 Vredestein Sprint Classic on a 4/4?

[Edit] I just checked via the Search thing and this seems like a good choice. I find the Contis are quite good on dry surfaces, but they lose their modest grip too abruptly in other conditions.

I think Hamwich may be running them Peter

Yes, indeed I do, and I think they are flippin' excellent. Excellent grip and handling characteristics in both wet and dry. Some people have reported sidewall deformation, but I've not experienced it on the 6 tyres I've had so far.

I fitted 185/70 Vredestein Sprint Classics to Bumble and they were excellent.

That size is close to the crosshead though, so beware if you chose them.