Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Which tyres for 2011 Plus 4 Sport ?

Note: having the right cones is not necessarily the end of the story. When I took my cones along to one place for a trial, their all singing and dancing machine kept throwing up errors as it wanted to feel the wheel pressing against the backplate of the machine. So with the cones holding the wheel off, it thought that it wasn’t mounted properly. I went to another supplier who had an older machine and that was ok. As you say, see it first before you change tyres over. If you take your own cones it’s easier as you can say “can we just make sure my cones fit your machine...”

Thanks for advice gents.

Ian, great to meet you and letting me have a perusal around your car and of course the kindness of lending me your cone set

So final update. I took a wheel down to ATS who were going to supply and fit the tyres Via Blackcircle, to check they could balance the wheel. As warned by others, even with the right cones the machines kept throwing different readings each time the wheel was fitted. I therefore cancelled my fitting there.

Instead I had tyres delivered to a friends garage who had an older balancing machine. Here with the cones fitted it worked a treat. To avoid having the weight fitted on the outside rim I had stick on flat black weights fitted to centre of rim, behind the spokes.

So balancing sorted. But not the end of the story.

I had been experiencing quite violent shaking of the steering wheel at all speeds, so balancing was needed. However on checking the tyres at front, although they looked near new, the sidewall had an indentation, almost like a line. I had assumed it had been caused by pothole or similar. Anyway swapped rear wheels with fronts, and quick drive showed improvement albeit not perfect. When checking the rears I found they were near wear bar but also manufacture date showed 2010 so definitely needed replacing,

Only when I got tyres replaced did I find the tyres that looked relatively new, with plenty of tread were also in fact manufactured in 2010. When I showed the sidewall defects I was told it was not pothole damage, so god knows how it got there.

Anyway the final result was an incredible transformation of the ride of the car with new tyres. It is so much smoother and compliant a ride. I had misinterpreted the harsh ride before to be all the fault of the suspension setup, where in fact although suspension needed tweaking the tyres had a large part to play.

So £215 well spent on 4 new Avon ZV7’s (plus fitting). Result

Good news Dave, glad you’ve finally got it sorted 👍

Very interesting. I have 2009 tyres and have been resisting a change as they have only done 7000 miles. With this perspective I think I will fit a new set. Our local ATS says that they have the right equipment and the chirpy chap quoted a few wire wheeled cars they have supplied in past weeks, E Type, MGB.

I take my cones to my local village garage. The inner one works fine, but the outer one fails to hold the wheel in a centralise position. So he uses a conventional outer and despite the doom and gloom reports of doing this, he gets a perfect balance, even with Roadster wheels.

I don't have a problem with knock on weights on the outside either. With stainless rims, marking is minimal. It's different if you have painted/powder coated wheels, in that case its very likely that the existing weights will leave a mark behind.

It’s the inner cone that is the critical one to hold the wheel away from the machine’s back plate.

Kevin, 11 years old...ohh

Yes Jon, I have been warned on this forum but so far did not act, I'm off to ATS this afternoon to order them.

Kev my local ATS fitted mine recently. They put the balance weights on the inside only and the balance is good.