Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Ride Comfort & Tyre Age – Plus 4 Duratec

I fitted 65 profile Michelin Cross Climate 2s to my 15" stainless wires in April this year on the P4 based on suggestions here. The previous tyres were the original 60 profile tyres supplied with the car and had covered a little over 20k miles. I made the change before a 3 week 1,500 mile trip from Poole to the start of the Fosseway at Exeter up to Lincoln and on to Whitby then across to the Lakes. We had about 25Kg on the luggage rack for much of the trip and have been very happy with the choice. The ride is slightly softer and the little extra ground clearance is with having. As a bonus the tyres also fill the arches a bit better and I've had no issue with the tyres rubbing anywhere on the arches on full lock. I also fitted a pair of Rog's bumpstops again based on suggestions from here after getting the new tyres fitted and happy with that change as well. Got them changed by Vintage Tyres at Beaulieu who did a decent job.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I’ll certainly be taking action next week.
Does anyone have any recommendations of somewhere to get the tyres changed?
I live near Hexham.
I assume taking the car to any old tyre shop probably isn’t a good idea.
I’m seriously thinking also serve adopting the Alternative tyre profile 205 65 15 v.
Are there any problems doing this or is it a straight swap?
Many thanks again,
Nick

If you have wire wheels, then you'll need to find someone who is capable of balancing them. This normally involves using a set of cones to centre the hub on the spindle of a conventional tyre balancing machine. Your best bet for this is a well-established tyre specialist rather than a Kwik-Fit type place.

It's quite common these days to order tyres online and have them delivered to a local tyre place for fitting and balancing. I'd ring a few places and see what they say. Having a quick google, I'd start with https://lloyd-tyres.co.uk/ as they've been in business since 1967 so will probably have the necessary kit.

You haven't said the size of your existing tyres. If they're 195/60/15 then going to 195/65/15 is fine. It gives you an extra 2inches in circumference or just over 2.5%. Your speedo should still remain slightly on the plus side of true speed.
However if you go from 195/60/15 to 205/65/15 that gives an extra 4inches in circumference over the 195/60 which is 5.26% bigger. So your speedo will probably need to be recalibrated at the very least.

Down to how accurate your speedo is already, I don't think Morgan fitted a different speedo for the Sport version when they fitted the 205 tyres as standard. Easy enough to check the current speedo accuracy against a sat nav speed reading

Also easy enough to recalibrate the speedo if it is reading wrong after a tyre size change.

Back on topic , Friday I had two new 165/80R15 87T MAXXIS ME3 fitted for £154 at my local MOT garage/tyre folk and so far I have noticed the ride is better as the TwinTracs were 7 years old.
I threw it around a bit in the wet yesterday (yes I know the new tyre crap) and they certainly are the equal of the younger (than rear) TwinTracs with an identical tread pattern.

I run 25psi all round and for the 4/4 Sport that seems bang on with the 80 section with no rolling off the rim feel and plenty of grip in the wet and dry.

They are 195/60/R15s 88V (Avon, not Continental as I previously stated). 22psi all round as per spec in the manual.
Thanks for the advice on trying LLOYDS in Hexham and the pros and cons of varying the tyre specs. It is troublesome with regards to ground clearance round here so I’d value a slightly higher ride. I’ll let you know how I get on! Maybe I shouldn’t have grumbled quite so much about continuously deteriorating road surfaces over the last 10-15 years

Three years ago when I bought Monty I was in the same situation, a Duratec Plus 4 first registered in early 2012 and still fitted with the original 195/60 Yokohama C Drive 2's, as installed by Morgan during Monty's build and dated 2011, despite only having completed 10,000 they were like wood!

I replaced them with a full set of Continental Eco Contact 6s in a slightly narrower 185 section, but with an equally slightly taller profile of 65, the result being more or less the exactly same rolling radius. As expected the results were transformational, massively superior ride quality with lighter more direct steering, way better grip and the right look too.

I'm tempted to go 205/65 in the new year for 10mm more ground clearance, but the 185/65's do offer more than enough grip for the tuned 185 horsepower Monty, a Duratec Plus 4 that regularly turns in sub 60 second times on Prescott Hill