Kumho Tyres on SL320?

[straightsix]

I've been offered a 1996 SL320 that comes with four new Kumho Ecsta Supra 712 (245/45R X 17) tyres. Never heard of these and I'm concerned that, faced with badly worn originals, the vendor has fitted a new set of cheapo tyres that look the part, but don't perform, just to sell the car. Any views out there?

 

[drivinggod09]

i had these on one of my previous cars once and found them to be pretty good and lasted a fair while

 

[poppypiesdad]

Had a blow out on the M20 last week with these tryes 7.5 ton actos fullly laden nearly wiped myself and co driver out
Returned to depot after it got fixed and the whole truck got refitted with conties thank f**k
Would not trust them at all

jamie

 

[poppypiesdad]

 

[jberks]

Had a blow out on the M20 last week with these tryes 7.5 ton actos fullly laden nearly wiped myself and co driver out
Returned to depot after it got fixed and the whole truck got refitted with conties thank f**k
Would not trust them at all

jamie

??? - Vastly more likely they were damaged or running flat and contis would have gone the same way. Truck tyres blow out all the time and I've lost count of the number of times I've had to swerve round flying rubber from a truck. In any case you are talking about truck tyres - these are car tyres.

Khumo are VERY well regarded and used world wide. Do a search and you'll find that whilst you may not have heard of them, thats only because they don't advertise as much as the 'premium' brands. Amongst enthusiasts they are as well known as conti, bridgestone and the rest. Khumos are cheaper than conti - sure - but if you price them up you'll find that they are way off the bottom. if you had to categorise them, they'd be premium budget.

I have a friend with a set of ecstas on his E320cdi and he speaks very highly of them. All the reviews I have read have been equally complementary. I refuse to put contis on my car as I know I am paying £25+ a corner just for the name. I don't mind if that is reflected in the quality of the tyre but there is almost no difference in ride, handling or lifespan between khumo, Federal and Continental.

There are some dodgy brands out there admittedly but Khumo aren't in that category. Actually the mad Masserati racer they launched recently had Khumo Ecstas on it as factory fit - if its good enough for a track Mazzer it will do fine for your SL.

 

[rf065]

As above, Khumo have a good name in any tyre tests I've read, without the Conti, Michelin etc prices.

Russ

 

[poppypiesdad]

I would rather pay the prices of premium tyres and live than get killed for the price difference
The Khumo's fitted to the truck had around 13mm of wear left on them and were only a couple of months old and i had them checked and torqued before driving south

Cheap tyres are cheap for a reason!

 

[cefiro_drifta]

i have used khumo's a fair few times for drifting and they are very good tyres, cope very will with heat, they grip good in the wet and dry ( not the best i have used but hugely superior to conti's ) and have a great wear rate considering they are relatively soft grippy compound.

i find conti's are good in the dry , crap in the wet and delaminate at the slightest bit of heat and that normal road driving. I dont use them for drifting as they tear apart on the first 10 seconds and take my body work with them

and i wouldnt really call khumos " cheap " but are the best out of the more affordable tyres.

 

[straightsix]

Thank you all, very informative.

 

[jibcl500]

I would rather use a khumo tyre over a pirelli or dunlop, I do rate the conti and have them on the CL and SLK and always will, I had toyo on the 911 but they only lasted 3k on the back whereas the conti did 12k, the conti sport contact 2 are a better tyre and they can be a little tetchy in the wet but excellent in the dry,
but yes the khumo gets my vote.

jib

 

[drivinggod09]

same here i had toyo proxes t1r on my volvo 2.0turbo and the fronts lasted little more than 5 months but the level of grip was outstanding the khumo supras were the best all round tyre i ever put on it and i even used them on the track when they were below the legal limit and still had no problems or blow outs i would seriously keep them if you dont mind what badge is on your tyres

 

[JEZ.S320L]

Had a blow out on the M20 last week with these tryes 7.5 ton actos fullly laden nearly wiped myself and co driver out
Returned to depot after it got fixed and the whole truck got refitted with conties thank f**k
Would not trust them at all

jamie

I was always under the impression that truck tyres were retreads. Isn't that the case now?

 

[jberks]

I would rather pay the prices of premium tyres and live than get killed for the price difference
The Khumo's fitted to the truck had around 13mm of wear left on them and were only a couple of months old and i had them checked and torqued before driving south

Cheap tyres are cheap for a reason!

Not cheap - that mantle belongs to others. For example, in my size - 245/45/17 I can get "Lilong" for £49. Khumos come in at £78 - so hardly cheap, just a lot better than £113 for Bridgestone.

In terms of quality, there are very strict standards laid down for tyre construction and if you feel the tyres you had weren't built in accordance with british standards you have a responsibility to report them to trading standards. After all, if you feel there are trucks running around with defective tyres, we'd all appreciate it if you made a complaint.


Lets be honest though. You check the pressures and torque before setting off. As you leave the yard you pick up a nail, or a bit of debris rips a chunk out of the sidewall. You're unlikely to notice on my car so on a truck you've no chance. 30 miles later you're way down on pressure and/or the sidewall gives way. It can happen. You can't blame the manufacturer for that.

Sometimes, no matter how much you want there to be, there simply is no one to blame.

On the 'cheap' argument, I wouldn't buy "Lilong" tyres. Not because I expect them to explode on me or fall off the rims, but rather because I suspect that I would be lucky to get 10,000 miles from them and that the grip may not be as good as I need. Not that I'd expect it to fall off the road. I'd still expect them to cope with normal usage, but at the limit, in driving rain, I'd expect them to lose grip a little earlier than more premium brands. As with most things though, the gap narrows as you move up the ladder - so Lilong to Khumo will be greater than the difference between Khumo and Conti. Hence I won't buy Bang and Olefsen TVs, but neither will I buy a "japasonic" from the back of the local market. With most things, you can get 95% of the quality for 70% of the price. That 5% costs 30% so not worth it in my view.
That said, I drive a Merc E class knowing full well that the VW Passat must be 90% of an E, despite being 70% of the cost so I don't always practice what I preach!

 

[cefiro_drifta]

my point of view is the cheap ones dont explode, dont fall of rims and arent as bad as the " internet rumors " make them out to be .

Most of the time the cheaper brands suck as lilong, scudo stunners, wanli's etc etc etc will out last the premium brands but 3-4 times as they are a much harder compound . I used loads of different tyres ALL the time for drifting and daily driving and TBH the cheap brands , last longer, have more grip once warmed up ( scudo stunners used to make my clutch slip in 3rd coz they gripped so much yet toyo's, avons etc would spin, smoke and delaminate ) they cope with s**tloads more heat and tend to wear out and not delaminate tearing off my sideskirts and rear quarter panels and being such a hard compound they tend to cope with running lower pressures with out the effecting the handling to much with sidewall flex and popping off the bead

if they werent so crap in the wet i would only run scudo's and wanli's on my cars all the time.. in fact i used the scudo stunners on the front of my drift car as they were so gripping . They lasted 4-5 laps on the back , then about 6 000 miles on the front and then went on the back my my team mates 460 bhp s14 silvia and lasted 1/3 of a day so that proves they can last

oh and how the hell can u compare kuhmo TRUCK tyres with kuhmo car tyres .. they arent even made in the same factory they are completely different in design and manufactoring. Its like comparing a kitten and an aligator and then bitching about the aligator not being cute and fluffy !!!!!!!!!

 

[SQ_W211]

Kumhos are great tyres with slightly harder rubber compound which makes them harder wearing. They cost half the price and the grip is equally good as Yokos/pirelli's.

There are always slight chance that you will get into a situation but thats the case with all tyres so i wouldnt worry too much about it.

 

[Dosco]

Very interesting post this BUT being from the 'olden times' can some kindly person tell this grumpy ole man what on earth 'drifting' is.

In my 'teddy boy days' such phrases meant a bit of a 'layabout' even 'workshy' but the best I heard was a womaniser - something I aspired to but never made it, to much of a gentlemen really

 

[Blobcat]

Very interesting post this BUT being from the 'olden times' can some kindly person tell this grumpy ole man what on earth 'drifting' is.

In my 'teddy boy days' such phrases meant a bit of a 'layabout' even 'workshy' but the best I heard was a womaniser - something I aspired to but never made it, to much of a gentlemen really

Drifting is going around corners with pretty much all the wheels going at different speeds to the road and in generally different directions. The Japanese specialise in this and there are loads of videos on YouTube

 

[JEZ.S320L]

Drifting is going around corners with pretty much all the wheels going at different speeds to the road and in generally different directions. The Japanese specialise in this and there are loads of videos on YouTube

Best (or worst) of all, are the Saudi guys. They haven't quite mastered the functionality of the steering wheel coupled with the accelerator.

They usually end up killing a couple of dozen spectators, writing-off their car, despatching their passengers and bending lots of metal, before realising that they are ****e in the art of 'drifting'.

 

[Blobcat]

Possibly the worst quality video of an SLR attempting to drift.

 

[cefiro_drifta]

i think the best way to describe drifting is having no traction on the rear wheels at all times while goin round a track. Basically on the brink of being out of controll while being in controll ..

it is not possible to drift in a FWD car as the saudi's try , thas just skidding and handbrake use . Drifting is using the power of the engine to loose traction so only RWD cars can techincally do it

check out youtube and look at cefirodriftas vids as thats me