Tyre Labels

Today is the day that the new EU rules regarding energy/ tyre efficiency rules for replacement tyres come into force in the UK. Just heard an interesting piece on R4's You and Yours explaining what the labels have to show and what it means - basically they are the same a the labels that you see on new heaters and white goods.

One thing they said on the show was that don't bother going to look for the most efficient AA rated tyres - there aren't any that fall into that rating yet. On the other hand don't buy a GG rated tyre - they will be lethal in the wet and again mysteriously the makers have all withdrawn from sale any tyre that might have been rated GG, wonder why?

(01-11-2012 01:24pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Today is the day that the new EU rules regarding energy/ tyre efficiency rules for replacement tyres come into force in the UK. Just heard an interesting piece on R4's You and Yours explaining what the labels have to show and what it means - basically they are the same a the labels that you see on new heaters and white goods.

One thing they said on the show was that don't bother going to look for the most efficient AA rated tyres - there aren't any that fall into that rating yet. On the other hand don't buy a GG rated tyre - they will be lethal in the wet and again mysteriously the makers have all withdrawn from sale any tyre that might have been rated GG, wonder why?

How does this work then, as a more energy efficient tyre isn't necessarily going to be a better gripping tyre, or is one letter for energy and the other for grip?

The Ratings are
Fuel efficiency
Wet Braking effectiveness
also included is Noise level in DB (or a three volume level symbol)

My local tyre place said, there is no policing of the ratings given by manufactureres, they've all agreed to be honest...

(01-11-2012 02:48pm)PhilSkill Wrote:  The Ratings are
Fuel efficiency
Wet Braking effectiveness
also included is Noise level in DB (or a three volume level symbol)

My local tyre place said, there is no policing of the ratings given by manufactureres, they've all agreed to be honest...

I just hope they're as honest as car manufacturers are with their fuel economy claims

Ah yes, found this on the blackcircles web site:

We will have sell by/best before dates next.

Tyre shops can only hold tyres in stock for something like 18 months.

IIRC tyres already have a production date moulded into them as of a couple of years ago, so vehicle inspectors can already tell if your tyres are passed it age wise. This is a pain for my Defender as it cover 2000 a year max and is on it's 2nd set of tyres in 80,000 miles / 16 years - the last set lasted 68000 miles including severe offroad use and still had plenty of on road grip left in them and I passed them on to somebody who doesn't offroad their Defender) as I believe there is a new ruling coming in that will require 5 yearly replacement of tyres if they last that long without wearing badly.

That is a bit rubbish, going to make the summer/winter tyres more of a pain, as from the other thread if we can get 50000+ out of 1 set, I would likely never need to buy tyres in 10 years, stored properly they'd be fine. Beaurocratic nonsense.