The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Anyone bought any lately that they can recommend please?
Seem to be plentiful in T rating,but not so in the correct H rating.

http://www.mytyres.co.uk/rshop/Summer-t ... 5-70-R13-H

I am sure there are others, but you are correct.

13" tyres are becoming harder to find if you want a "good" tyre

edit: IF (big if) you would use 185/60's, I can thoroughly recommend the falken 914's. They have excellent grip.
If you want ghe 175/70H rated the the uniroyals.

Bear in mind that T rated didn't really exist back in teh 1970's, it was all teh old S rated tyres. I think a T rated tyre should be sufficient unless you have autobahn dreams.....

Clive makes a valid point, when Sprints were being built, tyres only came in "S", "H" and "V" rating. T, U, W and all the others came later.

An "S" rated tyre is good for 112 mph. If you take this at face value, then it is a bit marginal for a Sprint, a good stock Sprint on a good day will do this (true speed, not what the clock may say) However I suspect that a "safety margin" is built into the rating so probably not as risky as one might think.

An "H" rated tyre is good for 130 mph. This is well beyond the capabilities of even a very well sorted Sprint, yet it is the recommended speed rating for the car.

A "T" Rated tyre is good for 118 mph. Seems fair enough to me, only the very quickest Sprints (and those that have more modern engines fitted) are going to be capable of exceeding this and it's very doubtful such cars would still be using the stock tyre size anyway. The Carledo, on its best day will struggle up to 115mph (true speed) with enough room to wind up and no headwind. It's not a power problem, or even a gearing one, it's simply aerodynamics (or the lack thereof) that stops it going faster. and that's on 195/50/15 "V" rated Toyos. But I bought them cos they're sticky, not cos I expect the car ever to do 150mph!

So a "T" rater is fine, the only catch is what your insurance company would have to say about it in the event of a claim - and that IS a whole new can of worms! Though I think it unlikely that even an insurance company could disallow a claim based on tyre speed rating - unless you happened to crash whilst doing 125mph on 118 mph rated tyres - in which case you might have larger problems than an insurance claim!

Steve

Thank you for the replies.
I am aware of the various speed ratings,but I always fit tyres as specified by the vehicle manufacturer.
It seems that at least Uniroyal and Hankook still manufacture 175/70 HR 13 tyres-there are others available though.

Found this to be a useful site in my decision making armoury before.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Search/Size/175-70-13

I have used Maxxis tyres, the cheapest on that list above, though not on a Dolomite, or in that size. But they were perfectly acceptable in terms of performance, noise, etc. Not terribly long lasting as I recall but fairly sticky and decent in the wet too. Used on at least 2 of my Cavaliers and other types of car too. My local tyre shop had them on offer for about a year, so I bought quite a few, for customers cars as well as my own.

Steve