MaichBlack wrote:Which are the best tyres - value for money - for saloon cars?
We were having a discussion with my friends and most of them were insisting that GT tyres [From Indonesia - NOT China] are as good as Yana tyres - for half the price! How true is this? Anyone who has used both?
How does Yana compare to other foreign made tyres like Michellin, Goodyear etc. I have always held the opinion they are the same but my friends believe that one is better off with Yana on Kenyan roads.
@Maichblack. There's avery huge variation in Kenyan roads. We have the smooth roads in Nairobi and between most urban centres, ribbed (unfinished) surfaces like Mbagathi Way, sandy soils like Lodwar - Kainuk or /Garissa- Fafi/Moyale roads and rocky roads like you will find in places like Homabay County.
The kind of road you drive on most of the time should determine the best tires. If you're in NBI most of the time, Apollo/ GT radial/Sonar Bridgestone/Pirellli/Michelin will do- These kind have toung road contact surface but weaker walls.
However if your usage involves a great deal of movement in murram roads with significantly large loose stone, the likes of YANA are the best from my experience because they have both tougher treads and strong wall. If you use Pirelli or Michelin, you are likely to have the sidewalls having conspicous swellings/ boils which are actually faultlines and have resulted into tyre bursts (some of which can be fatal).
If you drive in hot sandy conditions like Moyale, Turkana, the best tyre if BF Goodrich but these are not for small passenger cars (which again I wouldnt expect a sane person to be using say for regular movement between Kitale and Lodwar or Loima.) On a typical hot day in places like this , a brand new set of Pirellis or Michellins is unlikely to complete the journey from Lodwar to Kitale) they will just "bambuka". To find out how real this is , you need to count the number of abandoned tyres on this route.
The other thing that matters if weight of car. The heavire your car, the more the need for tougher tyres if you want them to last long enough for you to derive the utility.
Then come right tyre pressure. All the best