Re: Maruti Suzuki Alto : Tyre & wheel upgrade thread Hi all,
Made a last minute plan to go upto chanshal pass this weekend on friday the 23rd.
Knew the terrain is very tough and the tyres could cause all sorts of problems so had to change the bald apollo amazer 3G 145/80 R12 tyres the same day! Went to a tyre shop (apollo dealer that also stocks all other brands except MRF ) from where i had bought tyres for my city in 2012. When i said i was thinking of getting a wider tyre he said go for 155/65R13 or 165/65R13. I asked about 165/70R13 and he said that will scrape too much on the alto. Said he put it for a guy once and he came back within a week saying it scrapes all the time (just the kind of first hand experience i needed to take that size off my list). When the steering is turned to a side even with no load, the gap from the wheelwell is hardly 1cm on 155/70 R13 tyres. So 165/70R13 will touch even without load on turning and with load it will scrape too much. In my searches I could not find a definitive post on the forum that said 165/70R13 in an Alto is a strict no.
Asked for 155/70R13 and he was ready to install that. He offered me Apollo Amazer 4g life for Rs.2725 per tyre. I enquired for Alnac in this size and he was very reluctant to sell it. He said that one doesnt sell much now as life is comparatively lesser, company is manufacturing alnac less in this size. He said these tyres come with two year warranty against cuts and bursts. I wasnt very happy with the super hard rubber ( plus I was sure the mods would kick me out of this forum if i bought this tyre ;p).
He very reluctantly agreed to get me alnacs from the 'warehouse' at the same price. I was reading all the information on the sidewall (i guess he picked up that i was looking at manufacturing date) when he said that the 4G life is fresh stock and the alnacs would be 2017 made. I read the date on this tyre, it was 3818! That is september end. I realised that i do take the car to rough roads and no roads in the mountains so the strong rubber will be useful.
Then i suddenly realised my long pending dream of driving to Leh in this car. That did it! At that thought i forgot everything else. I sealed the deal at the thought of Leh drive. (Its been thought and cancelled multiple times before and still not sure if it will ever materialize, but i wish it does). Rock hard and resilient tyres may come handy on road to leh, even spiti circuit!
Replacing stock 12" rims with 13" rims of the Alto K10 Rs.1400
Four Apollo Amazer 4G Life tyres 155/70 R13 Rs.2725x4=Rs.10900
Quote Rs.12,300 on asking once he offered Rs.12,000 which i accepted.
Wheel balancing and alignment and new valves were included.
Forgot to ask for buyback price of the old Apollo Amazer 3G tyres! But i guess would not have been much as the tread had reached the treadwear indicators.
Tyres:
155/70 R13. Treadwear 300, Traction B Temperature B.
Plies (shouldnt this be plys?): Tread- 1 polyester + 2 steel + 2 polyamide, sidewall 1 polyester
The tyre is assymetric. It says 'Inner Side' on one side of the sidewall. You have to register your purchase online within a month to be eligible for the 2 year 'unconditional' warranty!
Pics of the tyres posted below. The tyres have manufacturing date within four months. One is even 4518! That would be less than 2 weeks old! But the rims seem to be a little deformed! Had made the deal and the trip next day was hanging on my head so accepted them. Hope they're not too bad?
Rim:1104T SSWL 4(1/2)Jx13 26ARI
Do rims follow a similar mfg date scheme as tyres? Does this mean these are week-11 year-2004?
Installed on friday evening and left for the solo trip on saturday afternoon. The drive on broken non-existent roads, big rocks, etc went well. There was some fresh mud landslides on the way to rohru which were being cleared with bulldozers and there were ~50m patches of loose mud and sand on which the car just floated like a boat (no grip!).
If any of you have been to chanshal pass then you know that the last 24Kms is steep gradient, no road, sand, big rocks, large craters (probably tar has never been put on it). 7-8 Kms before the pass snow had started appearing on the road. Drove 2-3 Kms and the snow started increasing and looking like black slippery ice and a little bit of slush. I got a bit nervous as the tyres began to skid a little (was in 1st gear and going slow around 10-15kmph). I have driven in a little bit of snow before at various times in shimla, narkanda and once even in Kaza so it wasnt first experience on snow. I decided to park the car and walked the rest of the ~5Kms to the pass. Though I found hardly any more snow on the way except ~ 1 km at the pass.
The drive lasted 498kms and i think there is definitely more grip and tyres feel more planted (compared to earlier amazer 3G so no big shoes to fill) due to wider tyres and full tread depth. Hope there is some improvement on sand/slush etc.
Hope this helps. Will try to post here with a long term review.
Last edited by guptavis : 28th November 2018 at 22:32.
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