[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by Sumain

Which is the right tyre choice to improve ride comfort is the primary consideration? Michelin Primacy LC? Or any other?
I use my Yeti about 100 km per day. Many times I am driver driven and I find it quite bouncy at the back on the OEM tyres, so much so that I prefer taking the Civic instead. (The Civic is running on Primacy LC).
Please advise.

Hi Sumain,
If comfort is your main priority and you don't intend to go off road with your Yeti, the Michelin Primacy LC will be a good choice and really help improve ride quality and reduce road noise. But they do have weak sidewalls and can get damaged if you drive fast on bad roads and the risk is higher if the tyres are underinflated. I moved to Primacy Lc on our Laura and the difference in ride quality and road noise is very substantial. However for my Yeti, as I also plan to use offroad and in villages, I am still searching for good AT tyres which are till now still not available in the stock size.
Regards,
Behemoth

[Sumain]

Thanks Behemoth,
I changed OEM tyres on my Innova to Primacy LC, and this had a very positive effect on its ride comfort.
I also changed the OEM (cheap) Bridgestones on my Civic to Primacy LC at about 38K. Car has reached nearly 80K now. Very quiet and comfortable ride. And still about 10K or so more on the tyres.
I do hope I can replicate this experience on the Yeti also.
Another word of advice please - only 2 tyres have worn out on the Yeti. Can I keep two of the Goodyears and change only 2 to Primacy LC? I plan to put the new tyres in the rear for superior ride comfort in the back seat.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by Sumain

Thanks Behemoth,
I changed OEM tyres on my Innova to Primacy LC, and this had a very positive effect on its ride comfort.
I also changed the OEM (cheap) Bridgestones on my Civic to Primacy LC at about 38K. Car has reached nearly 80K now. Very quiet and comfortable ride. And still about 10K or so more on the tyres.
I do hope I can replicate this experience on the Yeti also.
Another word of advice please - only 2 tyres have worn out on the Yeti. Can I keep two of the Goodyears and change only 2 to Primacy LC? I plan to put the new tyres in the rear for superior ride comfort in the back seat.

Hi Sumain
Though thereotically it is fine to change two tyres on the same axle, but practically I would not recommend it as different levels of traction on the axles will cause the Yeti's 4x4 haldex to work overtime and may lead to premature wear and tear of the system (if you have the 4x4 variant). Even with the 4x2 variant, different levels of traction can be a problem especially in rainy conditions and can be unsafe. I would recommend changing all four tyres together and you can maximise the drive comfort and safety and also tyre and suspension life.
One more point: as you mentioned that only two tyres are worn out, this is a sign of alignment being out - get it thoroughly checked when you get the tyres changed as it can cause very early tyre wear.
Regards,
Behemoth

[Sumain]

Behemoth,
The front two tyres are worn out. My yeti is a 4x4 model, but it seems it is front wheel drive most of the time under normal conditions when 4x4 traction is not needed. So perhaps, the fronts have seen more wear and tear as compared to the rears, since they also bear most of the braking pressure too (like in any front wheel drive car).
The car has done almost 29K km. One service was done at 15k (as per schedule). Perhaps the wheels were not rotated at that time. So therefore, this set has been in the front all this while. The fronts have about 15% tread left before the treadwear indicators. The rears have more than 40%. And the tyres are pretty expensive too. so therefore I thought maybe I could use the rears in the front for a while and put new ones in the rear. What do you think?

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by Sumain

Behemoth,
The front two tyres are worn out. My yeti is a 4x4 model, but it seems it is front wheel drive most of the time under normal conditions when 4x4 traction is not needed. So perhaps, the fronts have seen more wear and tear as compared to the rears, since they also bear most of the braking pressure too (like in any front wheel drive car).
The car has done almost 29K km. One service was done at 15k (as per schedule). Perhaps the wheels were not rotated at that time. So therefore, this set has been in the front all this while. The fronts have about 15% tread left before the treadwear indicators. The rears have more than 40%. And the tyres are pretty expensive too. so therefore I thought maybe I could use the rears in the front for a while and put new ones in the rear. What do you think?

Hi Sumain,

Yes, I guess at 29K it is ok with the stock Goodyears and if the tyres have not been rotated, you will have got more treadwear on the fronts - which is normal. In my Yeti at 22k, the tread is down and I am also looking at changing all four within the next 7-8K kms. The Goodyears are now so noisy that they are spoiling the fun of driving the Yeti. I have begun to feel the difference all the more since we shifted our Laura to Primacy LC from the Goodyears.
Primacy LCs are definitely very costly (here the best offer I got was 10,100 per tyre in the stock size 215/60 R16), but I would still maintain that you will get the expected benefits only when you change all four and changing two tyres would not really give substantial improvement.. so maybe you can wear out the Goodyears for another 4-5K kms and then replace all four. In fact my plan is to replace all 5 (including spare) so that the spare will also be the same size and will not need the reduced speed of 80Kmph which is applicable for the smaller space saver tyre.
Only concern which I have is that if I move to Michelin Primacy LC, I would not be able to take my Yeti off terrain, and I am planning to head to Leh in August this year. Before that I definitely need to change the tyres, as the stock Goodyears will not be able to take the challenge (weak sidewalls) and the treads would also be gone by then.

Regards,
Behemoth

[shankar.balan]

Hi

If you change the Continental Spare to a regular full size spare in whichever brand you finally change to, will this new full size spare fit in the spare tyre well in the boot?

Next, which tyres are you finally going for, which will enable you to use the Yeti on city roads, on highways and a bit of off road too?

I also saw the Primacy LC's but they are high performance road going car tyres. They will not be able to stand the rough use - even driving normally on normal Bangalore roads is like rough use so I would be really surprised and pleased if my stock Goodyears last as much as 29K kms!!

I understand that this one dealer - DRIFT - in Koramangala Bangalore can get Yokohamas, but to the best of my knowledge even those wont be AT's. They will probably be HT's which I guess would be pretty good too.

He expects me to change the tyre size from the original stock 215/60/16 to 225/55/16 or 215/55/16 or something of the kind.
In my case, I would like the ride height to remain unchanged so I would prefer to remain with the 60 profile.

Am I right or wrong in my understanding of this?

Please do clarify.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Behemoth

In fact my plan is to replace all 5 (including spare) so that the spare will also be the same size and will not need the reduced speed of 80Kmph which is applicable for the smaller space saver tyre.
Only concern which I have is that if I move to Michelin Primacy LC, I would not be able to take my Yeti off terrain, and I am planning to head to Leh in August this year.

Regards,
Behemoth

[shankar.balan]

Quick info!

I believe the Audi Q3 comes with 215/65/16 Tyres + alloy wheel combo. The Yeti tyre size is 215/60/16.
It is also, like the Yeti, based on the Golf platform and uses pretty much similar components all over, including the Haldex 4WD system etc.
Hence, should it not be possible to upgrade the Yeti's Tyres also to the same size as the Q3?
Possibly with the Q3's debut, we may get some more tyre options.
But please share what is the ideal Tyre size upgrade/ upsize for the Yeti which will also take care of our horrible road conditions and some minor bits of off road work.
Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
SB

[VeyronSuperSprt]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Quick info!

I believe the Audi Q3 comes with 215/65/16 Tyres + alloy wheel combo. The Yeti tyre size is 215/60/16.
It is also, like the Yeti, based on the Golf platform and uses pretty much similar components all over, including the Haldex 4WD system etc.
Hence, should it not be possible to upgrade the Yeti's Tyres also to the same size as the Q3?
Possibly with the Q3's debut, we may get some more tyre options.
But please share what is the ideal Tyre size upgrade/ upsize for the Yeti which will also take care of our horrible road conditions and some minor bits of off road work.
Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
SB

It is just not the platform which is relevant for changing the tyre spec as there are other areas such as spring rates etc. In this case, changing to 215/65/16 would mean that you are going outside the specified limit of 3% in overall radius of the wheel+tyre. The downside of this is that you will experience a higher body roll (which would have been contained in the Audi with stiffer springs) and a resultant instability. This roll wouild be even more prominent when you go off road as the body will tend to roll and therefore increasing the tendency to roll is not advisable. Changing to 225/55/16 would make the ride harder as the overall dia would be reduced from the existing 129 to 123.75. My suggestion would be to stick to the OE tyres as changes at this size will affect various other aspects of your handling negatively.

Cheers

[shankar.balan]

Great input! Thanks!
I am not an exponent of making changes to manufacturer specs in general. Nor do I really want to upsize etc.
My only grouse is that the Yeti OEM Goodyears in 215/60/16 are very soft, comfy, road and highway tarmac going tyres which tend to get badly hurt on the lousy potholed Bangalore roads and furthermore, cannot be taken off the road onto stony tracks etc if one chooses to.
This is why I wanted to see if there were any other tyres of a tougher, slightly off road going ability in the same size spec as the OEM ones. Unfortunately it appears there are no tyres of this kind in that size!
My own tyres are new so they have life in them yet. But Im trying to do some research in order to be able to be prepared for a change when it becomes necessary.

Originally Posted by VeyronSuperSprt

It is just not the platform which is relevant for changing the tyre spec as there are other areas such as spring rates etc. In this case, changing to 215/65/16 would mean that you are going outside the specified limit of 3% in overall radius of the wheel+tyre. The downside of this is that you will experience a higher body roll (which would have been contained in the Audi with stiffer springs) and a resultant instability. This roll wouild be even more prominent when you go off road as the body will tend to roll and therefore increasing the tendency to roll is not advisable. Changing to 225/55/16 would make the ride harder as the overall dia would be reduced from the existing 129 to 123.75. My suggestion would be to stick to the OE tyres as changes at this size will affect various other aspects of your handling negatively.

Cheers

[Behemoth]

I finally took the plunge of changing my Yeti's Tyres with Yokohama C-Drive 215/60 R16 99V tyres. I was able to get them through www.changemytyre.com and got a good price of 8700 per tyre. These tyres are extremely hard to get these days and in this size the availability is a big problem! But I can tell you that it was well worth it. What I had earlier used to think was Wind noise at 100 Km/hr, was actually tyre noise with the pathetic Goodyears. I put up with the Goodyears for more than 23K Kms, before giving in to the temptation to change them!

The noise is gone completely now and the ride has also improved drastically. There is no bubbly ride feeling and also no tramlining - both of which had started happening very frequently with the Goodyears.
One more point which I noticed when getting the tyres changed was the Goodyears (in current condition) needed almost 150gm of balancing weights in different places to be balance (even those which had never been punctured!) while the Yoko's did'nt need more than 40gm in any tyre - shows the consistency of manufacture and the quality of the tyres (the Yokos were made in Japan) and the Goodyears were made in Malaysia.

I had also been evaluating on whether to put in larger 215/65 R16 tyres, but my apprehensions finally made me go for the OE size only:
1) Warranty would be affected if I put in larger tyres
2) Ride quality may also suffer and the body roll would increase and there was no way of predicting how much !
3) The larger tyre 215/65 R16 just would not fit in the spare wheel well (actually checked). Even the 215/60R16 tyre fits with great difficulty. I have changed the smaller space saver 195/60 R16 tyre to the full size as I did not want any speed limitations even with the spare tyre (which was speed restricted to 80 km/hr with the space saver tyre).
4) Since my Yeti will be used 95% in the city and on highways, I went with a road tyre only.

However, that said, the C-drives are good - they have a UTQG of 300 A A and the rating for the tyre is 99V - which means that the load they can carry per tyre is 775 Kg instead of the 690 Kg which the 95H Goodyears were. The V rating also means a higher speed rating of 240 Km/hr vs the 210 km/hr of the Goodyears.
The tyres are also constructed well and give good ride comfort. They are also very silent and don't make any din as compared to the Goodyears.

The option which I was also considering was the Michelin Primacy LC, but these are very soft tyres and for the Yeti, would not have been ideal.

Will share more on the experiences as I "Burn the rubber" and the tyres set in after the initial 500km break in.
PS: Appeal to all Yeti Buyers: Change the tyres as soon as possible so that you get a good trade in value - the Stock Goodyears are very very bad and you will know the difference only after you change!

Regards,
Behemoth

[shankar.balan]

Excellent input!
Thanks a lot.

Where do these tyres come from through changemytyre? Are they local or imported?

Cheers and all the best!

Originally Posted by Behemoth

I finally took the plunge of changing my Yeti's Tyres with Yokohama C-Drive 215/60 R16 99V tyres. I was able to get them through www.changemytyre.com and got a good price of 8700 per tyre. These tyres are extremely hard to get these days and in this size the availability is a big problem! But I can tell you that it was well worth it. What I had earlier used to think was Wind noise at 100 Km/hr, was actually tyre noise with the pathetic Goodyears. I put up with the Goodyears for more than 23K Kms, before giving in to the temptation to change them!

The noise is gone completely now and the ride has also improved drastically.
I had also been evaluating on whether to put in larger 215/65 R16 tyres, but my apprehensions finally made me go for the OE size only:
1) Warranty would be affected if I put in larger tyres
2) Ride quality may also suffer and the body roll would increase and there was no way of predicting how much !
3) The larger tyre 215/65 R16 just would not fit in the spare wheel well (actually checked). Even the 215/60R16 tyre fits with great difficulty. I have changed the smaller space saver 195/60 R16 tyre to the full size as I did not want any speed limitations even with the spare tyre (which was speed restricted to 80 km/hr with the space saver tyre).
4) Since my Yeti will be used 95% in the city and on highways, I went with a road tyre only.

However, that said, the C-drives are good - they have a UTQG of 300 A A and the rating for the tyre is 99V - which means that the load they can carry per tyre is 775 Kg instead of the 690 Kg which the 95H Goodyears were. The V rating also means a higher speed rating of 210 Km/hr vs the 190 km/hr of the Goodyears.
The tyres are also constructed well and give good ride comfort. They are also very silent and don't make any din as compared to the Goodyears.

The option which I was also considering was the Michelin Primacy LC, but these are very soft tyres and for the Yeti, would not have been ideal.

Will share more on the experiences as I "Burn the rubber" and the tyres set in after the initial 500km break in.
PS: Appeal to all Yeti Buyers: Change the tyres as soon as possible so that you get a good trade in value - the Stock Goodyears are very very bad and you will know the difference only after you change!

Regards,
Behemoth

[Invinsible]

My Couz having Yeti driven 18k have called for Yokohama Geolander A/T-s tyres in 215/60/16, plans to take the car to much tougher terrain once these tyres are on. Few months back of the Goodyear tyres developed a bubble on regular roads which made him think twice before doing some offroad. There are plans to take it through Leh-Ladakh stretch with Yoko A/Ts tyres.

[VBN]

I have a road trip starting in 2 days. With 5 folks plus 3-4bags. As per the table on the inside of the fuel filler flap, I should be putting in 35 psi for front wheels and 44 psi for rear wheel. Has anyone driven with this combo? How is the experience?

[VBN]

Originally Posted by CM21

Can you suggest best tyres suited for Yeti? Thanks

I found the oem tyres quite good, but others have faced some cuts etc. Behemoth has switched to Yokohama and finds it excellent.

[pramods]

I went ahead and changed my Goodyear tyres, no Yoko or Mich available in 215/60/16 in one of the shop they had 2 tyres and it din't make sense, went ahead with Bridgestone with same size and profile, at least today lots of noises that I used to hear have suddenly vanished , hope it continues this way, the new tyres costed Rs 8100 each looks worth to me.

-Pramod