[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by jaysmokesleaves

On a recent trip to UP another Yoko casualty to report. Left rear went flat at about 140kph. I could sense a wobble and stopped in time to save the tire from complete damage.
Discovered the sidewall had cut approx 1" starting from the end of the tread footprint.. this was on proper highway use. Its quite disgusting. This is my 3rd Yoko casualty. Left with no option i am now using it with a tube inside though i hate to do so.

By the way, i saw some brand new chinese brand tire selling for 5200Rs. Tread looked good. But the tire felt as soft as a cycle tire.

I feel like trying out Apollos or Continentals now. Yoko, and Mrf have failed me.

Have been using Continental Cross contact now since 20,000kms on the odo. The vehicle has done 90000+ and seen all kinds of very horrible terrain. Have just had to replace one tire which got prematurely worn out due to camber issues(you have a safari, so you know).
Other than that, they last long, and I have had very few punctures, all due to sharp nails(I guess no tire can survive that). Have driven on sharp rocks for many kms at a stretch, taking roads which even local taxis refuse to take due to sharp rocks cutting the sidewalls, again, just scruff marks.
One tire even got a sidewall cut due to wheel spinning when I got stuck on rocky terrain, but just the superficial rubber got cut, main sidewall remained intact, and there was no bulge, indicating that internal mesh and layers survived.
I am very happy with these tires. Of course, the ride quality is slightly compromised, and the braking performance on wet is slightly lower than soft compound HT, but this will be true for any hard rubber A/T tire.

[Manuuj]

After using my OE Dunlop Grandtreks for 72,000 kms on my Fortuner I changed to Yokohama Geolander 265/65/17 AT-S on 16th October.



But within 3 weeks my brand New Yokohama tyre burst unexpectedly on a flat smooth highway at about 80-90 kmph. Luckily it was a rear tyre and the car did not lose control.

The tyre was just 20 days old and suffered catastrophic failure due to sidewall bursting within 1400 kms of use.


The Company refused my claim and i ended up buying a new one at a minor discount. Even their Regional Manager took time out to inspect the tyre but explained to me that the sidewall got cut due to an external impact from some sharp object and he was therefore helpless in passing any claim for a free replacement.

I bought my last ever Yokohama yesterday.

[lurker]

Manuuj, try inflating the front tyres to 40 and rear tyres to 34. If your choice is nitrogen then 2.75 bar for front and 2.4 bar for rear. I think even a tyre with weak sidewall would not burst at a slightly higher pressure. Ofcourse ride comfort would go for a toss, but for weak sidewall I think keeping tyre pressure closer to maximum would be preferable.

As far as Yokohama is concerned, I am of the opinion that making an All-terrain rough-road tyre like AT-S with such a weak sidewall is a low blow. And such sub-standard tyres need to be taken out of the market with a due complaint lodged with ISI (Indian Standards Institute) & concerned bodies before they can harm anybody else and take innocent lives.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by lurker

Manuuj, try inflating the front tyres to 40 and rear tyres to 34. If your choice is nitrogen then 2.75 bar for front and 2.4 bar for rear.

Curious - why do you use PSI for air and bar for Nitrogen?

BTW, I am running on Geolander AT-S for past 12000KM on my Tucson which keeps going to places in Konkan where there may or may not be a road. The tyres have been fine in general. And on the highway, they have been fantastic. Much better that the Michilins that I had before.

[WasavaTyres]

I don't think anyone who's used tyres for long would dispute the fact that this is a clear case of impact damage. I can empathize with you for having to shell out for a new tyre and completely understand your outburst, but the company service engineer / executive would not have had any say in the matter as under the claims policy your case falls under "user abuse / external injury" rather than being a manufacturing defect. Here's hoping to a longer service life with the remaining tyres

[TheTeacher]

A couple of points:

When I bought a set of Michelins for my Baleno last year, the dealer advised me to keep 3-4 psi higher pressures because of the bad roads here. His explanation was that the higher pressure allowed the tyre to handle bad roads better, or I would end up with tyre damage/failure. Samurai did admit that he lost one Yoko because he had reduced pressure in it. Can others with failed Yokos tell us what pressure they were using?

All of you are seasoned guys, and I would be insulting you by saying this, so forgive me. Nevertheless, just for the record, can those with failed Yokos confirm that they were using tyres with the load rating appropriate to their vehicle?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

Samurai did admit that he lost one Yoko because he had reduced pressure in it. Can others with failed Yokos tell us what pressure they were using?

I didn't lose any yokos, wonder why you got that impression. In fact, I moved them from my CJ340 to MM550, all 5 of them. After that I did another trip from Manipal to Bangalore and back for the Bangalore OTR.

One suffered a side wall puncture 2 years back because I was driving in rocky terrain with much deflated tyre, may be at 20psi. Last monsoon another tyre suffered similar fate when I hit a tree stump. Both happened in low speed (5kmph) situation, and each time I got the tyre patched.

Yokos have weak sidewall, you have to keep that in mind while pushing the car/Jeep into rough terrain.

[TheTeacher]

Sorry for misquoting, my bad. I guess lower inflation makes the tyre more susceptible too. If I get the Yokos, I'll keep your caveats in mind, thanks.

[pcpranav]

to share, on my Xylo even I have replaced from BS to Yoko. more details http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post3274594

my original BS was used for ~82K KM in ~3.3yrs; the current Yoko have been happily servicing to current ODO of 90.5K KM; and sure of hundreds of happy miles ahead.

btw, after the tyre shine cream applied, the white letters and overall looks are really superb!

regards,

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Has anyone used the Yoko Geolander on his Duster? I am getting a good deal, particularly on the repurchase price of my MRF stock (they will change it in the showroom itself, prior to delivery of the new vehicle) and the net outgo for me is quite reasonable. Is it worth the upgrade?

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by Sudipto-S-Team

Has anyone used the Yoko Geolander on his Duster? I am getting a good deal, particularly on the repurchase price of my MRF stock (they will change it in the showroom itself, prior to delivery of the new vehicle) and the net outgo for me is quite reasonable. Is it worth the upgrade?

I had them on my Tucson. Soft-sidewalls, scraped a stone in Ladakh and the side-wall promptly ruptured. Also, they were okay for first 10,000 km or so, and then became extremely noisy (howling sound). I would not recommend.

BTW, what do you mean by upgrade? MRF to Yoko? I don't think so. What's the stock size for Duster? 215/65R16? If so, go for 235/60R16. A perfect up-size with negligible change in diameter and will provide a huge improvement in handling. First hand experience on my Tucson.

BTW, during my 215/65R16 days, I used the following tyres:
Michelin Lattitude Tour HP
Yokohama Geolandar AT-S
MRF Wanderer
Continental 4x4 Contact

Michelin and Conti were good. Yoko, we just spoke about, MRF is horrible. I bought one in Ladakh and it's unbelievably noisy and looses grip on first opportunity. So if you want to stick to the stock size, try to pick Michelin or Conti. But honestly, move to 235's as you have the opportunity right now. I wasted 5 years on 215's and i will never go back to that size ever!

P.S. Just look at my previous post (on this same page) from 2012 praising Yokos - It was early days and the noise had not started by then. Also, I had never been to ladakh until then

[Sudipto-S-Team]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

BTW, what do you mean by upgrade?

By upgrade I mean switching over to a better brand - not an upsize.

Meanwhile, thanks for your opinion. Let me research a bit on the other available brand options.

[rockyb]

I love my current BS Dueler H/T D689 215 R75 15 on my Boleros. In fact this is my 2nd set in my 2nd Bolero. The OEM set in my 1st Bolero (GLX) did 53,000 km and still had acceptable thread and only 1 puncture due to a nail.

On my current Bolero (CRDe) I had Apollo Amazer as OEM (which amazed me in a bad way) till the unfortunate incident at around 20,000km. As mentioned earlier I blame my tyres and braking system for it. After that I got back to BS Dueler and quite happy about it. Not a cut or puncture till date except 2 nails.

But this set of tyres worn off faster (30,000km) due to 2 reasons. Delay in wheel rotation and rear suspension got soft due to heavy load so inner side got worn faster (negative camber). Both due to my fault. I also suspect high speed / braking and faster pickup to be another reason of faster wear.

I was considering Yokos but after reading about weak side wall (both in Safari and Fortuner) I feel will stick to BS Dueler. Any feedback on Goodyear Wrangler? The only question remains is tube or tube less. Currently I use tube type with rims and since I travel quite often I feel tubeless tyre puncture repair is still at a nascent stage in our highways

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

[pcpranav]

Hi,
above I had mentioned of switching from BS AT to Yoko Geo AT. Currently I have done 12000 KM on these. Y'day I noticed small cracks at two distant positions on the front left tyre. Mostly I have done city & highways roads.





Next week I will be visiting the dealer (Sanghi, Vashi) and argue with him about these cracks. Any pointers ?
Anyways I need to buy the 5th tyre (to sell my hardly used BS in spare).

BTW, Im planning Leh trip in July'14; hopefully these tyres serve me good. My Xylo has done 94000KM, turning 4 years next month.

regards,
Pranav

[Spinnerr]

I am kicking myself for not having researched well; and for having missed this thread completely.

I have a Bolero back home; it was due for a tyre change. There were a couple (well, more than a handful) of punctures in the last 3 months. At 67,000 odd kms; the Bridgestones still had ok thread; but 6.7 years and the recent punctures made me consider a tyre change.

It so happened that, while passing Madhu’s Tyre Store (Bangalore) I saw that the store front was nearly empty. Which is a rare sight. So I went in and enquired. Bridgestone were the priciest. Was mulling over moving to tubeless; Yoko Geolanders was available. And I took the plunge.

In the back of my mind; I said; I have seen this tyres so many times on Jeeps, Boleros, TBhp pics, discussion threads, they ought to be super VFM and long lasting, problem free ones.
And now, I see this thread…..

Lesson learnt:
T-shirt – Impulsive buying – OK
Car Tyres – Impulsive buying – Time will tell….

Wish me luck!
If only BS Dueler was priced closer to Yoko; I would never have had moved brands; was content for the last 6.5 years.