Remoulds?

[harrym1964]

Hi, looking for some tyres for the winter, with maybe a little off-roading and i've seen some pretty good deals on some Sahara remoulds by Insa Turbo.. i've never used remoulds before, so just wondering if they were any good for the price?

[Team Idris]

I have insa turbo special tracks and they seem flexible enough. They don't seem inhibited in any way. Maybe I wouldn't if I was regularly doing 70 up the motorway for a long time. Other than that, modern remoulds seem to be pretty good at using good s/h tyres as a base. I think radials make a better remould anyway. I was thinking the same tyre for my S1.

[HampshireHog]

Ive been using traction tracks for the last two years or so , bit on the noisy side but as idris said they're not really for 70 all day on motor ways , hope this is of some help

[miketomcat]

I used to run remoulds I found no problems with them except the tend to wear quite quickly and I only ever got two years out of them before they seemed to perish however they were greenway machos (no longer exist) and I ran them on my daily driver giving them no sympathy.

Mike

[Nigelw]

They are great budget for limited mileage in a year but as said, they wear quickly.

The last set I had needed less balance weights than my current Cooper STTs! But I have had one set that simply got sold on as they couldn't be balanced at all and shook the steering violently at anything over 50mph.

Weigh up your miles and compare them against a similar tread pattern of a high end brand and work out if there are savings to be had?

[Dave W]

I'm coming to the conclusion that remoulds are a bit of a false economy. I used to run them almost exclusively when you could get a decent MT for around £50-£60 but nowadays, for whatever reason, the prices are much higher and the price difference between remoulds and new tyres has shrunk dramatically. New tyres used to cost over double that of a remould in the same pattern.Sure

Remoulds are normally a softer compound so don't last as long as new tyres and you never really know what the carcass has been through before it was used to create the remould.

As an example, I used the Greenway Machos and then the Marix Puma but when it came time to replace them recently I found that I could get a new tyre of the same pattern (the one the remould companies copied) for around £15 per tyre more than the remould.

[IanT90]

Not much experience with remoulds on landrovers but used them on cars in the past okay but wear quickly. Just fitted 2 new goodyear wrangler at tyres on mine cost me £134 for both and £20 for someone to fit and balance them. Not worth buying remoulds when you can buy new tyres at that price. No road noise cruise along at 70 with confidence and grip is good too. Pays to shop around some good deals at moment.

[marktdi]

I have been running insa traction tracks for 4 years and done 30k miles they are only about half worn . I do a lot of hevy towing and a lot of very rough off road work with my line of work . They are a bit noisy on the road but other than that they are spot on . One thing i have noticed is they like to be run a little softer than normal tyres . I run them at 25psi all round

[harrym1964]

Cheers for the advice guys I'm definitely going for remoulds, just need to pick which ones now.

[oneandtwo]

I had Colway AT remoulds - totally worn out in 10,000 motorway miles. Insa Special Tracks - gaping splits around every lug after 18 months.

I fitted a used set of BF Goodrich Mud terrain (KM not KM2) which were 60 a 70% worn as a stop gap 3 1/2 years ago. 35,000 miles later and they're still on there and still plenty of life left in them yet. They must be about 7 years old now with no splits or cracks.

I was that impressed with the BFG MUDs that I've since bought a new set for my other 90. I won't be buying cheap remoulds again, it's a false economy.

[Chicken Drumstick]

Hi, looking for some tyres for the winter, with maybe a little off-roading and i've seen some pretty good deals on some Sahara remoulds by Insa Turbo.. i've never used remoulds before, so just wondering if they were any good for the price?

Remoulds are fine, I've run them loads. But it isn't as plain as that.

A remould is just that, they take an old used tyre carcass and mould a new top layer and tread patter to it. The downsides are you don't know what carcass is under the tread and they can vary. So with a set of 4 remoulds, you may find they all behave slightly differently. Ideally you'll want to match pairs as similar as possible, so they ride and drive equal.

Remoulds are often built to a budget, so it isn't impossible for lugs to pull off or separate, or even the entire tyre to de-laminate. You may also have issues with the underlying carcass due to age and other issues.

Tread patterns often available in remoulds are of the aggressive variety. Some ride quite ok on the road for a tyre of this type. But usually not as good as a less aggressive new tyre. Due to the nature of the tread pattern you are likely to see more wear. This isn't usually because of it being a remould, more because of the tread type and compound.

I also think some remould tyres are only borderline legal. Well they are legal in terms of markings and their 'legality'. But if a big tyre maker tried to get a new tyre legal with the same thread, then I'm sure it would be a no. ie the powers that be, seem to be more lenient for remoulds.

However, none of this should dissuade you. And as I've said, I've run remoulds lots and lots and will certainly be buying more.

As for the thread pattern. Really depends what you want from the tyre and what you will be using it for. It you only plan occasional mild off roading, then I'd maybe look at a new tyre instead. The Silverstone MT-117 Sport and Federal Couragia can be had for about the same money as many remoulds, but are new tyres. Maxxis also offer a couple of reasonable MT patterns at this price range too and are also new tyres.

[missingsid]

"I also think some remould tyres are only borderline legal. Well they are legal in terms of markings and their 'legality'. But if a big tyre maker tried to get a new tyre legal with the same thread, then I'm sure it would be a no. ie the powers that be, seem to be more lenient for remoulds."

Didn't a new EU law make noisy aggressive tyres illegal unless they were remolds?

I guess they think this promotes green working but actually promotes copying! That said if the only decent tyres are remoulds then so be it?

Some remould tyres end up with a narrower tread footprint than the original though.

Marc.

[Chicken Drumstick]

While on sizing. Remoulds can be all over the show. The worst being those advertised as 7.50's when they are infact 235's. A HUGE difference in width as 7.50" is only 190.5mm!!!!

Yeah there are some weird regs for tyres these days on legalities. I have some very aggressive remoulds that are completely legal with all the markings and even have a silly high speed rating, when in reality I suspect they probably should be for off road use only.

[Tanuki]

In times past, I did quite a few special-stages in a RS2000 Fnord Escort on Colway rally-remoulds: that was back when you could call them and spend half an hour chatting with Fred Henderson - their 'motorsport' tyres-guru.

[Fred's still around - http://www.fredhenderson.com/ ]

A decade or so back Colway went bust and after a bankruptcy sale their plant was shipped out to somewhere in Eastern Europe; what specific quality-approvals they apply now are anyone's guess.

These days I'm driving motorway-miles at motorway-speeds-and-20%-plus in a Defender with a fully-loaded flatbed behind. I don't go for cheap tyres.

[deep]

I fitted a used set of BF Goodrich Mud terrain (KM not KM2) which were 60 a 70% worn as a stop gap 3 1/2 years ago. 35,000 miles later and they're still on there and still plenty of life left in them yet. They must be about 7 years old now with no splits or cracks.

I was that impressed with the BFG MUDs that I've since bought a new set for my other 90. I won't be buying cheap remoulds again, it's a false economy.

I'll second the observation with BFG Mud Terrains (KM). I bought a set five or six years ago, which had already done 50,000 miles. They're still going strong, so much so that when I sold the Stage One V8 they were fitted to (just yesterday!) I kept the wheels and tyres for my "new" 110! The thing is, they don't just last (with no cracks or other issues) but they actually grip well in a wide range of conditions, on and off road. I understand they went to KM2s for noise reasons and I am not that sure the KM2s last as long. We should know in another five years or so!

That all said, new remoulds are possibly cheaper than old but good BFGs, which are like rocking horse poo to find now.

[Chicken Drumstick]

Also depends what you want from a tyre. I personally consider the BFG MT's to be an "ideal" all terrain in my book. A proper go anywhere, do anything tyre, despite them being a mud terrain. It's the sort of tyre I'd probably want to run on a Disco 3/FFRR (size permitting).

However, if you are into more serious off roading and mud plugging, or competitions, you'll probably want a more aggressive tread pattern. Something that is hard to find in non remould tyres in the UK and even less so for sensible money.

The Insa Turbo Sahara might visually resemble the Yokohama Geolandars from a distance, but the reality is, the remould is a far more aggressive tyre, bigger lugs, bigger lug spacing, deeper tread, etc.

[AMB]

I'm with Tanuki. On the road it must be good quality consistent tyres. You cannot guarantee that with remoulds. However, I can see that there is a place for remoulds for serious off road work.

[MuddyWinny]

I've have Insa Turbo Special Tracks fitted for a few years now although I don't do many miles each year.

They are mainly used for off road but every now and again I'll spend an hour on the dual carriage way at a sensible speed. I've not had any problems so far.

I changed to Special Tracks as I wanted more grip off road than the mud terrains I had been using.

If I ever manage to run a Discovery as my every day drive I'd be following the advice given above.

I remember a rather cheap brand of new tyre being fitted to the company car once and they really gave poor grip. It would be interesting to see how various brands of remould tyres compares to cheap and cheerful brands of new tyre.